A toast to new friends

Making friends in a foreign country always feels good. It’s essentially the acceptance into a new culture and a goal that I have always had, albeit subconsciously. However, meeting really special, loving people and getting to know them over a period of time takes this idea to a new level. Malene and I feel so lucky to be meeting great people almost on a daily basis. But ‘lucky’ doesn’t sum up our greatest fortune in meeting Poonam: our greatest Indian friend.

The orphanage/school/church in which we are working in has some very wonderful and caring people. The teachers are warm-hearted, dedicated givers and we have enjoyed sharing with them the differences between our culture and theirs. The children, of course, are the hi-light of every day, their energy is contagious and their love is endless. However, one person has truly made us feel at home and treated us with such kindness. She has always been there to talk to and never stops thinking about us, which is so valuable to us when we sometimes feel a long way from home. We both wanted to say, from the bottom of our hearts, a huge thank you to Poonam. We hope we can repay the amazing generosity and love you have given to us.

We came to India to help. In reality it is India and specifically you, that is helping us.

I suppose this leads me quite nicely to one of the loveliest afternoons we have had here so far…Poonam’s Birthday celebration. Malene and I planned on taking Poonam out for dinner one evening as a way to celebrate her Birthday, but it was difficult to find a good day. She is the backbone to the orphanage; from waking the children up in the morning, to teaching, to administering medication, Poonam is always needed and always there to give. Luckily, we eventually found one afternoon/evening in which we could whisk her off to the local town of Nurmahal. Enjoying the sights of an old red-stoned palace, the three of us took the time to talk and laugh with each other. With our two cultures being so different, its often amusing and enlightening to compare them.

We visited a lovely Hindu temple, full of water, statues and stories. With a wonderful friend as our tour guide, we felt like VIP guests of honor in a strange and beautiful land. We continued our afternoon by strolling through the narrow, meandering streets and gazing into shops. Often dodging motorbikes who dashed passed us, we took the time to really appreciate our surroundings; ‘Deep India’.

With fresh food being cooked at every corner and the vibrant colours of fruit and vegetable lining the street, we soon starting salivating and thinking about a place to eat. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the three of us walked along the dusty roads in search of a restaurant. Eventually, we found what appeared to be a large, dark house. With no lights on outside, I wondered how they attracted customers, still, we went inside. With a warm greeting, we were shown to our table. For the next 10 minutes we looked through the menu as Poonam was kept busy translating the various dishes. For Malene, butter chicken, for Poonam and myself, only one option…pizza!

As we sat back after our ice-cream dessert, we agreed that we had had a beautiful evening. I even had my first beer since Delhi which felt oh so refreshing. But it was our new friendship that really got my head spinning and spinning in the most wonderful way. As we slowly get more acclimatised to this new way of life, we now understand the importance of taking this journey with the company of good friends. So to you Poonam, we raise our glasses:

“Thank you for being a wonderful friend and may we share many more special moments together.”

A new challenge

Sometimes, challenges are thrown down before us and without preparation or thought, we have to make a decision. Maybe our time out here, so far, was ‘too easy’ and we needed a good challenge to pump us up and test our spirits. Well, we can both say that earlier this week, we have been truly ‘tested’ and the result….STILL FIRED UP BABY!!

To begin this properly, a little introduction to our situation out here is needed. We are living at a charity driven hospital which we found through a friend of a friend. Although originally we were to be helping out at the hospital, it turns out that it is so quiet here (another story) that there is no work for either one of us. However, there is an orphanage in the next town (7km away) and the hospital agreed to take us in the mornings, where we could help teach the children. Our situation was set and although we still payed for our food and water, the ‘accommodation’ itself was free. Everything was perfect. Until last Sunday. We were informed that we needed to find alternative transport each morning. Confused, we questioned the decision but there was no definite answer. It came from ‘the board’ and we were not able to find out by who. As our only means of getting to the orphanage in the morning, I was anxious to know more and offered the hospital money for the fuel. Malene and I loved the work at the orphanage so much that we wanted to pay more in order for us to continue…a strange situation you may say? As soon as money was mentioned, we were invited to a meeting the following morning, in which, I thought, the negotiation of cost would be discussed.

The following morning, we waited patiently for our meeting. It didn’t take long to realise there was a bigger problem at hand. In fact, the opening line which greeted us as we walked into the cold office was: “you have 2 weeks in which to find new accommodation.” Speechless and surprised, I struggled to find words in which to express myself. Literally from out of the blue, in a country that has shown us nothing but love, this was presented to us. It turns out that we were to “be made an example of”. According to the board, they had no room (other than the 10 plus empty flats on site) for us. In desperation, I pleaded with the man to keep us here until Christmas and made it clear that we would not be able to continue our volunteer work without the hospital’s help. Unfortunately, this seemed to fall on death ears. We have been told that he will “think about” granting us a further 7 weeks stay here; truth is, we need to think about other options.

With what felt like a blow to my stomach, we left the office and made our way into the morning sunshine, still scratching our heads. If we wanted to continue our work here, we had to find somewhere new to live. We knew we couldn’t both live at the orphanage due to it being a Christian church and Malene and I not being married. We understood this reason and respected it. Luckily, at the orphanage, we are surrounded by friends and people that want us there – a feeling that almost brought tears to my eyes that morning. A new place to live was quickly found and hopefully, by this weekend, Malene and I will have moved in. Unfortunately, it might mean that we’ll be without the internet for longer periods of time. But I love writing these posts too much for us to be quiet on here for too long.

It’s certainly been a strange week, and one that I will write about more later. For now, Malene and I feel very lucky and privileged to have stumbled upon these wonderful people. In particular, Poonam; an amazingly generous and special friend, all the children who continue to make us smile each day and Roger who is making all of this possible.

In reflection, our challenge is nothing in comparison with some…

Creating a buzz

A couple of weeks without internet have passed and being ‘reconnected’ feels both liberating and a little shocking. Catching up on news from home and reading what everyone has been doing is a stark reminder of the differences between this world and theirs. We wanted, even hoped to say that after a couple of months out here, things would have started to make a tad more sense. In actuality, we’re still being surprised everyday, often by the quaintest of things; a baby calf with a sac as a blanket or buying dried cow pats to be used as fire-lighters. I think both of us are beginning to understand a little more of the Indian culture, which in turn, is making us appreciate our lives and each other more and more.

We have had some amazingly creative days recently at school. With the only safe drinking water being available in 2 litre bottles and Malene and I consuming 4 of them each day, you can imagine the pile of empty bottles that started to accumulate. Malene had the idea one day to take a couple of boxes of empty bottles (not easy to carry on the motorbike with 2 others) to school and have an ‘arts and craft’ afternoon with the nursery class – an idea, I thought, that could go horribly wrong: 11 children aged 5-7, a few pairs of scissors and a couple of rolls of Sellotape sounded like a recipe for disaster…I couldn’t have been more wrong! The imagination of these little children coupled with all these materials led to some great pieces of art. I couldn’t honestly tell you what most of the bizarre yet marvelous objects were supposed to be, but in the children’s eyes, you could certainly see the looks of excitement and passion. Brilliant.

In an attempt at following in Malene’s footsteps, I made a computer for class 2. Although not quite so creative, the children loved it and we had a wonderful lesson learning about computers. I think the mouse was a big hit! Later on that day, Malene and I teamed up to make animal masks with 2 classes. The children were literally jumping with joy and energy which was so heart-warming and a privilege to be apart of. With wooden sticks sellotaped to the back of some rather peculiar coloured animals, we all had an afternoon of fun and laughter.