Friday, March 14, 2014

Day 8 - Last day of home stay in Chinchoti

Namaskar Friends and family,

Here we sit at the top of a mountain with wild chickens and oxen surrounding us and we think that is helping with our internet connection. From the top of the mountain, you can here the music from the Indian wedding that we "attended" and by that we mean crashed.

At the Indian wedding we threw rice, gave gifts and sang 'Lean on me' to the bride and groom. The girls were dressed in their newly made sari's which their home stay mothers hand sewn for them. Along with the sari's they put on bangles and jewelry and we can say that they looked stunning in their sari's. The boys on the other hand were wearing clothes that they took out of their bags and smelt to make sure they were clean but were most likely not. Though clothing did not matter at this wedding wether it was in sari's or shorts, the wedding was a new and exciting experience for everyone.

The wedding was a festive way to end a long but rewarding work day at the school. With the help of some locals we were able to build a stage and the walls and roof of the new theater. We also put the finishing touches on our mural. Everyone took part in the painting whether they used their hands or brushes to paint. Besides painting we enjoyed an eventful afternoon with the school children. They loved playing games such as red light green light, races, and hand games. We also handed out candy to the children and took lots of pictures of them. If there was one thing that the children loved it was posing for pictures with their friends from school and with us. Though their was a language barrier, we were still able to create meaningful relationships with the children.

Its a tough job blogging, if you were here you would see us being attacked by roosters as we type away providing you with the latest news from Chinchoti. Today is our last night with our home stay family.  It will be sad parting with our new family who we have come to know and love.  For some, tonight will be filled with parting gifts and presents along with pictures, and probably some chi tea.  The home stay was an eye opening experience for us all.  It has taught us to appreciate how we communicate back home as well as how to communicate in a foreign country.  

Tomorrow we are off to a day and night at the beach were we will be swimming, bonding as a group and taking some time to bring our trip and this tropical weather to an end before we head off to Mumbai for some last minute shopping and our flight.

Till we meet again,

Maxwell and Elias