My Life

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Monday, January 31, 2011

These orphans have already stolen my heart!

Recap of Sunday, January 23, 2011



Waking up this morning felt amazing! I was so eager to get the day going and see what was in store. We had an early breakfast this Sunday morning so we could get ready for church with the children. When we walked down the stairs to the outside of the orphanage, the children were lined up and ready, reaching their hands out to us begging for some personal attention time.

There is one particular girl that has caught my attention. Her name is Eleckia and for some reason she just touched my heart. The first day we were here she told me that she was sad because her brother wasn’t going to be able to come to the orphanage but that she was happy because we were there to spend time with them. This is a 7 year old telling me this mind you. It is incredible to witness how the little things mean so much to these children because they have nothing!

  
This is me and Eleckia and one of her friends.                   Sweet Eleckia!



Eleckia and I walked hand in hand, to the church building about a ½ mile away.  That is what the children like to do; grab your hand and hold on for dear life. The attention that they crave is fulfilled by a simple hand-hold or smile and that to me is how I wish I could be, satisfied with just the very simple things in life. We get so  caught up with the luxuries in life that we forget how important simple things like talking and smiling are to relationships. 

We all sat down in the church room and listened to the children sing us a song, first in Tamil (the official language of Salem), and then one in English. One of the volunteers on the trip, Pastor Mark, preached a sermon as Dr. Jay, the father of the orphanage, translated. Now the children may not have been paying super attention, but to see them close their eyes and pray to the lord while they are living in a majority Hindu country touched me. Their little hands in front of them with their palms together put a smile on my face. 

Dr. Jay Nantz in church with some of the children.

The children clapped wildly when Pastor Mark was through with his sermon and a short testimony. His testimony had the kids enthralled as he spoke about being a police officer for 20 years and then being called by the Lord to become a preacher. In India, police officers are corrupt and evil and certainly not respected like in America, so Pastor Mark had to explain to them that it is not a bad thing to be a cop in America but that it is a respected career. 


After Church, we got the chance to listen to a few of the testimonies of the children. They told us how long they had been at House of Peace, what happened to their parents and a little bit about what they liked to do and how old they were. When the subject comes up about age, it breaks my heart. Every time I would try and guess their age, I would be off by at least 5 years. The amount of malnutrition in India is astonishing. I met one little boy that looked to be about 7… he was 15. These children are so poor that they can’t afford food to help them grow. 

This is Circus… the nickname that they gave to this 15 year old because he is loved by all, both young and old.

After Circus told us why he was at House of Peace, his father killed his mother by pouring kerosene all over her and lighting her on fire, I was heartbroken and wanted to know how I could personally help these children.  I learned that you could be a sponsor parent to the children at House of Peace and the other 5 schools that are a part of the ICMC association (Indian Christian Mission Center). This means you would make a $25 donation each month (or however much you can afford that month) to ICMC in their name. You are also able to send them pictures and Christmas cards and birthday cards or any other holiday cards so that they know there is someone out there that loves and cares about them. They told us that sponsorship isn’t about the money for ICMC but that the communication with the child makes a world of difference to them. I am sure that I will go home with a few sponsor children of my own.

We all walked back to House of Peace and got to see the children’s living quarters. They were basic big open rooms with little boxes not much bigger than a large shoe box lining the walls. This is where they keep all of their belongings. There are no beds, and only enough space to but 3 outfits, one uniform outfit for school, one dress up outfit, and one play outfit. Makes me appreciate my closet full of clothes so much now and feel extremely guilty that I freak out every time I have something to go to and HAVE to find the perfect dress when they wear the same dress EVERYTIME there is a special occasion.  Goes right back to living with the simple things in life, something I will strive to do upon my return to the states. 

What their rooms looked like

We got to witness some of the older girls dancing to some of their favorite songs… don’t worry our volunteers got involved as well. The smiles on their faces while they were dancing were so fun to watch. They felt SO because we wanted to watch them do what they love. 

Anne McDonald dancing with some of the girls

We headed off to another wonderful Indian lunch with an array of items. They like to serve you, so they walk around and serve the food up right on your plate. After stuffing out faces, we got a chance to witness one of our volunteers, Brett Bruster, meet the child that he sponsors. Talk about seeing a special moment!! His hands were shaking when his little boy walked in. The boy had recognized his sponsor in church that morning from a picture Brett had sent to him. That is how special these sponsors are to them. It is their only way of getting special attention from someone that cares about them it comes from half way around the world. 

We loaded up in the van again and headed out to The Promised Land, another location of 5 combined schools where Dr. Jay has over 1000 more children that he takes care of. This location also has 2 colleges that are filled with mostly the children that grow up in the orphanage but open to the public at the same time. As we walked on to their schoolyard they were sitting on the ground in perfect little lines evenly spaced apart unlike I have ever seen from children of that age. They waving their little hearts out sitting criss-crossed because they knew we were coming to spend the day with them. Dr.Jay introduced us as “Auntie Emily,” or “Uncle Dave,” and the children would repeat what he said and clap for each of us. They sang us a song both in Tamil and English and then sat up on their knees and repeated a prayer to the Lord that Dr. Jay said out loud.  This experience was truly amazing to me; 1000 children sitting on their knees praying out loud to the Lord for all to hear and we can’t even mention the Lords name without being chastised in public school. 


Then it was their favorite part, biscuit time!! The volunteers walked up and down each isle passing out cookies one at a time to the children. Upon receiving their cookies, each child stood up, shook my hand and told me thank you in English, which is quite difficult for a majority of the children. It took all of 5 minutes for the children to consume their cookies and be set free from their perfectly straight lines and flock to all 11 of the volunteers.

We were almost tackled as they came at us so fast. Of course they were grabbing our hands and wanting pictures taken of them, but they also wanted to show us all around the property. They showed us their rooms, their rice fields, their field they play in, their cricket area and their half burnt down kitchen that yes, they were still using. Exhaustion is an understatement for what we felt after several hours of being drug around by these sweet little children. You would have 10 at a time leading you around the property of the Promised Land literally hanging on your arms and legs and wanting to be the one closest to you. 

 
Aaron Crownover with some of the Kids

Me with some of the kids in their rice fields

We were finally called in for tea and got a little break from carrying them around and having them jump on our backs. Them offering us tea became something that the staff did often, always wanting to make sure that we were taken care of during our stay here. After tea, Dr. Jay showed us the new generator that had been bought through donations to the school. Turns out, Brett Bruster had donated $15,000 to ICMC before he had even visited the orphanage! Now that’s pretty amazing if you ask me. This was by far the most massive generator I have ever seen, a little bigger than two dumpsters put together. Periodically throughout the day the power will go off so there will be no fans or lights on the entire campus. With the help of this new generator, there will be enough power that this will no longer happen. Dr. Jay and his staff won’t have to worry about loosing power ever again!

One of the kids at the Generator dedication



Against the children’s wishes, we headed back to House of Peace where we had another wonderful meal. There was not much talking going on around the diner table as everyone was struggling to keep their eyes open. It may be 9:00 PM, but we are more than ready to hit the hay. I can’t wait to see how tomorrow, our first distribution, will go. I am so eager to see the children’s faces when we put that new pair of shoes on their feet. 



Always Remember to Charge thru your challenges as this week I will be faced with multiple challenges, both mentally and physically!!
Emily

















Sunday, January 30, 2011

Making our way to Salem

 Recap from Saturday, January 22, 2011




Waking up this morning, I am sleepy but for some reason ready to go! We ate breakfast in a little cafe around the corner from our hotel that was completely non-English speaking. Trying to order bottled water was like trying to stop the sun from coming up, it’s not going to happen. We finally got a little assistance from one of the volunteers that is with us on the trip. His name is John Jackson and he has been coming to the house of peace for 10 years now and has picked up a little of Tamil, the local language. Whatever he ordered us to eat, it was quite tasty. It was similar to a cake pancake with some sort of spicy potato mixture in the middle… With my weak stomach, I stuck to the pancake and water.

Our First Indian Breakfast




Getting to know the team members John Jackson, Brett Brooster and Katie Lentile


From there we all re-boarded the little packed bus and headed to the train station to catch our train to Salem. Talk about a culture shock…. If you have ever seen “Slum Dog Millionaire” it is exactly like that. Thousands of people everywhere… sleeping on the ground, using the restroom on the side of the train deck, flies swarming around, and packed into box cars like a bag of jelly beans, literally standing on top of each other. You know in movies when there are several people hanging out the door of the train as it is leaving the station, which is exactly what we saw. I am still not sure how these people stayed on these trains, but it didn’t look like this was their first rodeo.



Lucky for us we were in “first class” on the train… whoa, hold your thoughts… first class is NOT what you are thinking it is. The only difference is we had fans and were not sitting next to a cage of chickens. 

Our First Class seats on the train

My seat was across from a mother and her two young children. It was such a joy to watch them interact with one another. These children are NOTHING like American youth. They are appreciative of one another and are very polite. One girl even drew a picture for one of the guys On our trip with us, Aaron Crownover. It said “Thank you for visiting India and enjoy your stay,” in perfect English… I was amazed! They loved having us there.

In old western movies when the villain is chasing the hero on a train and they go between the boxcars and are hanging off the edge and all you can see is the tracks going by under them, well did you know you can really do that! I know, I’m sure you already knew that, but have you stood there… Between the cars there is an open space where you can stand and watch the county-side go by. This was amazing!! We passed several little villages over a 6-hour drive and it was so interesting to get a taste of the country-side of India. The houses looked more like huts, but the scenery was beautiful throughout our drive.


When we arrived in Tamil Nadu, Vijay and Herbert, representatives from “House of Peace,” greeted us with leis made of beautiful flowers. They offered us all a drink and walked us to the cars we would be riding in to the House of Peace.


It was only about a 15-minute ride to Salem, but the kids were waiting when we get there. When we pulled up the kids attached immediately. I had a girl run up to me and say “Auntie,” what is your name and grabbed my hand. It was at that moment that I realized this trip was going to be so incredible. Auntie and Uncle is what the children call us because they believe we are their family.

After we settled in, the kids walked over from their rooms and attacked us. Literally jumping on our backs hugging us and holding our hands, and most of all wanting “one photo.” You would have thought that these kids had never seen a camera. They wanted me to take pictures of them over and over, single shots, funny shots, group shots, you name it, I took it. After an hour of playing with the kids and watching the sun go down from the roof of the orphanage, the kids got called down for supper. Whew… that was only the first hour, yet I am exhausted already!



Sunset on the rooftop in Salem the first day


Our group had a little time to regroup before we headed down to a room with a huge square table where we sat all together and ate a wonderful Indian supper of rice, Nam (wheat tortillas), spicy grilled chicken and bananas. We reflected on our journey to the orphanage and were all very eager to get going that next morning.  Off to bed we went for our first nights rest in a bed in over 3 days!!!

Our accommodations were quite nicer than I had anticipated. We each had a cot bed and a bathroom in our room. Now the shower was a little interesting. You fill up a bucket from a faucet in the bathroom and use a cup to pour the water over your head, and that is your shower. It was a little hard to get use to but fun at the same time. Just another part of being in India and adjusting to the way things will be for the next week.

Charge Thru Challenge,
Emily

Made it Tamil Nadu, India!!



Slight Disclaimer: I didn't have access to the Internet, so I am going to update one day of the trip at a time! Hope you enjoy!

Recap from Friday, January 21, 2011

We FINALLY made it to Tamil Nadu, India at around 2:30 this morning!! The 6-hour flight wasn’t too bad seeing as I slept most of the way. It is funny how as soon as you don’t have a bed to sleep in at night, you learn to sleep any and everywhere you can. (floors and random chairs around the airports are a few of these lovely places that I took a cat nap) I never use to be a big “sleeper on planes,” but I have since become one. You kind of have to if you want to function in the next city we go to.

They gave us a little trouble about the amount of shoes we were taking in through customs (they thought we were there to make a quick buck by reselling the shoes) Once they understood what we were doing, they let us right though. Overall, it was about an hour and a half before we get through immigration and located all 25 bags for our group. 

All of our bags

We found Vijay and Herbert, our representatives from House of Peace (the orphanage that we have partnered with for this trip). These two were here to take us to our hotel in Tamil Nadu and then to the train station in the morning. Oh ha… the bus we rode in… well, it wasn’t quite big enough for all of us so we just piled on top of each other and the massive bags of shoes we brought with us. If we weren’t close before, we definitely were now.

20 minutes later we arrived at our hotel, but it was a little strange. I guess I had forgotten by now it was almost 5:00 AM, but the employees of the hotel were asleep on the floor of the lobby with all the lights off and doors locked. Come to find, sad but true, it is very common around here to sleep on the ground. In fact, I couldn’t count the number of people that slept on the ground around the city from the Airport to our Hotel there were so many. Made me sad, but happy that I was here to help the next generation of the Indian people.


So its almost 6:00 AM by the time we get settled into our rooms. It really is quite nicer than I had anticipated. I imagined we would be in a little shack on the side of the road, not true! Okay, it wasn’t the Ritz Carlton and there was dirt pretty much everywhere and the bed was… lets just say less than comfortable, but it was a nice welcome to India!!

Our Room

Our internal clocks are so out of whack so of course it is hard to sleep. We managed to squeeze in about 2 ½ hours of sleep. That’s all we had time for since we had to be up and at it at breakfast at 9:00 AM, ready to catch a train to Salem. It was nice to sleep in a bed for a few hours though… I was starting to forget what that felt like. Bring it on India! So looking forward to getting to Salem and see the children that I came here to love!

Charge Thru Challenge,
Emily

Friday, January 21, 2011

Wonderful day in Hong Kong!

Well, We made it! All 15 hours of our flight, but we made it. The flight wasn't actually too bad.. with a little help from an over the counter sleep aid, I got a good 10 hours in before we landed.


Although I chose to skip most of the food the offered, their snack was the trusty "Cup 'o' Noodle." I figured they couldn't go wrong with that so I took a shot. Turns out I was right. It was quite yummy!



Upon landing, we made our way through "customs." They just stamped our passports and waved us on through. No searching the bags which was nice due to the fact we were EXHAUSTED at this point.

The View as we flew into Honk Kong when the sun was coming up. Breathtaking! 


We made our way through the airport and finally found a place to take a warm shower (for $20 USD) but it was SO worth it. Katie and I found a place to store our carry on luggage and we were off to explore the city. After much confusions on where to catch the train, we were finally pointed in the right direction and boarded the A11 to a place called Stanley Market. Being the friendly American that I am, I made friends with a man from Australia who was in Honk Kong for business. He gave us a few pointers and places we should see before we left, so I was very much appreciative.

Katie and I on the Train to Stanley Market

Anyway, back to our trek to Stanley Market. It was only about a 20 minute train ride to what was called Central Station where we then caught a city bus, yes it was a double decker with and yes we had a maniac driver, to Stanley Market. Now it may sound simple to just hop a bus, but this bus station was HUGE. It took at good 30 minutes to figure out which route was the correct one to take. Our driver apparently didn't like us because he sort of yelled at us when we couldn't figure out how much HK dollars to pay him. Oh well! Katie and I made our way up to the second level of the double decker bus which we would soon figure out was a mistake. These drivers are crazy!! They FLY down these small winding roads and slam on their breaks just before they hit the person in front of them. Needless to say, experiencing this from the second level made both of us pretty queasy.


Once we got there it was worth the ride! It reminds me a lot of China Town in NY, as in there are different allies with little shops and women and men encouraging you to come in and see their deals. On past these allies was a boardwalk that was gorgeous. We found a local restaurant where we endulged way too much on the local cuisine which happens to be my ABSOLUTE favorite!
(This picture was taken at the top of the hill of Stanley Market)

We worked our meal off by searching the city to see what we could find. We came upon a pier which we loved! We watched as several john boats came in and fishermen caught their supper.
We left Stanley Market and headed to an are of town called Central. It's shop after shop, name brand after name brand.. I mean, name a high end clothing/shoe/handbag line and this city has it! When we decided we were ready to head back, we hopped on the bus, lower level this time, and rode back to central station where we boarded the train back to the airport. It is now 6:00 PM on Friday local time and 4:00 am CST, yet we are still kicking. We are waiting to board our 5 1/2 hour flight to Chennai where we will catch a train to Salem. This is where the orphanage is and I am SO eager to get there. I finally got the pictures to work so I hope you enjoy a little taste of what I am getting to see! 
Miss and Love you all! If you want to see some videos of where we have been, check out Katie's Blog www.thesoulexperience.blogspot.com


Remember to Charge Thru your Challenges!
Miss you all!!
Emily


And we're off!

Yes I know this is a little late, but this is the first real time I have gotten good Internet access. I wrote this on the plane from LA to Hong Kong, So I will make a post on what all we did actually IN Honk Kong as soon as I get a little energy!

It’s 3:07 CST, and I’m wide awake on my flight to Hong Kong. Is it strange that I have been awake for almost 24 hours and I still can’t sleep. All I can think about is getting there and seeing what a difference we can make in such a short period of time. We are packed in like sardines on this  “B777-300ER” plane, but yet it doesn’t bother me one bit.

The man across the seat from me is chowing down on a pasta dish of some kind… guess that’s dinner. Is it weird that I am in a way excited about that?


Before I left, a good friend of mine, Holli, told me to stop and remember to breath it all in. I am taking her advice and soaking in EVERY step of this experience. Trips like this can go by so fast if you just go through the motions of what’s next. Why not stop and enjoy what is occurring right in front of you.


Each person in the group we are traveling with is so different from each other. That’s it! That is our first challenge - learning to be with people from all different walks of life and coming together to form a team. We have a dentists, a few other people involved in the dentistry field, a youth minister, a pastor, a social worker, a high school boy and girl, and of course myself and our wonderful leader, Katie. I know that the Lord has brought this specific group of people together to learn from each other and I am so eager to see what he has in store.
  
Well the lovely flight attendant just asked what I choose for dinner, so I best run and enjoy it.. yummy! Please continue with your prayers for our group!

Charge Thru Challenge,
Emily

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I leave TOMORROW!!!

Really? I leave for India tomorrow! That is just insane and amazing all at the same time. My mind is going 90 miles a minute trying to anticipate everything about my trip. I'm for the most part packed, just a few last minute things to throw in and few books to download on the Kindle. 

My trip will start with a 4 hour drive to Nashville where I will meet my friend Katie who is flying from Nashville to LA with me. We will then meet up with the rest of the group and board our 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. Now you understand why I have to download multiple books :) I can't tell you exactly how the trip will go from there because, well, I'm a little unsure. 

I can however tell you that I know for 100% fact that God is wanting me to make this trip. You know those days where the little things make you feel so good, well today is one of those days. I was sitting in my car ready to pull out of the bank when I looked in the rear view mirror. I noticed an older man whose car wouldn't start. His car was stalled directly behind mine and I was stuck in the parking space with no way of getting out. What's the first thing that popped into my head?... unfortunately it was, great now I'm going to be late for work. That's human nature right? Always thinking of ourselves first. Well, I wasn't going to let that happen. I put my car in park and jumped out and helped the man push his car into a parking space where he could then jump his car off. This was such a small thing, but it just set my mind right for the day.  

The Lord gives you opportunities in everyday life to serve him. Even though it was small, it made me pause and look up and remember why I am embarking on this trip in the morning. 

I once read a quote by John Wayne that said, "Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway." Traveling to India may be out of my comfort zone but I am ready to take this trip by the horns and travel with 10 complete strangers to do a little good in a part of the world that is most often forgotten. 

Charge Thru Challenge,
Emily 

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Preparing for India

Well, I finally did it. I started the blog I have wanted to for months!! So now what...


Guess I will come right out and say it. Just like most everyone else, I struggle every day of my life. It may be a small bump in the road or it may be Mount Vesuvius ready to erupt and cover me with hot flowing lava. Either way, I will tackle it and learn something along the way. I will share with you moments where I have struggled through, succeeded, and sometimes failed at what life throws at me. 

Recently I have been searching for a way to give back and the Lord laid it out on the table for me. I am now preparing for the trip of a lifetime. I am going to Tamil Nadu, India with an organization that I am in love with, Soles4Souls. 


It is an organization based out of Nashville, TN that travels around the world to provide shoes to those that may have never owned a pair in their lifetime. One of my good friends, Katie Lentile, works for the organization which is how I found out about it. When I really listened to what it was the organization actually does, I knew I had to help. Katie told me of a trip to India they were taking in January, and that's all it took. Here is their blog which is truly inspiring.... soles4souls 



Ergo, I signed up for the trip a few days later and now I leave in just a week! A lot had to happen to get me to this point...

 First and foremost, I had to ask for two weeks off from work. Lucky for me I have a very understanding boss. YIKES! Two weeks without pay..  guess I will have to make do. I raised $3,200 with the generous help of my friends and family and persistently sending emails that border lined on begging for the money. I have had to mentally prepare myself for the things I will see while I am there. These children lack one of the simplest necessities in life and I worry about WHICH pair of shoes I will wear today. I read a book that helped me get my mind right. In a Heartbeat by Leigh Ann and Sean Tuohy. If you haven't read this, I suggest you do so. 

This book helps you to give without expecting anything in return. Yes I am biased, as I am from Memphis and did go to school with Michael Oher, the young man that the Tuohy Family adopted, but this book is truly inspirational. There is so much more I have to do before I leave, but I will save that for another post. As I think about these children, I am so eager to get there and do what I can. I will keep you updated as I get ready for my trip and will continue to share with you what I have experienced each day in India. 

So the countdown is on until I embark on a trip that I presume will change my life forever....
 Charge Thru Challenge,
Emily