Water Walk and Marc Anthony

Hello Family and Friends,

There is nothing really new to report. Xavier was feeling better yesterday and now it is taking all of Kumari’s and my power to convince that he still needs to rest. Still, though, it is nice that he is able to move around and that the medicine isn’t making him nauseous anymore.

The children came home and did their homework. I got to meet Subala’s and Swetha’s mother. She is very young and pretty, and has a one and a half year old son. When she was four months pregnant with her son her husband, the children’s father, disappeared. She wasn’t able to take care of Swetha, Subala, and now a son, all by herself. She was able to get a death certificate for her husband, even though there is a chance he just ran off, and put Subala and Swetha here at WIDE. She also tried to give Kumari her son, but Kumari did not and does not have the means to take care of such a young child. She offered the mother a place to work here so she could make money, be fed, and stay with her daughters, but the woman didn’t want to leave her hut, which if left vacant for too long would be taken by the government. Each child has such a deep and personal background story; each history is different, but heartbreaking nonetheless.

After everyone was finished their homework I was flooded by children that wanted to sing songs for me. There is a singing contest at one of the schools, and many of the children have entered and now want to practice. Everyone was taking turns singing short tidbits, but when it was Subala’s turn she started sing the longest song I have ever sat through. Several minutes into it all the other children were getting restless, and even I was wondering when it would be over. Finally I said enough, and told her that it was the longest song I have ever heard in my life, which all the children thought was hilarious. For the rest of the night she would come up to me and start singing it all over again, and I would jokingly run away from her.

I realized this week that the way I’ve been interacting with the children the past couple days is much different than I have been in the past. Until now all of the kids have sort off walked on eggshells around me, timidly approaching me to play games, or shyly asking me to go over their homework. This week any reservations they had about me have disappeared. They are pulling on me, demanding my attention. They purposefully poke me just so I will chase them and catch them. Subala is the most aggressive, especially for being so tiny. She will purposefully copy my every move until I grab her and tickle her. She will climb under my chair and pull on my legs or bang the bottom of my seat in an effort to get some reaction out of me. Basically they are treating me like another kid, which I love.

This morning I was low on water so I decided to walk and get some on my own. The little place that I get my water isn’t that far away, and it seems silly to make someone else come and ride the motorbike with me. It was a nice quiet walk through different neighborhood streets. There is a lot of construction going on in several places on the way. It is so different, everything is done by hand. Women sift sand and then carry large bowls of it precariously balanced on their heads. The bowls of sand, along with buckets of water and stacks of bricks, also being carried on top of their heads, slowly make their way up the rickety rope and wood scaffolding. It is an intriguing process and very methodical. One time I was explaining to Kumari how my house is made mostly of wood, and then covered with aluminum siding and sand and tar shingles. She found the whole idea mind boggling, and after pondering it for several seconds she declared that such houses would not do in India, and that was that.

One funny side note, when I got my water I was approached by to young, who seemed pretty convinced that I was Marc Anthony. They were pretty disappointed to find out that, alas, I am only Robby Pagels. I thought it was pretty funny that I, a nineteen year old white boy, was mistaken for a famous forty year old Latin American man.

After that I did some paperwork with Kumari. With only a week left, there is still a lot that I want to get done here, including (but not limited to): creating and organizing a library, creating an office in the new house, finishing the paperwork needed for inspection, finish typing final drafts of the children’s bios, taking pictures of every child individually to go along with their information, and making sure that everything is worked out with Xavier’s health and the doctor before I leave, because their doctor does a poor job of explaining things in ways that non-medical people can understand. I think that may be all I have planned so far, but I’m sure more jobs will pop up.

Peace,
Robby