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Published: January 29th 2008
Ok...so correction from yesterday's blog. apparently Tamil movies are called Kollywood-not Tollywood. I knew I had read somewhere that there was some ollywood here and assumed it was with a T because I am in Tamil Nadu, however I was wrong. Never assume anything. So, therefore, I am a Kollywood star. That seems quite appropriate since my name is Kim. I think i may have a future career.
After teaching last night (we did a review of the first 1/2 of what I have taught and it went really well-people actually remembered most things!), I got picked up by my friend's friend, Ruby who runs an orphanage. My German friend Anna also came along for the trip. The orphange is great! It is called The Hope House (Helping Orphans Prevail in Everything) and has 14 girls currently living there. They range in age from 7-11. The idea of the home is to eventually get the kids back to a family living situation. 1/2 are actual orphans, with no living parents and the other 1/2 may have a parent, but there is something else preventing them from being able to live there. The hope is that if it is financial, they can help provide for the family and get the kids back living with them and if the issue is abuse or something, that they can change the family. They insist that the child remains in contact with their family that does exist. It is really great! The kids were so cute!! They all had the same super short hair and i was originally wondering if they chose the style or if their hair cutter only cut hair one way. Well, it turns out they had a major lice problem that they couldnt get rid of so they shaved all their heads. yikes! I couldve stayed and played with them for hours, but being that I teach until 7, it wasn't until late that we got there. We then went to visit Ruby's family. He has 2 super cute girls (ages 6 and almost 4). The almost 4 year old was not happy that I wouldnt stay and sleep over. She kept putting on her cinderella glittery eye shadow and the older one kept doing dance performances to Dora music. They were such a riot! They have a lassie like dog that came with them after they moved back here from the US. They weren't going to have him come becasue it isnt the weather for a dog like that, but he was way too sad when they left. They made us dinner and it was super good! Chapati, rice, some eggplant thing, lemon pickled thing and some other curry. They remembered that I was veggie which was great! I stuffed myself so much-they must have thought I hadnt eaten since I have been here!! We discussed lots of interesting things...like the problems and benefits with the culture changing so much due to people having much more money (thanks to jobs at call centers, dell, anyone? and such), police corruption, transgender people and lots of other things.
This morning it was raining. like actual sprinkly rain. it was so weird, i didn't know what it was. it didnt last long though. i went to the rehab hospital which was great! it is run so efficiently. they have 3 sessions throughout the day and the therapists will typically have 4 patients at once for 2 sessions. it was mostly spinal cord injury and brain injury, however there were some kids with CP. There is no outpatient there and most people come from far away to be treated there. The furthest I met someone from today was a kid from Saudi Arabia and another from Kuwait. the kids were all super cute. I felt I didn't have as much to offer there, as I have never worked in rehab, but it was still good for me to see it. All the patients with SCI and TBI were males. They said car accidents were one of the biggest reasons (not surprising if you see these roads!) oh...speaking of car accidents--got in my first indian car accident last night-just got slightly rear-ended in Ruby's car. The car was fine and we were all fine. so anyway, the rehab center was really good. the therapists all rotate every 6 months so everyone will be there at some point. i forgot-i did have slight drama at the rehab center-they have a stem cell research center and decided to give me a presentation on their research. well, that sounds all nice and good, except it was not. their main research study is done on rats. ahhhh....i was freaking out. there were no actual rats there but their were pictures on the wall. i wouldnt look at the pictures, but then during the presentation to just me and one of the PT's, the experiment slides came up. I could not look at them. I looked just at the speaker, but i was sweating and almost started crying. I knew it was dumb, it was just a computer screen but it still freaked me out. they thought it was funny but i did not. at all. ahh.
i gave away all of my kiddie goodies when i went to the orphanage last night so i just found a store to get some stuff for the village tomorrow. i got a ton of stickers, pencils and balloons for about 2 dollars! oh yeah-tomorrow is village day! i am going with community health and development (CHAD) and i am very excited! it should be really good.
ok i think that is all for now. oh, I have made it lots of days now wihtout my pants falling off. that is good.
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Aunt Debbie
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Scaredy Cat
Yikes Kim as you know I totally understand about the rat episode...i don't think I could have stayed in that room..oh no guess what we are getting a gecko lizard and I am a scaredy cat of that too...I will have nothing to do with it and don't know how I agreed to this. Glad your pants have been staying on. Love, Aunt Debbie