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Published: March 23rd 2008
Once we were shown the sleeping arrangements of the children at the Orphanage, we were horrified to discover the children slept on nothing but plywood. Chrisand I decided right then an there to make sure these children would have proper beds before we left. Unfortunately, because there were only three volunteers including ourselves, the project budget wasn't even close to enough for new mattresses. One night Chris and I walked past an Indian mattress shop in Kesinga. We bartered them down to 50 mattresses for 7000 rupees ($180 CAN). We were so ecstatic to be able to provide for the children and be able to save what we thought might cost us a lot of money.
We found out the following day the closest ATM to Kesinga is a six hour train ride away in Raipur. In order to provide the financing for the mattresses; Chris, Koishiro, Joy and I all hopped on the 4:30am local train to Raipur. Let me fill you in on local trains in India: the local trains are those that usually carry passengers on their roofs because they are so full. As well, the seating on them is nothing better than a park bench.
From 4:30am
till 11am we rode the cold, full train to Raipur. When we arrived we were tired and dazed but we managed to find an ATM rather quickly. With the funds already supplied we had about 4 hours till we caught the 3:30pm back to Kesinga. The four of us explored the streets of Raipur on foot and found some neat things for the children and ourselves. I had never been in a traffic jam as a pedestrian before, until Raipur. The streets were packed. Everywhere we walked it seemed we were surrounded by heat storms and Indians. Cattle passed us by every 10 seconds.
Come 3:30pm we were on the Raipur platform about to commence our long train ride home. We arrived after dark at about 9pm. Just to punish ourselves some more we walked the 40 minutes back to the orphanage. You could imagine how well we slept that night.
The following morning we were up and ready at 8am, in the Orphanage jeep. Today we were told we'd be visiting the Bethany Village Daycare Centre situated in Reverand Barun Senapati's home village. We were told it would be about a 2 hour drive though we would be stopping
Chris sleeping on the way to Raipur
Lucky guy had a blanket, i couldn't sleep because it was too coldby a waterfall so it could take about 2 and a half. Chris and I exchanged looks and knew then we would be in for a long drive.
The ride in total took 4 and a half hours. The entire trip was on one horribly paved road that even our 4 wheel drive jeep had trouble on. We arrived at the Bethany Village Children's Daycare at 1pm and ate a lunch of Chapati, Rice and Chicken. We were informed the children would be arriving at 4pm and they expected up to 200 people from all around the village. I was so exhausted from the road trip I took a nap inside the village hut. Chris and Koishiro took a trip to the local cricket field to watch two local teams play. He and Koh were given a special honour and showered with flowers before the match.
When the children arrived, we held a large meeting in the church. All of the parents and children sat at our feet and asked us of our culture and what Canadians are like. They were mesmerized by some of our answers. The idea of a six lane highway made them all laugh and giggle
with great pride. We were happy to answer their curious questions. It seemed they were complete strangers to our lives across the globe. They knew nothing of our politics, our sports or even our people. They had all lived their lives within a kilometre of their houses and never seen anything different. It is an amazing world.
The drive back home felt longer than ever. We drove alone through the dark on the same rocky road till 8pm when we pulled up to the drive way at Bethany. The children were all there waiting for us to arrive and bid them goodnight. We did and then we were off to our beds. Sound asleep.
Love from India.
Evan and Chris
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