Hi friends! Today Shreya, Roni, Alex, and I woke up at 5:30 and did yoga on the roof. It was incredible! Shreya led the sun salutations because she is training to become a yoga instructor. We practiced for about half an hour then got ready for breakfast. Standing in tree pose and looking out to the rising Indian sun was surreal. We plan on doing yoga every morning :).
Breakfast was oatmeal, yogurt, corn flakes, toast, and chapati. We left for the work site at 7 AM. Madan cracked a coconut and we all ate a piece. It was dry; there was no juice and it was delicious.This is part of the ritual when starting a new stage when constructing a building. We then put five pieces of it in this small temple constructed in the corner of the work site. A priest had blessed the temple previous, when they started the foundation. They burn something in the temple each night. It's cool learning about Indian culture!
We started laying rock by making a chain, conveyer belt-style. A couple people would pick rocks from the rock pile and place them in these large, silver bowls. The bowl would get passed down a chain of about five girls and Shreya would pass them to Arun who was inside the "trench" who would pass it to three more workers who would then pass the bowl to Madan. He would throw the rocks on the floor, the foundation. He would then pass the bowls back through the workers in the trench and then up to the pile of rocks, completing the circle. We'll be doing this until the whole floor is covered.
We're taking a break now (it's around 9:30 AM) because of the immense heat. They served us tea and we're chilling in the cool common room. We have a Hindi lesson at 11. We'll then eat lunch and return to the work site until dinner!
Arun was kind enough to teach us for an hour and a half! Are we good at it? Questionable :). We learned basic words (alphabet, greetings etc). It was hilarious. We're all pretty embarrassing! The locals love it when we say "namaste" and stuff. The women of Youth Touch do not speak any English so they love it as well! Kay, I'm gonna get super cheesy right now, but I totally understand the saying, "Smiling is the universal language." Things like waving aren't always appropriate, but everyone responds to a smile. Madan's wives as well as his parents do not speak any English, but smiling works as well as any language when praising their beautiful home and delicious food.
This afternoon it rained. It was super cool. There was a lot of thunder and lightning and it was really humid. We went back to work after tea and worked until dinner. It was a lot cooler so we got a lot done. All of the construction workers wear flip-flops which I find really funny. We then came home and cleaned ourselves up. Dinner was of course unreal. We also saw a gecko! We obviously all freaked out. Which reminds me, Vic and Alex saw a scorpion! Thank God Madan was there to kill it.
We’re all just chilling now in the common room before bed! I love the DWC crew so much; loving on how we are all besties!
Torry Harris
DWC Student Team Leader
Sikar, India: May 2012
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