Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Day 2 in Heranjalu

Leaders: Davis and Alex


Today was our first morning in Heranjulu. The roosters clucked and the cows mooed.  Our host families made us delicious breakfasts of dosa— a rice pancake of sorts -- and chutney.  The children of the families left for school at 8:00 a.m., and we walked to Krishna’s house to convene as a group.  We started the day with a few fun activities to get our hearts pumpin’ and blood flowin’.  We (Alex and Davis, the leaders of the day) presented the day’s schedule and challenged the group to learn more about themselves and someone else.  Once the morning meeting was over we headed to the school to begin our work on the stage, which we are building, and to spend time with the students.  

We divided into three groups and conquered.  Our tasks included moving dirt and moving more dirt.  We used the advanced bucket method to move it from the pile to the stage and saw all of our work go to shame when a huge bulldozer came and did our hours’ work in 15 minutes.  But nevertheless it was a great experience and our summer bodies are certainly coming along nicely.  Watch out world!  

All jokes aside our first day with the children was full of laughter and glee as we threw it back to the days of Duck Duck Goose.  The children loved it and taught us some of their own games. We realized that even though we barely speak Kannada, we all know the universal language of dance and laughter.  It was interesting to see that the environment of the kindergarten classroom was very similar to back home.  

After this grueling morning we returned to our homestays for lunch.  Some of us ate and took naps while the others spent time journaling and exploring the woods. These relaxing three hours were followed up by some very aggressive rounds of ninja— hiyah!  Our spinning and splicing through the air was met by confused laughter from the villagers who are probably still trying to figure out us weird Americans.  Then we sat down for a reflective, introspective conversation about who we admire— who knows, it could have been you…  It was a great group bonding experience as everyone came out of their shell and shared the stories that help define who they are.  Alex said— Oops! You really thought we were gonna tell ya? What happens in India stays in India.  It was a wonderful experience to share together and hopefully we learn even more personal stories soon.  We were so enthralled by our peers’ stories that when we looked out we realized the sun had fallen and the moon had risen— it was dark.  

Monday is the day to worship Shiva, and to our delight we were invited to join the villagers in a ceremony at the local temple.  We danced and clanged bells to the rhythm of Heranjalu.  Eventually the boys of the group joined the men and children of the village in dance and song as the girls watched from the side.  A simple step and kick turned into an hour’s worth of jumping, twisting, rolling, and sweating.  While the boys looked exhausted and confused, it was a spiritual experience like no other and a nice welcome to the Hindu religion.   When the ritual was over we walked back home and the day was over.   We fell asleep with smiles on our faces.