Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall by Elliot Anderson

 Shout out to JWilliamC. Good news (mom and dad), Isaac and I hiked down to the bottom of the cliff near our house tonight and we found my camera! It was in perfect condition; no scratches or smudges and it even had 2 bars of battery still!  What a neat experience!

Throughout the past few days I found that my favorite kid at my school has changed. My old favorite kid’s name was Dahnpat. He is a super cute little boy and I’m pretty sure he is in most of my pictures but he doesn’t like having very much fun. He also is a bit of a troublemaker; he is constantly a problem when we are trying to teach our lessons. I guess that’s what you get when your name translates to “Money Man”. I still love him but he has been replaced. My new favorite kid is 7 years old and his name is Sujal. He was born with a cleft pallet but he got it repaired about a year and a half ago. He can’t talk very well and so when he does talk it almost just sounds like mumbling. Another problem that has affected his ability to speak is in his ear. Today we checked up on all of the kids eyes, mouths and ears. When we checked Sujal we noticed that there was something very large almost completely blocking the inside of his right ear. We think that it is some sort of bug that got stuck in there when he was really young that was never removed. Because it was never removed for many years it has calcified into a rock-like form that is too large to pull out of his ear now. The only way to get it out now is to surgically remove it. YMAD is going to try to set that up for him. It is so interesting to me that even though I can’t understand hardly anything that he says and yet I cannot even explain the love that I feel for him after just one week.

I have had so many great experiences so far with teaching and bonding with the kids but one of the things that I did not expect that I have been loving is how close I feel like all of us ymadigans have become. All of the guys are like brothers now with the girls as our sisters. Its great.  Lauren Bailey is a really cool person. After the group found out that I have never been to Panda Express they were appalled. Amy said that she’ll take me once we return to the land of the free, we’re also probably gonna backpack through china or somethin. All of these guys have become life long friends of mine and I love spending a lot of time with them especially to make a difference in the lives of others.

I’m so thankful to all of our leaders especially my team leader Jake Murill and our expedition directors Allison and Robert. They do so much for us that we don’t even know. I would also like to thank Raj, he has been helping us in tremendous ways here in India by setting up rides, hooking up the power to our house and so many other things. He is a Rock Star.

Shout out to Jesse

Today was so hard for me to leave the kids at our school, after we split I started to feel a little teary. Three of the kids grabbed my arms today and started to drag me toward their village instead of toward the jeeps with the rest of my clan. It was so hard for me to tell them that I couldn’t go with them. With the last day coming up I really know that the tears I will shed will truly be waterfalls.

 

I was joking about the camera I never lost it but Kate’s mom said I got you guys good.