Jeans, Tea, Sweaters: Things you never need in India

That super awkward moment when you get locked out of your room…at the deaf school…when no one can hear you…that happened. We stood outside for like 15 minute just a hollering…in vain…because we work at a school for deaf students. #fail on our part for getting locked out. No one be alarmed, we eventually got back in.

It’s very difficult to explain to deaf kids what stepping is…so thank you Joe Bryant and Denzel McCollum. My day just got more confusing! I have about 900 photos on my cell phone and about 20 videos, my tiny human friend went through at least 500 of them and watched a video I had of Joe and Denzel stepping at least 20 times. It is also very difficult to explain why my mother was dancing with my dog…but she was and she watched that video at least 40 times! It didn’t matter that she couldn’t hear the signing or yelling the dancing was quite amusing.  Something I’ve found, these kids love pictures, they love seeing us in pictures and they love taking pictures and most importantly they love seeing themselves in pictures, therefore I take about 100 pictures a day just so they can see themselves. There’s something about a photograph that makes them very happy. So just imagine what happened when I pulled out my laptop and started showing them all the special effect that could happen. They were just tickled pink! Hence the attached photos of them looking like aliens.

Also, through the pictures they have been teaching us signs! So when we look through our phones or computers or cameras, we’ll point to an item or animal or whatever,  and they show us how to sign it. It’s been pretty awesome.

It’s so amazing how easily these kids understand us, we’ve only been at the school 3 days and they’re teaching us all kinds of things! You know that awkward moment when I can communicate better with deaf children than the speaking and hearing adults? Ya that’s been everyday so far.

Things that aren’t meant for India: Jeans. I for some dumb reason decided that wearing jeans in this HOT HOT HOT country was a solid idea…it wasn’t. So im walking around sweating bullets. All day. Something else I’ve learned, it’s important to pay attention to your surroundings.  So I came bee bopping and gallivanting out of the school office today and I failed to realize everyone else is standing perfectly still as some kind of prayer/song blares through the speakers. It took me a solid 3 minutes and a few hard stares to realize I was failing…again.

Things I’m over: the amount of HOT tea that is consumed in this HOT country. Ok so here’s my daily schedule:

6:30 AM- wake up, eat biscuits (cookies in America) and drink tea

10:00 AM – lunch (don’t ask me why they’re calling breakfast lunch, I have no idea)

2:30 PM – Tea time

5:00 PM- Tea and biscuit time

6:00 PM- dinner

sooooo much tea…sooooo much food…all the time…everywhere. In the words of Lindsay Chambers: “Eat ALL the things” 

Hot tea all the time,

Leigh

P.S.- if any was concerned we WILL be celebrating the 4^th of July in India.