An Auspicious day at Anbarasi: "So Best"

The teens had a TERRIBLE time getting to India.  A massive delay from Qatar Air at the very start of the trip led to a domino effect where they missed flight after flight and faced LOTS of re-routing and hours upon hours of downtime in various airports. By the time we all reached our destination, Dindigul (a town that is truly on the other side of the planet from Houston), the group had been traveling for 46 hours straight . But they were troopers. No complaining.  No whining.  Just tough traveler attitudes.

So India started for the full group on Sunday morning when we loaded up and drove to the Anbarasi orphanage, our first Miracle Foundation home.  Best words to describe the day: “so best” (a sign we saw earlier this week to describe a restaurant’s meal and which we thought was a great descriptor).  We got out of the mini-van outside the gate to the orphanage ... because we could not go any further … the entire driveway was blocked with over 130 kids (all dressed in their very best clothes) as well as a full drumming band.  

We were led by the band through the crowd while all the kids danced and yelled “Hello, how are you?” at the top of their lungs. The home administrator came forward to put elaborate garlands of flowers on us as well as red paint bindhis (the dot between the eyebrows) ... and so started our “auspicious” day at Anbarasi.

We had been told to arrive at a specific time for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new boys’ dorm.  For all ceremonies in India, there is an “auspicious” (their word, and a great word it is) or appropriately spiritual time for such events.  Since we'd sponsored the building of the dorm, the home wanted us to be there for the ceremony even though the dorm is only 1/4 built (basically just the foundation and some of the walls are already completed).

Photo:  The new dorm, under construction

Photo:  What the new dorm is supposed to look like when it is finished

The dorm-ribbon-cutting-ceremony was intense... first was the actual unveiling of the plaque for the building

Followed by an actual ribbon cutting ceremony

Then the building had to be blessed multiple times over:  First the lighting of various candles before the temporary shrine (with dedications to all religions)

Then a blessing involving overflowing sweet milk 

Photo: A pot of sweet milk was set to boil over an open fire made from sticks piled in the middle of one of the dorm rooms (I know, odd at every level)

And last, but never least, blessings by two cows who were carefully led through the building accompanied by much cheering.

We were basically given rock star status and invited to lead - or be at the front of - all festivities

While the kids lined up on the floor

Next up was a full entertainment program of dancing, poetry recital and even a drama by the kids (all in Tamil off course but we got the essence of the play from the amazing acting)

Then lunch where our teens helped the house mothers prepare the meal... sitting on concrete slabs ....slicing ginger, cutting onions and rolling out chippati bread (all with instruments from the last century)

In between, there was a lot of hugging and loving on kids

And a ton of dancing... the kids LOVE to dance

In the afternoon, we divided the kids into small groups and brought out all of our craft projects.  The kids had a great time playing with all of our stuff.

And in return, they did our hair and put henna on our hands

And just generally hung out with us

And dressed Ms. Julie up in a sari

To make the home beautiful for us, the kids had created elaborate designs on the concrete floors in chalk and hung coconut leaf decorations on the walls

Great side-story... when my son Ben zipped off his long-pants to turn them into shorts.  We drew a crowd of kids who had never seen anything so amazing.  One kids finally turned to the others and said... knowingly... "modern pants"

It was so sad to leave the home at the end of the day

Because the kids' smiles would break your heart

Photo: This little boy is the most recent addition to the home. He's been there under a year. Until recently he still hid bits of food from each meal in his pockets because he was not confident that he'd have food again at the next meal. They were constantly finding half a biscuit or a piece of nann bread in his pockets