Catching up

Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while; my internet connection has been down.

I went to Chennai last weekend, and although it was great to hang out with Dilkushi, Michelle, and Jin (other volunteers at different locations), I basically have no desire to go back to that city. It is basically just a hot dusty pollution filled mess and there isn’t really anything to do. We went back to the hookah place again (twice), went back to the mall, went to the beach which was kind of meh given the amount of garbage, and went to a few hotels to get (gasp!) alcoholic beverages. There was a lot and a lot of sitting around being like Chennai sucks.

This week was the same thing in Kanchipuram, helping out the kids. The kids were actually starting to really frustrate me this week…I love them dearly but I am so sick of hearing “uncle I want pen” and “uncle eraser uncle” and having to constantly fend off the same kids over and over and over while I’m helping someone else. I will be helping someone read and some kids will just pester me and pester me and I have to tell them over and over that they have to wait their turn. Honestly I think at this point they are just used to saying “uncle” over and over. Today, one kid was like “Uncle! Uncle! Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!” and finally when I was like “What? What is it?” he was like “oh, well nothing I guess” and walked away.

There really is just a huge need for more volunteers. I can’t be mending bags, taping up books, teaching someone to read, handing out pens, putting on bandaids, and teaching someone math at the same time. Any time I do anything, there are 92 other kids vying for my attention.