A Day in the Life

Since arriving at New Life over a month ago, no two days have been the same. To give you a tentative idea of what a day in the life of an intern looks like, I've outlined below some points of what our days contain:

5 a.m. - Drums begin their percussive rhythm. I roll out of bed and zombie-walk up to the prayer service. There are 71 kids living at New Life. They all meet together at this time to begin their day in Worship.

5:30 a.m. - Worship ends. Prepare for an early morning hike with the boys. Sometimes instead I go for a run to the bridge, do yoga or have an early quiet time.

7 a.m. - When I first imagined hiking the mountain, I imagined the scenic dirt paths of Umstead Park with an incline. The reality was far different. At some points we were grabbing onto boulders at 90 degrees to hoist ourselves up, and on the way down if we weren’t repelling backwards by holding onto long grasses growing out of the rocky slope, we were jumping down from boulder to boulder with a melody of rattlesnakes and king cobras hissing behind us.

9 a.m. - Home safe to enjoy breakfast.  Munna and Sushmita are our extremely talented cooks (who fell in love while working together. They have made it into the 5% of Indians who do not have an arranged marriage - their wedding day is set for August 9). Samosas, dosas, and Indian pancakes are some of my favorite breakfast items from their kitchen. This is typically accompanied by ripe pomegranates and freshly made orange juice.

10 a.m. - Time for school! Teaching 7th grade English is first. They love to play a vocab game entitled “celebrate” where we go around in a circle and each child takes one letter of the word to spell. 

10:40 a.m. - 6th grade English. This class was one of the most difficult when we first started teaching, but they’ve improved greatly. We’re studying an adaptation of “Alice In Wonderland” which the kids will do a dramatic performance of next week.

11:40 a.m. - 8th grade English. I love all of my students, but I must admit that this is my favorite class. All of the kids are so unique and excited about learning, including precious Manish who sits on the front row. They just completed an assignment in which they created an original story - this was their first time ever being asked to write something independently. I was blown away by the inventive, well-developed stories they produced. Very, very talented kids. 

12:20 p.m. - 8th grade history. Teaching Indian history is challenging because I’m learning right beside the kids, but very interesting.

1 p.m. - Lunch time. We have rice and dal every day for lunch and dinner. Additionally, Munna makes amazing chile prawns and periodically takes our tastebuds back to America with an Indian spin on pizza.

2 p.m. - Time to "take rest" to recoup from the morning and recharge for the rest of the day.

3 p.m. - Work on child sponsorship profiles for the ministry, plan for Bible study, etc.

4 p.m. - Free time with the kids. We often play football (soccer) and volleyball with the boys, paint nails with the girls, play games with the little kids, or go on adventure walks in the village.

6 p.m. - Evening prayer service. We gather on spread blankets outside to pray and worship under the setting sun. Tonight the sunset was particularly brilliant.

7 p.m. - This is one of my favorite times of the day. I either help the kids with their homework which allows for precious one on one time, give piano lessons, make dinner with Munna and Sushmita, or co-lead Bible study. Twnty-two of the older hostel girls and wardens gather in our room to study the Word in community twice per week. Women in Indian culture, relative to the US, live an oppressed life (see below for more*). In light of this, our focus is empowering them as women of Christ and leading them in developing a personal, intimate relationship with their Heavenly Father. 

8:30 p.m. - Dinner time! Rice and dal with guest appearances by gypsy noodles, paneer, chicken curry, and intermittent American dishes is a common menu. Our nightly discussion of “highs and lows/happys and crappys” reveal the best and hardest points of each persons day. This typically turn into powwow girl time which ushers in welcomed laughter to the end of the day.

10 p.m. - Reading time and preparation for another full day tomorrow. Praise the Lord, for He is good, His faithful love endures forever!

*Ultrasounds are illegal in India. The reason is because so many families immediately abort their unborn child if they learn it is a girl. One girl said of the beatings and burns she received from her father, “I’m thankful to him.” When asked why, she said “Because at least he let me live.” Stories like this are not uncommon, as is an increasingly subservient mentality. If girls make it through adolescence without being sold by their families to be raped every day by 10-25 men or abandoned completely, they are forced to marry men they’ve never seen before in arranged marriages. This is the sole aspiration of most women’s lives. The hope that he won’t beat them is lost by most. If he cheats on them with another woman, the other woman must be legally taken as his wife and come to live with them. And incase you thought “she should just leave”, divorce is illegal, so she can’t. More to come on this subject later.