January 19 --- SHOP 'TIL YOU DROP!!!

When friends and fellow Rotarians learned of my trip, several sent money to me, as well as to my friend, Mark Little from England, for the purpose of purchasing clothing for the children who will eventually occupy the orphanage where we helped to construct the community hall. On our last trip, we had visited the temporary living quarters for the then forty-three orphans, and had taken time to play with them in the play yard, as well as taking chai with them, and a few biscuits.

As I may have previously mentioned, a woman named Zeda, from California, had learned of the trip last April, and had sent several dozen teddy bears and other stuffed animals with the Rotarians from California. She and I agreed that children, who were traumatized by the tsunamis, could certainly benefit from something to which to cling and to cuddle when they took their sleep or just needed something to love. When we first arrived at the orphanage last April, each of us took two stuffed animals to give to the children. We also took tiny bottles of bubbles and pencils and Beanie Babies and candies and so much more. The children sang a song for us when we arrived, and then, after a while, we all joined in singing a number of songs. It actually did not matter what we sang, “Jingle Bells”, “Home on the Range”, or “I’ve been working on the railroad”… they just wanted to clap their hands in time to the music.


As we had worked very hard in the morning, in heat of approximately ninety-five degrees, carrying bricks and setting them for the bricklayers. Additionally, Melpo and I both slathered white wash on the interior walls of the nearly completed homes. We were invited to have lunch at the home of Rajan and his family. We were treated to a totally “veg” meal, prepared by his wife and sister-in-law. It was absolutely delicious and we were please to have the opportunity to chat with his father, before he left to present in court in the afternoon. After lunch, a number of the local Rotarians dropped by the house to meet us and chat with us, as well as to invite us to a very special meeting of the Rotary Club of Cuddalore Central on Saturday evening. Later on, we were each given a personalized invitation, in which we learned that WE were the program for the Saturday evening meeting! Although Mark and I are quite used to attending multiple meetings, and having to speak extemporaneously, Melpo had the look of stark terror, when she learned she might have to address the Rotarians and their families.

In the late afternoon, we changed some money and then Rajan and his wife, younger daughter and nephew all piled into the van and went to a shop where he generally buys clothes for his family. We went to the second floor – the Children’s Department – and met the owner/manager of the store and explained why we were there. Upon changing our dollars and Travelers’ Cheques into Rupees, we literally had bundles of currency stuffed into our pockets. I shared with Mark and Melpo a line from one of my daughter’s favorite movies, PRETTY WOMAN… “We are going to spend an obscene amount of money!”



Rajan had obtained a listing of the children by age group and gender and so we set about choosing three outfits of clothing for each of the children, beginning with the youngest age – girl from two to four years, and so on. Some of the clothing for the littlest girls included frilly dresses, what our children might call party dresses. It always amazes me that even though little girls and boys play in the dirt, just as any other small children, these children always seem to “shine”. To quote an old television advertisement for a laundry detergent, “the whites are whiter and the brights are brighter!” As the sizes got larger, the style of clothing changed – boys went from shorts to long pants with coordinated shirts, and girls went from frilly dresses to handsome three-piece ensembles with a long tunic-type top, pants and a shawl or stole called a salwar kameez. The colors were amazing – reds, purples, greens, blues, golds, maroons – all very rich. By the time we had finished, stacks of clothing which covered the counter from one end of the store to the other – about fifty or sixty feet! Then, with care and precision, each set of clothes was folded, and stacked and packed in its own carrier bag, so each child would additionally have a hefty sack.


















Mark and I had a specific amount of money to spend and when the entire lot was tallied, (and without the shop owner knowing the amount we had to spend) the total came to within four dollars of what we had allocated. All of the small sacks were placed in larger carrier bags, the sizes and numbers of outfits notated on the outside, for ease later when we distributed the clothes to the children – an event to which we were all looking forward. The large bags were gathered up and six strapping young lads carried them down the two flights of stairs and up the street to our van, where our driver, Kumar had been parked for those past three hours, He opened doors at the back of the van and loaded the bags into the back and up and over onto the seat at the rear of the van (more of a motor coach than a van). When we got back into the van, the entire back seat, which would normally accommodate five adults, was filled with bags of clothing. What an experience!


By the time we dropped of Rajan and his family at their home, and then were driven back to our hotel, about a forty minute drive, we were totally exhausted, but pleasantly so. Since Kumar slept in the van each night, we decided to leave the clothing inside, so we wouldn’t have to carry it in and out of the hotel. As tired as we were, smiles of satisfaction filled our faces and when we entered the hotel lobby, the general manager was there to greet us and when we told him what we had just done, he was beaming and without hesitation, told the rest of the staff there about us. It seemed that these folks also took some ownership and pride in what we had come to do – just to make a small positive difference in the lives of the people there.