Day 12: Saturday, June 8th
We’re babaaaacckkk! The day started with being woken up at 5am on the roof to loud music. Confused, sleepy, and mostly confused we all rose from out cots curious to where the music was coming from. After some brief investigating, we realized that the music was coming from a nearby temple and it was done to alert all in the village that an offering was to occur later in the evening.
After breakfast the team headed to the site. Rebar was being brought in and laid in preparation for pouring the floor slab. Rebar work is extremely difficult and requires a lot of experience. The main rebar worker, Karim, would hand bend rebar on site to create stirrups. All he would use to do this was a wooden plank with a nail nailed in so he would know where to bend to create a perfect square. He would bend using a tool made out of another piece of rebar! Rebar-ception! We all peer pressured Michael to try to bend some himself. Karim and all the other workers were more than willing to teach and, of course, make fun of him. After taking around 5 minutes to bend one stirrup (Karim can do it in 20 seconds), no one else was daring enough to go after Michael.
Instead of heading back to the house for lunch the team drove into the nearest town, Chengalpattu, about 20-30 minutes away. The team was low on cash and I was experiencing a slight ear infection coming back from Pondicherry (oh, the foreshadowing). While exiting the pharmacy after grabbing some ear drops the team saw the CUTEST thing ever! A cow eating a melon!
Yea, I know, pretty dang adorable. We finally spotted an ATM but when we went up to it, no more cash was available (this is actually a common problem in India). We tried our luck again… and again… and… FINALLY!
After lunch the team headed back to the site to hang out with the kiddos! Alongside all the normal skipping and frisbee activities, Michael started to teach the kids to breakdance! Yea, you read that right! They were all naturals!
The team headed home for dinner and still the music was playing! All day long! Some of us decided to go to the temple after dinner to check it out. Lights were strung leading to the temple. They guided our way. We could see people playing large drums and gathered around the temple. It was dark yet you could see all the colors and smiles!
A couple children came up to us asking for our names. “Hello, what’s your name?” said one of the brave boys as all his friends stood a little way away. “My name is Ayah!” I answered, and immediately got laughter from him and all the kids that could hear over the drums. He ran back and pushed his friend towards me. He asked me the same question and laughed at the same answer. After the fifth kid I decided to respond with a “My name is Amy” and of course confused, the kid said, “No it isn’t!” I discovered a few days back that Ayah meant grandma! Oh, man! Why couldn’t it have meant something cool like “strong?”
We headed home and got back into our cots on the roof for bed. At 11pm the music stopped. It was so quiet.
Ayah Alomari
PUC India 2019