India

Feb 20

Who would want to watch a man paint a door? Apparently 30 plus Indians would.

“I hate kids” I said as I turned my head away from the crowd, swiping my paint brush again against the old wooden door. The bright purple paint was definitely making the door stand out.

“Jake, you love kids” Heather laughed as she connected the dots. She knew I was torn between painting this room and playing with the group of children screaming, “Uncle! Uncle!”

“I know I love kids, that’s why I hate them. They make it so hard to work”

“Just give me the brush.” She smiled and before she could say anything I was off like a little boy out of school after the last bell. Children had come from all over the neighborhood to see why these foreigners were painting and stupidly, I, the person who gets distracted by the children the easiest, was the one painting outside. As I played with the children I started to feel bad though. I had asked Heather to come help me with this painting project, yet she was the one doing all the work. The project was simple; decorate a room in two days without anyone finding out. As I look in the mirror, I think, “Psh simple, yeah right.” Not only did I stand out today because I’m white, but the paint has made me purple, pink, orange, and yellow as well.

I wish I had photos of the women’s sewing class before; it was awful. Something needed to be done and I decided I hadn’t had enough project yet, so I dove right in. Friday I arrived in PappanKalan with Heather and another volunteer named Cathy. We carried all our paints, brushes, lunches, and fabrics to the room, prepared for a full day. We first attempted to clean the room that was full of dust, trash, bugs, and mice. Of course this took along time, but soon enough we were away painting. We worked from 8 in the morning until 4:30 painting, whitewashing, and organizing deals for carpenters and other handymen. Daniel met us there as well and as the day went on we all slowly got closer and closer. Together we painted, measured, deciphered Hindi, and shewing away spectators. It would have been hard not to get close. Daniel told us about his roll as a designer in hit movies such as 300 and how that life no longer suits him. He has dropped everything and lived in the slums of India, Brazil, and Guatemala for the past few years. Heather talked about how excited she was to be a part of this project. “This will go down as one of my favorite project here, because were like leaving something behind, something we did.” She explained. And Cathy constantly expressed her high spirits as it all came together because of the “girly-ness” of it all. I too was happy to be building some for these girls as well as just people apart of something with these amazing people. As much fun as I was having though, I was exhausted when the day was over.

Day two came when the loud bark of the dogs outside my door. I smiled and packed my stuff. Today I would remember my camera. My day quickly hit a bump when I left my apartment. Upon locking the door I looked ahead at my path and saw a stray dog standing in the way. The dog looked fierce and a bit unusually. I thought nothing of it and started to walk towards it. In India you constantly walk passed stray dogs and rarely does anything happen, so it is something you quickly have to get use to. I walked closer and closer without slowing down until I heard a low growling coming from the side of its mouth. “Keep walking, keep walking.” I thought, starting to get scared. I walked passed it without conflict when all the sudden I hear the barking as the dog lunges as me. It stopped right at my legs as continued to bark in an attack position, it barked and in snapped and before I knew it I was against a car. Not knowing what to do I took a kick at the dog pushing it back. Luckily the dog stayed back, but it continued to bark. It stayed put barking and growling as I walked away, but as soon as I turned the corner it was back on my tail. I picked up speed, as the dog got closer. As soon as the dog reached the interaction, for some reason it stopped as if there was a wall blocking its attack. As I got to my car out of breath, the sound of barking accompanied my thought of, “I guess not everyone in India can be your friend.”

Being in the safety of the car my mood was able to re-stabilize itself at the high level I had at awakening. Heather and I talked about before we both put in our earphones. It was all relax, and I don’t know how this happened, but somehow, sometime along the way Heather and I started to sing. Are good moods had gotten the best of us and Cathy and Kewal (the driver) were the ones who had to pay as she had to listen to two different songs being song out of tune, poorly, and with no music for the rest of the ride.

The painting went well and we finished by the end of the day, but the other workers had failed to follow through. As we added the designs and final touches we knew we had been “Indiaed” again by the workers. So often things like this happen. A worker will say he will do a job and have it finished by a certain time, but when that time comes around there is no product to show. Despite my anger with this, I was so touched to see that Bonu had come in to work on her day off just to make me tea like she does every day. Being her day off also meant she had to bring all of her seven kids as well. As I greeted each of them with a handshake I could help, but see her beauty in each one of them. If mothers in America want to see a women looking good after birth Bonu is your lady. She had all her children in her home, which is basically a cupboard way to small for anyone to live in. She still lives there with all her kids and works in the day. She just had her seventh child about a year ago, and she lives in a place without water and much food, yet she doesn’t look a day passed 29. Sadly, seeing how young women marry her though, that could be exactly how old she is.

Bonu made my best day, better when she came, but especially when she smiled. She has the most amazing smile and the smile she showed when she first saw the painted room, was just illuminating. I was so excited she liked it and when she told me the girls would love it, I believed her. Them and her to like it was all I really wanted anyways.

The best day got better as the day wound down and fewer jobs became available. As we each finished our task I had a chance to go out a bit. I took my camera and in came the mob. Children as to see photos, Mothers laughed as I inflated the medical gloves I used for paint, and some of my students came to put a little paint on me.

When the day was finally over we realized we weren’t finished. We got what we needed done, but the other workers did not. We agreed that we wanted this to be a surprise for the girls, so we don’t want them to see it till it is completely finished. So hopefully workers will work tomorrow and by Monday we can finish before the women come to class, but we will see. This was a minor set back, but hearing Heather singing in the car on the way home, showed me that she wasn’t going to let it get her down. I looked at her white skin, covered in multicolored painted as she jumped around the car screaming and said “Heather, people are looking at you even more then usual.”  She started to crack up and I put my headphones on and thought, “I’m not going to let it get me down either.” We sung twice as loud all the way home.

Part of the group of spectators

Some of the boys who were distracting me (two of them are Bonu’s sons and the one is the yellow is one of my students- Sharuk).

One wall of the newly painted room (notice the Indian ladder).

The room (Those windows were absolutely covered in plaster. And yes the door and that corner piece are both purple. Indian’s love their colors).