Day 6

Today's pace finally slowed down some as we have finished our Delhi immersion experience.  The last three days were designed to show us the extreme diversity that is in India and we all definitely felt the differences on multiple levels.  Our senses have been blasted with the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of India while our minds have been on a roller coaster of emotions ranging from joy to sadness, anger to love.  It was time today to simmer on these thoughts while building relationships with the girls and staff at Catalyst.

Originally we had thought that we would be able to help paint and decorate a room in a new recovery house Catalyst was opening for girls being rescued from the brothels.  Unfortunately, the house wasn't ready yet so we couldn't go forward with that project.  Instead, Abhishek asked if we could work on two projects around Catalyst - plant a courtyard garden and paint a decorative wall in the house.  Cyndee and I immediately volunteered for the garden as we both love to garden.  While the others got to work doing crafts with the girls and buying supplies for painting, Cyndee and I got in a cab with Abhishek and headed to a nursery.  There were actually 3 cabs because the other 2 were our plant transport vehicles! 

Doing crafts

It was a completely surreal experience to be standing in the middle of a nursery in the middle of Delhi shopping for plants.  Just an experience I never conceived having.  Although the nursery set up was basically like a US nursery with similar plants, there were some differences.  Like a man followed us around and whenever we wanted a plant we simply had to point to it and he pulled it out.  Soon, all our selected plants made their way to the front and then there were negotiations that took place on the price.  Abhishek later told us that the price of the plants changed when they saw we were foreigners!  After the money had been settled, Cyndee and I climbed into the back of one of the taxis while the plants were loaded for us in the back of the others.  I felt quite like royalty shopping for the plants!

The negotiations

Finding room in the back of the cab

We then visited a second nursery and then headed back to the Catalyst house for lunch.  After lunch, Cyndee and I made our way out to the courtyard where we found all the plants and pots and random old pots with some dirt in them.  We started laying out the design we had planned and were soon joined by lots of girls from the house who wanted to help.  It was awesome how excited they were about planting and soon caught on to what we were doing.  I'm telling you, that was the way to get a garden planted!  Within no time all the pots were planted and the courtyard had been swept clean.  Secretly I was quite happy when the girls wanted to plant because their soil was not quite like ours – something about it burned my skin!  The girls, however, seemed to be unaffected by it.  I hope the plants like it!

In the late afternoon, with our projects finished, we headed back to the hotel for a little time to clean up before going back to Catalyst.  The night had been designed as a celebration dinner for our new friendships and, unfortunately, a time for us to say goodbye.  In a storybook rooftop setting, complete with Christmas lights strung from poles, 747 jets skimming the skies above us  and a light breeze keeping the mosquitos at bay, we dined on chicken biryani and were entertained by three different groups of girls performing dances.  The first group, the older girls, wore traditional costumes and danced a blended traditional dance.  The second group, the Diversion house girls, did a poppy little modern dance to Jai Ho.  The final group included the two youngest, Abhishek and Angie’s daughter who was 8 and the 5 year old daughter of one of the house moms.  They were too cute!  We were also joined by a group of Youth Light (an Indian version of Young Life) boys who had traveled an hour by train just to meet us and to fellowship with the girls.  In no time, it was sadly time for us to say good bye to the girls.  The sweet girls told me I was not allowed to cry because it wasn’t good bye, it was until we meet again.  What a beautiful understanding of our relationship.

The rooftop

We were on the flight path.  All the dots are the pollution in the air!