I will sincerely miss you! The people, the children, the colours, the fresh jasmine flowers in my hair everymorning, choosing which Sari to wear, teaching, playing, creating, yoga at sunrise, palm trees, masala dosa i could go on forever.So many routine aspects of my life will change and India's magic will soon be merely a dream away.
So just to recap my last 2 months:
I started teaching yoga to all the hostel children every morning. Before they did a military sequence of excersizes but i had a different, more relaxing and casual approach. At 5.30am i would get up and walk to the ground outside the hostel where all 150 children ages 3-17 would legs crossed, eyes closed, all singing together as they do every morning and evening at 6 waiting for me,
That evening after dinner we gave hand decorated biscuits out to all the children, old aged residents and staff. So much fun, It was the best last weekend i could have wanted.
Overall leaving Sevalaya was a very emotional experience. I will never forget my year there and all the wonderful people i met. The hardest bit was driving away in the taxi for the last time with all the children running behind crying "don't go sister". I will miss them a lot.
So just to recap my last 2 months:
I started teaching yoga to all the hostel children every morning. Before they did a military sequence of excersizes but i had a different, more relaxing and casual approach. At 5.30am i would get up and walk to the ground outside the hostel where all 150 children ages 3-17 would legs crossed, eyes closed, all singing together as they do every morning and evening at 6 waiting for me,
On the morning of my last day it was raining so all the children had assembled in the new dining hall, on the tables.
Unfortuneatley in my last week i had an infected ankle and wasn't able to walk. I was not going to let this stop me. I arranged to have classes brought down to the plaground outside for their last lesson (mostly songs games and of course good bye chocolates). On girl in my 7A class wrote me a song and performed it to the class. I got endless drawings, letters origami scultpures, gifts, cards, it was all very emotional.
I decided i wanted to do something memorable with the hostel children on my last weekend. Most sponsors gave out cake, chocolate and sponsored meals but i wanted to do soemthing different. Biscuit decorating! I bought 260 plain biscuits, icing sugar and sweets and turned boring degestives into works of art from with 30 other hostel children.
The hardest thing was stopping everyone from eating everything straight away!
On my last lesson with 2b the teacher gave me a giant card with a teddy bear and the words "we will miss you" When i looked closer i saw all the students had written on it in their best handwriting. Their were some very heartwarming messages like "dont forget me, dillyganesh" "i will miss you" "your teaching very super" and "i am sorry".
