The Ties That Bind

In India jewelery is used in celebration and as a symbol of respect. During the Hindu marriage ceremonies women are adorned with gold bangles, anklets and nose rings as a symbol of wealth and beauty of the women. During the Hindu holiday Raksha Bandhan, Indian children wrap cotton bracelets around their brothers as a promise of protection. Brothers promise to protect sisters from harm and trouble and  sisters pray for their brothers’ protection from evils. 
When I traveled to India I noticed that many of these boys were wearing the strings their sisters had tied around their wrists. I immediately felt a special bond toward these people and their Hindu traditions. From my duffel I pulled out a giant zip-lock bag filled with friendship bracelet string. I never leave home for a long trip without this zip-lock bag. Throughout my travels I have discovered that the act of making friendship bracelets brings people together. I lugged my bag of string over to the tea garden in the little village of Tashi Jong, India eager to teach the women of the village how to make friendship bracelets. As it turned out, they already knew how. We sat around the tea garden until the sun went down teaching each other our unique ways of tying the knots to form different patterns and exchanging the completed products. To this day I still wear the bracelets that these women made me during our time in the tea garden and I know that all the way across the globe these women are wearing the bracelets that I made them. Although we are now practically worlds apart we can still look down at our adorned wrists and feel like we are sitting right next to each other enjoying a warm glass of chi-tea.

Embracing the Culture-Shock

I looked down at the gaping hole beneath me as I pondered my next move. Halfway through the long, threatening drive on the crowded roads of India from Delhi to Himachal Pradesh I desperately needed to use the bathroom. The easy relief I was used to in America became quite the challenge when I opened the bathroom door only to see a large hole in the ground. I soon realized that I was not going to see any extra plush toilet seats for the next month – or air conditioning or hamburgers. Immersion in a new culture has taken me out of the tightly packed box labeled “made in America” and opened my eyes to a whole new way of living. The kind-hearted people I lived with in India spent their lives in small, family-oriented communities satisfied with simple pleasures, such as cooking momos and playing cricket together, without the constant distraction of cell phones and computers. These families welcomed me into their tightly packed, one bedroom homes with open arms. From this experience I grew to greater appreciate the importance of family and the connection with people with backgrounds and traditions so different from my own.

Tears of Gratitude

The greatest thing about volunteering is the appreciation of the people. There is no better feeling in the world than seeing a person smile and thank you for the work you have done to help them and their community. The streets of La Carpio in Costa Rica are filled with violence - children, mimicking what they see, playing gun games, pick-pocketers lurking the allies, and shattered glass and nails coating the street the children run on with bare feet. The safest way to get by in the slums is to join a gang. When you are in a gang you have a group of people looking out for you, but you also have a group of people out to get you. In Costa Rica I, along with 15 other high school students, reconstructed an old chicken pen into a sanctuary for the families living in the slums of La Carpio to spend the weekends away from the dangers of their streets. Next to the chicken pen we cleared out a swimming area for the people to enjoy themselves and cool off during the hot summer days. When the project was completed the people of La Carpio came to the chicken pen, which we called "La Finca", and held a ceremony of appreciation towards us for devoting our time to giving them a safe place to stay. We all stood in a circle in front of the pen and held hands with the local people as they said a prayer thanking God for this blessing. Hugs and tears flowed around the circle from all the happy sun-tanned faces. Spanish words for thank-you were sang in unison from the people and offerings of fresh grown bananas and pineapple were passed  around the circle. Although these people showed us so much gratitude for giving them this place of peace, I was the one who should have been thanking them. They showed me the power of giving. The gratitude I received for helping these families live a safer life opened a special space in my heart only to be filled with the smiles of the people who I help throughout my journeys.