This Has Been Amazing! – Tyler Fredrick

Tyler Fredrick-

Holy Crap this has been amazing. I have loved every second of this trip. So much has happened, and I can briefly explain it, but every second of it has been absolutely amazing.

We flew from Utah to Seattle and then from Seattle to Singapore. We spent an amazing night and day in Singapore sightseeing and doing fun activities and then flew from Singapore to Kolkata where we rode a bus to Nishta. There was lots of travel (almost 24 hours woah) so we were all tired but ready for the adventures to come.

Monday we woke up and rode to the villages. There we started teaching our first lessons to the kids. It started out rough because we were afraid and nervous but by the time we finished the song of the day we were into it and we were just having the best time with those kids. After we taught the lesson to the kids we went on village tours where they would give us a blessing and then take us inside the villagers homes and we would talk to the villagers and they would feed us food (tons of fresh coconut and guava and puffed rice and cucumber and other fun stuff) which was more food than they ate in days. At the last house we visited we were sitting on the villagers bed and all of the village kids came in and were on the bed with us. I poked a kid in the belly and he laughed, and before i new it we had a gigantic tickle party on the bed with tons of the village kids and it was absolutely one of the best moments of my life. Every time i think of it i smile. And thats an understatement. Then we went to the Day Boarding school, where we played games with all of the girls. I led the girls and the group in Ride that Pony and the Hoky-Poky and I was absolutely having the best time of my life. I can’t put into words the intense love I have for these children. They mean the world to me. We did a welcoming ceremony and they danced for us and gave us gifts and we sang One Day for them. Then we taught a quick lesson before going out to play more games. After more games we said an Indian Prayer with the group and the girls, and then we said goodbye to the girls and went home and to bed.

The second day at the village was fun but was also kind of hard. All of the little boys were always right by me, either trying to tickle me, hold my hand, or just hang on to me. It was hard to get them to focus on the lesson, but it was sports day so the girls took the girls to do parachute and jump rope while Billy and I took the boys to play soccer. The soccer game was so much fun and all of the little boys are so cool. There was an Indian dad that came to play soccer with us and would always kick it to his little 2 year old son and then get the ball and score and cheer and shout and make the little boy so happy. It was such a cool experience. We went on more village tours and met more of the adorable villagers. There are two little girls that are my absolute favorite and they brought us flowers cause they are the greatest on the planet. After that we went to the School and taught lessons, played games, and just had the best time with the girls. My favorite girls is Jayastee cause she always comes and smiles and holds my hand (Which makes Juliaya [my ‘girlfriend’ little girl] mad). But I love all of the girls and they are all so stinking cute. Every time I say goodbye to them at the end of the day, I get more and more sad. I never want to leave these beautiful girls.

So basically, I bought a sultan hat for 1000 rupees (13 US $) and it’s the best purchase i have ever made, we are safe, we are healthy, and oh gosh I love these kids.