My Birthday

March 6th was my 22nd birthday, and I had promised the school that I would return to celebrate with them. In the morning, Georgie and I taught the Primary-I class which consisted on Abin and Chachu. Abin has mild MR and very severe ADHD. It is very difficult to keep him seated and focused on a task. Chachu has severe autism and is non-verbal. It was nice to show Georgie what I had been doing for the past two months, and she really enjoyed getting to meet all the children. I had sponsored lunch at the school, so we had chicken biriyani. After lunch, we went up to the classroom and the children performed dances and songs for us. I joined in on a couple of the dances with the children, and Georgie and I sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Litte Star" for the kids. As a birthday gift, the principal gave me a saree, flowers and a little decorated jar for kum kum powder (used on women's foreheads). It was an amazing day and I'm so happy that I was able to celebrate with my school.

In the evening, we took the bus back to Bel Air. Franca and Pien had bought a cake so we sat and shared it together. We went to Tandoor for dinner with Jeffy, Diana and Akhil. Another AIESEC member, Ashish, came by after dinner to drive us to the night club at Dreams Hotel. Once there, we met with Douglas and Jasper. We had a couple drinks and danced. Ashish had the DJ announce that it was my birthday.

Later in the night, the waitress brought over a cake. Ashish grabbed a handful of the cake and rubbed it all over my face.... an Indian birthday tradition.

Nightclubs close around 1:00am in Kochi, so afterwards we went to Jasper's flat. Georgie wasn't feeling well so we dropped her off beforehand. We stayed and talked at Jasper's until about 3:00am and then headed back to Bel Air. I had an unforgettable birthday in Kochi and it was all thanks to the amazing people I've met here.

The next morning we went back to the school. I spent the day showing Georgie around the school and playing with the children. I think she enjoyed her time at the school, but she found it difficult because of the children's disabilities and the language barrier. It reminded me of how much I had learnt and dealt with over the past two months. The kids enjoyed having another foreigner around, and told the teachers that Georgie had the eyes of a ghost because they had never seen blue eyes before.

I woke up at 6:00am the next morning to go jogging with the kids. We played until breakfast, then Georgie and I prepared our bags. After Assembly, we left for Ernakulam in order to catch the train to Goa at 2:30pm. Before the train, we decided to have a South Indian thali at a local organic restaurant called Lumiere before heading further north.