I Saw the Spree Candies

One of our volunteers with a girl from the aftercare program.

I am feeling so sore right now. Incredibly sore. Sore to the core. I am walking like, well, like someone who is incredibly sore. So descriptive, I know. Today, with Jovie on my back, we hiked out to Avalanche Camp, were Freedom Firm hosts an annual camp for rescued girls. The girls came from Calcutta, Pune, Mumbai, and our girls from Ooty. Do you remember this camp from last year? Anyway, Jayson went out last year and this year it was my turn. The hike in and of itself was beautiful. My lungs did feel like they were going to explode at one point and I am pretty sure that I ripped some muscle when I was trying not to land in the foot-high mud. Secretly, I kind of want to keep on writing about how sore I am, but surely you would rather watch paint dry.

Moving on, the camp was great. A group is here from Texas to run the camp - bringing so much energy, great activities, and massive amounts of love. Watching these girls, ages 14 on up, have so much fun at the limbo was such a treasure to behold today. They brought a bunch of games and I peered into the trunk they were in and saw a box of Spree Candies. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sight of candy from the States and told someone that I saw the Spree Candies. (Note: I would rarely eat Spree Candies, it was just the novelty of seeing a cute box of Sprees that nearly brought tears to my eyes). Anyway, I guess I must have looked rather pitiful, as they gave me the box. It was a big box too. Like the kind you get at the movie theatre.

Sore legs and Spree Candies - riveting, I know.

So, Obi had something caught in his throat. Sounding like he was hacking up a truck about a million times a day. After a few days, we called our big animal, vet friend, to see what to do. She said to have him eat oatmeal and drink cooking oil. Awesome. Obi was not real keen on the oatmeal, but did like the oil. But that didn’t seem to help. We were kind of dragging our feet to bring him in to get checked on, since we were going to have to bring him down the mountain to do so. The day before we were going to bring him down, our house help, Josephine, brought her special sauce to help him out. She called it “medicine”. What she performed, though, looked more like voodoo. In a very dramatic moment, whilst I had Obi on a leash, she took out our broom and swept him down his back a few times, and that was it. I was quite stunned actually. And then humbled. I think the thought that went through my mind was like, “Oh, how sweet, such a simple person like Josephine, thinks that is what is going to help him, how sweet and equally ridiculous.” But, a few hours later, the hacking truck sound was no more. So, the next time your animal or child is hacking up a truck, get your broom out and sweep away.

The infamous magical broom.

This weekend we were jailed to the house since the amount of tourists in town tripled Ooty’s population. The Ooty streets were not made for the traffic. So, unless I want to prematurely age 10 years, I just stay home. I am a better person for it. The rage stays safely inside of me. Anyway, we took the “at home all weekend long” opportunity to go through every drawer, closet, and bookshelf to clean out, give away, bring back to the States, get ready for us to be gone for a few months, etc... And it took us six hours. That number reflects how little we have here. When we were moving out of and selling our old house, it practically took me six years to go through everything. The number of benefits to living in India continues to rise.

A few photos of the India-famous Ooty Botanical Gardens (photos grabbed from Google, since we stayed as far away from the throng of people as possible last weekend.)

Hey, I read a great book on trafficking. It’s called “Sold” by Patricia McCormick. I highly recommend it if you want to understand more of where these girls are coming from.