Day 4 @ Pondicherry

The day started with a mouth-watering breakfast. Since it was the last day we all went to Auroville, which is also known as  " City Of Dawn"  to have a quality time with never ending memories. It was  founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa and designed by architect Roger Anger. 

" There should somewhere on earth a place with no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of good will who have a a sincere aspiration, could lively freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme truth; a place of peace, concord and harmony.."
-The Mother-

We came back from Auroville during noon and started our journey back to our homes. It was great that we got the opportunity to help them by giving a hand to build their homes. The memories we made with them will always remain in our hearts.

Habitat for Humanity @ Pondicherry day 3

The day started off with a wakeup call from the reception at 7:00 AM. We left the hotel around 8:30am to go to the village Marakanam. Upon our arrival we met the headmaster and the teachers who showed us the rooms that need to be painted and shared their problems with us.

Before we started our work, our guide and manager, Mr. Jason explained to us exactly what we were supposed to do, its importance, and its significance. We had to first scrap the walls with sandpaper to remove the oil and dust, then wipe the walls with a cloth to remove the peeling paint. We then repainted the walls black. After it dried we segregated the wall with white lines and painted individual slots for each student.

We painted the lower part of the wall using blackboard paint for the students use as slates because they find it hard to buy slates or books for a whole year. Hence, Habitat for Humanity is helping the school paint the walls. Not only did they not have the supplies but they also didn’t have the means to afford this on their own.

"By just moving one brick, we can make a huge difference in someone else's life." This is what we have done today, and it makes us feel proud and honoured to have done it.

After the exhausting and physically taxing activity, we came back to the hotel to eat lunch and rest till 4:00 pm, after which we headed out for shopping and sightseeing.

While roaming the city, we visited a famous church which was built in the 1800s. We also visited the Aurobindo ashram where there were many people sitting peacefully and praying. We chanced upon a nearby famous temple. After walking around a bit more we went to a local Tibetan shop and bought a few souvenirs. We returned to the bus around 7 and headed straight for dinner. After dinner we all retired to bed. It was a smemories forever.

 

Habitat for humanity at Pondicherry

DAY 2

Though we knew what we were in for today, we didn't quite just understand what was ahead of us until we actually got there. We started off with breakfast and went to the village in the bus. Little did we know how much impact the work we were about to do would have on the family and on us. As soon as we got there, Mr.Jason introduced us to the family and explained to us their situation. we went into their current home and found that they used a single room that  served all their purposes.  Srinivasan, the son in the family, told us that he was unable to study properly because they didn't hav any ventilation or lighting. He told us that the new house would help him not only study better but also motivate him to go to school more. After understanding how important this house was for them, it was finally time for us to get to work. 

Our main task for the day was to sift enough sand to plaster the entire home. However, it turns out that due to rain on  the previous night, it was not possible for us to directly sift the sand. we ended up taking around 250 pans of sand and spreading it down the street and on the roof of the home. This proved to be unexpectedly hard. However, we were motivated to hep the family and went on. After a hard morning session we decided to break for lunch., after which we decided to then come back and complete the remaining work. It turned out that we were able to finish work that was meant for 2 hours within 30 minutes. We didn't know know that we had it in us. All we knew was that we had to finish all the work and better this family's life in some way. Despite the heat and fatigue, we drove on and finally finished the task. At the end of it, we were so proud of all the work that we did and were actually very surprised that we even had the ability to do a task of such extent. We were also quite pleased by how efficiently we were when we worked together as a team. We understood that we were much stronger as a team rather than as individuals. By the end of our task, we were genuinely pleased by the worked that we had done. 

"As oakridgers and having grown up in privileged homes, we've never quite understood the struggles of those who aren't as privilegesd. however, today was one of those days that made us feel so much gratitude for everything that we have and made us want to do whatever we can to help the people who actually need it.  At the end of the day we were absolutely tired and grimy but so proud of all our work." -Anjani

CAS Coordinator Desk

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