Feeling Yellow



When I created the title for this post, I decided to check with Google to see if there's any special meaning behind "feeling yellow".  When I searched it, this is what I was given from The Meaning of Colors website:

"It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.  Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy.  Yellow is often associated with food.  "Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter, that's why taxicabs are printed this color."

So this post actually has nothing to do with food, nor taxicabs-- but it does have to do with joy, happiness, intellect, energy, and cheerfulness :)  I think I started feeling yellow when my best friend sent me images of sunflowers when I first woke up!  Later on, I ended up selecting a yellow top (churidar) to wear, and that was enough to keep the yellow ball rolling for the day!


I visited the Vizhupuram colony today with the volunteer group, and it was the most meaningful interaction I've had thus far at a colony!  I was welcomed into one home where an old woman was excited to show me a picture of her late husband.  I took a picture of her standing near the portrait of her husband, and she's excited to receive a copy of the image later!  After touring the colony (which didn't take long), we gathered the residents under a large tree near the entrance of the village where everyone took part in a wide variety of activities.  Some received lice treatments, while other practiced tying flower strands with jasmine.  Several people enjoyed taking pictures, and some created rangoli's (the images created on the ground with the powdery chalk colors).  It was a big gathering of friends-- old and new!

I had a goal today to use as much Tamil as possible!  I learned a lot from the medical team yesterday that I saved in my phone, so I used these notes to have small conversations with people everywhere I went!  I used my words and small phrases in the colony, but also with RSO employees, workers at a grocery store, and students on the Life Dance Troupe :)  I messed up a lot and sometimes people didn't understand me, but I'd say I had a 70% success rate!  (Now I just need to make sure I can use these words and phrases without my notes, haha.)  It was fun to see how excited the people would get that I was trying to speak their language, especially in the colony!  And I felt happy to know that I could connect a little better with the people, even with my extremely limited, almost nonexistent, Tamil!

So as a recap of my somewhat unorganized thoughts, the people at the colony were a delight to interact with, and I had a great time today practicing my Tamil!  I hope you enjoy these images from the colony today :)







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