Try to remember the last time you felt guilty for taking a shower.

EC student James Falls, 20, performed relief work for tsunami victims in Madras, India for about a week and finds life at home a lot different.

“I’m having trouble adjusting in a lot of different ways,” Falls said. “There are people out there who are sick and dying. They have no food, no hospitals to go to; that’s it for them: That’s their life,” he said.

Falls heard about the volunteer opportunity one Sunday morning at church.

Two weeks later, he was on a plane with a team of people heading to India.

“We were fortunate to have twelve examiners, nurses, pharmacists, two dentists, eight firefighters with five of those being paramedics,” group leader George Negrete said.

The 60-person team consisted of volunteers from all over the nation. Out of the 60 people, 10 were from King’s Harbor Church in Redondo Beach.

Once they got to India, the team was divided into two groups to work at separate clinics. The teams performed examinations, offered prayers, counseled and worked at a pharmacy to fill prescriptions.

The group was in India from Jan. 22-28, while Falls and a few other volunteers stayed for two weeks.

Little things can make big differences

“While I was busy trying to fill as many prescriptions as I could in the given time, I realized that it’s important to take time to just smile at people or ask how they’re doing,” Falls said. “We were there to care for people, not to just be productive robots.”

Falls’s most memorable day was when he and other volunteers took local orphans to the beach.

“The kids were so excited to go out and play, but it was weird at the same time to see how frightened of the water these kids were,” Falls said. “It took a while for them to warm up and play near the water.”

“It was amazing to see these kids be kids in such places of poverty. They were just stoked to be alive.”

Survivors struggle on a daily basis

For Negrete, what struck him the most was the resilience of the surviving tsunami victims.

“Although in India, this was the biggest thing that most of them have ever lived though, they suffer on a daily basis. So it’s something that they live through,” Negrete said.

“It’s not something they talk about readily, but they’re just in survival mode and they just move into, ‘Okay, how can I make it through the next day’ rather than worrying about anything else,” he said.

“Thousands and thousands of people could have gone through the clinic and it would have meant nothing; but if only a few people came in and felt that people care and felt love, then we have done our job,” Falls said.

The week in India has changed Falls’ view on the world. Simple things such as working at his church does not feel the same.

“Even going to the grocery store is weird now. Just seeing all the blessings we have as Americans have is ridiculous,” he said.