I've only been here 2 days?? Really??

*Note: All Indian names in this and future posts are spelled completely phonetically--I have no clue how they are really spelled

So I can't believe I have only been in India for two days. Each day is packed with so much stuff that it feels like something you did in the morning was done 4 days ago! Today was an AMAZING day filled with some really humbling experiences.
At Rising Star we start off each day at 8:30 with morning conclave. Here we discuss what we will be doing for the day and go over whatever we need to to make sure that everything runs smoothly and everyone knows what they're doing. We have to come to morning conclave dressed and ready to go for the day so that means we are waking up around 7/7:30 everyday. From the minute you wake up at 7:30 you are bombarded with intense ridiculous heat that doesn't let up until the sun sets (even then it's still ridiculous). You basically just sweat and drink water and sweat some more all day long. The first day this was really disgusting and I felt gross but I'm already getting used to just sweating all the time and dealing with it. Thank goodness the new volunteer hostel where we are staying has air conditioned rooms or I might go crazy. A funny story from when I was getting ready this morning: I went into the girls bathroom this morning to brush my teeth and Kristin (one of the volunteer coordinators) looks at my sink and says, "Ah cute look at that baby frog!" I look down and there is a baby frog chillin on the side of the faucet as I brushed my teeth. It was hilarious because its things like this that are completely commonplace and normal in India. Yesterday one of dogs that has lived on Rising Star property for years was killed by a cobra and this morning RSO hired a cobra catcher (yes that's a legit job) to come and kill the cobra that did it. It really is crazy over here.

Anyways, after morning conclave we headed to one of the nearest leprosy colonies that Rising Star has been working with for awhile now. On he way there Vale (our driver) helped us learn some phrases in Tamil so we could at least communicate a little with the people there. At the colony we met up with Dr. Kumar (RSO's doctor) and helped the leprosy-affected people in that colony. In this particular colony, no one is living with active leprosy--Rising Star was able to help cure all of them. Even though they are not suffering from active leprosy, they are still suffering from the nerve damage and limb lose that leprosy causes. So we got to the colonies and after talking we Dr. Kumar we separated into groups to start working. Most of the people that have been severely affected by leprosy are older because with the cure available now, if it is caught early enough leprosy doesn't leave any disfigurements or lasting damage so we mainly worked with the elderly today. They were all so excited to see us and work with us it was really great. I started working at the station where we washed the leprosy-affected people's feet. When I first heard about this before I came I was worried about how I would handle it but it really wasn't bad at all--you just kinda do it. I washed a woman's feet who only had one toe on one foot and no toes on the other foot (if I'm remembering correctly). I also washed a sore that she had gotten on one of her hands. The people are really grateful to us for doing this and it really improves their quality of life. After we washed feet there was a little bit of a lull so we just sat and talked with all the people waiting to see the doctor. They don't speak English vand I don't speak Tamil but somehow you can still have a conversation. After talking with the people for awhile one of the girls from the Rising Star school ( they are on break right now) came over and invited us to her house(her name is Ibirime). A few other volunteers and myself went with her to her house but on the way we were stopped multiple times. Everyone in India is RIDICULOUSLY nice and they are so excited when people come to visit the colony. People kept inviting us into their houses and wanting to talk to us and show us everything--it was seriously great. When we finally got to Ibirime's house there were about 10 people inside this tiny tiny tiny one room clay house with a thatched roof all watching a Tamil movie. As soon as they saw us they invited us in and we all talked and they were very gracious and kind. I cannot stress enough how amazing the people here are. They live in the poorest circumstances imaginable yet they love to give what they can to visitors and each other.

After visiting Ibirime we headed back to the old folk's home where the medical van was set-up. Kristin walked into the home with me and introduced me to an amazing man named Krishna Morti. He is seriously the skinniest man I have ever seen in my whole life--he's just skin and bones. Kristin introduced him to me and he started telling us how he was in serious pain. He is 86 years old and had fallen and broken his hip 3 months ago and had just gotten out of the hospital. He was trying to motion and tell us more but it's sometimes hard to understand/understand at ALL with the language barrier. He asked Kristin and I to sit with him, though, and when we sat with him his eyes started welling up with tears because of the pain he was feeling but also, I think, because he was relieved to have someone there who cared for him and was willing to sit and hear his story. Kristin and I sat and talked with him and rubbed his back and shoulders for quite awhile before we had to leave. I can tell it really made him happier to have someone to talk to and sit with.

After talking with Krishna Morti I went into the women's side of the home and talked with Sarowja. I had talked with Sarowja earlier and decided to sit down with her again and talk. She is a big woman who is just hilarious and thought I was hilarious (mainly because I can't understand anything she says). We couldn't really talk all that well but we sat on her bed and laughed and it was really great. She is one of the cutest old ladies I have ever seen. She gave me a big hug before I left and was smiling as I walked out the door. I took a picture with her but I didn't bring my camera cord so i can't upload it :(.

After the colonies we came back and had a short break before we started working on the school and hostels. There is so much work to be done before the children get here it is very overwhelming. We spent the afternoon cleaning out closets and organizing all the books in the library. It was seriously so ridiculously hot that when it came time for our 30 minute break before dinner I came back to the room and just flopped on the bed and didn't hardly move at all for the whole 30 minutes. After break I headed to dinner. I don't know if I talked about this in the last post but every night all the volunteers, coordinators and the Hendershot Family (Steel and Sara, the managers of all of Rising Star's compound, who moved here with their 5 kids all under the age of 12 to work for RSO for a year. They are amazing and I could write about their kids and family for days) gather on the roof of the children's hostel for dinner. I am LOVING all the Indian food here--it's seriously delicious. After dinner we went back to the school and started cleaning out all of the classrooms. I don't think they have ever heard of spring cleaning in India because everything was FILTHY. We got through three of nine classrooms in an hour and a half with 12 people working--they are really bad.

Well that's it for today. Tomorrow we will be working on campus all day getting ready for the kids to come and I am already mentally preparing myself for the scorching heat. I realize these posts are ridiculously long and I have gotten in this weird habit of saying 'seriously' a lot but thanks for reading my blog! :) I hope it is opening everyone's eyes to all the amazing things that Rising Star is doing in India.

Namaste!