Oh the Places You'll Go...

L-O-V-E

2012-02-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

This being the month of "love", I figured it would be the perfect time to have my dedicatory post to all the things I love about India. I have been compiling this list for awhile and as I kept thinking about it, the list kept growing and growing. There are so many little things I love about this crazy, jam-packed country!

So, without further adieu...here are some of the things I LOVE about India:

Chuddidhars: I mentioned these in last year's love post (which can be read here) but they are so great they deserve another shout-out. Chuddidhars really are awesome. They're comfy and colorful and oh so much fun. Now that I've been here for awhile I've figured out Indian "fashion" and have found some pretty cute chuddidhar outfits.

This is not one of my "cute" chuddidhar outfits, but it's one of my favs because the comfort factor is through the roof--I love this shirt. Anne came to love it too....so much that we woke-up one morning wearing the exact same outfit.

Gotta love me some chu-ddi-dhars (that was for you Kim)

Henna: Henna is an all-natural ink/dye that they use here as a temporary tattoo. Henna is to girls here like nail polish or lip gloss is to girls in America. It's something fun to decorate yourself with and play with and then eventually learn how to use it for real. Just here are Rising Star we have a big handful of women and some of the older girls, who are RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING at doing henna.

This henna was done by Nithya, one of the nurses who lives on campus. Needless to say, she is awesome (it's traditional to do Henna on the palms of your hands).

Bright Colors: India is all about bright colors. They don't believe in blending in by wearing neutral colors or wearing black to look slimming. If you want to fit-in in India, you gotta wear BRIGHT colors with intricate patterns. And it's not only the clothes that are colorful: houses, temples, and even trucks are all painted in a plethora of colors with tons of designs. This is something I am going to miss a lot when I leave.

A colorful temple in Mamallapuram (temples like this can be found all over the place).

The front door to the village tailor's house

Colorful saris at a wedding

Jingling anklets and bangles: Anklets and bangles are the jewelry of choice in India. Most of the anklets have bells on them so everywhere you walk you are jingling along. The same goes for the bangles. The girls where them in big stacks on each wrist so every time they move their arms the bangles jingle around on their arms. I have really come to love this constant jingling and have adopted their love of bangles and anklets--I have quite the collection of my own now. :)

Little Reshma jingles everywhere she goes.

A stack of bangles on a henna-ed hand....quintessential India

Wearing flowers in your hair: Besides henna, another way that Indian women glam themselves up is by stringing together flowers and pinning them in their hair. In just about any city or town you can find a flower stand selling strung flowers specifically to be put in your hair. One of my all time favorite things is when Kala or Anjali or Venilla comes up to me first thing in the morning with a fresh string of flowers for my hair and helps me pin them in just right. They make you feel that much more beautiful and you can smell them all day.

Some of the housemothers with long strings of jasmine in their hair

Chai: If I were to list one vice I have in India it would have to be chai. Chai is the tea of choice in India and man, is it good. At Rising Star (as is common in all other schools) the teachers are served tea twice a day (there is also warm milk if you don't drink tea). I can easily say that Rising Star's chai puts Starbucks to shame. It's delicious and amazing.

Kim and I at Rising Star's chai table with Mariammal (one of the women that helps to serve the chai). We were very sad because there was no more chai.

Autos: Autos are the Indian version of a taxi...except so much better. Granted, every time you drive in one you are taking your life in your hands but, hey. doesn't make them any less fun. I truly love whizzing through Chennai traffic crammed in the back of an auto on the way to Spencer's (the Chennai mall that we frequent).

Typical auto sitting in traffic

Some of the autos have awesome clown-horns that they use as traffic horns

Long Beautiful Hair: Although it has made my life so much easier having short hair during my time in India, I have never missed my long hair so much. All of the older girls and women have beautiful, long, thick hair that usually flows past their butts'...yeah it's that long. I could only dream of having hair that long and luxurious.

Some of the girls with their long, flowy locks

Rising Stars: This one is self-explanatory. How could you not love these faces??

Vanakkam

Party Til the End: Part Three

2012-02-06T10:37:00.002-07:00

Once everyone had composed themselves and gotten their emotions under control, they were left with TONS of energy--the "post performance, I just changed the world" high. The night of the event happened to also be the birthday of the founder/president of Mona Vie. They had a huge chocolate cake for him backstage that they cut into and shared with the kids once the night had come to a close. Since they had finished crying, the kids were all beaming and basking in all that had happened.

Besides getting flowers, all the kids also took turns wearing an AWESOME flower hat that was given to them by the Mona Vie staff. Here is V's turn rockin the hat...how can you resist that smile?!?!

As mentioned above, the cake was huge so they loaded all the kids' plates. C. Vignesh and Arun didn't have slices...they had MOUNDS of chocolate cake.

No better way to celebrate a great performance than with cake :) Here's Soniya, Krishnamoorthy, and Ambiga

At some point, the kids started smearing cake on each other's faces...naturally this escalated into an all out cake-face-smearing war between all the kids, volunteers, and even some of the Mona Vie staff. Joseph eluded being "caked" for awhile but when he finally got smeared he got smeared good--straight across his nose and cheeks. He looked so stinkin cute with his sad, cake-smeared face that I had to get a picture.

The whole gang (as well as some random Mona Vie people) with cake-smeared faces

Before taking off back to the apartment, we crammed into the bathroom and attempted to get the cake off our faces and hair.

We got to the kids' apartment around midnight and finally sat down to a real dinner. The kids don't get to watch TV at Rising Star so they took full advantage of having a TV in every bedroom. It was so nice to end the night with everyone hanging out like one big, happy family. It was perfection.

A nice family dinner....at midnight.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the kids for the night and head back to the hotel, I was walking around saying goodnight to everyone and saw these two (Ashok and Arun) as cute as can be all curled up in bed watching a Tamil movie after a long, successful day. I just can't get over how cute these kids are.

We took some time the next day to sleep-in and relax because we had all had such a full, exciting day. We got on the road around 10am and started the long drive back to Rising Star. This time around there was far less puking (only one person threw-up twice!) and a lot more sleeping. Everyone was seriously wiped out....I guess changing people's lives does that to ya. We made it back to Rising Star in 9.5 hours and everyone parted ways and headed to bed.

At the restaurant where we ate breakfast, Deepan was practicing using a fork and spoon. I just adore this kid.

We ate some seriously good parota for lunch at this awesome roadside stand. The kids LOVE parota and they don't get it at Rising Star so this was quite the treat for them. This was the kitchen and cooks--right smack in the action.

Back at the Green House after we had gotten everyone off the bus and sent to bed, Kelli, Derek, and I were all swapping pictures and we commented that it seemed as if the weekend had been a dream. It had been filled with so many emotions and unforgettable moments that it almost didn't seem real. It was truly a beautiful weekend that I am so blessed to have been apart of and will never forget.

Vanakkam

A Dream Come True: Part Two

2012-02-06T09:43:00.003-07:00

Excitement was in the air from the moment we woke up on Saturday. After breakfast we all headed over to the venue so the kids could rehearse on the stage. You could see the wonder and awe in their eyes as they walked into the HUGE hall where the event was taking place. Most of these kids have only ever been to villages and the Rising Star campus so to be in such an enormous venue with a huge stage and tons of lights was a completely new experience for them.

As they were taking everything in, Shaun sat them down and explained all that was going to happen at the performance. They listened to everything Shaun said with rapt attention, not wanting to miss out on anything important.

From there, they got on the stage and ran the three dances they would be doing that night: Bharatanatium (a traditional Indian welcome dance), Stayin Alive, and Somebody Out There. Even in rehearsal they were dancing as hard as they could. For a group that has rarely, if ever, been on stage, they did an AMAZING job adapting to the space and all the other little quirks that come with any performance.

The stage was literally ginormous complete with confetti canons, three jumbotron screens, and the cool plexi-glass background. The kids were going to be part of a legitimate show.

After rehearsal, we all returned to our respective lodgings (the kids stayed in a nice apartment provided by Mona Vie and the volunteers stayed in comped rooms at the 5-star Le Meridien hotel--it was awesome). While at the apartment, Vadivu (the hostel warden who came with us on the trip) had her daughter come over, who lives in Coimbature and happens to be a beautician, and do all the girls' make-up for the show. I am so glad she was able to come and help get all the girls' ready--it made the performance that much more special.

We all met at the apartment a few hours later, helped the boys spike out their hair with gel, and then headed to the venue. The kids looked amazing all dressed up in their new costumes with their hair and make-up done. They were all ridiculously excited and nervous but kept their cool and held themselves together like pros. We got to the venue and had a few hours to kill before the show...so naturally we took a pictures.

With all the gorgeous girls waiting for their time to perform

The boys looked so handsome all dressed up with their hair done :)

For the Bharatanatium, we rented traditional Indian costumes. Gracy and Vinodhini looked AMAZING!

Right before it was their turn to go, Shaun and Kelli led the kids in a quick warm-up and run-through of the numbers--they were ready to go :)

The last, most important thing before the kids went onstage: a final prayer of thanks for being able to perform at such a huge event and a quick blessing that everything would go well.

I was in charge of taking video on the legit video camera, so I went and sat in the audience by myself to get a good shot of the entire stage. The president of Mona Vie brought Shaun onstage and they introduced the Bharatanatium girls. I was so nervous and excited, you would have thought I was the one onstage performing for 1,000 people! The girls came out looking absolutely gorgeous and did a spectacular job. Surrounded by Indian businessmen, I should have felt very stupid: sitting ramrod straight in my chair, my video camera held high and proud with a huge, beaming, goofy grin on my face...but I was barely aware anyone else was around I was so overjoyed and thrilled. Gracy and Vino were stunning and definitely got the audience's attention.

After the Bharatanatium, Shaun took some time to explain what Rising Star is all about. He told everyone about Rising Star's three-fold mission and really gave the audience a sense of where the kids come from and all they have overcome to get to where they are today. After he finished, the entire LifeDance team came out and performed "Stayin Alive": a brand new number they just finished before coming on the trip. Although they were nervous, you would have never guessed it. They held themselves together like pros and performed with confidence. Even when they set off a confetti canon at the end of the dance, they didn't jump or forget the steps or anything--they kept on dancing like they performed in huge venues in front of thousands on a regular basis. I was more and more proud of them with every step.

Their final dance of the night was "Somebody Out There". The message behind this dance is that no matter what grief or pain or heartache you are experiencing, there is always somebody there to help you and pick you up. Before they danced, Shaun talked about how few people have seen more grief and pain in their lives than these kids. They have dealt with pain and loss from the time they were young, yet have overcome it all to be shining examples of charity and love. From the minute the music started, there was a hush in the audience and I KNOW the spirit was there. As Joseph started dancing, I felt such warmth and pride to be lucky enough to work with such beautiful, inspiring children on a daily basis. From the first time I watched them perform this dance in the little upstairs foyer at the school to them performing it in front of thousands was awe-inspiring. I also couldn't help but marvel at their growth as dancers and people. They have come so far in just the 9 months I have been here, and I have been lucky enough to be witness to it. Then, as Manodhaya came through the fog to lift Joseph up and be his "guardian angel", I got choked up. The spirit was so strong and I felt so blessed to be able to witness this performance and be working with these kids.

As the dance finished, almost the entire front half of the audience stood-up: the kids were getting a standing ovation and boy, did they deserve it. Besides the standing ovation, they had moved most of the audience to tears. The founder of Mona Vie came out, visibly moved, and challenged all of his top level distributors to come to the front and donate, right there on the spot. They set-up a box at the end of the stage and as distributors came forward to donate, the kids stood on stage and were able to witness the effect their dancing had had on the audience. By opening their hearts and dancing their very hardest, they had touched the people in the audience and inspired them to open their own hearts and give back to the kids. It was in that moment, watching the kids stand on stage all in a line with such poise and grace, that I really began to cry. I have never been more proud in my life. I was so proud of the kids and what they had accomplished. I was proud to be associated with such a great organization. I was proud to be able to work so closely with these special spirits and really know them. It was a very powerful moment filled with more love than I thought possible.

As the kids stood on stage, they were able to watch as person after person came up and donated huge amounts of money to Rising Star based solely off their performance and spirit. 100,000 RS, another 100,000 RS, a man took a gold chain off his neck, another man offered up his next 30,000 RS paycheck, people were offering scholarships to the kids once they graduated....they had truly struck a chord with the people in the audience and moved them. To top it all off, each kid was given a dozen roses and treated like royalty--the farthest thing from untouchable. Seeing the effect they'd had on the audience brought most of the kids to tears. Below is sweet Savitha.

Once they finished up the donations, we all shared hugs and congratulations. One of my favorite moments of the night was when I came up to Joseph, put my arm around him and told him how amazing he had been and how proud I was. Already overwhelmed with emotions, Joseph started to cry. He really knew and could feel how special the night had been.

All the kids with Shaun, Kelli and the Mona Vie staff

I am so blessed to be able to have been at this performance. Manodhaya kept saying throughout the day, "Don't forget this incident. Remember this incident" It was an unbelievable night that myself, the kids, and the entire audience won't soon forget.

Vanakkam

Answered Prayers: Part One

2012-02-06T03:15:00.003-07:00

Wow....this weekend has definitely been one for the books. I want to do the whole story justice so I'm splitting the weekend into three posts. Here we go:

Mona Vie is a multi-level company that is Rising Star's newest sponsor. They are just opening up distribution in India and were doing a pre-launch in Chennai. They estimated about 5,000 people would be in attendance. A few weeks before the event, Mona Vie contacted Rising Star and asked if the LifeDance team would be able to come and perform at the event. As mentioned, the event was originally supposed to take place in Chennai so it seemed like there would be no problem getting the kids there to perform. One week before the event, Shaun (the dance master) was contacted and told that the event location had been changed to Coimbature--a city that is an 8 hour car trip from Rising Star. With the last minute location change, everything became uncertain. Shaun and Dr. Susan now had to figure out transportation, accommodations, food and everything else involved with a big performance. The performance kept inching closer and closer and even though the LifeDance team continued preparing for the event, we were still unsure if they would be able to go.

Three days before the performance and we still weren't sure the team would be going to perform. This opportunity was literally a dream come true for the kids and they wanted, more than anything, to be able to perform at this event. Wednesday after practice, the kids asked Shaun if they could all pray together so they would be able to go. Manodhaya, a 9th standard student on the team, poured her heart out in prayer for three minutes, pleading for this opportunity to come through. When her prayer was finished, the whole team sat silently for another minute and said individual, silent prayers--their humble hearts open and asking for help. The kids continued to pray through Thursday, and not just the LifeDance kids, the entire school was praying for LifeDance to be able to go to this performance. Kids were continually coming up to Shaun and the other volunteers telling us that they had prayed for LifeDance and, because they had prayed, they would be able to go. Finally, at 11pm Thursday night, we got the final word that a bus would be arriving at Rising Star at 6am the next morning to take the team to Coimbature for the Mona Vie event--the prayers of 200 children had been answered.

Filled to the brim with excitement and anticipation, the 18 LifeDance members and 10 chaperones loaded onto a bus to start the journey to Coimbature. What should have been an 8 hour drive turned into 11 and boy was it a lovely 11 hours (that was serious sarcasm). Joseph summed it all up: near the end of the journey he came and laid his head on my lap and said very exasperated, "This bus is like Vomit Land!" And indeed it was. We had 5 kids throw-up and a few of them threw-up multiple times equaling at least 10 vomiting instances throughout the journey. That compounded with the length of the trip made for a very long day. Besides the bus being vomitland, though, the kids really did well entertaining themselves during the ride. After 11 long hours, we finally arrived in Coimbature.

Savitha, as well as many of the other kids, spent a lot of time gazing out the window.

iPods, iPads, and laptops from Derek, Sam, Kelli, and myself were hot commodities on the bus.

Sleeping proved to be the best way to pass the time. I swear Joseph spent 90% of the trip like this.

Not my best moment, but at least we were comfy!

Using each other as pillows was also a big trend on the bus--as demonstrated here by Ashok and Arun.

So after a week filled with long rehearsals, fervent prayers, and an 11-hour bus ride, we all made it to Coimbature in one-piece...and the best was yet to come.

Vanakkam

Welcome to the Jungle

2012-01-29T03:11:00.000-07:00

Teaching is just oodles of fun. I'm finding this out more and more the longer I teach. In my opinion, it is one of the most creative professions because you are always creating new projects and lessons for the kids. It's also great because half the time the projects and lessons are fun for you too--who doesn't love acting like a 10 year old again??

The past couple weeks in my sixth standard class we have been working on a big writing project. All the kids were asked to write an essay about an animals and what the animal sees, hears, and does. They wrote in essay format (with an introduction and conclusion and everything) and really took their time going through all parts of the writing process. For the final drafts of their essay they made them into books and colored them and made cover pages and everything. For the "publish" step in the writing process, the kids all made masks to match the animal they wrote about. Then, this past Friday, we invited Jim and Pam (the RSO directors), Celina (the principal), and a few other volunteers to come watch as each of the kids read their essay. The kids were seriously SO EXCITED to read their essays for the other volunteers and Jim and Pam. I even had housemothers coming up and asking me what sixth standard was up to cause they had been so excited telling their housemothers about it.

V. Devi was just about the cutest giraffe I've ever seen

Tamilselvi was one of four ferocious lions in the class

Savitha the cat

Ragu the cheetah

Some of the jungle cats aka the boys

Nagaraj was a very brave tiger and the first to come up and share his essay

Naveenraj the leopard

This is Vimalkanth reading his essay about being a monkey. He did a great job thinking of specific things his monkey would see, hear and do :)

All the kids did an amazing job on their essay, masks, and their "performance". Some of the kids in this class are at about a second standard reading level and for them to come up in front of the class and principal and RSO directors was a huge accomplishment for them. They were all absolutely spectacular!!

I am one proud mama bear :)

Vanakkam

PONGAL!

2012-01-26T23:06:00.001-07:00

So, on January 14-16, we celebrated Pongal--the biggest Indian holiday next to Diwali. It's a three day celebration all about renewal, cows, agriculture....all kinds of fun stuff! Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated only in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Pongal takes place right around the winter solstice and is a holiday dedicated to the sun god, Surya. Each day of the festival there are different traditions and meanings but in an effort to not be too long-winded, you can go read about them in depth here.

The main traditions we celebrated at Rising Star were making Kolums and eating sugarcane and Pongal. All of the kids and volunteers also attended a function on the second day of Pongal in the village near Rising Star, Thottanaval. The function in the village celebrated cattle and having a prosperous year this next year. All of the cows are washed and dressed to impress with painted horns and big flower wreaths around their necks. It was a great little field trip taking all the kids into the village to see the decorated cows and all the Pongal festivities.

The kids dressed in their very best walking into the village

On our way, we passed TONS of beautiful Kolum outside the village houses.

Here's a closer look

All the housemothers also dressed to impress for the Pongal function

We had to wait awhile for the function to start...it was the perfect time to take pictures of the kiddos all dressed up! From left: Theresa, Pavithra, Jessy, Jennifer, Tamilselvi and Theerthi

The boys were lookin mighty handsome :)

I have said it before but I will say it again, Kala is awesome. Case and point: she dressed all the boys in her house in matching outfits (the old Rising Star uniform) to go into the village for the festival. They all looked so nice!

Tamilarasi (a housemother) and some of the girls hangin out waiting for the function to start.

These drummers played throughout the whole function. They definitely kept the party goin.

This cow was especially decked out with balloons on its horns.

A proud villager showing off his cattle.

Another proud villager showing off his fancy cattle.

They have even modernized Pongal a bit by also celebrating and decorating the tractors that help for a successful harvest. The two tractors in the village both had big flower wreaths across the front.

My walking buddy on the way back to Rising Star was Mr. Sanjay in UKG--he sure is a cutie.

It was tons of fun to celebrate a new holiday with the Rising Star family. On the last day of Pongal we had a big water fight with the kids that was AWESOME!! We had music and dancing and water balloons....it doesn't get more awesome than that! Pongal was the last big holiday/break from school until the kids go home. My time is really starting to wind down here and I'm getting more and more nervous everyday about saying good-bye to the kids and people here. Hopefully the next three months don't go by too fast :)

Vanakkam

These Faces...

2012-01-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

Make everyday really awesome :)

Vanakkam

Happy New Year!

2012-01-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

So I'm a week late in my New Year's post but now that all the kiddos are back time is a touch more scarce. Anyways, New Years here at Rising Star was awesome (as are all the holidays with the kids). We had the volunteers here from the Christmas session, as well as all the new longterm volunteers so it was a full house! The Christmas volunteers were awesome and brought noisemakers, silly string, mini glowsticks, and all kinds of other fun things for the kids to ring in the New Year with. We had TONS of fireworks and an awesome dance party--we know how to do New Years right at Rising Star.

The bag of fireworks aka the bag of awesome-ness

we only use the legit stuff

photo credit: M. Vignesh (6th Standard)

The girls waiting for the fireworks show

one of the volunteers brought 2012 silly bandz--they were a hit.

After the fireworks/dance party, we all went and ate dinner in the dining hall and then had a special late night movie night and watched "The Grinch". I have said this many a time but I will say it again: watching movies with the kids is the best way to watch a movie. They really get entrenched in the story and characters--they laugh really loud at the funny parts, they get really tense and focus on the suspense/action parts, and they always cheer and clap when the "hero" (good guy) wins.

After the movie Vinodhini (one of the housemothers) had little masks for all her girls. Jessy was just as cute as can be.

Jessy and Amirtham going to sleep on New Years Ee with their masks.

So after another very successful movie night, the kids headed to bed....except the older boys. Seven of the oldest boys were allowed to stay up until midnight and party in the dining hall with Derek and I. It was the perfect way to ring in the New Year. We danced, had headstand competitions, made a Happy New Year sign made out of flower petals--it was an awesome New Years to say the least.

The boys dancin the night away

I forgot who won this but it was legit nonetheless

The boys took quite awhile making sure this flower sign was perfect.

Happy New Year from Rising Star! The boys from left: Rajesh, Ashok, Deepenraj, Shankar, Krishnamoorthy, and Joseph

I am forever grateful that I get to spend the first four months of 2012 here at Rising Star with these kids--I'm thinkin the rest of the year is gonna have to be amazing if it's off to such a good start. :)

Vanakkam

Santa Claus Came to Town!

2011-12-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS BLOGOSPHERE! Christmas day is coming to a close here in India and I have to say that I have never ever had a Christmas as unique as this one. I already recapped the events of Christmas Eve and I was planning on just adding a little onto that post today....but I quickly realized as the day progressed that Christmas Day warranted a whole post just for itself.

We started the day off bright and early: leaving the campus at 7:30am to get to church in Chennai by 9am. They recently opened the first LDS church building in Chennai and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! They had a Christmas tree and nativity scene in the lobby and it was such a privilege to have Christmas Sunday in the gorgeous new chapel.

In my "Christmas Dress" ready to take on the day--I couldn't have handled wearing a sari all day long, hence the chuddidhar.

Awesome Nativity in the lobby of the church

With Katie, Craig, Pam and Jim after Sacrament meeting in the church lobby

Because today was Christmas day, church only lasted for an hour. My original plan was to go with Jim and Pam and their granddaughter/grandson-in-law to the Marriott and have brunch, but as Venilla and Vadevu were talking about their possible plans, I made the decision to switch it up and go with them. I haven't spent a ton of time with the live-in staff the last few days so I wanted to spend some of my Christmas with them. Going with them also guaranteed that I would have a very Indian Christmas experience.

Our first stop after church was to go shopping at T. Nagar--a GINORMOUS shopping district in Chennai. It's where you get the best prices and can get any possible thing you need all on one street. The thing with T. Nagar is that it's always swarming with wall to wall people and it's a shopping district geared towards locals, not tourists...which means little to no English is spoken by the shop owners and you are expected to know how to check-out, the random store rules, etc. I have been to T. Nagar twice before this (one of those times is a whole other story in itself) and after those two trips it was decided that T. Nagar would be best tackled if you had a local along to help you....which brings me to today. I had the awesome opportunity to go shopping at T. Nagar with not 1 but 7 locals! Vadevu, Venilla, Stephen, Michael, Dr. Sugunya, Shankar, Sujatha, and I had a marvelous time shopping and browsing and just enjoying the beautiful Christmas day. We were all able to get things that we have been needing/wanting so it was kinda like we were all our own Santa Claus :) Shopping on Christmas day in a legit Indian bazaar with 7 amazing people?.....that equals up to a pretty good Christmas if you ask me.

The shopping Mecca that is T. Nagar

This is just a small scale of what every store is like--merchandise EVERYWHERE

After our shopping excursion, we started heading out of town back towards Rising Star. Before we left Chennai, though, we stopped at a nice restaurant for a little Christmas lunch/feast. Jim had given Vadevu some money to take everyone to lunch after church, so because Jim was buying....everyone went all out. As we ordered, people would randomly keep adding things to the ticket (I swear each person ordered at least five things). Our table was packed to bursting with all the rices and sauces and chicken and fish: I think it's the most food I've ever seen at any one meal. All the food was delicious (although very, very spicy--my mouth was on fire) and by the time we were paying the bill, we were all slipping into food comas.

This picture gives a scope of the amount of food we ordered...this is only the first batch. I tried to take a picture with everyone when the food first came out, but the food proved to be more enticing for most.

Photo Try #2: The whole gang after the Christmas feast

From the feast we headed back to Rising Star. To round-off the night, Lyndsey and I had decided the day before to have a Christmas movie double feature. We settled in the Green House and tucked into some leftovers from our Christmas Eve dinner while watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Love Actually. Lyndsey brought her two kittens over and they snuggled on the couches with us as we all basked in Christmas movie greatness.

I was worried at the start of this week that I would be very lonely and depressed this Christmas, being away from home. I am happy to say, though, that it turned out to be just the opposite. I was surrounded by love, and happiness and Christmas cheer and you really can't ask for anything more when you're spending Christmas on the opposite side of the world from your family. :)

Vanakkam

Merry Christmas To All and To All a Good Night!

2011-12-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

This Christmas, much like Thanksgiving, is one for the record books. It is my first Christmas away from the fam besides the fact that I'm spending it in India. Although it has been sad not being home during this time of year, the Christmas festivities at Rising Star have been spectacular--there never seems to be a shortage of love here, even when there is hardly anyone on campus.

For Christmas Eve, Jim and Pam had all the volunteers (myself and Lyndsey and their granddaughter and her husband) over to their apartment for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. We had ham and potatoes and corn and cheese sticks and you would have thought we were in America--it was super! After we finished eating we did a gift exchange. Giving gifts is definitely my "love language" so the exchange was definitely a highlight for me. One of the best gifts given was from Lyndsey to Jim. The men here in India love to wear bright sequined shirts. So that Jim could fit in with his co-workers, Lyndsey had a baby blue sequined shirt custom-made for Jim....it's the best shirt ever.

After our gift exchange, we went outside and joined the few kids and staff that stayed at Rising Star for the Christmas holiday. Besides the six white folk, we had Venilla and her two boys Stephen and Michael; Vadevu the house warden; Shankar, Sujatha, and Karthik from 10th standard who had to stay at school over the break to study and couldn't go home for Christmas because they live too far away; Mark one of the office workers; and Shankar the security guard. It was a great little group to spend Christmas Eve with, that's for sure. W had some left over fireworks from Diwali so we figured there was no better time than Christmas Eve to light them off. We brought out the stereo and had a grand-old time setting off fireworks, playing with sparklers, and just enjoying each other's company on Christmas Eve.

I LOVE SPARKLERS!

We had these crazy sparklers that were super long that are made to wave around and do tricks with. These things are a lawsuit waiting to happen but, hey, that's India for ya. Lyndsey was basically a master with these things.

With beautiful Venilla in her Christmas red and green.

Sujatha had some serious dance moves with the sparklers.

The whole gang from afar. It was only through a Christmas miracle that no one burned their feet off or caught anything important on fire.

When the fireworks ended we enjoyed some delicious cake (courtesy of Pam) before heading inside for a little Christmas family home evening. Each of us shared a Christmas thought, song, poem, etc. as well as our favorite Christmas memory. It was so great to hear all the different things that everyone brought. Craig (Jim and Pam's grandson-in-law) read the origins of the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which can be found here). Pam read a picture book called Sarah's Christmas Star by Kit Poole about a young spirit child in heaven that desperately wants to sing in the choir of heavenly hosts to announce Christ's birth but keeps getting side-tracked from practicing by helping others and Katie read the holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Lyndsey's Christmas share was a song recorded by a Palestinian man that she spent last Christmas with (she was working in Damascus last Christmas and spent Christmas Eve in a Palestinian camp...yeah, she's cool). This is one of the most beautiful renditions on "O Holy Night" I have ever heard:

We ended the night with our thoughts turned to Christ. Jim read from Luke of Christ's birth and my Christmas share was the short LDS film, Joy to the World, which depicts Christ's birth in Bethlehem with accompaniments from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was a great end to a beautiful evening spent with friends and family here in India.

Will add more tomorrow to document the Christmas Day activities!

Vanakkam

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2011-12-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

This past week has been Christmas vacation at Rising Star, which means the campus is just about dead. With the departure of the kids, as well as the other long-term volunteers either going back to America or going on vacation, the campus was just left with about a dozen people as opposed to the usual 200+. Over this break I took some time to organize, finish grading papers, chill with Venilla, and catch up on some movie watching (this dominated most of my nights). It has been a very relaxing break and a great time to reflect on everything that has gone on these past 7 months at Rising Star.

One thing I was able to do over break that I don't get to do very often is go out with the medical team and work in the colonies washing and bandaging ulcers for the leprosy-afflicted. I got to go out Thursday and Friday with the medical team and it was so great to be able to work with with medical staff and see the people in the colonies. Double-bonus of going to the colonies over break...the kids are home in the colonies.
We went to the Bhadallapuram colony and did medical as usual but a noteworthy event that happened was that the founder of the Bindu art school was in the colony just for that day, so myself, Lyndsey, and the other volunteers had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife. He is a lovely Austrian artist who literally helped turn the whole colony around with the starting of the art school

With Werner--founder of the Bindu Art School

After finishing up medical in the Bhadallapuram colony we went to neighboring Bethel Nagar to see some of the kids there. About 15 Rising Star students live at Bethel Nagar so I was practically bouncing out of my seat with excitement to get to see so many of the kids. We pulled up and about 6 RSO boys were out playing cricket and were they surprised to see us. We said hi to the boys and just took a stroll through the colony finding the other kids and just having a little visit.

As we were walking through the village we found Angel, Gracy Lydia, and Pavithra. Angel's house had an AWESOME homemade nativity out front.

As Gracy Lydia and I rounded a corner going from one street to another, we caught sight of little Sangeetha. She ran towards us, anklets jingling, and I scooped her up in a huge hug. She is such a little cutie.

In front of Akash and Gracy Lydia's ridiculously cute blue house. All the kids were so excited to show off their houses--they are so proud of what little they have.

With Ruthish and his mom outside of their house. Ruthish's mom is so so sweet.

I made the boys stop their cricket game and take a picture. From left there is Nandhakumar, Akash, Ismail, and Ansari. These boys are just amazing.

While we were in Bethel Nagar, a cobra was found. Obviously this meant a free show for all where the snake catcher taunted and messed with the snake for everyone to enjoy...oh India.

Now it is Christmas Eve and my break is almost at an end. The kids will be back on the 26th and we basically go non-stop until I leave in April...where has the time gone!! Another post is forthcoming about my Christmas Eve/Christmas day celebrations. :)

Vanakkam

It's Showtime!

2011-12-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

It has become a sort of tradition to have a big performance by all the standards the day their parents come to take them home for the holidays. Anne has been working so hard the last couple months preparing a dance for each standard, as well as choreographing new dances for the LifeDance team to perform. The performance was this past Saturday and it was WONDERFUL! The kids did an amazing job performing their dances and they all looked ridiculously cute! Here are some of the highlights:

This is the main LifeDance team performing their new dance to "Stand By Me". It's really different from any other dance they have done but they are doing a GREAT job, especially since they just learned it!

This is the adorable UKG (kindergarten) class performing their "Good Morning" dance. Tamilarasi's face (the girl in green smiling in the front) is probably my favorite part of this dance. UKG definitely stole the show, and everyone's hearts, with this dance.

The new Rising Star Choir, under Mrs. Pam Gates direction, also performed and they were outstanding! They performed quite a few songs including "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and "Popcorn popping on the mango tree" but it was their singing of "10 little Indians" that had everyone hooked and in love.

All of the standards did an awesome job but my two favorite dances of the day were 4th standard dancing to "I wanna be like you" from Jungle Book and 7th standard dancing to "Dance With Me", an old 70s funk song.

4th Standard

7th Standard

The final number of the show was an African dance that Emmy, the dance master before Anne and Diana, choreographed. It was awesome because Anne taught this dance to the whole school so ALL THE KIDS got up and performed it. One of my favorite parts of watching them all do this dance was hearing the underlying jingle of all the girls' bangles and anklets as they danced together. It was the perfect way to end the show.

After the performance, everyone ate lunch before heading home with their parents. I thought it would be sad saying goodbye to the kids as they left, but it was actually really upbeat and happy. The kids were all so excited for the holidays and to be going home they kept coming up to myself and the other volunteers wishing us a happy Christmas and saying they would miss us--it was really cute!

My favorite farewell was from Deepenraj. He asked me multiple times to just come home with him and stay at his house over the break. I really wish I could have taken him up on the offer but I will just have to make due with seeing him at church.

All the kids and parents waiting for the Rising Star "bus" to take them to the junction to start their journey home.

Much like all public transportation here they CRAMMED each car/van full to be as efficient as possible...gotta love India

Once everyone had left, I invited all the kids over who's parents work on campus and couldn't leave to go home for a few more hours. The 10th standard kids are also staying at Rising Star over the break to study for their board exams so they came over too (though only the boys stayed). All the boys settled in and watched Thor before heading home with their families. It was a fun way to end a fantastic day.

The boys crammed on our couches watching Thor.

Brotherly love--Ashok and his little brother Moorthy

As fun as this big send-off day was, I'm definitely ready for the kids to be back....has it really only been 2 days without them??

Vanakkam

Delhi with the Madre

2011-12-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

At the end of the Thanksgiving session (that Mom was here for) we took a little excursion to Delhi and Agra. Since I took almost the exact same tour last year, I'm not going to go into too much details (if you want to know more about that trip go here or here) but I will highlight the parts that were, exciting/different/noteworthy from the first time around

As always with weekend Delhi trips with Rising Star, we have to leave campus at 3:00am. Unlike most Delhi trip, it was pouring down rain, we had no power, and from Delhi everyone was leaving to go home so we had to load all the luggage into the car in the pouring rain. It was a fun start to the trip. We got to Delhi without any problems and started our tour. On our first day in Delhi before we drove the 5+ hours to Agra we...

Took a bicycle rickshaw tour through Old Delhi--you really are putting your life in your hands when you travel with these guys.

Saw Humayun's Tomb, which inspired the architecture used for the Taj Mahal. It was an amazing building and so cool to see the similarities and differences between this and the Taj.

The whole gang on the steps leading up to Humayun's tomb--we had tons of fun together on this trip.

We went to a huge beautiful mosque right near the market in Old Delhi. They made the foreigners (even though we were in modest chuddidars) wear these crazy robes while we were there as a sign of respect. While we were at the mosque, a woman jumped into one of the fountains and had to be dragged out by a couple men. She was very obviously crazy and had to be carried out of the mosque.

Before heading to Agra, we saw Gandhi's memorial. This was something else that I had not seen the year before and was very excited to get to see this time around.

After we finished at Gandhi's tomb, we got in the bus and started the journey to Agra. We were all exhausted and about halfway though the drive got a little loopy. Our driver (who was awesome) turned on some Punjabi music and the "party lights" in the bus and we had a huge dance party on the way there. It was definitely a great way to pass the time on he trek to Agra.

The next morning we got up bright and early to see the sunrise at the Taj. This building is absolutely astounding and it was really cool to be able to see again. Of course, because it's the Taj, we took tons of photos:

With Mama at the Taj--we had so much fun together on this trip!

Our amazing guide Ramesh--not only did he have great clothes but I think he knows more about the Taj than any other person ever.

We got into the Indian spirit

Just a couple Indian dancers, nbd

After the Taj we went to the Red Fort and did another tour there. Again, it was stunning.

Outside entrance to the Red Fort

As we were shopping after all of our tours, we saw a snake charmer....it doesn't get much more stereotypical than a snake charmer with a cobra in a basket and a boa constrictor around his neck.

At the end of the night on our way back to our hotel, we came up behind a Hindu marriage processional. Our driver, being awesome, took us out three at a time to take part in the procession! Northern Indian weddings are TOTALLY different from southern Indian weddings. In the south, things are a lot more traditional and very formal--never too much dancing and hoopla. In the north, however, it's a serious party. Wedding festivities last for FIVE DAYS and there is tons of music, drinks, dancing, and just general celebration. When Anne, Melissa, and I joined the processional for our turn it was one of the coolest things I have done in India. There were tons of colors and lights and music. We ended up near where all the women were and they immediately grabbed our hands and started dancing with us and showing us some dance moves. The energy in the group was through the roof and it was so awesome to be a part of.

The processional from afar

The DECKED OUT horses pulling the groom's carriage.

For the processional, they hire men to carry these huge lights the whole walk to the marriage hall.

The end of the processional--so many colors!!

The next day we headed back to Delhi first thing in the morning and we were literally in the car all. day. long. We stopped on the way and rode elephants and camels, which is ALWAYS fun. I have ridden an elephant a few times now but I can officially say now that I've ridden a camel! Yay! It was also fun because I got to ride an elephant with Mom (after some convincing) and she ended up really liking it :)

Melissa and I on the camel

Last stop before the airport was the Ba'hai Lotus temple. We didn't go inside but Anne got this beautiful picture from the street.

The whole trip was so fun and it was so sad to say goodbye to Mom at the airport and end the fun. We had a spectacular time and I can't wait until we can travel together again :)

Vanakkam

Dance

2011-12-15T10:53:00.001-07:00

Agnes De Mille once said, "To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful." I have never witnessed this more than tonight.

This coming Saturday the kids all go home for Christmas break, and with the departure of the kids we also lose Anne and Diana--the current dance masters here at Rising Star. As the dance masters usually do, they had a big party with the LifeDance kids to say goodbye. Unlike previous parties, though, this one had a big performance attached to it. Deepenraj (who is basically a future director) got everyone on this kick of making up their own dances. Ashok and he made up three dances for themselves, the rest of the boys in LifeDance made up a dance, and the girls had a dance. They had all been keeping their dances secret until this party when they would perform them all for each other. Let me tell ya...these kids are some talented little devils. The girls' dance was AMAZING and they were dancing bigger and more confidently than I have ever seen them dance before. The dance with 5 of the LifeDance boys (also known as the "circus dance") had tons of lifts and jumps and flips and was also AWESOME. But, the highlights of the night were definitely Ashok and Deepen's dances. Like I said, Deepen is a future director so he and Ashok went all out with lighting, costumes, the whole nine yards. Their first dance they came out dressed in matching white button-downs with tennis shoes and jeans. When they walked out you would have thought Justin Bieber had just crashed a 13 year-olds birthday party--every girl their was screaming and fawning over them (including Anne, Diana, and myself). They did a Michael Jackson dance as well as another dance that they had Anne edit the music for and everything. It was seriously so awesome how creative they got with it.

The last number Deepen and Ashok did went above and beyond. The other boys turned off all the lights and they came walking out in new costumes. They started the music--Thriller. One of the other boys turned on a flashlight and shined it on the floor--mood lighting. Ashok turned around and he had a huge bat/stick and a crazy Halloween mask. Then Deepen turned around and started dancing and he had painted his entire face! They were decked out!! They pulled out all their best Michael Jackson moves and were killin it! In the middle they even pulled out some Axe body spray and sprayed it in the air for fog effect--this ish was planned OUT! They would even sneak right up to the audience and scare us for added effect--it was all ridiculously amazing. To top the night off Anne, Diana, and I, as well as a couple other volunteers that are here, all did a dance to "Celebrate" for the kids and surprised them--so basically everyone was dancing, celebrating and having a good time (much like the song says).

Ashok and Deepen in their Michael Jackson costumes: definitely swoon-worthy

You cannot deny that this is ridiculously awesome.

Deepen and Ashok in their "Thriller" gear...needless to say I'm a little scared

The dance masters and the LifeDance team--Anne and Diana, you will be so missed!!!

After we wrapped up the party and the kids were all back at the hostel going to bed, Anne, Diana, and I all went back to the school for a little dance sesh of our own. The upstairs lobby of the school (where LifeDance does most of their performances) is the perfect space to dance and let go. It's open air, you're looking out over the beautiful campus, you can see up to the stars...it's a blessing to be able to go there and dance. The three of us put on a few songs and let it all out on the floor. There is no better feeling that letting yourself go and completely surrendering to the music and your own feelings--as Martha Graham said, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul," and our souls had a lot to say tonight.

To bring it all home to my original quote: from the kids to our fellow volunteers to Anne, Diana, and I, we were all larger, more beautiful, and more powerful tonight because of dance. I have never seen most of the LifeDance kids dance as hard as they did tonight. Their spirits were radiating with light and exuberance. To witness the confidence and power in these kids when they dance is one of the most awe-inspiring things I have seen since I have been here. The insecurities and societal pressures that plague most tweens and teens were gone and all that was left was self-expression and dance. To get in front of all your peers and perform a dance that you made up takes A LOT of guts--and these kids hit it out of the park....it is just another reason why the kids at Rising Star are a cut above the rest. :)

Vanakkam

Chrisma Chris!....also known as Secret Santa

2011-12-13T10:20:00.001-07:00

So one night Diana, Anne, and I were all in Venilla Mary's house dying our hair with henna (it's awesome and all natural and I totally recommend it). Anyways, as we were in there doing our henna hair, the sixth standard boys in her house were in chatting with us. We were talking about Christmas when they started talking about Chrisma Chris. I was obviously intrigued and asked what it was. As they started explaining it I quickly realized it was none other than Secret Santa! We were all really excited that we had the same traditions in America and India that we decided right then and there to do our own little Chrisma Chris with the boys. We all put our names in a pile and decided that everyone had to make homemade gifts for whoever they drew and we would exchange the next night.

So it worked out really well and Anne, Diana, Venilla, and I all drew the boys' names and they drew our names. We went to Venilla's house the next night and laid all the gifts on Venilla's bed. We then all went into her room together and found our own gift and figured out who had who.

I got Nagaraj so for his gift I made us friendship bracelets. I also made him a card with a picture of him as a movie star and an acrostic poem with his name--he's tryin to keep a cool face but he was stoked.

M. Vignesh got my name and he made me an AWESOME card complete with some sweet drawings. On the inside he said he loved me cause I liked his dancing and his "moves". He's a great kid :)

I knew Nagaraj liked his gift when he asked me multiple times to explain the words in his acrostic poem to him--he really wanted to make sure he knew exactly what everything in the poem meant.

The whole gang with our Chrisma Chris gifts--it was an awesome night.

Besides being totally awesome in and of itself, Chrisma Chris was great because I teach all of the boys that did it with us and to see them still rockin their friendship bracelets in class everyday makes me very happy and filled with Christmas spirit :) Nothing better to kick off the Christmas spirit than a little Secret Santa.

Just another little Christmas spirit treat...

Anne and I made Christmas Stars to give to the teachers and staff--it was basically the best Sunday afternoon activity ever making 40 Christmas Stars :) We wore Santa hats when we delivered them and told the staff that they got a Christmas Star because "you are a shining star!"

Vanakkam

Many Happy Returns of the Day

2011-12-07T23:39:00.001-07:00

"Many happy returns of the day" is what everyone tells you when it's your birthday in India. The custom is to shake the birthday person's hand and give them this well-wish or something similar to it; it's their way of saying 'happy birthday'. My birthday in India was (just like my Thanksgiving here) unique and unforgettable. I started the day by watching the sunrise while walking/jogging the track with Anne, Diana, Sharmilla, Venilla, and Poongodi. How can a birthday go wrong when you start the day off watching a beautiful sunrise?? From there we went home and un-did everything we had exercised off by eating a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bananas that Anne and Diana were amazing enough to cook for me. Let me take a moment and sing the praises of these two lovely ladies. They went above and beyond to make sure that my birthday was awesome. When I woke up to go running I was greeted by a giant happy birthday sign on one wall, and notes of all the things they love about me on the other wall. They also stayed up late the night before making me a FABULOUS headband. They are seriously both so awesome and I can't thank them enough for making my birthday so special. :)

The wonderful birthday breakfast

Wall of "Love" notes that Anne and Diana made

With my birthday sign in my birthday outfit before heading off to teach.

When I got to school, I was greeted with 200 children singing happy birthday to me during their morning assembly. After assembly, literally every child that passed me stopped and shook my hands and wished me 'many happy returns'. Kids and teachers were walking to into my classroom to shake my hand and wish me happy birthday. Somehow (even though she didn't know it was my birthday) Kala had flowers ready to go and made another girl take a clip out of her hair so that she could clip the flowers in my hair. After my first class, I met up with Venilla and she gave me one of the most thoughtful presents. Everyone here knows I don't have my ears pierced and they all think I'm crazy. So to make sure that I looked good on my birthday, Venilla went out and got me a pair of very nice clip-on earrings! It was such an amazing gift because of 1) how thoughtful it was and 2) the fact that she doesn't have much yet she was willing to spend her time and money on a present for me.

With beautiful Venilla

One of my favorite parts of the day was when I was walking back to school to drop off some books and I heard my name being called from the school (the kids were at recess). I turned and little Rosemary was calling to me and beckoning me over. I went to her and I got bombarded by tons of kids and handshakes and love notes. Nothing makes you feel more loved than kids--they are not embarrassed or ashamed to show their love and excitement. The rest of the school day I was continually met with handshakes and well-wishes and love from nearly all the staff and children. Another great moment was when I walked in to teach 6th standard and they had drawn a big picture on the chalkboard that said, "well-wishes on this birthday." Almost every kid in that class had also stayed in during recess to make cards too--it was great. Later that night when I was teaching prayer I got sang to again by all the kids...and this time I was there to hear and see it. The kids at Rising Star are just the cutest most loving kids around.

This picture is like Where's Waldo...can you find me??

The kids singing Happy Birthday during prayer

After prayer I had dinner with Pam, Lyndsey, Anne, Diana, and Celina. Padmini (the cook at Rising Star) made Idlly, one of my favorite dishes, as well as french fries and chapati (another of my favorites). Pam was also amazing and made a cake for me, so I even had a birthday cake in India! After dinner I went back over to the kids and they were STILL making cards for me! I got so many cute notes all day long it was astounding.

Reading some of my notes to the girls before bedtime

Still working on cards at the end of the day

Such sweet, sweet kids!!

All of my wonderful birthday notes and cards

A random sampling of all the love

They were all so precious

Overall, my Indian birthday was amazing--marked with birthday notes, handshakes, "many happy returns", and my favorite of all........

tons of birthday kisses :)

Vanakkam

Welcome to India Kathy Bunker!

2011-12-05T06:22:00.017-07:00

Kathy Bunker came to India! Oh happy day!! I ran around campus the whole week before she got here telling anyone that would listen, "My mom is coming! My mom is coming!" Basically my excitement for her arrival rubbed off on the kids so by the time she got here everyone was anxious to meet her.

Mom came with the Thanksgiving volunteer session so she got to partake in the volunteer experience while still seeing everything I do at Rising Star and my day to day routine. Here's a quick run-down of our week's activities:
Sunday: Meet up with the group at the Marriot and driving out to Rising Star. She got to meet the kids and housemothers and they were all SO EXCITED to meet her. The first kids we saw were boys from Venilla Mary's house. When they saw us they ran across the field to meet us and when they got to us they all stuck out their hands to her and said, "Welcome to Rising Star!"--it was precious. When we went to the hostels that night the kids came running out of their houses to meet her. She was instantly the most popular and wanted person on campus.
Monday: out with the medical team at the Bethel Nagar colony. Mom oiled the patients feet at ROCKED IT! It is a hard job and is not for the faint of heart and I was so proud. :) That night we went to the kids again and had an awesome time.

Mom with a very grateful leprosy patient

waiting for the patients to come

Mom working with Navamani at the oiling station

working hard with the leprosy patients

Tuesday: we stayed in at the school and Mom got to see me teach my classes. It was so fun to have her in class with me and watching me teach...and the kids were on their best behavior. That night we went to the hostels as normal and Mom got to come to the class that I teach to the housemothers. The class went awesome and Mom and the housemothers even had a great little chat after the class.

Mom with Sangeetha during family time

Mom and sweet Thrisha

Wednesday: Another school day going to my classes, watching Anne and her dance classes, and just spending time with the kids. An especially fun moment was when we went to the UKG dance class with Anne. The kids were absolutely adorable and they were over the moon that Mom was there to watch them.

Mom with Jessy at lunch

dancing with UKG

Thursday: see Thanksgiving Post
Friday: Last day at Rising Star and at the school. Same school day as always BUT this time we had the privilege of seeing UKG put on a little show for us. Gracy (the UKG teacher) had asked us a few days before to come and watch the kids recite the poems they had memorized. We told them when we would be coming and when we got there they were ready for us. They had two chairs set up for us and they did a welcome song before reciting their poems about a dozen times for us. It was one of the cutest, sweetest things I have seen in all my time with the kids at Rising Star. The best part of it was that after each poem three or four of the kids would run out of their sits and hug Mom and me before starting the next part of the "show". It was seriously a highlight of the week. Another great moment on Friday was having Thanksgiving left-overs with Vikram. He was going to come to Thanksgiving dinner but he couldn't make it. Instead, her came over for lunch the next day and he and Mom and I all ate Thanksgiving left-overs and shared again what we were thankful for. It was awesome to be able to share a staple of American culture (when we were explaining Thanksgiving to Vikram he hit the nail on the head and said "Oh, so it's a food festival!").

The Welcome dance that UKG performed for us

Reciting the poems that they have been memorizing--so adorable!

Friday night we left for Delhi (which will be covered in a whole other post) and that ended Mom's fun-filled week at Rising Star. It was seriously such a blessing to have Mom here for Thanksgiving. To be able to show her and share with her all of the things I love about being here in India at Rising Star was also such a treat. I love that now when I tell her about the kids and staff she can put names with faces and can imagines all the different places around campus. It was an incredible week. :)

More to come soon!

Vanakkam

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-12-04T02:31:00.001-07:00

This past Thanksgiving was definitely one that I will remember for the rest of my life. Besides the fact it was great, the sheer unique-ness of the day was unlike any Thanksgiving I've ever had before.

We started the day by going to the Bhadallapuram leprosy colony. This is one of my favorite colonies and to be able to go there on Thanksgiving with Mom was an amazing way to start the day. Since it is monsoon season, a tremendous rainstorm met us at the colony and we went through most of medical in almost complete darkness. Once we finished medical we had some time to look at paintings in the art school before heading back to Rising Star. Nothing reminds you more of what to be thankful for than spending Thanksgiving in a leprosy colony treating the leprosy-afflicted.

Our view of the river (aka road) outside the hut where we met with the patients

Mom did awesome working the blood pressure station

The lady may look angry but she definitely was not

Nithya, Shaunkar, Mom and I at the blood pressure station--we had oodles of fun :)

looking at paintings at the Bhindu Art School

When we got back to campus after medical, we had a little time to rest before we had to start cooking for our Thanksgiving feast. Despite being in India, Jim and Pam still wanted to have an American Thanksgiving. They bought a turkey that was flown over from the United States and all of the long-term volunteers were in charge of a dish. For some reason in India, no one has ovens--it's really weird. Mostly we make due with microwave convection ovens but for the turkey that just wouldn't work. Jim had planned ahead of time to ground-cook the turkey. He wrapped it in banana-leaves and foil and had a pit dug on campus. Everything was off to a good start on Thanksgiving day...then the monsoon hit. Before he knew it the pit was filled with water and all he had to show for his meticulously-laid plans was one uncooked turkey. Jim, though, did not let this stop him from helping all of us to have a fabulous Thanksgiving. He cut up the turkey and used every microwave/convection oven on campus to cook the turkey. Dr. Susan was a tremendous help and went to her house (about an hour and a half away) and brought her personal oven back to Rising Star to help with the turkey cooking process. While all of this was happening, Mom and I were hard at work cooking our assigned dish: mashed potatoes and gravy. We made our dish without difficulty and got all dolled-up in our nicest chuddidhars to go to dinner. Everything turned out wonderful and the meal was fantastic. Somehow we managed to pull off an American Thanksgiving in India. :)

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table

The thing I was most thankful for was to have Mom with me on Thanksgiving.

With Jim and Pam--without them the amazing Thanksgiving never would have happened.

Thanksgiving picture...indian style (they never smile in their pictures)

After our delicious meal, we were in the Green House settling down to watch White Christmas when Melissa ran in soaking wet and told us all to come dance in the pouring rain with her. Obviously we all immediately ran out the door with her up to the roof of the Elephant House where we danced in the rain and rejoiced in the fact that we are all living in this beautiful country. When the rain slowed and we headed back inside, we all ended the night by putting on our nighties and snuggling on the couch watching White Christmas. It was the perfect end to a perfect Thanksgiving :)

There are few things better than dancing in the rain

Mom braved the monsoon to be our photographer--thanks Mom!

Let the rain come!

With the long-term girls: Anne, me, Melissa, Diana

As is tradition at Thanksgiving dinner, we went around the table and everyone said 3 things they were thankful for. The things I am thankful for this year are:

My mom being in India with me for Thanksgiving week and my wonderful family back in the states--they can't be beat.
The opportunity I have to be here in India working at Rising Star. Even though at times it's hard, crazy, and stressful, it is an amazing place and I have learned things and met people here that have changed me forever.
The beautiful people and children that are with me here in India. As mentioned above, they are truly some of the most astounding people I have ever met. Their resilience, compassion, power, grace, selflessness, humor, and love will forever be an integral part of my life.

Vanakkam

"A Noble Profession"

2011-11-17T04:12:00.001-07:00

One thing that you hear a lot as a teacher is how "noble" your profession is. The phrase, "teaching is the noblest profession" was said a lot throughout my university classes (I guess they were trying to ingrain in our minds that hardly getting paid really was worth it). A lot of people who go into El Ed really believe this and will often proclaim that teaching is not about the money, its about making a difference in a child's life and creating the great minds of the future....I'm not one of those proclaimers. Don't get me wrong, I do want to help the kids and I do want to make a difference in their lives and really teach them and make them better people... but seriously, is there a better profession than getting to work and play with kids all the time? What's more fun than going to work and reading Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, coloring the solar system, or going on a walk to look at different types of clouds? To be completely honest, my main reason for going into El Ed was completely selfish--I wanted to have a fun job that I enjoyed going to everyday.

At Rising Star, I am currently teaching English to 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th standard. I try to do creative, fun things in english because creativity is not a priority in schools here, so I really try to spice things up. For 5th standard, they are split into two classes for english because there are so many different levels. I teach the upper level class and because there are only ten kids I have been able to do some really fun things with them. The class just finished reading an abridged version of Alice in Wonderland. To make the book more exciting, I told the kids that at the end of the book, we would write poems (there are lots of rhyming poems in Alice in Wonderland) and then have a Mad Hatter Tea Party and share our written poems. The kids really got into the book and did a great job on their poems and the party was a HUGE success!

Setting the table getting ready to go!

We made Mad Hatter hats to wear at the party to get more into the book/movie.

The kids drank mango juice from tea cups, little goblets, or small colored glasses.

Ismail was rockin his hat.

While they ate, I played a few parts from the Alice in Wonderland cartoon so they could see the characters from the book in the movie.

They wrote the final drafts of their poems on "playing cards"

Nagu sharing her poems with the class--they did an amazing job!

Each kid also picked a poem out of a Shel Silverstein book to read to the class. This is Jennifer with her little glass after she read her poem.

Anne (who was awesome and came and helped and took all these wonderful pictures) and I also shared our favorite Shel Silverstein poems.

With the class after the party--it was way too much fun.

I love that I have been able to teach so much here at Rising Star. I truly love teaching so much and wouldn't have any other job. These kids (especially here at Rising Star) make every lesson, activity, and project fun. Granted, there are some days when I wanna wring their necks...but the fun days, like today, far out weigh those. :)

Vanakkam

Digress

2011-11-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I realize this blog is dedicated to India but I must take a post and digress, if I may. To stray from my intended subject matter means that the topic at hand is very special, important and dear to my heart. Naturally that subject is:

Harry Potter

Let me start out by saying that I am quite the Harry Potter fan. I have read all the books (multiple times) and been to every midnight showing for the movies. Some of my best memories from junior high/high school include going to said midnight movies and the midnight book release parties with Easton. Every time a new book would come out the rest of the world would stop for a couple days while I immersed myself in the Harry Potter world. To say they are my favorite books would be putting it lightly--I. Love. These. Books.

Because I have been in India since the end of May, I missed the release of the last movie. I hated getting on Facebook the weekend it was released because EVERYONE was talking about going to see it, how amazing it was, etc. etc. and the fact that I couldn't go see it broke my heart. We tried a few times to see the movie in theaters but this is quite the task. The closest movie theater with American movies is 2 hours away and because American movies are only played in a few theaters, you have to buy your tickets a week in advance to be able to get a seat. Every time we would try to get tickets (even many days in advance) the shows were always sold out. I was heartbroken to say the least. One volunteer had a pirated copy of the film, but I was a true fan and held out--I refused to watch the final film off a video someone recorded at the back of the theater.

But finally, today, I was able to watch the final film in all its epic glory. I laughed, I cried, I sat on the edge of my couch two inches away from the computer--it was amazing. I watched it with Anne (who is also a big Harry Potter fan) and by the time the final fight scenes came I don't think either of us were breathing. Even though it strayed from the book, I absolutely LOVED the movie and thought it was a great way to end the film series. Now, I did not write an entire blog post just to give my review of the movie. This blog post is a salute to the end of my Harry Potter childhood. By watching the final film, I feel like a chapter of my childhood has closed. Like I mentioned above, these books and movies have given me many cherished memories and countless hours of joy so for that I have to say

Thanks a bunch J.K.

Well...this post very well may solidify my nerd-dom...but I really don't care--I LOVE HARRY POTTER AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!

Vanakkam

Half way....

2011-11-09T21:49:00.001-07:00

Yep, you heard that right. I have reached my halfway mark. I have been in India for 5 1/2 months and I have 5 1/2 months left here. It is seriously crazy how time flies. I remember back in May, as I was packing to come, thinking how far away November seemed--it felt like it would never come. Now I am sitting in my living room staring at the date in disbelief; it can't be November 9th! Yet at the same time when I look back on all that I have done since I have been here, it seems like I have been here for ages. Time is just a funny thing I guess.

I got thinking about my half-way mark because Rebecca (a fellow volunteer who has been here as long as I have) is leaving to go home today. She is the last out of the volunteers who arrived in India with me at the beginning of the summer--it's kinda like the end of an era. Rebecca and I have become bestest buds and I am roomba roomba (very very in Tamil) sad to see her leave. This is my online salute to my partner in crime from the last 6 months--it's not gonna be the same here without ya. :)

You are already missed Rebeccer!

Each day I am dreading more and more when it will be my turn to say good-bye. The longer I am here the deeper my relationships with the kids, staff and fellow volunteers become; making it that much harder to say goodbye. There is something about this country and Rising Star that just latch onto your heart and never let it go.....but if I'm looking at the glass half-full then I have a whole 5 1/2 months to play, teach, work, and just enjoy being in India. :)

Vanakkam

Stage Mom

2011-11-05T00:00:00.002-06:00

Well, at least I have figured this out before I have kids of my own but it has become clear: India has turned me into a stage mom. I cheer loud, I constantly give out high-fives....it's severe. There were two instances yesterday when my "stage mom" side came out:

This last week, a volunteer family that is here was tasked to re-do the Star Store that the kids go to once a week to spend the stars they receive for good behavior. We had a big grand re-opening party for the Star Store that included a ribbon cutting, a tour of the new store for the kids, and a dance party. It was great to see the kids in awe of the new Star Store (it really is RIDICULOUSLY cute) but the best was the dance party. The little kids here (especially the boys) LOVE to dance. They just can't get enough. After helping with the tours through the store I took a seat and watched the awesome-ness unfold. For some reason I just can't help but cheer everyone on--commenting on their cool moves, callin out their name, making the kids who are sitting down get up and dance--I'm like a mom at a birthday party.

The kids checkin out the new Star Store

It's so so so SO cute now!

Sitting with the kids keeping the dance party goin

Christraj (in the purple shirt) ALWAYS gets so into it when he dances--he's the best.

My other stage mom moment was during the LifeDance performance we had that night. We had a volunteer leaving so we had LifeDance perform some of their dances for him. Every time they perform I feel like such a proud mom--I whip out the video camera and sit in the audience beaming and smiling at the kids, giving frequent thumbs up and silent 'super' signs with my hands so they always know that they are doing great--I basically turn into a giant, smiling goofball.

Rebecca and I with the LifeDance team--I love these kids so much.

The thing is, even though I have turned into a goofy stage mom....I love it! I love cheering for the kids and making them feel good about themselves and their talents--they deserve all the praise they get. :)

Vanakkam

Happy Diwali!

2011-10-26T10:59:00.002-06:00

Ok...I realize I have sucked at blogging as of late. Its not that I haven't WANTED to blog, it's just that I've been busy (traveling to Thailand, teaching, etc.) and (to be completely honest) I haven't been compelled to blog about anything. Don't get me wrong, things are amazing here as they always are--the kids are amazing, I love teaching in the school...it's just that it hasn't been anything worthy of an entire blog post. But today was a different story. Today is up there as one of my favorite days at Rising Star ever.

One of the biggest holidays in India is Diwali (the Festival of Lights). Diwali is an Hindu holiday celebrating the triumph of good over evil. Diwali (or Deepavalli as it is also called) translates to "row of lamps" and even though it is a Hindu holiday, it is celebrated by all Indian people no matter what religion they are. Diwali is considered a family day where it is customary to wear new clothes, share 'sweets', and light off fireworks. It is a huge celebration that the kids had been talking about since the minute they got back to school from their fall holiday.

We currently have about 10 volunteers at Rising Star right now and we were given the job of making Diwali a fun day for the kids. When the kids got back from break last Thursday, most of them were very sad that they would not be able to spend Diwali with their family (it's basically the equivalent of having to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas away from home). Because the kids were really sad about this, we wanted to make Diwali a fun, exciting day for them. From the get-go the day got off to a great start. While we were setting up in the dining hall for Christmas ornament making (for the kids to send to their sponsors), I wandered over to the hostel to check on the kids. As soon as I rounded the corner from the path to the hostel, there was an infectious exuberance emanating from all the children. They were all dressed in their very nicest, new clothes, Tamil music was playing out over the playground from a boombox, and all the kids were playing, dancing and having a great time. I was bombarded with kids coming to shake my hand and wish me a 'Happy Diwali' and their excited little faces made me smile from ear-to-ear. It was fantastic. After playtime we did our Christmas ornaments activity with the kids and they had tons of fun decorating their picture frames for their sponsors. Things got a little crazy when the torrential downpour started (we are in monsoon season now) and when Lola the lamb wandered into the dining hall and tried to eat the finished ornaments but overall it was a good afternoon.

The fireworks display that night basically went like this: all the kids lined up outside in front of the hostel (still in their nicest clothes) and the male staff set-off tons of fireworks (including some big ones that definitely are not legal for household use in America). This sounds like a pretty simple affair but a few different things really hit home for me and I spent the night basking in the glow of fireworks, family, and love. One thing that really struck me was the kindness of the people that work at Rising Star. On a day that is supposed to be spent with family, Vikram, Vel, Mark, and Mani (various members of the staff at RSO) took the time when they should have been home lighting fireworks with their own families to come to campus and put on a fireworks show for the kids. So many of the kids have either lost their fathers or have abusive fathers, and it was so touching to see the male staff (who really don't have any obligation to the kids) happily sacrificing their time to take on the fatherly roll that so many of these kids are lacking. It is such a beautiful thing to witness true beauty and selflessness in other people. As I stood thinking about this, with one arm around Usha and Sagayamary's little hand held tight by the other, listening to the kids clap and "ooo" and "ahh" over the fireworks, I couldn't help but feel so unbelievably happy. I imagine it was a little like the Grinch felt when his heart grew three times its size--I felt like my heart was growing and expanding with love right there on the spot. It was magical to say the least.

After the fireworks show, the kids were given sparklers to light and wave. Another great moment in the night was when Abi (a first standard girl) started walking by me with her sparkler. The kids were following a path around the sandpit with their lit sparklers and I was standing on the sides commenting on their sparklers as they passed. As I commented on Abi's sparkler, she stopped, extended her hand and said very softly, "Happy Diwali Kenady ma'am." I told her Happy Diwali in return and she went on her way, but that one short exchange, again, brought so much joy to my heart I could barely believe it.

The firework table aka the greatness we were about to feast our eyes on.

I didn't get any pictures of the bigger fireworks in the sky, but these ones were fun too. *Note all the amazing help we had pulling this off for the kiddos.

No matter how old you are, fireworks are great.

So fun and pretty.

The captivated audience all dressed to impress.

The kids with their sparklers

Anne (the current dance master) and I with our sparklers--I LOVE SPARKLERS!

With Sagayam and Priya--all the girls looked absolutely BEAUTIFUL in their Diwali outfits!

Just three best friends strikin a pose--nbd

The volunteers and staff--I am truly in the company of some amazing people. :)

It is because of the beautiful people at Rising Star here in India that my first Diwali was one I will never forget. :)

Vanakkam

Goin to the Chapel...

2011-09-07T12:10:00.002-06:00

Well it's not actually a chapel here in India--it's a reception hall, but either way they were goin to get married. Last week I had the wonderful privilege of going to the wedding for one of my fellow teachers. I was ridiculously happy to be invited because one of the main things I wanted to do this year while I was in India was to be able to go to an Indian/Hindu wedding. Marriages/weddings in India are a HUGE deal and a ginormous party is expected no matter what religion you are. Besides the party I really wanted to witness a Hindu marriage ceremony because they are so different from what we are accustomed to in western culture. And on top of all that...I was able to get all dressed up and decked out in a Sari! It was the first time in over three months that I have actually gotten ready and I kinda felt like my American self for a minute (minus the sari).

The wedding consisted of a reception on Tuesday night and the ceremony early Wednesday morning (we're talkin 6:30am people). I would have to say that even though the ceremony was really cool to witness, Tuesday night was my favorite of the two events. The main reason for this was that ALL of Rising Star came out to support Dhanasekaran, the teacher that got married. Literally, we had every teacher there, all the office staff, the drivers, the cleaners, Padmini the cook, all the kids in 7th-10th standard, and all the current volunteers. This was just further testament that Rising Star is like one big family--the fact that so many people wanted to come out and support Dhanasekaran's marriage was really amazing to witness. What was also great is that because there were so many people coming from Rising Star (and a lot of the staff commute really far to work cause we are in the middle of nowhere) everyone hung around at Rising Star after work until the wedding--it was like a giant play day! All the male teachers, office staff, drivers, and the older boys started a serious cricket game (they even had money on it) while all the girls took time to change into their fancy saris and get all ready. When it came time to leave it took two 13 passenger vans, one 14 passenger car, and an eight-seater SUV to get everyone to the wedding--and each vehicle was packed to bursting with some people even standing in the vans.

We all arrived at the wedding at different times but they were so excited to have white people/americans at the wedding that we were treated like the guests of honor. We were escorted to the front of the reception hall and a huge video camera with a giant light took about 10 minutes of film of us just sitting in our seats waiting for the bride and groom to arrive. The reception is basically just a time for friends and family to give their gifts to the couple and then a big meal is provided. So we came, gave our gift, ate dinner (where again we were treated like royals and given bottled water when no one else was, had food heaped on our plates, and sat at a special table at the front of the dining hall). It was seriously a wonderful night out. It was so fun to see everyone all dressed up for the night and having fun together at the wedding. All the kids were dressed in their best clothes and were SO EXCITED to see "maths sir" get married. It was just awesome. :)
Here are a few pics from the reception:

This band was rockin throughout the entire reception and wedding

This is the camera that was on us for most of the night--we felt like we were on "Real World"

The reception hall was PACKED. This is the view to the back from our front row seats.

The lovely couple. Their marriage was arranged (which is very common here in India) so this was only the second or third time they had met.

The couple with all the Rising Star cleaning staff

The couple with the volunteers and all the older RSO boys...and Archana :)

The couple with all the older RSO girls and the RSO teachers

Our "VIP" dinner table for all the American volunteers (my face sure is lovely in this picture)

The outside of the reception hall--they make sure even the outside of the building is decked out.

With all the kids, Kala and Vikram after the reception

Rebecca, Jeff and I: the little green house family all dressed up for a night on the town

Big sign outside the reception hall announcing whose marriage was taking place

The stage where all the pictures were taken.

The beautiful bride

Our dinner for the night--scrumptious!

SO EXCITED to be at an Indian/Hindu wedding!

As mentioned earlier, the next day the festivities started bright and early--we left Rising Star at 6:30am and arrived at the marriage ceremony just before 7. We did not have the huge entourage that we had had the night before. For the marriage ceremony, the housemothers that were not able to come to the reception came, the kids from 5th and 6th standard came, and only a handful of volunteers. The ceremony was already in progress when we arrived but again we were ushered straight to the front. The same band from the night before played throughout the ceremony and to be honest, I wasn't aware of a lot that was going on. Unlike wedding ceremonies in America, there is no real announcement that the ceremony is starting or what is happening. People chat and come and go from the hall as they please, the camera people stand right in front of the couple and block most of what is happening, and the band is playing so loud that you can't really hear anything of what the marriage ceremony leader is saying (even if it wasn't in Tamil). All of those things may sound negative but they are not by any means--they are just part of the culture of Indian/Hindu marriages. The best way to explain what happened in the ceremony is with the pictures so here is another slew of photos depicting day 2 of the wedding extravaganza:

They switched things around a little from the reception and the band played on the stage where we had taken pictures the night before and the ceremony took place on the main stage. The entire ceremony took place within this giant frame of flowers. *Notice the camera people filming every moment of the ceremony.

The couple sat on the floor for the whole ceremony and the shirtless man on the left was the ceremony leader/holy man. The immediate family stands within the frame for the entire ceremony.

At one point someone walked around and gave everyone flowers that we went up and threw on the couple at a designated point in the ceremony. The flower throwing is their way of congratulating the couple and giving them your blessing.

The ceremony leader walked through the hall with the jasmine wreaths (an essential part of a ceremony) on a plate and people were able to give their own blessing on the plate and the wreaths to further bless the couple.

The couple waiting for the ceremony leader to come back to the stage.

After we were invited onto the stage to throw our flowers on the couple, they had us stay on stage to watch the exchanging of the jasmine wreaths, the most important part of the ceremony (or so I was told). Kim took these awesome shots of the stage and the family.

I don't know why but to me this picture captures the feeling of the whole ceremony.

The exchanging of the jasmine wreaths: they put them on each other then took them off and put them on themselves multiple times to symbolize their union.

After the jasmine wreaths were exchanged, the turban was wrapped around Dhanasekaran's head and gold bands were tied around his head as well as the bride's. I asked a few of the older kids what this symbolized and they told me it was just what they do in a wedding...thanks for the insight kids. ;)

5th and 6th standard were ECSTATIC to be able to attend the marriage ceremony. They woke up at 4:30am to get all ready to come. When it came time for pictures, all the kids ran up on stage and surrounded "maths sir" to congratulate him. He was so happy to see so many of his students at the wedding and the bride was also very amused by their excitement. :)

All the volunteers with the now-married couple

Kim, Rebecca and I at breakfast after the ceremony. We were again treated like royals and given way more food than we could possibly eat. I cannot express enough how giving and kind Indian people are. They are always ready to show the guests (especially those of us from America) how grateful they are for our love and support.

Gotta love a traditional Indian breakfast

Overall it was an amazing two days and I experienced something completely unique to this awesome country. Much like the rest of India, the whole ceremony was lively and filled with color--from the saris to the flowers to the lighting and music the place was just buzzing.Besides being able to witness something so new and foreign to me, it was also so fun to have a night out with the Rising Star family. One of the best things was being able to see all the kids so excited over one of their teachers getting married--the wedding was over a week ago and it's still all they talk about. Basically RSO is a unique and amazing place and being able to experience this wedding with the entire RSO family made it all that much better. It was a fantastic few days that I won't forget! :)

With beautiful Amirtham back at RSO after the ceremony

More to come soon about other happenings here at RSO! I have a zillion pictures of the marriage weekend so if you want to see more there is a Facebook album forthcoming :)

Vanakkam

India: Phase Two

2011-08-28T21:15:00.000-06:00

My Indian Summer has come to a close. With about 150 volunteers coming through Rising Star this summer it was definitely a busy one but SO SO much fun. I will miss the other coordinators who have been here with me since I got here but overall I am very excited for this next stage at Rising Star--the off season. So far I'm a BIG FAN of life at Rising Star without volunteer sessions. Don't get me wrong, I love having volunteers here, there is tons of life and energy with every new group that comes through and it is amazing to see how excited and vibrant the kids get with each group. The thing I like about the off-season thus far, though, is the sense of calm and familiarity. The kids are used to us volunteers that are here and they are falling into more of a set schedule now and because us volunteers that are here are part of that schedule we have become even more like family. I am SO EXCITED for my next 8 months here--I already know it's going to be amazing.

Now don't think the volunteer sessions didn't end without a party. :) At the end of each session, Life Dance (Rising Star's dance team) performs all of their dances for the volunteers. After the last session's performance a huge dance party basically broke out and the kids pulled out all their best moves--it was ridiculously awesome. To say these kids can dance doesn't even cut it, they all have this innate sense of rhythm that you don't see very often. They are seriously the coolest kids around.

This is Ashok (the one from the trash can). Who would have thought you'd find a legit popper in the middle of nowhere in India??

He's too good to just have one video

Vignesh, Vimalkanth, and Joseph were FEELIN IT!!

Basically this whole summer was a huge party. From the first session to the last it was tons of fun to meet new volunteers, play with the kids, and generally just have an awesome time. :) This video is after Life Dance's first performance for session 1--they are just legit all the time.

Vanakkam

Bieber Fever

2011-08-22T22:45:00.000-06:00

As promised a few posts ago, here is a video of me singing Justin Bieber with the kids. We got super legit with our Bieber lullaby this week cause Dani is here and she plays the ukulele and before she had come she had learned to play "Baby"(not because I had taught them, just because she loves the Biebs too). So, we took our act on the road and performed "Baby" to 5 of the 8 houses of kids. It was really fun and Deepenraj, one of the older boys that goes to church with us, told me that I should perform the rap section of the song at Youth Conference next week--yeah, I'm that cool.

This group in the video was one of my favs cause the girls all know the song and could sing it with us.

This second video was taken a few weeks before our "big performance" night with the uke. The girls were going a little crazy cause their housemother was out of town so we were playing and dancing all around. I have come to find that the girls really love rap cause that is always the part they request for me to sing...dangit I love these kids.

Vanakkam

Indian Independence Day aka MY GREATEST INDIAN ADVENTURE YET

2011-08-22T11:00:00.001-06:00

Hello one and all! Hope all is going swimmingly in America and you all are enjoying the last vestiges of summer--please eat a hot dog and lay out by the pool in my honor. As is witnessed by the title of this post, this week started off pretty crazy for me--Monday, August 15, 2011 is a date which will live in infamy...as far as my life goes. So because this day was so awesome/crazy/random/super I will just start from the beginning...

August 15 is Independence Day in India.This is the day, in 1947, that India declared its independence from Britain and became a sovereign nation. Much like the fourth of July, Independence Day is a national holiday in India and every year all the schools in India do a specific program in honor of the day. The school was decorated with tons of flags and everyone pinned little Indian flags to their clothes for the day. For the independence day program, the kids perform a marchpast. A marchpast is a specific march that is meant to honor the country. The kids had practiced the marchpast the whole week before independence day and it was really cool to watch the finished product (see video below). After the marchpast, the rest of the program just consisted of a few of the older kids giving speeches on Indian independence, famous freedom fighters, and their thoughts on Indian independence. When the kid's speeches were done, Dr. Susan and Jim said a few words and Celina thanked everyone involved with getting the program set-up. It was so interesting to see how differently the people here celebrate their independence than we do in America. There was a great sense of formality and tradition in the program and it was an honor to witness. Speaking of honor, there was one other cool part about the independence day program. Each year at the independence day program, leaders within the school and organization are honored for their work. The people that are honored receive a jasmine wreath and sit at the front during the speech portion of the program. The people honored this year were Jim and Pam Gates (the country directors at RSO), Dr. Susan Hilton (the national director of RSO), Hirudayanathan (the Indian principal), Celina (the director of education) and lastly.....ME (random year-long volunteer). It truly was an honor to be included with this amazing group of people and honored at their independence day program. It is an honor I will always cherish because it came from my indian family.

Kala putting jasmine and roses in my hair. I never have a bobbypin on me when she goes to do this so she always ends up giving me hers even though I tell her not to--she is one of the kindest women ever.

Dr. Susan honoring me with a jasmine wreath.

All of the honored guests during the students speeches--not my cutest face but oh well.

Marchpast--Yes, I am the world's worst videographer.

So you would think being honored at the Indian Independence Day program would be the culmination of an awesome day...nay, things got better from here. Rajakumari (one of my dear friends here) has been wanting me to bike to her house on my new cycle to eat with her family for quite some time now. We have set multiple dates but for some reason they never worked out. We finally decided that Independence day would be the perfect day to come over because her whole family would be there and there was no school so we would have all day. Originally, Rebecca was going to accompany me on this journey but she had been sick all weekend, so Dani was invited in her stead (Dani is the overarching volunteer director for Rising Star who came with her nephew just for this last session). We planned to leave at 2:00pm but with the new set of volunteers coming, Dani had to work and we were not able to leave until about 3:45. Now, this was my first, official off-campus bike ride so the journey was bound to be a little crazy from the get-go. Dani was a rockstar and channeled Mother Teresa throughout this ride cause I definitely wasn't the fastest. In my defense, though, the roads we were riding on were anything but smooth and by the end of the ride I was getting fairly decent. Anyways, we set-off from RSO with sunny sky and even sunnier faces with the hopes on getting to Rajakumari's house in about 45 minutes max. The first part of the ride went by well enough: I stumbled along and Dani helped to encourage and not make me feel too completely stupid. About we were almost halfway there when it started to sprinkle--the sky had been darkening throughout our ride. By the time we reached the halfway point at the catholic hospital that we often work with, we were caught in a full-on, torrential downpour to the point where we couldn't see to ride any longer. We pulled off to the side of the road and sat at a covered bus stop for a minute debating on what to do next. A woman at the bus stop was trying to talk to us in Tamil and from her gestures I could piece together that her main point of communicating was to ask why the hell we were biking in a rainstorm and how ridiculously wet we had gotten (we were soaked). While she was talking to us, Rajakumari called my phone to tell us she was sending her brother on her scooty to pick us up. Rajakumari's brother arrived at the hospital about 5 minutes later and we had to think for awhile the best way to go about getting to Rajakumari's house. We finally decided on locking our bikes and hiding them in a nearby bush and then all three of us cramming on the scooty like true indians and driving to Rajakumari's house. We stored the bikes and waited a few minutes to see if the rain would slow down a little before taking off on the scooty....it never slowed down. So, we crammed on the scooty and took off into the downpour. If we weren't soaked to the bone before we definitely were after 2 minutes on that scooter--how he was able to see in the driving rain is still a mystery to me. Ten minutes later we pulled up to Rajakumari's house soaking wet and happy to be alive and have made it. I have said this many times before and I'm sure will say it many times after--Indian people are some of the most giving people I have ever met. Rajakumari had prepared a bunch of food for us and was ridiculously kind an accommodating once we got there. She heaped food onto our plates until we were stuffed to the brim and then she just boxed stuff up and sent it home with us. One of the funnest parts of the meal was that all of Rajakumari's little cousins were over for the holiday. Two of the older cousins (I think one was in 8th standard and one was in 6th) had never seen a foreigner before and they thought we were the craziest/coolest thing around. They had tons of energy and kept pointing out random features and saying they were super, i.e. "Face so super!", "Teeth so super!" "Hair so super!" "Clothes so super!" These girls were very expressive so they had all kids of actions to go with there phrases. They were definitely worth our crazy ride to get to Rajakumari's house.

Dani and I with Rajakumari and her ADORABLE cousins!

By the time we had finished eating and playing with the kids, the rain had stopped so we headed back towards the bikes. I'm not sure why, but for some reason Rajakumari thought it necessary to have us go back to hospital on separate bikes instead of all three of us cramming on the scooty. So, lucky me, I got to ride back to the catholic hospital on a legit motorcycle with a friend/neighbor/acquaintance of Rajakumari's. Thankfully our bikes were still there and unharmed and we were able to bike back to RSO with no problems (unless you count my horrible biking skills as a problem).

So basically in my first bike ride ever I had to deal with all the worst elements: potholes, rain to the point where you can't see, mud...it was super!!! JD, look how far I've come from central park!

Overall, it was a CRAZY adventure that words really can't do justice to describe--you had to have been there. I'm sure there are more adventures like this in store for me throughout this next year...it's gonna be awesome.

Vanakkam

Write about something beautiful....

2011-08-09T05:31:00.001-06:00

One of my newest tasks in the school is grading the writing journals for third and fourth standards. Everyday (or every other day in fourth standard's case) I go into the class and correct all the journals (capitalize where needed, add punctuation marks, etc.) Today's journal topic for third standard was "Write about something beautiful." Although journal grading can be pretty tedious most of the time, today's topic made the grading process very fun. There were some very typical entries talking about how butterflies, peacocks, and leopards were beautiful but there were also some stand-outs. Sagayamary, the girl that I sponsor, said in her journal that new books were beautiful--she is definitely a girl after my own heart. One of the little girls wrote that "Fathima Miss", the third standard teacher, was beautiful--the kids are seriously so sweet.

There were two entries, though, that I really loved and I loved them for different reasons. The first was an entry from Subasri, one of the third standard girls, saying that P.T. Sir (the P.E. teacher) was "very, very beautiful." There are few things more endearing than little kids with crushes and the fact that she wrote it in her journal that is definitely not private (it's read by me, her teacher, as well as administration). It is so cute to see how much the kids love the teachers and staff at Rising Star--they are the permanent fixtures in their lives that give them the support and love they need on a daily basis.

The other entry I loved came from two boys, Sathish and M. Vishva. They had separate entries but they both listed the same thing. Now, to preface, both of these boys could easily be deemed "troublemakers"--they are disruptive, they get in fights, they struggle in school, etc. They are really great kids but these are just some things they struggle with. It is because of this that I was wonderfully surprised to read their journal entries that listed Jesus and God as beautiful. To see these boys blatantly write their feelings about God and Christ was so sweet--underneath their crazy exterior is a soft, sensitive spirit. It is also really amazing to me that these kids have such an understanding of Christ and God to know that they are beautiful. I also love that they are not ashamed or nervous or embarrassed to write about and show their love to God--they feel that God and Christ are beautiful and they want to share their feelings in their journals...so they do just that.

I finished grading journals with a smile on my face and went about my day. Later that same afternoon, even though it was completely sunny, it started to rain...and it was raining hard. Rain when it is sunny outside is awesome because you get the best of both worlds--warm sunshine and cool rain. I walked around in the rain and got thoroughly soaked. As I was walking from the Green House (where I live) over to the school it stopped raining and an entire rainbow stretched over the blue sky (when I say entire rainbow I mean a WHOLE RAINBOW--big arch stretching all the way down on both ends). From the beautiful, blue, sunny sky to the rainbow to the expansive green landscape I couldn't help but be struck by the beauty of it. It was an idyllic scene--something you only see in movies.

So this is me writing my own journal entry about something beautiful--India is beautiful.

Vanakkam

"STOP MONKEYS!!"

2011-08-01T21:29:00.000-06:00

As any parent can tell you, being with kids 24/7 makes everyday a little adventure. Kids really do say and do the darndest things (that Bill Cosby always gets it right). Living at RSO with 160 children ranging in age from 4 to 16 has brought all kinds of hilarious moments that add an extra shimmer to what could have been called a regular old day. Here are just a few recent stories about being with the RSO kiddos:

Everyday from 4:30 - 6:00 is playtime for the kids. They are free to run around outside, play on the playground, play soccer...basically do whatever they please that doesn't involve major injury or harm to another human being. A few days ago I went over to playtime just to say hi and hang out with the kids (my intentions were to maybe sit with one of the quieter girls and just have a little chat). As soon as I got there, though, two of my favorite little boys from 1st standard, Christraj and Veeran, ran over and started climbing all over me. As I always do when the kids start climbing on me, I started referring to the boys as monkeys (monkey #1 and monkey #2 respectively). Karthik (another 1st standard boy) saw how much fun it is to climb all over Kenady ma'am and started joining in--I now had three monkeys hanging off my neck and breaking my back. Being the idiot that I am, my way of getting the boys to stop climbing on me was to be extremely dramatic, break-out the excited hands, and yell "STOP MONKEYS!!" The boys thought this was absolutely hilarious and copied me hands and all, "STOP MONKEYS!!" Now, in a testament to my background in performing, I realized I had a very captive audience--something that may be good to capitalize on. And in a testament to my idiocy, I wanted to see how far I could take this whole monkey-thing. I bowed to the boys and said "Thank you monkeys, " in my best wise sensei voice--they copied me exactly. Now came the ultimate test.....I ran away. And, lo and behold, my instincts were right--they ran right after me. I repeated the "stop and thank you monkeys" dialogue with the boys copying after each--they were loving this. By this point we had two more monkeys join the crew, Karthik Raja (a boy from second standard) and Archana (a first standard girl). Again, after I said "thank you monkeys" I bolted, this time clear across the playground. I later had another volunteer tell me that it was the funniest thing she had seen all week--seeing me running full-tilt across the playground with five kids running behind me. We continued on with the monkey game for the rest of playtime. We crept around the playground, hid behind trees, pretended to be dead monkeys...basically anything that popped into my head. What made it all better, though, was that the kids were laughing and playing and loving every minute of it. They all had their monkey numbers memorized (halfway through the game I stopped referring to them by their name, only by their monkey number) and were sad when the bell rang to signal that playtime was over for the day. I bowed and said good-bye to my monkeys before I headed off to dinner--just another afternoon with the kids at RSO.

At playtime with Veeran and Archana--two of the monkey children. (Archana's face kills me in this picture btw).

Everyday between 7:30 and 9:30pm is deemed family time with the kids. This is the kid's time before bed to finish homework, read books, and just generally get ready for bed. I try to stop in at all the houses during this time and say goodnight to everyone but I usually stay a little longer at Jayanthi's house--this was my designated house last summer and it holds a special place in my heart. Most of the girls from this house remembered my good night ritual from last year (kissing my hand then touching their head and then doing the 'I love you' hand signal) so I have continued it on this year...as well as adding to it. There is something about being in a foreign country that lowers your inhibitions because I do things here in India that I don't do in the States....like sing in public. I am by no means a singer....not even a little bit. So, the fact that the minute I go into Jayanthi's house now and she immediately starts telling the girls, "Ok, lay down! Kenady is going to sing with you now!"shows that crazy stuff happens when you're in India. Naturally, the first song I taught them as the new in-house singer was "Baby" by Justin Bieber. They had actually heard this song on the radio and requested to learn it....so I obliged. Now, every night they request to sing the baby song. I contest that there is nothing better in the world than singing Justin Bieber with 30 little indian girls--it's the ultimate girl's night. Video of this is coming soon.

Just one more story for the road...

As previously mentioned, I like to stop by all the houses during family time. Last night, after I sang with the girls, I headed over to the boy's hostel to Kala's house. Kala is basically a rockstar who has managed to exert herself as the most respected housemother and teacher at Rising Star while still having an AMAZING sense of humor and immense love for all the kids. Because she is so awesome, and I love the kids in her house, I spend a lot of time there. Last night was particularly great because by the time I got there all the little monkeys (ukg - 3rd standard boys) had gone to sleep. I walked into one of the back rooms where the older boys hang out, to find Kim 2 and Rebecca having all sorts of nonsense fun with the boys...I immediately joined in. We did everything from fake ninja fighting to jumping contests to the macarena...yep, we literally busted out the macarena folks. At one point Deepenraj (an 8th standard boy) pretended to hit Ashok (a 7th standard boy) over the head with a weight (don't ask). Being the crazy kid he is, Ashok proceeded to pretend that he could not remember who he was or why he was at Rising Star--he could have gotten an Oscar for his performance because he WOULD NOT break character. He was roaming around the whole room acting completely lost and confused...it was hilarious. Then he kicked it up a notch and decided that he would pretend to be dead. Again, his performance was Oscar worthy because as much as the other boys tickled and moved him he wouldn't wake-up. Finally, Kala said, "Well, if he is dead then let's go take him to the garbage." The other boys capitalized on this advice and proceeded to pick-up Ashok and carry him to the garbage. You would think that the prospect of being put in a garbage can would be enough to make the kid break character....it was not. Ashok continued to play dead and let the other boys deposit him straight into the garbage can...and he stayed there dead.

Ashok would not budge....therefore we got plenty of pictures

It wasn't until the other boys had lifted him out of the garbage and started putting him into the large bathroom sink that he finally woke-up and broke character. George Clooney better watch out because Ashok is an up-and-comer for sure.

On the way to the bathroom sink with help from Kim 2...what great role-models we are.

Well, I hope these little anecdotes have brightened your day, entertained you at work, or helped you further procrastinate a research paper/ studying for a test.

More to come soon!

Vanakkam

Let's Go for G.N.O.

2011-07-18T05:28:00.000-06:00

You know this is gonna be a good blog post when it's named after a Hannah Montana song. :)

Here at Rising Star, we have something called the star system. The star system is basically a discipline plan for the children so they take responsibility for their actions and behavior. For good behavior throughout the school day as well as at the hostel at night, the students receive stars. These stars are used to buy various things at the Star Store here on campus. The Star Store has everything from toys of all sizes to school supplies to candy to a trip to Pondicherry for shopping (this is a big one and costs about 100 stars). For one of the options in the Star Store, the kids can buy a night out with a volunteer. Jim and Pam have been doing this just about every weekend since they got here and I decided, once I was put in as interim principal, that I would do this as well. For 30 stars, six to eight kids can come to the green house (where I live) and I cook them dinner (usually some kind of American food that they normally don't get) and we watch a movie. This past weekend was my second time doing a Star Store night and it was bought by 6 girls from 5th standard and above. Because only girls had bought the night out this week, I decided to make it a girl's night party--who doesn't love a good girl's night?

So Friday night I had K.M., Booji, Savitha, Sumithra, Mispa, and Devi over for a good ol' fashioned girl's night. With the help of Joanne and Rebecca, we all had french toast for dinner and then did mini-makeovers. We had nail polish and make-up all out and ready for them when they finished eating. I let the girls test and rummage through what little make-up I have over here and then they picked what they wanted Rebecca or myself to put on them. They were all very intrigued by the eyeliners and mascara and EVERYONE wanted some. It worked out really well that I brought out my computer and let them look through the Tamil music I have because it created two stations: make-up and music. When one group was done looking at music, the other group was just about done with make-up and the girls just switched--it was great! Another thing we did that the girls LOVED was I whipped out my trusted straightener and straightened the girls' hair. They were amazed by my crazy American device that all the sudden gave you straight hair. Between their straight hair and their make-up, they were all having tons of fun (you could also tell they felt like a million bucks--how can you not after a make-over?). After the make-overs we had a little extra time so the girls watched the first few minutes of The Hunchback of Notre Dame before I had to take them back to the hostel--they wanted a Barbie movie but there were none to be found. Overall, it was a really awesome night.

K.M., Savitha, and Booji lookin through the music

Devi and Mispa checkin out their possible color palettes

After Booji's make-over, she decided that Rebecca needed one too :)

The make-up/hair station

Rebecca and Booji after their make-overs

Poor Sumithra had had a fever all day and spent most of the girls night laying on a mattress in the living room. She had enough energy to sit-up so I could do her make-up but after that she slept till it was time to go home.

Devi with her straightened hair and make-up.

Strike a pose...

Now ANTM style

Straightening Booji's hair

The whole gang from girls night! (minus Rebecca who was taking the picture).

From left: Devi, Booji, Sumithra, myself (obvi), K.M., Savitha and Mispa

It is astounding to me that these kids are considered "untouchable" here in India. They are beautiful, amazing kids with more light and love to give then any other children I have ever met. I love each and every one of them with my whole heart and have a hard time imagining my life without them.

Vanakkam

The one where she buys a bike and rides a scooty

2011-07-15T12:25:00.003-06:00

Yep, you read that right. I bought a bike...well, to be culturally correct here in India it is a cycle but either way I purchased one and I am now a proud bike/cycle owner. Now, for those of you that know me, I'm sure you are scratching your head saying, "Can she actually ride this bike cause last I checked...she could not." Well guess what people, not only did I purchase a bike but I also learned to ride it. Yep, I CAN NOW RIDE A BICYCLE!!!! (insert Queen song here).

Anyways, the next question to answer would be, "WHY did you buy a bike?" Well here is your answer. Because I am now working in the school full-time, I rarely leave the Rising Star campus and after awhile I start to get a little stir-crazy being in the same place for so long. Having a bike gives me all sorts of freedom to go to all the little villages and places nearby just for a little jaunt off campus--it's just grand! Of course, being India, the bike purchasing experience was a great one. When I talked to Jim about Rebecca and I wanting to get bikes he said the person to talk to was Vikram...I should have known. Vikram does everything, of course he would be the one to go to if we wanted to all the sudden purchase a couple cycles. So Vikram, Rebecca, Joanne (who wanted to tag along) and I all headed out after school to get some cycles in Chengalpattu. After looking in a couple stores, we decided on two LEGIT bikes that included bells, locks, and a place in the back to put your bag--awesome right?! As we were waiting for the bikes to be tightened and ready for riding we went back and waited in the van. While we were waiting, Vikram left for a bit (again, he does all manner of things so this was not very surprising) and when he came back he had bought us all ice cream!! Yayy!! I felt like I was 5 all over again--buying my first bike, eating ice cream....it was all very super. We went and picked up our bikes and we realized that by the time we got back to Rising Star we would have long missed dinner so......Vikram had the great idea of stopping and eating parota on the way back (parota is my FAVORITE indian dish and we do not get it very often). The five of us had an awesome dinner, shared our highs and lows, and then went back to Rising Star. Besides the excitement of buying a bike, it was also exciting and great just to get off campus for the afternoon and shop and eat and be with friends just like I would in America.

In the bike shop with our new cycles!!

With the go-to guy himself, Mr. Vikram

Oh the places I will go...on my bike :)

Now, as you can see from the title of this post, the story is not finished yet. This week I also had the opportunity to ride a scooty (aka mo-ped, scooter, whatever name you prefer really but in India it is a scooty). Rajakumari recently moved back to her home in a neighboring village and is no longer working as a housemother, only as a teacher. Because of this and my recent bike purchase, I told her I would come visit her at her home since I couldn't visit her at the hostel anymore. To make sure I knew the way to her house, she brought me home with her after school on Thursday so I could learn the way to her house. It was AMAZING driving through the back roads and villages with Rajakumari on her little scooty--India really is a beautiful country. When we got to her house, she showed me all around and we drank sweet milk from her own cows and ate coconuts from the tree in her front yard (she also sent a papaya home with me from the tree in her backyard). It was an excellent afternoon for sure.

Yes, I did tell Rajakumari that all my American friends were going to like this video...I hope you do.
Shout out to Ember for helping me get this video uploaded--THANK YOU!!

Well, that's all for now!

Vanakkam

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T10:31:00.000-06:00

In honor of the 4th of July I have decided to make a couple lists.

The first is a list of things I love about America:

my beautiful home in Vegas
my beautiful family in Vegas
my awesome friends in Provo and Vegas (and wherever else they have scattered to)
traffic lights/some semblance of order while driving
the plethora of food options at your fingertips any day at any given time
free education available to all (and a pretty good one at that)
that I can walk to church in 10 min.
that I can go to whatever church I choose
the fact that you can get basically anything you want in a matter of minutes
the general cleanliness and upkeep of all public places
freedom to love/marry anyone you choose
reliable power and air conditioning
having a pool in my backyard
hot showers in the morning
Starbucks
washers AND dryers in your house/apartment
all water is drinkable
freedom to be and do whatever you want with your life

I love America so much and feel so blessed to have been born in such a wonderful country. The more time I spend away from America the more I realize that it truly is a blessed land and country. We definitely have our problems, but they are nothing compared to those that trouble many places in the world. I am and will be forever grateful for the sacrifices our fore-fathers made so that we could live in such an amazing place. I LOVE AMERICA!!!!

......ok.....I just had to get that out. Now, because I don't want you all to think that I am hating life over here, I have decided to make my second list.

This is a list of things I love about India:

beautiful sunsets and sunrises
walking through Thottanaval village and waving to all the people as we pass
going to house dedication ceremonies where everyone is invited and they play music over loudspeakers throughout the entire village
cramming 30 kindergarten and 1st graders and 7 adults in a 12 seater van to take said kids to get blood-typing done
water fights with 160 indian children
dancing with Christraj and Rosemary
stroking her hair and singing Revathi to sleep her first night at Rising Star and away from her parents
watching and dancing with LifeDance (the dance team at Rising Star)
Sagayamary's kisses before bed (one on each cheek, one on the forehead and one on the chin) always followed by a big hug
Mahalakshmi's smile
kissing all the kids goodnight and telling them I love them
chatting with Rajakumari, Vikram, Vel, Saraswathi, Vannila Mary, and Kala
Christraj's sleepy eyes as his says goodnight to me
Kids who come to the principal's office just to see me and say hello
Parota
the EXTREMELY LOW cost of living
how cheap everything is
the want of people to give when they themselves have so little
Rising Star Outreach

Vanakkam

Word/Picture Vomit

2011-07-04T03:12:00.000-06:00

In an attempt to get semi-caught up on this blog, I have decided to try a bout of word/picture vomit. This is basically the same thing as my catch-up posts but I have decided on a new name. So...let the word/picture vomit begin.

I went on another overnight trip to Dharma Purri--a city about five hours away from RSO. I wasn't scheduled to go on this overnight trip but I asked to go because I went to Dharma Purri last year with my session and I wanted to see the colony again and see if I could see the see kids I played with last year. I definitely saw some of the same people from last year and it was great to re-visit a colony.

This is the family of one of the students at RSO--Krishna Moorthy. His family is one of the most awesome families I have ever met

I spent a lot of the day with these two and they were so fun to talk to and get to know!

This is a big dam/nature preserve place that Dr. Susan took to after our first colony in Dharma Purri. It was BEAUTIFUL HERE!

While here, we were basically just given time to roam around. I spent the time with Dr. Susan, Rajenderon, Vel and CJ. I definitely picked the right group to walk around with cause Vel and Dr. Susan knew where all the best places were.

This is Vel, one of RSO's drivers. He is very super

View from the top of the dam. I felt like I was in a painting or story or something.

The next day on our overnighter to Dharma Purri was Vel's birthday!! I rounded up a few volunteers and we all made birthday cards for Vel that we surprised him with in when he got in the van that morning (we snuck in beforehand and set them all up). Sadly, I cannot take credit for this card but I think it was definitely one of my favorites.

After our colony visit on day 2, Dr. Susan took us to these waterfalls that are a big tourist spot in Dharma Purri. We had to ride down a river in these crazy half-coconut woven boats to see the waterfalls.

With a couple volunteers (Lindsay and Kylie) and the women that are part of Dr. Susan's medical team (Sharmilla, Navamani, and someone who's name I don't know). Sharmilla (the one hugging me) come to find out is a fan of the song "Bottoms Up". We definitely jammed to that on the drive home to RSO.

The destination of our boat ride. These waterfalls were GORGEOUS.

The boat drivers thought it would be funny to get us all soaked under the waterfalls--they were right. We were all quite the sight by the end of our trip down the river.

So basically this is how I spend my nights--hanging out with the students and housemothers at the kids hostel chatting and playing and kissing them goodnight. Something about these kids just reels you in and keeps you hooked. They are the most amazing kids I have ever met and I honestly love each and every one of them. I say this constantly but Rising Star is such a special, unique place. It brings out the very best in everybody that comes through. I love that I will be here for so long cause the thought of leaving now or anytime soon is just unimaginable.

Vanakkam

Surprise, Surprise...

2011-06-27T07:48:00.000-06:00

I'm still sucking at blogging/I'm still very behind. I doubt any of you are shocked at this point. Life at RSO just continues to get busier and busier so blogging becomes less and less of a priority. Maybe one day I will find myself with a copious amount of free time and will just blog away until my little fingers fall off....maybe, just maybe....

The surprise, though, is not that I am behind in blogging but that my job here at RSO has changed again. This is one thing I love about Rising Star, they use you in whatever way they can and in whatever capacity (if that sounded sarcastic I didn't mean it to be, I honestly love that I will have had a bunch of jobs by the time I leave here). When I first signed up to move here for the year I was planning on being sponsorship director, then once they heard I was graduating in elementary education they asked me to come and work as a teacher trainer (teaching english classes and working with the teachers to develop more effective teaching methods), THEN about a week before I left to come to India I got a call and was asked to be the summer education coordinator (working with the summer volunteer sessions in the school) and NOW I am....drumroll please.....interim Director of Education/Principal of the school.....I'm not joking. Thankfully this is a temporary job until the real DoE/Principal can get her visa, but I am happy, willing and ready to do it for the meantime. Today was my first day on the job and it was not near as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually a really great day! I love being able to interact with the kids and teachers and working with the staff to make the school run as best as possible. I know it is a little far-fetched to have a fresh-out-of-college, 23 year-old helping to run a school, but there is a saying they use a lot here at RSO--it goes to the effect that people are placed at RSO at the right time to fill the jobs as needed. Granted, it would be much better if CELINA was here to do the job, but I have faith I can definitely hold it down for the time being. :)

More catching up to come later......not sure when.....but sometime....

Vanakkam From Kenady ma'am (this is what the kids have to call me now)

Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday...

2011-06-19T11:46:00.001-06:00

Everybody's workin for the weekend, weekend...Party and Party and YEAH! Party and Party.....sorry, that song is catchy. Anyways, as you have probably guessed, this is a post about the weekend. Granted this is a post about last weekend but hey at least I'm trying to get caught-up.

Last weekend, the volunteers had their Delhi trip so RSO was calm, quiet, and just lovely. Don't get me wrong, I love it when the volunteers are here, but it is definitely nice to have a break every now and again. The two weeks previous to this had been SUPER BUSY so we took some much needed time off. On Saturday, most of the other coordinators and long-term volunteers went to Chengalputt to do some shopping, the van was really crowded so I decided to stay behind and get stuff done on campus. I intended to blog but that obviously didn't happen. Instead, I meandered over to the kids hostel and hung out with one of my favorite house-mothers: Rajakumari. Rajakumari and I had decided a few weeks before that we are like sisters: we are both 23, both unmarried, both teachers, and both currently living at RSO. She is so much fun to talk to and chat with I often find myself going over there just to hang out. I hae also been helping Rajakumari with her english. She is an amazing woman. She wants to be the very best teacher she can be and knows that the best way to do that is to improve her english. Every night around 9:00pm I have been going to her house and we have been reading Charlotte's Web. We will go through and read and I will help her the pronunciation and do comprehension checks. It may sound weird but this is really fun for me and look forward to going over and reading with her. On Saturday, I had a whole day to kill and was excited to have lots of time to hang-out and read and chat and the like. I went over around lunchtime and was able to have lunch with Rajakumari and Sujatha (one of the older students who lives on campus year round who lives in Rajakumari's house). After lunch, we went back to the hostel and Rajakumari did the COOLEST henna on my legs. It was really intricate and went from just below my knee all the way out to my toes. After henna, we read from Charlotte's Web and ate mangos. Overall it was a fabulous afternoon.

Henna Legs!! So legit!!

Rajakumari posed me for this picture.

Sujatha and Rajakumari: my Saturday afternoon buddies

As mentioned in previous posts, Saturday night at RSO is movie night. This week was Despicable Me, one of my favorites. Sitting with the kids during movie night is one of the best things because they love to snuggle and be as near to you as possible. I started the movie smack in the middle of all the kids but after the first hour my legs were in such pain from all the weight on me from the kids that I had to stand-up and move. After the fairly difficult extraction process and waking up my numb legs, I sat at the back with two of the fifth standard girls: Angel and P.M. I don't interact with the older kids as much because they are usually doing their own thing and aren't as clingy with the volunteers as the younger kids are. Movie night, though, is an exception. Soon after I sat down, Angel came over and laid her head on my leg and fell fast asleep. There are few things better than having a child fall asleep on you (and I mean that in a completely non-creepy way). Kids are so at peace when they are sleeping and it is a great testament to their trust in you to be able to fall asleep on/with you. At the end of the movie I had to shake Angel a few times to get her awake and then direct her back to the hostel--it was precious. As we were sending kids back to the hostel to go to sleep, I looked over and saw Sarathy, one of the first standard boys, standing next to a bench, bleary-eyed and not sure what was going on...he had obviously just woken up. I went over to him to hold his hand to walk him back to the hostel, but he raised his arms to be picked-up. So I picked him up and he put his head on my shoulder and I carried him back to the hostel. I dropped him off on the steps, told him goodnight and I loved him, and he gave me a big hug before stumbling up the stairs to his room. That was probably the best part of my whole weekend.

Sarathy...how could you resist that face??

Although movie night could not be beat, Sunday came pretty close. After church, because there were so few of us we decided to go to the Marriott brunch...it is so much more than a brunch. They have pizza, and pasta and salads and omelettes and.....BEEF!!!! Yep, beef lo mein to be exact. We all gorged ourselves and had to waddle out of the hotel but man was it worth it. It was a great way to cap off a much needed weekend off. :)

Catch-Up Take 2: Andrah Pradesh and the Errand that wouldn't end

2011-06-19T11:02:00.000-06:00

Ok so here is the next part of my giant catch-up...enjoy.

On Monday and Tuesday (June 6th and 7th) I went with the med students from UC Davis (they were my group for this session) on an overnight trip to Andrah Pradesh--the state neighboring Tamil Nadu where Rising Star is located. There are two colonies here that do not get seen very often so help was much needed. We got to the first colony at around 3:15 when we had been planning to get there at about noon...we were now in a time crunch. To make the time crunch all the better, it started POURING about 20 minutes after our arrival. As is seen, the place we were working was just a covered patio so we all got wet. It was pretty crazy and chaotic there for awhile with all the patients cramming into the patio and the rain pouring and all of us trying to meet everyone's needs as quickly as possible. It was nuts.

This cobbler was here to measure the leprosy-affected people's feet to make new shoes for them that would help their deformed extremities instead of harm them...this cobbler was paid for through the money raised at the Dancers Making a Difference Benefit Concert :) Bunker Dancers, this is your hard work in action.

One of the med vans and the patio where we set-up the medical clinic

This was my first colony visit since last year. I had forgotten how much I love interacting with the leprosy patients and what amazing examples of strength and kindness they are. They are beautiful people.

We gave 5 new pairs of crutches to the leprosy patients that needed them the most. It was amazing to see how excited they were to get these crutches. (From left in picture: Dr. Morley, myself, Dr. Kirby, and Dr. Susan).

Beautiful children of God

After the torrential rain. This is a GORGEOUS colony.

She is such a kind and caring woman--always grabbing my hands and squeezing them. She loved getting her picture taken and having me tell her it looked super.

The second colony we saw in Andrah Pradesh the next day was HUGE. We saw 150 patients!!! We worked straight for about 3 hours because there were so many people who wanted to be seen. It was amazing to see the med students in action really working hard to see everyone and give each patient the individual attention they needed.

With Sharmilla, one of Dr. Susan's right-hand nurses. Sharmilla works the medication station and it amazes me how fast she finds the different pills and ointments so quickly. She's a rockstar for sure. I also have to add that she is a fan of American music and has 'Bottoms Up' by Trey Songz on her phone...we definitely jammed to that on the long drive home.

Amazing family that lives in the second colony.

Leprosy patient waiting for her feet to get washed. We had lines of people waiting at each of the station--it's like the med clinic turned into Disneyland and each station was a ride!

Overall, Andrah Pradesh was two days of hard work that went wonderfully thanks to the volunteers' hard work and Dr. Susan's careful planning. It was a great trip.

So this picture obviously needs some explaining. We got back from Andrah Pradesh late Tuesday night and just had a regular day planned for Wednesday. I was coordinating group 1 and we were scheduled to go to a birthing clinic to see how it was run and talk with the patients there. Like lots of free clinics around the world they are very hit and miss--there are either lots of patients and things to do (the group that had gone on Tuesday saw a live birth) or there isn't much going on. We definitely ended up there on an off-day because there were only about 5 patients, no one was in labor, and there were no procedures scheduled for the med students to sit in on. Because of this, our all day activity turned into a 45 minute activity and we had all kinds of time on our hands. When this happens, my job is to call Dr. Susan and find new things for the volunteers to do. She had given me a few assignments and we were good to go. Down the line, though, some information got mixed up because one of the things that the entire group was supposed to do ended up being a crazy errand that just Derek and I went on. I was told to go with the bus that takes the teachers home at 4:00pm and after the teachers were dropped off I was to pick up an order of medical supplies. I asked Derek to come with me and thank goodness he did cause things were crazy from the get go. We pulled out of Rising Stars main gate to see that about 8 giant piles of rocks (a precursor to paving the road) had been dumped on the road and blocked the only way out of RSO. So, to flatten out the piles and make it so we could drive across, we all got of the vans (all the teachers were dressed in their professional attire) and started flattening out one side of the rock pile so it was more manageable for the cars to drive over. It was hilarious all of us out there stepping on the rock piles and trying to get it so we could get out of RSO. After about 30 minutes and a lot of flattening, we were finally able to get across. We dropped the teachers off at various places and continued north towards Chennai. After we passed Chengalputt and a couple other landmarks we recognized, we started to wonder how far we were going to get these supplies (we assumed the driver knew where we were going). Finally, we pull over and Dhuravel, the driver who speaks very little English, asks to see the address....we don't have it. We were trying desperately to get in touch with Dr. Susan or one of the other drivers that had been there before but all of them were up in the middle of the mountains on the second overnight trip. As is common in India, the driver got out and asked some random motorcyclists to directions and all the sudden about 4 men and Derek were all discussing were to go to pick up this stuff. After their discussion, we started driving aimlessly in search of the pick-up place. We would drive awhile, ask someone where the courier was, then keep driving. Only in India would you head out on an errand without an address or any idea where you're going. Finally, though, we were able to get in touch with Dr. Susan and she was able to give directions to the driver. Turns out, we actually weren't that far from where we were supposed to be. We arrived at the warehouse (which was the only building in a dirt lot) and instead of the small pick-up of medical supplies that I was expecting we had 62 boxes...yep, that's right, 62. Let me remind you that the only people on this errand are me, Derek, and Dhuravel the driver. We signed for everything and got to work loading all the boxes in the med van. First we loaded as many as we could on top of the van and tied them down and everything. Then, we realized that we could fit all the boxes inside the van, so we unloaded the top of the van and reloaded those boxes inside of the van. Remember: 62 boxes, 3 people...this took awhile. This is where the dirty picture comes in: the boxes had been sitting in the warehouse for quite a few days and were disgusting, by the time we finished loading the van we were covered in dirt. After the van was finally loaded we started home. We got into Thottonaval Village (the village nearest to RSO) and were asked by Robinson (the national director) to park in the field nearby cause the rock piles were still there and it would not be possible to drive into the campus. By now it was after 8pm and had been dark for awhile...so to cap off our crazy 4 hour errand we had to trek through the field and over the rock piles with only our little cell phone flashlights. It actually wasn't that bad but it was funny considering all the other little mishaps on what was supposed to be a quick errand. The whole time I couldn't help but laugh and think, "Well, that's India for ya."

More to come soon about my weekend with the kids (which was actually last weekend), my second overnight colony trip, riding down a river in a coconut boat, and taking 30 5-7 year olds to get blood-typing done....it's gettin good people. :)

Vanakkam

Catch-Up time: PICTURE STYLE! Take 1

2011-06-16T13:15:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I thought it would be fun to do my giant catch-up post in a photo journal-esque format. Since I have a lot to cover this may take like 3 posts but here goes nothin:

Ahhh...Ideal Beach Resort in Mammallapurum. We took the volunteers here and had a wonderful afternoon swimming in the Bay of Bengal, drinking smoothies, eating pizza, and generally just having an awesome time.

View from our Tiki Hut

AMAZING hour spent laying in this hammock sleeping and listening to the water...love.

Can't wait to come back here with the next set of volunteers.

Saturday nights at RSO are movie nights with the kids that have gotten at least five stars (their reward system for good behavior). After an afternoon on the beach, this was by far the best way I could have spent the night--three kids crammed on my lap watching Hercules. It was a little bit of heaven.

One of the best moments during this movie night was when Jayamary (a six year old who had been laying her head on my leg) accidentally put her hand in the toothpaste that I had put on the bug bite on my foot (it's great to stop the itching). She looked at her toothpaste-y hand and decided it was worth tasting...apparently she really liked it cause she went back for seconds and thirds (as discreetly as possible of course).

Poongavanam, Mageshwari, and Mahalakshmi. Mageshwari and Mahalakshmi were on my lap the whole movie...needless to say I couldn't feel my legs or butt by the end of the movie but I didn't care one bit :)

Well...these pics take care of one weekend. Next post will be a photo catch-up of overnight trips to Andhra Pradesh and Dharma Purri...get excited. :)

Vanakkam

Random Thoughts

2011-06-16T12:57:00.000-06:00

This is not the catch-up post that I promised....sorry. I had to share, though, some of the thoughts and feelings I have been having since being back in India.

One of the first things that has struck me since being back here is how spiritual of a place India is. Movies and tv and books are always playing-up this notion of India and until this last month I didn't believe it. Since I arrived here a month ago, I have been completely in awe of how faithful and devoted and passionate the Indian people are about their faith no matter what it may be. Almost all people here believe so strongly in the presence of a higher power in their lives and have accepted that guiding force and are so willing and ready to worship in whatever way they can. It has been very humbling for me to listen to various teachers and house mothers at RSO longing to go to church and show devotion to God but are not able to because of work commitments or other extenuating circumstances. They need religion and worship in their life--something I have always taken for granted as always being available to me. It really has made me think twice about skipping church or slacking on my scripture study and prayers.

Another thing I have been thinking about the last couple days as we have been wrapping-up the first session is the capacity for love that all the children at RSO seem to have in abundance. All year long, these kids see volunteers come and go whether they stay for 3 weeks, 3 months, or even a year. You would think after seeing so many people come and go that you would guard yourself--put up that wall so you won't feel it as bad when they leave. The RSO kids, though, never put up this wall. They love all the volunteers and staff and teachers with their whole heart no matter how long they will be there. They know it will be sad to watch them leave but somehow they move past that and continue to shower the volunteers with kisses, hugs, cheek pinches, and 'I love you's. I think this is one of the things that makes kids at RSO so special--their unbridled capacity to love with their whole heart.

Lastly, I can't help but reflect on the relationships I have been starting to form in the last month I have been here. From the other coordinators, to the volunteers, to the RSO staff and teachers, to the amazing children, this place and the people here have become my home and family faster than I thought possible. I'm finding that my own capacity to love has been expounded in only a month. Every 5 minutes I find myself saying "I just love (insert name here) with my whole heart"--and I mean it!! I absolutely love all the people here and am so grateful to be a part of the RSO family.

So even though I am not updating on a regular basis and you may not have a play by play of all my adventures (which is still forthcoming I promise) just know that I love this place with all my heart and I'm where I'm supposed to be. :)

Vanakkam

Kenady goes to Kanchipurum

2011-06-15T10:47:00.000-06:00

Ok I have REALLY been slacking on the blog posting. I started writing this post a week ago and am now over two weeks behind with blogging and such…oops. Between this post and my next giant catch-up post I should be caught up….hopefully.

So I have been slacking on the blogposts this week--I apologize. It is a lot harder to blog being a coordinator because time is very limited. As I have already mentioned, the first group of volunteers arrived last Sunday and since then I feel I have been going non-stop. There is always tons to do and plan and coordinate (go figure!). To add to the craziness, I have been at about 60% since Wednesday...traveling definitely messes with your body. Despite that I have had a good week that involved working with the group of doctors that has come to RSO from UC Davis. We did skin checks, physicals, and vaccinations for UKG - 2A (kindergarten through the first 2nd grade class). It was a very productive week and it was really fun getting to know all the volunteers.

My favorite day this week, though, was my day in Kanchipurum with Vikram. We had been trying to schedule a time all week to go to Kanchipurum (the main city in the district where RSO is located). Because I will be in India for so long, have to register myself at the police station within 14 days of my arrival. We had been trying to go all week but were not able to find a day we could both go. This being India, we went on Friday--the last possible day. Vikram, our new driver who's name I don't know, and myself left RSO at about 10:30am to get everything all figured-out. Kanchipurum is about an hour and a half from Rising Star so it would be a whole day affair--and it was an amazing day indeed. As mentioned in previous posts, Vikram is the go-to man here at Rising Star. He takes care of accounts, everyday errands, and just generally keeping everybody on track. Because of this, we had many other things to do in Kanchipurum. We started off by getting my pictures taken (for the registration) and then going to the police station. You would think the registration station for foreigners living in the country would be a nice organized system with an exact process that every person registering has to go through. This being India that was not the case. Registering consisted of me sitting in a plastic picnic chair in a room that had papers (I’m assuming other people’s registration documents) stacked all over the place while Vikram talked to the guys in the room and to his usual contact in the office via cell phone. After sitting for a few minutes we left and I assume everything was taken care of and completed…I’m still not 100% sure about that but let’s hope for the best.

From the police station we headed to the bank to get some money out for the upcoming overnight trips with the volunteers as well as for some other miscellaneous RSO things. I easily could have sat in the car for all of these errands but who wants to do that when you can check out a new city in India?? I went into the bank hoping it would be way different from American banks and be another culture shock experience for me...it was exactly the same as an American bank. But it was still fun to go in and see that it was the same. And thankfully I did go in because my bag came in handy when Vikram turned around from the teller and was carrying eight big rubber-banded stacks of rupees. Now, something to know about me is that I don’t carry cash around…ever…or at least if I can help it. Obviously in India I carry some rupees on me but never that many…so the fact that I was now carrying ten of thousands of rupees in my bag made me quite nervous. I told Vikram this a few times and he just thought I was goofy and laughed it off—guess this was a good way to get over my dislike of carrying cash around.

After the bank we went and had a DELICIOUS lunch and because I was the only white person around the owner of the restaurant personally served us! Granted this put a lot of pressure on me to eat a lot of food (as mentioned before I had been quite sick and not eating much besides bread for a few days prior to this) but I made it through just fine. J After lunch it came time for my favorite errand: shopping for clothes. Vikram had to get material for a uniform for one of the students at RSO and naturally this turned into shopping for clothes for Vikram and his family—it was great!!! If there is one thing I love no matter what it’s shopping for clothes; whether they be for me, my family, or someone I don’t even know it’s just always fun. So basically this errand was tailor-made to me and it was fabulous.

After our shopping extravaganza we were headed back to Rising Star. On the way back Vikram wanted to stop at his house in the Junction to drop off his purchases (the Junction is the closest non-village to Rising Star). By this time is was past five and school had long since gotten out and Shama (his wife who is the kindergarten teacher at RSO and 8 months pregnant) would be home. Vikram thought it would be funny for me to come up with him and surprise Shama, so we went up to his apartment and he knocked on the door and hid so that when Shama opened it she would only see me—it was awesome. She was DEFINITELY surprised to see me, of all people, standing at her door. One thing I absolutely love about Indian culture is the hospitality and how giving and kind they always are. As soon as Shama got over the surprise of seeing me at her house, she immediately invited me in, sat me down and offered me apples, oranges, and fruit juice. Her, Vikram, and I had a great chat enjoying the snacks before we had to go back to RSO.

Now, this day may seem boring to some—tons of errands and driving all day—but for me it was perfect. It was great getting to know Vikram and spending the day exploring a new city in India. Everyday I fall in love with India a little more. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like to leave…thankfully I have plenty of time and days like this before then. :)

Vanakkam

Just a touch behind..

2011-06-07T11:04:00.001-06:00

I realize I am really sucking with the whole blogging thing....oops. But in my defense it has been SUPER busy here at RSO. I have many posts in the works but for now I will post this video to hold you over (even though I don't think anyone is anxiously awaiting my next blog post).

This is from the overnight trip I literally just got back from. To answer the obvious questions:

Yes, this is the medical clinic and volunteers at a leprosy colony
Yes, this is typically how we do things at RSO
Yes, we are set-up on an open air patio
Yes, it is pouring down rain and there is booming thunder in the background

Sorry about the crazy camera skills....it was all very tense, hence my fast camera movements.

Vanakkam

Sunday = FUNday

2011-05-29T20:26:00.002-06:00

Wow, yesterday was a long and crazy day and there is lots to report so I'm just gonna get right down to it. We started the day bright and early--we left campus at 6am. Sunday was a big day because the first session of volunteers were here. This first session is an all medical session so things are a little different than normal. We had four vans and a car in use to get everyone picked-up and either taken to church or back to RSO. So, the five coordinators (Kim 1, Kim 2, Derek, CJ, and myself) were up and out the door at 6. Vel was our driver and Shaun Kar and Vikram were in the van with us. On the way to Chennai (which is about 2 hours away) we had Vel stop so we could get jasmine flowers for all the girls to welcome them. Vel and Shankar went to get the flowers and while they were buying them they got another surprise--balloons! They had decided it would be a good idea to blow up balloons and hang them from the ceiling of the van. All of the drivers at RSO are so great and nice and absolutely LOVE the volunteers. So, the rest of the way to Chennai was spent blowing up balloons, tying them together, and taping them to the ceiling of the car...all while Vel was still driving. It was seriously great to have such a fun time with the drivers tossing balloons around the car and hanging them up--I just love them all.

Shankar: master balloon tyer

Vel--you know he's a skilled driver when he can talk on the phone AND look back for a picture all while driving.

CJ, Kim 1, Vikram, Shankar, Derek and myself in the decked out bus.

We were just finishing hanging all the balloons when we finally reached the Marriott. We were all so excited to meet all the volunteers and show them just how amazing RSO is. We picked up the volunteers, loaded up the luggage, and went on our way to church. The branch we go to in Chennai (there are three branches total in the city) has some really amazing people that I am excited to get to know while I am here for the next year. There was a baptism that day so we were all able to see one of the young members get baptized. It was a great experience especially because Vikram had gone to church with us that day and was able to see someone get baptized. Vikram has been reading the Book of Mormon and is interested in the church. He told me at the end of all three meetings that his first day at church was the best day. Vikram is one of my favorite people at RSO and it was awesome to see him loving church and wanting to come back.

Once the baptism was over we headed back to RSO campus. We did orientation for the volunteers, gave them a little tour of the hostel and campus, and had dinner on the roof with banana leaves. I had been missing this essential part of RSO so it felt so amazing to be doing it again. After dinner, we took the volunteers over to family time with the kids. it was amazing to see the volunteers connecting with the kids and having similar experiences to what I had last year. I know they will come to love the kids just as much as I do.

Well, that was basically the whole day. Still have tons of bug bites but I'm getting used to it. The kids are still wonderful and beautiful, and I'm very excited to really start working with the volunteers--it's going to be a great summer!

Vanakkam

THE CHILDREN ARE HERE!

2011-05-29T10:59:00.001-06:00

I want to shout it to all the world, "THE CHILDREN ARE HERE!!" My absolute favorite part of RSO is the children. Their little spirits bring the whole campus to life. I was very nervous, though, that the kids would not remember me. So many volunteers come through every summer I was expecting a lot of the kids to have completely forgotten who I was. It didn't help matter any that if they did remember me, it would be the me with long, blonde hair...not the me with super short brown hair. One of the other coordinators, Kim, told me something, though, that made me stop worrying. She told me that even if they don't remember me from before, I'm here for them know and they will just meet me and love me all over again.

With this sage wisdom, I approached Saturday with a bright and excited outlook. I was busy all morning helping Derek and Kim get stuff ready for the volunteers to come on Sunday, so I didn't make it over to the hostel to around 2:00pm. I went into the girls hostel looking for someone who may remember me....I recognized and remembered a few of the girls but they did not remember me. I started getting a little discouraged until I looked down and a small face was smiling up at me. I didn't recognize who it was in the first instant, but she definitely did. Her eyes lit up when I looked at her and she said, "You are back! I have missed you!" and hugged me as tight as can be around my waist. It was beautiful little Priya, but she was not as little anymore (see video on "Commence India Countdown post). She had grown quite a bit taller and her hair had grown as well, which is why it took me a second to realize it was her. Once I placed her, though, my heart soared. She had remembered me!! Priya is a child that connects and interacts with all the volunteers, she loves them all, so for her to remember me was something I was not expected. After we hugged and I told her I had missed her as well she asked why I had cut my hair and recalled the crazy trip to the hospital we took last year (if there was a lingering doubt she confused me with someone else it was definitely gone now). Even though I had prepared myself to not get down if the kids forgot me, it made me feel SO HAPPY that I had been remembered by someone. As the day wore on and I saw more and more kids, I was surprised by how many could place my face. They could not remember my name, but the recognition and memories from last summer were there.

Being at playtime with the kids was, just like last year, the highlight of my day. All of the children are so loving and kind, and being able to play and interact with them everyday makes me happier than just about anything else. They make RSO the incredible organization it is. I can't wait to continue reconnecting with the kids I knew from last year as well as meeting all the others (it is my goal to memorize all the children's names by the end of summer). I love these kids so much and it is a dream come true to be able to be with them again.

Vanakkam

More to come soon on the volunteers arrival and the start of the medical session!

Also! Friends and Family: if you sponsor a child and would like an informal, quick video of said child, let me know and I will make one with them during playtime or something :)

How about a little boating?

2011-05-29T10:29:00.001-06:00

Today was a really great day. Robinson, the Indian director of RSO (literally he is in charge of all native employees), planned a big outing today for all the staff of RSO. Teacher training has finished and things have been starting to fall into place with the school and hostels, so this day off was much needed and was a sort of celebration for all the hard work we have been putting in. We left campus at 8:00am and drove to Kovalam, a beach city about two hours east of us. I didn't know what to expect from boating in India--a big yacht? a canoe? a rowboat? Who knows! What it ended up being was little motorboats (each seated between 8 and 10) that we rode around a big lake. It took about 5 boats to fit all the RSO staff and current volunteers. I was in a boat with the other coordinators, Jim and Pam Gates (the managing directors) and Vikram (the go-to-guy in the office who does everything from passport information to buying fruit). It was EXTREMELY hot outside but it was so fun seeing all the staff relaxed and having so much fun together.

Lovely teachers boarding the boats

SO EXCITED!!!

WE SAW WATER BUFFALOS!!!

Please let me know ASAP if this video actually plays as porn...this happened to me last year.

The lake smelled horrible but it was completely worth it. :)

After the lovely boat ride, we stopped at...wait for it.....a crocodile zoo!!!!! It actually wasn't technically called "crocodile zoo" but that's basically what it was. There were TONS of crocodiles separated by species into various habitats. It was so crazy because some of them were HUGE!! It was just another great part of the outing day with the staff.

Did you know crocodiles could jump?? This was new to me....thankfully they have this beautifully illustrated sign.

A very small portion of all the crocs.

Yet another very informative and well illustrated sign.

I was scared...can you see the croc in the background?

These four ALWAYS brighten my day: Thani ka, TJ, Vel, and Shaun Kar

After the crocodile zoo, we went to the beach city Mammalapurum. I went to this city last year and saw all the ruins and sites then so this was a very chill visit. We had lunch with the Gates and Robinson's family and then just took time to wander the streets and window shop. All of the teachers and staff during this time went to the beach and swam in the ocean. One of the many things I love about Indian people is that they swim in whatever clothes they are wearing that day. All the teachers got in the ocean in their saris and had an amazing time playing in the waves, chatting with each other, and just generally having a great day off.

Our outing finally came to an end and we all came home exhausted. One thing that has been so great about teacher training and going to this outing is that I know a lot of the teachers and staff now and I feel very comfortable with them. I don't know what it is about Rising Star, but every person that they hire is wonderful!! All the drivers, teachers, groundstaff, office staff, EVERYONE, is just plain great. I am so blessed and grateful to be working with such amazing people for the next year of my life. It's going to be a good year. :)

Vanakkam

p.s. I am really behind on blogging--the kids have already come, as well as, the first set of volunteers.....I will try to catch up asap, cause it's only gonna get busier.

The Calm Before the Storm

2011-05-25T05:56:00.001-06:00

Life at RSO is already busy, busy, busy and the summer volunteers haven't even arrived yet! Sunday, my first full day on campus, was spent unpacking, organizing my room, and generally settling in. I met three of the other summer coordinators, Derek, Kim, and Kim. As well as a long-term volunteer that has been here since the beginning of April (who is oddly enough named April). By late Sunday afternoon, I was already working.

The other coordinators have been hard at work getting the volunteer hostel ready for everyone to start coming, meeting all of the various contacts they will be using throughout the summer, preparing transportation for the coming volunteers....and the list goes on and on. Normally, I would be working with them more closely in the tasks they have been assigned since I am also a summer coordinator, but instead I have been working with April in the school. Celina, the director of education for RSO, was supposed to arrive in India before me...I have been in India for four days and it's looking like she won't be here anytime soon. Because Celina is not here, April has stepped in as the temporary director of education and I have become her assistant/right arm. We both have been planning and teaching the teacher training course as well as, getting the teachers their class schedules, getting class rosters, preparing for registration, figuring out where the textbooks are, and a zillion other things that Celina was originally going to do that have now fallen to April and myself. I LOVE that I have been able to start working with the teachers and doing teacher training right off the bat. Teacher training was one of the main things I wanted to do when I came to RSO and, lo and behold, it's the first thing I get to do.

Now, let me explain why RSO needs teacher training. In India, all classes are taught through rote memorization ( a teacher standing at the front of the classroom reading from the book with the students following along and repeating after they read). As is plain to Americans and a lot of western society, this is not the most effective teaching method. Through this teacher training program, we are trying to help the teachers learn new, creative ways to approach their classes this year. All of the teachers are wonderful and very open to the new methods....we just hope that they take the methods we are teaching them and actually use them in the classroom. Doing teacher training now has also been great because I am building relationships with the RSO teachers right from the start. They all know who I am now so when I am working in the school with the other volunteers or when I switch to being a teacher coordinator after the summer, they will know who I am and will be more open to me working in their classes and with their students. This whole week doing all of Celina's leg work has been a great way for me to get to know the school and how it is run.

Kala, Fathima, Leema Rose, and Rajalakshmi--some of RSO's amazing teachers

Kumar, Uvaraj, Kala, Leema Rose, Rajalakshmi, and Fathima discovering what learning style they are

Leema Rose, Rajalakshmi Uvaraj, Kumar, Dhamaseskaran, and Karthiravan enjoying the intro to Gardner's multiple intelligences

Anjeli, Ragakumari, and Shama - they're just great :)

Well, other than teacher training and work there is not much else to report. Rising Star is as peaceful and special as ever. The frogs are out and hoppin, I have a zillion bug bites, the power goes out often, the bucket showers are amazing (and that isn't sarcasm I seriously love them), they killed a snake in the bushes today and showed us it's dead body, I don't stop sweating till I am in my room for the night...I love it. It's exactly where I want to be. :)

First Volunteers arrive in 4 days

RSO Kids arrive in 3 days

As crazy as we are right now....this is definitely the calm before the storm.

Vanakkam

Let the Journey Begin

2011-05-22T01:15:00.001-06:00

Well, everyone....I've made it. I am officially blogging from Rising Star Outreach in India. My year-long adventure has finally started!!! I have unpacked, showered (thankfully), and am settling in to what will be my life for the next 12 months.

Every great journey or adventure starts with travel. I can't help but feel like I'm in an Indiana Jones movie when I'm taking all these different flights--jumping from one place to the next (you know in the movies when he flies and it shows the red line with the plane going from each place he has stopped?). Thankfully, I was able to get from Las Vegas to Chennai with very little problems. The journey started in Vegas where there was a little trouble getting on a flight from Vegas to Chicago. You see, unlike last year, I traveled stand-by this year through my Uncle Gary. It was his graduation present to me and I couldn't be more grateful. The thing with stand-by, though, is that it deals with the extremes--you can either get on the flight first-class or not make it at all. We knew from the get-go that getting from Vegas to Chicago would be the hardest part of the trip. I tried and failed to get on the 5:30pm flight on Thursday but thankfully was able to get on the red-eye to Chicago that night (and I only got on that flight cause Gary was with me and was able to work some serious magic and save me a seat). I arrived in Chicago at 5:45am and had a whooping 10.5 hours to kill before my next flight to Delhi. I had toyed with the idea of the leaving the airport for a bit and either wandering the city or getting a hotel room to sleep for awhile (red-eyes are a killer). After talking to a gate agent and hearing that security at O'Hare takes 2 HOURS to get through...I quickly nixed that plans. I hate going through security with a passion so the thought of waiting 2 hours for it was an automatic answer to my question. On a side note: the power went out as I was typing just now...gotta love India :).

Anyways, since I decided not to leave I spent the 10.5 hours wandering the terminal, finding a bench to sleep on, sleeping on said bench, playing on the computer, eating, and just about anything else I could think of to occupy my time at O'Hare. When the time came, though, for my flight to Delhi...the tension came like a ton of bricks. It's a 15 hours flight from Chicago to Delhi and I was REALLY REALLY hoping to get either first or business class through stand-by. The chances looked ok but you never really know until you get that golden ticket. So I sat anxiously staring at the gate attendants--willing them to call my name and re-book me. Finally...they called me up to be re-booked....and guess who was sitting in seat 3J in first class, yep, yours truly. Best. Flight. Ever. I had my own little cubicle complete with a swiveling chair that reclined into a bed. I spent 15 hours being waited on, eating gourmet food (dinner had 4 courses and was served on glass plates with multiple forks and knives), watching movies, lounging in my chair, and sleeping. 15 hours have never gone by so fast. As I was leaving I tried to take a few pics of my first class cubicle:

View from the back--you can see the ottoman, chair, and desk that the video screen popped up from.

Chair swiveled three directions: straight front, diagonal (to lay back in the bed) and sideways towards the window and this lovely desk.

Yep, my cubicle even had a coat rack, as well as, comforter and pillow.

Airplane chair from Heaven. Love. It.

Check out the leg room!!

As you can see, it was ridiculously legit. But sadly after 15 hours I had to get back to reality and catch one more flight from Delhi to Chennai. I got through customs, rechecked my bags, and got to my gate without a hitch...until I heard the flight was delayed. I should have figured as much, nothing in India runs on time, but still it surprised me and made me even more tired than I already was. I realized, though, that this delay could potentially mess-up my pick-up with the Rising Star driver in Chennai--would he wait for me? Would I be stranded at the airport? I had no idea. I spent the entire three hour flight to Chennai stressing over this and devising a plan if the driver indeed was not there. We landed an hour and 40 minutes after our scheduled time. After getting all my luggage I quickly went outside to see if I had a means of getting to Rising Star. My flight was the only one that got in at that time and I was the only non-Indian on the flight, so I stuck out like a sore-thumb which made me even MORE nervous and anxious. I got outside the door: no driver. A little bit more panicky. I walked along outside looking but still no sign (don't worry Mom I didn't leave the airport). Finally I asked a policeman stationed outside if there was another place where drivers may be. The policeman didn't speak English, but, thankfully, an Indian man leaving the airport did. He asked me if I was looking for a driver and after I told him I was, he walked me to where the drivers waited for passengers (it was at the exit which is why I didn't see them before cause I knew better than to leave the airport by myself at 1:30am). Sure enough, the Rising Star driver (Sankel) was waiting there with my name on a sign.

We loaded everything into the Rising Star van and as soon as I sat down I felt instant relief. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders that I had been carrying since I left Las Vegas--I was completely safe. I didn't have to be on guard, keeping all my belongings within eye-shot. This feeling of safety brought me back to a quote, "Someone once said that this is the place where everything's better and everything's safe". If you recognize this quote, you are a One Tree Hill fan like myself. Yep, I'm talking about One Tree Hill from the CW. Janelle and I spent the last month before I left cramming in seasons 7 and 8 so I could be up to date when I left, so the series is still very prevalent in my mind. That mind kept playing through my head as I drove the hour and a half from the airport to Rising Star's campus. To me, Rising Star fits that quote perfectly--it's the place that is better and safer than anywhere else in India. Pulling into the campus, I couldn't help feel like I was coming home. After 2 days of wandering airports and catching flights I had finally made it home. Granted, it's not as good as my real home in Vegas with my family...but this will definitely do for the next year. :)

Vanakkam

Five Days

2011-05-16T01:16:00.001-06:00

Five Days...

And I will get to see all of these beautiful faces in person

I can't wait :)

Vanakkam

Dancers Making a Difference 2011

2011-04-02T11:43:00.000-06:00

I am often asked how I got involved with Rising Star Outreach and their work in India--it was actually through my mom. My mom heard Becky Douglas (RSO's founder) speak at Education Week on BYU campus about four years ago. My mom was very touched by Becky's work in India and her whole story of how she started Rising Star. Being the proactive woman she is, my mom decided she wanted to help out Rising Star and put on a benefit dance concert to help raise money for them. She contacted two other local studios (Inspire Dance Company and The Dance Zone) as well as some of the professional dancers she knows and, from there the Dancers Making a Difference benefit concert was born.

This past Monday was the third annual Dancers Making a Difference benefit concert in Las Vegas. The same three studios that started the event all participated, as well as dancers from Viva Elvis! (a Cirque show on the Strip), the chu.this contemporary dance company, and Earl and Aaron Turner. My mom normally hosts the show, but because of recent events and the fact that she was sick she asked me to do it. I am glad to report I did not fall on my face or say anything too stupid. Besides all of the performances the speakers included Becky Douglas and Stacey Tookey (who, since the first DMD concert, has gotten very involved with RSO and even gone to India to work with them). It was a beautiful night and we were able to raise around $12,000 for Rising Star. Here are some pics from the evening:

Myself, my mom, and Stacey Tookey after the event. Gotta love all the Indian garb.

the madre and I after the event

Stacey Tookey, myself, Becky Douglas, and my mom--I am proud to be in a pic with such amazing women. Girl Power!!

Countdown to India: 1 month and 18 days....craziness

Vanakkam!

What is Rising Star?

2011-03-15T22:53:00.001-06:00

This is a question I get fairly often. Rising Star Outreach is not one of the big NGO's that work in several countries and have major offices and recruit at college campuses all over the USA. In a way, Rising Star is a homegrown organization that came about after Becky Douglas saw the horrible state of the leprosy-affected in India. For all of those that are still curious as to what exactly it is that Rising Star does, here is a short 7 minute video that was made during a recent volunteer session at Rising Star's campus (Stacey Tookey from So You Think You Can Dance and David Archuleta were both part of this volunteer session).

I realize I say this all the time, but volunteering with Rising Star is a life changing experience. I am counting down the days until I can go back and start working with the children and leprosy-affected again.

2 months and 4 days until I leave people!!! This is crunch time :)

Vanakkam

Selvaraj

2011-02-27T23:41:00.001-07:00

The Story of Selvaraj:

"My village is Malasakkadu. I used to ride a buffalo cart. I was 12 years old when I found bumps in my body.Then I got rashes and it would not go away. I was riding a buffalo cart and my arms used to hurt. Then my eyes and mouth drooped and I was almost on my deathbed." In 1993 Selvaraj was forced to leave his village and family as a result of his developing Leprosy. He was treated, but due to his deformities he became shunned from all society. In his words "My family abused me and asked me to get lost. They hated me." Selvaraj became a beggar, sitting in the train stations and asking alms. After a while he learned about one of the colonies for leprosy patients and has been living there ever since.

Selvaraj's story is representative of many of the leprosy-afflicted that reside in the colonies in India. Cast out of their homes and villages and shunned by their families, lepers are looked upon as less than human.

They are referred to as "untouchables".

I have not had the pleasure of meeting Selvaraj, but of the leprosy-afflicted I have met, I would describe them as such:

generous

kind

gracious

humble

thankful

musical

joyous

raucous

playful

funny

loving

happy

optimistic

beautiful

In reality, they are anything but "untouchable"

Vanakkam

Love, Love, Love.

2011-02-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

Having just seen the Cirque Beatles' show, LOVE, this weekend and it being the month of love and what not, I have decided to do a post dedicated to all the things I love about India/Rising Star:

Reading to the kiddos

Helping to write sponsorship letters (which will be my primary job upon my return)

Impromptu dance parties in the leprosy colonies

The Mango Grove

Playtime :)

Chuddidhars (you might as well be wearing pajamas all day they are so comfy)

Just Dance 2....oh wait...it has nothing to do with India....

I can't help it. I LOVE Just Dance 2.

RA RA RASPUTIN!

Vanakkam!

Commence India Countdown: 3 months and approx. 5 days...

2011-02-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well you may have noticed that I am about as consistent with blogging as Lindsay Lohan is with rehab (if this reference isn't understandable to you I'm just trying to say I'm really inconsistent). It's been about 5 months since my last post and my return to India is fast approaching. I can hardly wait to squeeze all my little Indian babies and see their cute smiling faces again! They are the best children in the world, hands down....seriously, they are way better than your kids. Because my return is coming up so quickly I, again, find myself in the process of visa applications, immunizations, finding parasite medications and all the other lovely aspects involved with traveling to a country like India. After last summer's adventure I find myself a much more knowledgeable traveler, which makes preparations that much easier. Here are a few of the things that I am making sure to bring/do this time around to avoid some of the...inconveniences...I experienced after my last trip:

Cutting all my hair off: I didn't realize before my last trip what a big problem lice is in India, particularly for the kids at Rising Star's campus. I am NOT taking any chances this time around--boy hair is definitely forthcoming.
Chocos/Tevas: My shoes of choice during my last India trip were my Rainbow flip flops...they barely survived three weeks. Because of this I am breaking down and getting chocos. Don't fret, I will not be wearing them with socks and I won't even wear them in the States, they are just another necessity while living in India.
Parasite Medication/Preventatives: So the month of November I was really busy and stressed and I started feeling sick. I went to the family accupuncturist over Thanksgiving and lo and behold I had a very large tapeworm--my second parasite from my trip to India. Perry (my tapeworm) was a great companion, actually, and helped me to lose weight and cut back on the holiday treats...I just don't ever want to have a friend like him again.
Miniature Flashlight: Power in India is spotty at best and the walk between the children's hostel and the volunteer hostel at night when the power is out is not one of my favorite things. Rising Star's campus is 2 hours outside of Chennai in a very rural area. When there is no power and the path isn't lit there are all kinds of critters you could run into. To remedy this situation I will be constantly packing my miniature flashlight to help me out whenever the power isn't working...it will get a lot of use.

When listing and thinking about all the crazy things I went through and "acquired" from my last India trip, I can't help but wonder, Why am I leaving my friends and family and going back to India again?? Well, that question is actually very easy to answer,

Moment like that are all the reason I need :)

Vanakkam

Introducing...Mahalakshmi!

2010-09-13T23:10:00.001-06:00

Two blog posts in less than a week?!?! Oh my gaahhhh!!! (please go watch the Doorbells sketch from SNL to hear exactly how this is supposed to sound). Anyways, I was looking through my blog today (bored in class as usual) and I realized that there are hardly any pictures or videos in the last few entries. Just lots and lots of writing...I am no J.K. Rowling so this is most likely really boring. Because of this, I have decided to slowly start adding videos from India that I have never uploaded to my blog. I tried to upload these videos while I was there but for some reason the transfer from India to the USA caused my videos to show up as porn...needless to say I didn't try to load anymore videos. BUT now that I am back in the states I figure it is worth a shot so here it goes.

The videos I will be posting the next few weeks, months, etc. highlight the children at Rising Star and will hopefully tug at your heartstrings enough that you will want to sponsor one of these adorable little faces. I already got one friend to commit to sponsoring a child (Mike you're the best!) and I would love for more people to be able to take part in this wonderful program and help give these children an education. I can almost guarantee you will get as much, if not more, out of this program than the kids. Yes, they are that awesome.

This first video is of a little girl at Rising Star named Mahalakshmi. She is in first standard and very special to me. If you have been keeping up with my blog you will notice that she is mentioned several times and even referred to as my child--I. Love. This. Girl. It's a short and simple video but who can resist that face??

That's all for now!

Vanakkam! (I just figured out I have been spelling this wrong)

Four!!

2010-09-10T10:44:00.003-06:00

Hello all! I am back in the blogospheere and excited to let you all stalk my life! That sounds sarcastic but I really am addicted to blogging and LOVE hearing about people that like to follow and read my blog--so keep on reading! School has started and life is getting back into the same old pattern of school and work, school and work. I am actually typing this blog while I sit in my three hour assessment class. This is my last year at BYU and to be honest I am SO ready to be done! Five years is a long time to be at one school. I am also anxious to get back to India working and playing with the kids and all the people there--it's really making these last two semesters seem really long...at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Well, since I haven't blogged in so long, I have yet another Rising Star experience to share. The week before school started, Rising Star held a charity golf tournament in Heber, Utah. Shawn Bradley (the former NBA player) hosted the event and it included some amazing prizes (they were giving away a Harley and a boat!), food catered by Cafe Rio, and a President's Brunch where Becky Douglas, Rising Star's founder, spoke and told Rising Star's story. Amy Antonelli set-up the event and had asked former volunteers if they could come and help serve and work the event. It was really fun to volunteer because Audrey and Soren and Dani (some of the other volunteers from when I was in India) were also there volunteering and it was great to see them and work with them again. We arrived at the event bright and early and were able to help set-up the tent where the brunch would take place and register the players as they arrived. The whole event was VERY nice and the players really got some great stuff (each player got a golf shirt and a swag bag filled with goodies). On a random note, I worked at the registration table and I was able to register and meet LaVell Edwards--the BYU football LEGEND! (I was tempted to tell him that I live down the street from his stadium but thought that would be weird and irrelevent). After I finished registering players, another volunteer and I worked as witnesses at hole 15 to see if anyone got a hole-in-one. The prize for getting a hole-in-one at this hole was a Harley Davidson motorcycle so it was important to know for sure if a player really won the prize. This was a relaxing job because we got to sit in camping chairs out in the sun all day....this was not an easy job because it was blazing hot and we were in all black and we had to keep an eye out for balls to make sure they didn't hit us (a couple got really close). Even with these elements and the eventual sunburn, it was fun to do and now I can say I have worked as a witness at a golf tournament! After this job, I went back to the main tent and helped to serve the players lunch. Becky and Shawn Bradley both spoke and it was a great culmination to the event. I helped breakdown the tent before heading home. I love working and helping Rising Star and the whole golf tournament was a great success and was a wonderful day for me.

This is myself and Amy with Shawn Bradley. He is just as nice as he is tall :)

Well, that's all for now. More posts to come soon!

Vannacom!

The Aftermath aka Life after RSO

2010-07-22T11:32:00.000-06:00

Well it has now been over a month now since I left RSO. I have gone back to work, started school, gone to Vegas and back, saw Justin Bieber in concert (he was AWESOME!), and done a variety of other things that one does during the lazy summer days. I was sick for a few weeks upon returning home from India but thankfully I got through it and am good as new! School will be starting in about a month and life is about to get back to it's crazy normal self. I have had requests from a few people to keep my blog going even though I'm home from India and I am going to try my best to do so. :) I had no idea people actually wanted to be kept updated on my life! Who knew!?
Since I have been back I have had time to reflect on my time in India and what a truly amazing experience it was. Besides coming home sick I also came home with an intense feeling of guilt. Coming home and seeing my excessive amount of clothes (I love clothes), shoes, books, etc. I felt ashamed to have surrounded myself with so many things that are not necessary. I couldn't even bring myself to go grocery shopping! (I hate grocery shopping anyways so this just added to my dislike of it). I kept thinking to myself that the children and people in India had so little and yet were able to still lead lives filled with happiness, love, laughter, and family. I kept thinking to myself, "If they can be happy with nothing why can't I?" These guilty feelings began to ebb by the end of my first week home but they have changed me for the better, though. As mentioned before I love clothes and I love to shop but since going to India the thrill has lessened. Don't get me wrong, I would still never turn down a girl's shopping day but I have found that having so much is not necessary and that my money could be much better spent elsewhere--like sponsoring a child from Rising Star. side note: EVERYONE SHOULD SPONSOR A CHILD FROM RISING STAR OUTREACH!! They are the most wonderful kids you will ever meet and they love their sponsors so much and appreciate all they do.
My trip to India this summer, overall, was a life changing experience. To know that every single thing you did during the day was in the service of someone else is a high like none other. I now understand when returned missionaries talk about the wonderful since of purpose they felt during their mission--knowing that everything they did was important. That is how I felt while working for Rising Star. I know everything I did there was important and appreciated and that the people are forever grateful to all the volunteers they come in contact with. I can hardly wait until I am able to go back next summer! I guess I should probably mention that I have taken a position with Rising Star after I graduate to be their sponsorship director in India! I haven't figured out the details yet but I know I will be going back to India after April graduation to see and work with all the wonderful people there. I am so excited to go back and continue working with Rising Star to help the leprosy-affected in India. It's an amazing work that I am proud to be apart of.

Vannacom!