Many Happy Returns of the Day

"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!

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!

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"

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

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....

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

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