Celebration

An Indian celebration to remember.

My Grandfather conducting the first half of the meeting and Manjala the school principal translating.

Congratulations Dad - Wish you could have been there

As well as being the dedication of the new buildings today was more importantly parents day. Once a month usually the first saturday of the month the parents come from the colonies to visit their children. It was so amazing to watch the children, who I have grown to love interact with there families. It was amazing to see each of the children join their families and be so happy.

Final Preparations

Wow is about all I can say. I am so grateful for the amazing blessings that I have been given. My trip to India is one of those blessings. It has been amazing getting to know my 180 cousins that called my Grandparents "Grandma and Grandpa". I feel so humbled and blessed each day as I interact with the people of India. The Indian people are so happy and joyful through all of their pain and hardship. Today was an amazing day that I wish would never end. It started with a 6 o'clock wake up call to watch "The Rock" be unloaded. As is typical in India 6 o'clock turned to 8 o'clock but "The Rock" arrived. It was a 2 ton chunk of granite that will sit in the entryway of the school with a statue on top. Unfortunately we left as the real unloading began but it was going to be no easy task for the working men.

Today I had the opportunity to travel to a small leprosy colony that we refer to as Mute. Mute is amazing on so many levels. Firstly, there are only 7 patients left in the colony that started with 30. Over the last few years that Rising Star has worked with this colony more and more people have passed away. Most of the 7 patients are horribly crippled by the affects of leprosy. Despite their pain and hardships they are the happiest people I have ever met.

The drive is hard about 2 hours - but it is beautiful rice feilds the whole way.

This man was the life of the colony in every sense of the word. He spoke English fairly well so we were able to communicate on some level. Personally, I preferred our dancing attempts. He would dance then look at me to reply because I got off the van dancing and he noticed my apparent skills or lack there of.

This woman is incredible. She lives in the colony with her husband who is also affected with leprosy. She has one foot and a very hard time getting from place to place. She is extremely friendly and generous behind her house she has created a bird sanctuary. The sanctuary is full of bird baths and each day she gives the birds some of her small supply of rice.

Another generous and happy woman. Upon our arrival she quickly gave each of the woman a bindi for our foreheads.

Pulling into the Rising Star campus after a day away was amazing. The block made it to its spot and it looks fantastic. The entire campus had changed because of the hard work from the children. Post with string tied between had been placed up all over campus throughout the day. On the string the children were hanging individual crate paper flags and underneath were grass wind-mill type decorations. The campus was completely transformed as everyone gets ready for the dedication tomorrow. It is about 10:30 as I write this and most of the workers are enduring there second sleepless night as they work on the Rising Star campus. We were just pulled out of our rooms to mop and sweep the Dinning Block. Finally the chairs and flower guys arrived at 9 p.m. instead of the promised 10 a.m. so they will be working through the night.

Everyone put in a long day of work. Tomorrow will make it all worth it.

Bharathapuram

Today I went out to my first Leprosy Colony to actually do medical work. We had most of the 25 plus volunteers out with us at the colony it was a big group but it was fun and we each had something to do. We rotated between three stations washing feet (which was my job most of the day), checking blood pressure, and checking diabetes with Dr. Kumar. Others were helping the two nurses, Pushpaw and Navimani, administer bandages or distribute medical supplies.

Bharathapuram isn't so much a leprosy colony anymore rather than a small village. It is probably the nicest colony that Rising Star works with. Rising Star has been working with Bharathapuram the longest and you can tell - they have all kinds of different micro-loans and other means to bring money into the colony. The art school is a perfect example as well as a carpenter-shop, and small food store. The colony has really grown and Rising Star volunteers have helped to build different things for the colony. Last summer they built out-houses and they are currently working on building a community center.

You are always meeting new people in India - Abby Read a fellow volunteer this is here third trip to India she has been every summer for the last three years.

A few years ago near the time of a new election one of the candidates provided Satelite t.v.s to a majority of India - it felt out of place in Bharathapuram.

Working

Today I finally did manual labor. I have been watching the other volunteers spreading the track all week from the comfort of the school. Today, I helped to spread three large piles of dirt with basically two small metal plates. It definitely made me realize how grateful I am for tools. A wheelbarrow and shovel would have made the job a lot easier. We only got through about 1 and 1/2 of the piles despite working all day.

I wasn't the only one working on campus today.

A Tour of Rising Star

Rising Star opened its first house in 2004 with 26 kids in a rented house, 6 years later the vision of Rising Star has grown and so has the campus. This is just a little tour of the campus at Rising Star.

Standing in front of the girls hostel or rooms. The Indian tent on the roof is where all the volunteers, coordinators, and directors eat dinner.

The boys hostel, my grandparents apartment is in the basement near the kitchen. There are constantly little boys stopping by to say hello - I love it. My grandparents cozy little apartment where they have been living for the past two years.

The new dinning hall that will be dedicated at the end of this week.

The kitchen is amazing - (Suz you would love it) - it will be an amazing cafeteria size kitchen.

Rising Star School

The children at their morning assembly

The nice computer lab in the school. This school is set up to be a complete secondary school it has a library that they are working to fill with all kinds of books, and a large room that will eventually be a high school science lab.

The Volunteer Hostel (Block)

The hostel is amazing and a huge step up from any accommodations before this year.

This is considered the office it is full of everything but especially clothes for the volunteers - it is like our community closet.

Our own kitchen for when we can't handle any more rice and curry aka Indian food.

The bathroom is amazing it is probably the nicest bathroom on campus. The interesting thing is that the Volunteer Block bathroom has all traditional squatting bathrooms while the school has all Western toilets for the children.

Art

Everyone at Rising Star is working hard to get ready for the dedication of the new buildings on campus. The Rising Star campus has completely grown and changed over the last year largely because of the work my Grandparents have been doing. It will be amazing to see the dedicatory celebration Saturday July 10th and really complete the work they have been doing. This morning I was in the new school building hanging pictures of the students in the entry way. After spending the morning hanging pictures I had the opportunity to travel to the Bindu Art School.

The Bindu Art School is an art school started in a leprosy colony to help the depressed patients express themselves. They are amazing works of art and it was great to see how it has changed these people and their colony. This was one of the first colonies that Rising Star began working in and it doesn't even look like a leprosy colony it is more of a village.

Sunday with the Boys

Up early for the two hour drive into Chennai for church. We attended one of the branches in Chennai and it was a wonderful meeting. The Indian people are so kind and it was fun to meet those in the branch who have spent a lot of time with my grandparents. We arrived back at Rising Star around 3 p.m. where we were visited by a few of the boys. I finally learned some of their names because the group was smaller - we then spent a lot of the afternoon taking picture on my computer. Later in the evening I walked into the Village with my grandparents to see the new house of a family that works for Rising Star. The house is in the process of being finished but they have run out of money to finish the house. It was really hard breaking because their house is more of a shed by our standards anyway. It just helped to remind me of the blessings we receive living in America.

We Have Arrrived

We pulled into the Rising Star Campus this morning at our scheduled time - 12 noon. The trip here was less than what we expected. I knew i was in trouble when the first plane of the day from Salt Lake to Chicago felt like days - it was three hours. In Chicago i met up with my grandparents which made me feel a lot better about traveling across the world, also they brought me a pass into the Business Lounge - thank you Business class. Once in Frankfort our real problems started. I had only been printed a boarding pass to Frankfort and had been told multiple times that once in Frankfort i needed to get another boarding pass. At the ticket office in Frankfort i am told that the flight has been over booked and i won't receive a boarding pass - i am not getting on the plane to Chennai. Once getting rerouted and having to make my Grandparents give up their seats we were scheduled for a later flight through Mumbi and would be spending the night in the airport. We were supposed to arrive in Chennai 10 hours earlier and spend the night at the Marriott instead we got no sleep at the airport in Mumbi. It was pouring rain the whole time we were there - Monsoon season. We did arrive though and Rising Star is amazing!