Thursday, Day 3

Today was a great day. I feel like I am getting closer with a few of the kids because they are opening up to me and I to them.

My group was assigned to tutor in the school today. Each time I do it I enjoy it more. I really love spending time with these kids, they are all so special and unique. I tutored Rosy twice today, reading and math. She struggles with reading, she doesn't have a very big vocabulary. We read "The Boy Who cried Wolf". I had to explain a lot of words to her such as "angry" or "meadow". Although she could read most of the words, she struggled with comprehension. So we took turns reading and we spent some time talking about the story and explaining what was happening. And she was understanding! She wanted to finish the book to see how it ending. Later that day after we had finished her math we opened up a big animal encyclopedia. She was so intrigued and had never heard of many of the animals, like turtles! I really enjoyed the time I spent with her because I knew that she was learning and enjoying it. And added bonus, I introduced her to turtles :)

This is Peter. He is a super smart kid. He didn't even need my help with his math.

At break I played some hand games with these little girls. They love going back and forth saying the ABC's except for them it is, "yay, b, c". Haha.

I love the boys I am with during family time. They are always so happy and excited to play even the simplest of games. They love to use our flash lights to make a "light show" and dance around or play fight. I have also spent a lot of time helping with times table homework. I am super! "Super" is said all the time here instead of "great" or "awesome", except you have to say it with an accent, "sou-pear." :) Super!

This is a picture of a Tamil book. I just think it is really neat and the writing is beautiful. (Sorry it is sideways.)

The children are so lucky to being going to school here. It is a really loving environment and they are learning the two most important skills you can have here in India, English and computer skills. I am so blessed to be a part of this effort. I cannot wait to see where some of these kids are in 5 or 10 years.

Wednesday, Day 2

Today was hard work but very rewarding.

My group was doing construction today. We drove about an hour away to a leprosy colony where we will be building bathrooms for many of the villagers. This colony was the first that Padma (she is an Indian activist that works extensively with the leprosy-affected) worked with. It is doing very well, it is clean (as can be) and many of the villagers have microbusiness and a lot of them pain at the art school. It is currently the standard that the other colonies are aspiring toward. The first step of the project was to move about 2,000 bricks, about 500 to 4 different houses!
The first house is the one on the left. We moved the bricks behind the house. Through out the summer volunteers will be coming back to build a bathroom for them. It was hard work. Sweaty and hot and the bricks were heavy. But it was exciting to see our progress and my group is really great. The best was when we got some cold water! It was divine! The second best was when our group leader fell into a small water pool, we were all jealous that she got cooled off :) The people in the colony were so nice. They only speak Tamil so it was hard to communicate but we all smiled at each other.

This is the Bindu Art School. Many of the villagers paint and sell their work. I believe some of it has even toured around the world. All the paintings were so beautiful and it is amazing to think that most of these artists are working without fingers (lost because of leprosy). I set two aside that I am going to go back and buy!

That afternoon at playtime I brought my camera so the kids could play with it. They LOVE to take pictures and look at themselves. The following are some that they took.

Kids playing soccer. Look at the beautiful jungle!

This is Triti. She likes taking close up pictures of her face and me!

I loved going to the village today. It was amazing to see how much nicer it was than the surrounding villages because of the ability the villagers have to work and make some money. They are all so sweet and I am excited for my medical rotation when I can be with them one on one. These children are so lucky to be at Rising Star and going to school instead of sitting around in their villages. I already know I love them all!

Tuesday, Day 1

My first full day in India was very full.

I started off the day with yoga, on the roof, with the sun rising over India. It was the best! Even though it was only 7:30, I am sure it was already at least 80 degrees. It is not much hotter than a hot Virginia day, except it doesn't get much cooler at night here. (We do have ac in our rooms that we turn on at night, so nice!) I am guzzling water at every chance I get, but I am pretty sure it is just barely more than I am sweating out.

Today my group was assigned to help tutor the kids during school. We mostly helped with reading and occasionally math. I think they are doing a pretty good job reading in a second language but they still need a lot of work. This girl, I think her name is Mahalakshmi, didn't want to stop reading! For lunch we went to the cafeteria and ate with the kids. They all eat with their hands and clean every last morsel from their plates, it's amazing!

After tutoring, the volunteers have a bit of free time. And boy is the rest nice! It gives us a chance to cool down and rehydrate. Then we are off to play time again. It is very hot and the kids keep us busy, but it is so fun to play with them. (I wish I had more arms so I could push more than two kids at a time!)

Then we are off to dinner, my favorite! This is the view from the roof as we eat dinner and the sun sets. The big black tank to the right purifies our drinking water. The only problem is it is on the roof, in a black tank, this makes the water very hot out of the faucet, haha. (But at least I am not getting worms from drinking it!) After dinner, it was time to go back to the kids' rooms and help with homework. They do not have the luxury of printing worksheets for kids so homework consists of writing the times tables several times or copying sentences.

The day went by very fast and by the end I was ready to sleep. Overall, it was a good day to get a feel of what life will be like while I am staying here . . . I think I am going to like it :)

Arrival

After 24 hours of travel, I made it to India!

I met up with Alyssa in London and we flew together to chennai (sorry my capital "c" doesn't work). We arrived at 3:30 am (local time) and got all of our bags relatively quickly (thank goodness). Then we exited the airport and tried to find our driver in the midst of a ton of people waiting for their families to arrive. But we found him and he took us to the Marriott. The drive was insane! It was close to 5 am but there were still a lot of people around. It seems like the lines in the roads are merely there for decoration and honking every few seconds means "move out of the way I am going to squeeze between you (a scooter) and a big bus". Our room was very nice, unfortunately we could only sleep for 3 hours before we had to get up and catch our bus to RSO.

How many buses and scooters can we squish into two lanes?

cows are everywhere!

On the way to RSO.

Perry Matriculation School. This is where the students go to school.

I am on the top bunk.

After we settled in and changed into our "chudidars" we went to play time.

The kids are all so sweet and excited to see us. They call out, "Auntie, Auntie, come push me." Each night we eat dinner on the roof of the elephant house (where we sleep). It is so beautiful, we are surrounded by palm trees and lots of mango trees. And the Indian dinners are so delicious!!!! After dinner we go to the children's dorms and help them with homework and put them to bed. They sleep on mats on the floor and the littlest ones fall asleep right at 8 o'clock, all lined up in a row. :) We were all so tired that after our bucket showers we went straight to sleep.

I am on my way!

I am finally on my way to India!

I left Virginia last night, I am in London right now, and will arrive in India tomorrow morning.

I will be in India for three weeks working with the group Rising Star Outreach. Rising Star's mission is to help the leprosy colonies become thriving, self-sufficient communities. They are trying to accomplish this by 1) educating the children in a safe, healthy environment, 2) provide leprosy patients with their own small business through micro-finance, and 3) addressing the health challenges of the colonies with mobile medical clinics.

While I am there I will rotate between helping teach the children English, working on projects in the colonies, and traveling with the mobile medical clinic.

I am really excited for my upcoming adventure in India! I hope you will check back from time to time as I am planning on posting pictures and my experiences.

In the mean time, check out http://www.risingstaroutreach.org/history to explore their site and learn a little more

and watch a brief video introduction

and if you have an hour to spare, a really great documentary.

mary katherine