Delhi Tour - Day 1

On our last night, after all the goodbyes, we spent quite a bit of time cleaning the hostel and trying to figure out how we were going to fit all the stuff we bought into our suitcases.  After a few grueling hours of packing and cleaning a few of us attempted to get an hour or two of sleep before we had to be up and leaving by 3 a.m. to catch our 7 a.m. flight in Chennai to Delhi.  3 o'clock came way to early and we all walked and looked like zombies as we loaded the vans to head to the airport.  Driving through India in the middle of the night was significantly less stressful than during the daytime but still not relaxing enough to allow sleep.  Luckily when we arrived at the airport everything went about as smoothly as it could go for a group of almost 30 traveling together.  We only had one passport scare and one girl that had to pay overweight fees on her luggage.  We made it to our gate almost an hour early so we were looking forward to sitting down for while and maybe even taking a power nap.  Too bad there were only about 50 seats in the whole terminal.  We were smashed in between a lot of Indians who were staring at us shamelessly and we were practically piled on top of each other and our carry-ons as we not-so-patiently waited for the flight that would take us Delhi for a grand adventure.

Upon arrival in Delhi we were shocked and relieved to find that ALL of our luggage had made the journey.  Once we had all retrieved our bags we went outside to see our tour guides waiting for us with friendly faces and sign that read "Rising Star!" but not before we were followed through baggage claim by a large guard with an even larger gun.  :)  Our tour guides took us to the bus immediately where one of their daughters who was 3 years old put beautiful leis around our necks that she had made with her grandmother.  (The little girl was born in Hawaii if you're wondering what the connection to leis is.)  Our first stop was at a fabulous Indian restaurant where we were able to renew our opinion of Indian food.  It was a million times better than the stuff we had been eating for two weeks!!  I had the delicious butter chicken and garlic nan.  It was so amazing!  After resting and refueling we were back on the bus for a quick tour of Delhi.  We drove around the president's house and India Gate.  The president's house is undoubtedly bigger than my entire town and India gate was a cool monument built for the military.  The presidents house had over 300 rooms and over 700 million bricks.   Our last stop in Delhi before our journey to Agra was a spice market.  But getting to the spice market was a journey in and of itself.  We got off of the bus and piled onto little buggies attached to bicycles by twos and were pulled through the streets and tiny alleys to the market.  The ride was completely insane as we rode through the alleys that were narrow enough to reach our hands out and touch the walls or steal from the vendors.  Above our heads there were so many twisted wires hanging all over and between the buildings that it was no wonder that they struggle with power outages.    It was a long and bumpy ride on the bicycle buggies known as rickshaws as we were passed by and passed cows, cars, monkeys and other buggies by mere centimeters, but it was easily one of the most fun rides ever!  At the spice market we listened to a presentation about Indian spices; where they come from, why they are a big part of Indian culture etc.  It was interesting and fun to listen to.  After that it was back to the buggies for the insane ride back to the bus.   From there we got cozy on the bus for what was supposed to be a 4-5 hour ride to Agra.  However, due to multiple bathroom breaks and traffic that would shock a new-yorker, the 4-5 hour trip turned into a 8-9 hour trip.  There were so many cars jammed on that tiny road and there was enough honking to last us all three lifetimes! There were also people crowded on tops of buses because there wasn't room left inside the bus.  These people would often try to get our attention by waving, or rather flailing, constantly, shouting and taking pictures of us through the windows.  It was quite entertaining to have old Indian people standing on top of a moving bus and flailing around to get our attention.

When we finally made it to our hotel in Agra it was nearly midnight and we had been up for almost 24 hours.  We were way past the point of exhaustion that when we pulled up to our hotel I thought for sure I was dreaming.  I knew we would be staying in a five-star hotel but I guess I had no idea what that really meant.  I literally felt like I had stepped into a palace.  The lobby was made of white marble and the chandelier was bigger than my bedroom.  The courtyard wasn't much smaller than a football field and the beds we slept in were as soft as clouds.

On our last night at Rising Star Outreach we were invited by the kids to attend a special performance just for us done by the choir and the dance team.  It was absolutely adorable to see them performing their hearts out the songs that they had practiced so diligently.  The choir sang 3 songs for us, the first one being a song about how each of our lives has a purpose and God has a plan for every single one of us.  Hearing them sing it was a wonderful reminder to me that even though they seem to have such hard lives, they are still so blessed.  They are children of God, and they know it.  They don't care if they have to sleep on a concrete floor every night because they know that God has  a plan for them.  The dancers were super fun to watch also!  It's amazing to witness such talent and know that these kids have received a one in a million chance to develop this talent.  They danced to some fun songs like Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' and also some more reverent songs.  And of course it wouldn't be a true Indian performance if the power didn't go out.  Sure enough it went out right in the middle of one of the dances.  But luckily this is a frequent occurrence for them and thus not a surprise.  They didn't let it bother them one bit and in fact started making up games to play in the dark while they waited patiently for the power to come back.  As soon as it, they picked up right from where they left off and didn't miss a beat.

When the performances were over it was time to say goodbye to the children.  All of the volunteers lined up in front and then all of the kids lined up according to their houses.  They released each house one at a time to walk down the line and hug us or shake our hand goodbye.  It was so heart-wrenching to say goodbye to them and not know if or when you'll ever see them again.  But it was so much worse to see the kids crying and know that they get attached to volunteers and have to say goodbye to them every 2-3 weeks throughout every summer.  It was so hard to say goodbye to the girls that I had gotten to know the best.  I wished so badly that I could just take them with me.

waiting for the power to come back

getting ready to say goodbye

saying goodbye to the kids

Loving these strangers like me.

~"You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place.  Like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and place because you'll never be this way ever again."~



The time to say goodbye to the wonderful people of Rising Star came entirely too quickly!  It didn't take me long to fall in love with the people and I was just getting really comfortable when it came to an end. On the one hand I couldn't wait to get back to running water, decent food and western toilets but on the other hand I'm afraid to leave because I never want to forget what I've learned and what I've felt here.

 I've learned so much about service and love and even about myself.  Last Sunday at church one of the speakers talked about service and love.  His main point was that serving someone means to love them, you don't don't need to know someone to serve them, therefore you can love someone you don't know.   I loved this so much because true Christ-like love knows no boundaries and that is the love I felt for the rising stars!  I didn't know these people when I went to serve them but as I did I began to feel a love for them at a level of truth and sincerity that I didn't know was possible to feel for strangers.  But looking at these strangers through eyes that are trying to see as Christ sees and serving them with a heart that seeks to have Christ at it's core it becomes easy to see that Phil Collins had a point.  These strangers are just like me.  They are children of God.  They are my brothers and sisters.  They are rising stars!

I love how close I became to my Savior while I was there and it is my hope and prayer that I never lose that.  I have heard my whole life that the key to happiness is to forget yourself and remember others.  I now have a solid and unwavering testimony that that is completely true.  I've never been so happy than when I wasn't thinking about myself at all!  And I can see so clearly now why the people there, who in our eyes seem to have nothing, are so happy still... because they don't focus on what they don't have but spend so much time focusing on others.  

Sunday we had the opportunity to drive to the city (Chennai) and attend a small branch for our church,  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints.  I love attending church in other countries because it is so fun to see the culture of that country shine through the steadfast principles of the gospel.  I also really love the reminder that I get that the gospel of Christ is true and consistent throughout this entire world.  It doesn't matter which continent you are on, which language you speak, Christ and His gospel remain consistent.  Because of this consistency and truth, being in church in a foreign country is always such a comfort, like seeing an old friend or like going home.  After sacrament meeting some of the people were leaving to go do some shopping and needed more people to go with them.  So my friend Paige and I decided to go with them.  It was a crazy experience shopping in the mall here!  It was like being in a massive labyrinth.  It was huge and filled with a million small shops!  But it was fun to see it and shop around a little more.  :)
Sunday night the kids had a talent show and they were so excited for it they could hardly stand it.  Some of the kids sang, some of them danced and some of them even showed drawings they had done but all of them were absolutely adorable!  The girls in my family did a dance and it may have been one of the cutest things ever!  They were really good at it too... I should have them teach me how to dance.  :)  At the end when all of the kids had performed we as volunteers decided to surprise them with a little dance of our own.  That's right, I actually danced (not well I might add) AND sang (also not well) with all of the other volunteers.  And, of course, the kids absolutely loved it!  When the talent show had ended, music came on and the kids went CRAZY!  They circled around and danced mosh pit style for a while and then for a while they would take turns showing off their dance moves in the middle of the circle.  It was amazing and so much fun!

my girls getting ready to dance

sorry if these videos are a little shaky... I was getting bumped a lot! :)

kids going crazy!

Today, (monday) my group was on the construction rotation again and I have to admit it was so much fun!  We had a good time, talking and singing while we moved bricks and bags of sand.  For half of the time I ended up working with two older Indian men helping them lay foundations for the new and improved outhouses.  I never thought I would say that building bathrooms would be a blast, but it really was.  At one point I took over for the man and instead of handing him mixed cement he let me lay the cement down and spread it out to fill the foundation.  It was really cool to see the finished result and know that I had actually laid a foundation!  We finished our work in the colony early and were able to stop at the paratha bread and also at the junciton (small shopping area near our campus) and buy some henna!  So for anybody who wants to do henna when I get back let me know... I have plenty!  This afternoon, instead of typical play time, we had a water fight with the kids!  It was so much fun to see them running around soaking wet and surprisingly more fun to get soaking wet by the kids.  At one point I looked over at one of the little girls and saw that she had decided to go swimming in the puddles that resulted from the massive water battle.  It was adorable, to say the least.

It's really sad to think that tomorrow is my last day at Rising Star Outreach.  The time has gone by entirely too fast!  It's going to be hard to say goodbye to it all when we leave here Wednesday morning at 3, but I am so grateful to have even been here at all!

Cricket on a nice Saturday afternoon

Today the staff of the Chennai Marriott hotel came over today to spend the day with the kids and challenge them in a game of cricket.  I didn't realize this but apparently the Marriotts are big supporters of Rising Star.  The Marriott hotel in Chennai (about 2 hours away) even offers employment opportunities for kids who graduate from Rising Star and cannot find other work or don't already have an arranged marriage.
It was really fun to see the staff interacting with the kids.  Only the older boys were allowed to actually play in the match but all the other kids had  great time cheering and stealing our cameras to take 'photos'.  To make things even more fun for the kids, they WON!

the funny-face-makers are always just drawn to me... I wonder why

Playing with Abi

if you can see clearly enough count how many kids have cameras that don't belong to them

hangin with Gracie

Mamallapuram

For this weekend's trip we went to another beach town called Mamallapuram.  There we had the opportunity to do some more shopping see some ruins and hang out on the beach.  Neither my friend Paid nor I was super crazy about sitting on a beach all day so we spend most of the day shopping around town and strolling around the ruins.  I love shopping here because everything is so cheap and it is really fun to bargain with the salesmen.  I was able to get a chudidhar and sandals made for me for less than 30 dollars.  I also got some of other cool souvenirs such as a hand-carved elephant and a beautifully hand-stitched wall hanging.  When we had exhausted the shopping we walked over to the ruins to check them out.  They were super cool.  The intricacy and detail of the carvings is absolutely incredible.  But I'd have to say my favorite part was watching a monkey sit on the ruins and drink a coca cola he had stolen.  I have to admit though that monkeys are pretty smart.  Later, I tried taking back a wallet a monkey had stolen from a lady and it just sat there and teased me.  He totally faked me out a couple times before jumping into a tree where I had no chance.  I could have been irritated but seeing him fake me out was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

having our sandals fitted

some of the ruins...in case anyone is wondering, the elephant is symbol of strength and wisdom

yep... he's really drinking a coke

Krishna's butter ball

a littler girl who begged her parents to get a picture with us... adorable!

Give a man a fish...

Rising Star Outreach does micro-lending for people in leprosy colonies to help thm start small business so they cna learn to become more self-sufficient and avoid a life of inevitable begging that awaits so many that are associated with leprosy.  Even those who do not suffer from the disease themselves but have relatives that do, suffer from discrimination.  This week I was privileged enough to see two of these businesses in action and even help support them.  One of them is called, "Pearls with a Purpose" while the other doesn't really have a name ( at least not that I know of) and sells art.  Pearls for a purpose is done by a group of ladies who do not actually have leprosy but can't find work because their relative have leprosy.  They make beautiful necklaces and bracelets out of real pearls.   The art business is done through a small art school in a colony called Bharathapuram.  Some of the artists are relatives of someone who is leprosy-afflicted while others actually suffer from the disease themselves.  It is truly magnificent to see how they create such beautiful works of art when they don't even have fingers to hold a paintbrush.

I love that this organization doesn't just hand out donations but rather donates their time and focuses on giving these people opportunities to grow, learn and become self-sufficient.  It is the perfect example of the old saying, "give a man a fish and feed him
 for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime."

the women making the jewelry

checking out the art :)

My friend got to meet the artist of the painting he bough

the painting I bought

the pearls I bought... spoiler alert... a necklace for each grandma and the bracelet for mom :)

Unexpected adventures in India

On both of the days that my group has been on medical, we have been surprised with an unexpected adventure.  On our first day of medical, our wonderful driver Anandan decided we needed to take a trip the beach after working hard for a few hours, and who are we to argue?  So we drove about an hour to a beach where we though we would just hang out for a few minutes and take a few pictures.  But when we got there, there was trash everywhere (which shouldn't have been a shock, but it always is) and it smelled horribly bad.  We thought we were just going to leave, but Anan talked a couple of fishermen into taking us out a little ways in their boat.  So... we went boating!  It didn't look like the safest boat I've ever seen but as we all say here, "what the heck, we're in INDIA!"  The fishermen took us out a few miles and around to the other side of a small peninsula to the fishermen's port.  Over on that side was a colony of fisherman and also some really old Indian ruins.  It was SO COOL!  While we were exploring the ruins we each found some pretty seashells to take home and some even found a starfish.  It was really neat to be able to experience a little Indian history and also enjoy a relaxing boat ride.  On the ride back we saw a group of women bobbing up and down in the water.  One would go under, be missing for a while and then after what seemed like forever pop back up again.  We were all curious as to what on earth they were doing, and then the fishermen explained that they were pearl diving...how cool is that?!

yep... we rode in one of those

we're on a boat...YAY!

a bunch of ladies pearl diving

an old tomb

Indian ocean

For our medical day this week we weren't expecting any grand adventure, but much to our surprise we got another one!  After working in the Vandular leprosy colony Anan took us to a nearby zoo!  I've been to zoos before as had many others in the group, but a zoo in India is a whole other story!  We were in a bit of a time crunch so rather than walk around the zoo we rented bikes for 25 rupees (which works out to be less than 50 cents) and rode around the zoo. The bikes were really awkward and most had extremely dysfunctional brakes, but how many times does one have an opportunity to ride an awkward bike around a dirty zoo in India right?   Many of the animals I had seen in other zoos in America, but there were also many animals that I had never seen before, such as a water buffalo, strange birds and white tigers.  I adored the white tigers.  If I could have a pet tiger, I totally would.  One animal I never thought I'd ever see in a zoo though is a deer...I mean a deer?  Really?!  I see deer so often at home. Whether running around in people's yards or dead on the side of the road, they are just everywhere so it never occurred to me that they might be considered rare and interesting somewhere else.  They were even considered one of the main attractions.  Speaking of main attractions... while we were there to observe cool animals, it seems everyone else at the zoo dropped what they were doing to observe us.  While visiting the zoo, we became the zoo.    Many of the people see tigers, monkeys and elephants all the time, but a group of white people?  Now that's another story.  People would stop walking to watch us ride by and others would stop us and ask us to shake their child's hand or take a picture with them.  As fun as it is I don't think I'll ever get used to being famous in this country. It was a lot of fun getting the speed tour on the awkward bikes... I felt like I was going to fall off every other second, but luckily I made it without getting any new scratches or scrapes, which I must say is quite an accomplishment in my case.  

When we had seen all we wanted to see and had been seen by enough strangers Anan surprised again with a trip to pizza hut!  We had no idea there even was a pizza hut in this country.  And I have to say it was the most amazing pizza I had ever tasted in my life.  I do realize that that could be a result of having very little to compare it to in this country but... it was still incredible.

yeah, watch out for those deer... they'll stare a hole right through you

Recap of this week's work

This week I was in the education group twice, Monday and Thursday.  Education days are usually pretty uneventful because we spend the whole day on the Rising Star Campus.  Monday was a little unusual though because the kids didn't have school due to a holiday but they still had tutoring, which made it quite difficult for us (the tutors) because the kids wanted to be there even less than usual.  I can't say I blame them though... I wouldn't want to be there either if I were supposed to be on holiday.  It was quite a patience-tester for me because I hadn't been feeling well and all of the kids were super antsy and lacking in focus.  Although it wasn't as bad as it could have been because we had more breaks than usual, it was still hard because I had to read the same book with different kids.  Reading a book about a pterodactyl multiple times is almost cause to get someone admitted.  I will admit though that it was pretty hilarious watching all the kids try to pronounce pterodactyl.  :)  After tutoring on both Monday and Thursday we just hung out with the kids at play time and family time.  I had a wonderful time with one of the girls, Sudha, at play time on Monday.  She is in the 'family' I've been assigned to so I have been able to spend a lot of time with her and get to know her pretty well.  She is super spunky and extremely adorable, I so wish I could just take her home with me and keep her forever! I've also had the chance to get to know a few other kids pretty well... I just wish I had more time to develop real relationships with them.  

This is little Sudha... I promise she has a beautiful smile, she just keeps it hidden sometimes.

Navetha is in the pink and I'm embarrassed to say I don't know the other girl's name... I can't pronounce it.  She's a cutie though

That's the face I love so much ;)

Pavithra is sweet, but definitely has an angry side... can ya tell? 

Tuesday was construction again...yay!  Construction can be really tough when we're all working hard in 100 degree weather and wicked humidity.  But luckily we have a great group and we always make it fun.  Plus, all the hard work and sweat is worth every single smile we get from the grateful tenants of the colony who are getting new toilets out of our hard work.  This week wasn't quite as difficult as last week however.  It seemed we had a lot more down time in between jobs whereas last week we had almost no down time.  We had a great time singing and whistling while we worked and also relaxing in the dirt in between jobs.  :)  This weeks jobs consisted of filling in old latrines and digging holes for the new latrines... not exactly the greatest job, but like I said, we make it fun and the people are ecstatic.  I love it when the people come out of their humble huts to watch us work and offer us a place to rest.  Those that are able even offer us a coconut that they have cut open for us to drink out of.  It's amazing to see these people that seem to have nothing still find something to offer us out of gratitude and pure love.  When our work was finished for the day we were starving!! So our awesome construction coordinator took us to a place where we could get some delicious Indian food...that wasn't rice and curry.  We stopped at an interesting little shack and had some delicious paratha, which is just amazing Indian flat bread.

Me with my amazing paratha and super sugary orange soda

Wednesday was by far my favorite day of the week.  It was medical day!!  I was worried about how I would handle the medical side of things here because I've never been really good at it... but I absolutely adore medical days.  I love serving the people and seeing the light in their eyes.  I'd like to think that  that light is attributed to the work and service provided by rising star and I'm sure a small part of it is, but looking into their eyes it is impossible to deny that that light is the light of God.  These people show so much strength and courage that can make a heart swell so much it hurts.  I see so much goodness in them and pray that I can be even just a small fraction as strong as they are.  I feel so close to the savior as I sit and wash their feet and feel their love emanates from them.  For me washing their feet is a small service to give... but them it is everything.

The world he lives in gives him every reason to frown... but look at the gigantic smile!!! :)

The most strongest man I've ever seen... I am washing what is left of this man's leg, it is cut off just under the knee.