Day 16: Last Day at The Rising Star.

Day 15: Construction

Let me just start by telling you a little about Sandra Rigby.  She is the wife of Randy Rigby who is the president of the Utah Jazz.  She is pretty much one of the biggest reasons I am here in India.  She is an amazing woman.  She literally has the means to do pretty much whatever she wants, and is still such a selfless, humble, and beautiful person inside and out.  An amazing role model.  We are all doing the same session, and this trip has given Sandra a million reasons to complain.  She tore a muscle in her knee while she was in Mumbai the week before flying out to Chennai, she got a wheel chair and finished her short vacation and then headed out to the Rising Star.  When she got here she was in extreme pain, couldn’t walk well without a crutch but she still did all of her rotations and didn’t complain a single time.  About two weeks in, she got a parasite or possibly dysentery and had to be taken to a hospital…in India. Terrifying.  She was in the hospital for two days, and when she came back, still didn’t complain once.  She is an amazing person!! Even here faced with so many challenges, she is happy as can be and ready to serve!! Well last night she was in our room chatting and when she stood up off the bed she tore her knee again.  Poor thing, her next rotation was construction and mine was education so I offered to switch her because even though I KNOW she would have done it anyways, she really should not be working construction.  She finally agreed, and it was a win-win.  Her daughter Miranda is the education coordinator so Sandra was happy to get to spend more time with the kids and her daughter, and I got to be in Sam’s group!! Wahoo!!

Soooo long story short, today I was in construction!

Workin hard!

 Yesterday while we were at church, I guess a fire started in the jungle super close to the elephant house.  Luckily, a couple of people decided to stay home from church this week, (normally EVERYONE goes into Chennai whether they attend church or not) and were able to assist in controlling it.  They had to carry buckets of water outside and pour them over the fence to dampen the dead leaves against the fence just outside the green house.  Benson told us that the 3 people that were still there were rounding up all of their passports and belongings because the fire was moving so fast they were sure it would reach the Rising Star campus.  The fire truck came to put it out, but in India, they don’t have fire hydrants so they just fill a large bucket with water and chemicals.  They try to stop the fire from spreading but if they run out they have to let the fire take its course or the villagers have to assist in putting it out with whatever water they can pump from the well.  By some miracle from above, the fire changed directions literally 6 ft from the green house, and 3 feet from a HUUUGE pile of dead leaves and palm branches that the construction group the day before had piled high up against the green house fence.  When Benson first told us this, I thought he as exaggerating… but no.. it was literally 3 feet from burning down the entire green house and elephant house.  Again family, don’t worry… I’m still alive here in India. ;)

Our job in construction today was to remove the HUUGE piles of leaves and palm branches that were piled high along the fence, now that we realized it is a HUGE fire hazard.  Sam and the group were pretty bummed about this because it was their group that had previously raked the entire jungle around the elephant house and put them there a few days prior.  It felt like they were doing the same job twice, when they could have taken everything to the campus rubbish pile to begin with.  Oh well, we were still ready to work!!

So many branches!

 There is a trailer under there somewhere.

 We got interrupted by a herd of cattle.

 It was so cool, the woman who was herding them would just call them like dogs, 

and they followed her.  It was amazing!

 Still draggin branches.

 Some of them where bigger than me!

We found a HUUUUGE snakeskin buried in the pile, which is pretty scary since the pile has only been there 3 days.  They thought it was either a cobra or a rat snake.  YIKES!!!!  There were also HUUUGE spiders EVERYWHERE… ugh.. I’m gonna try and find a pic of one of these spiders so you guys know I’m not just being a baby.  Some of them are almost the size of my palm. SCARY! 

These were just the snake skins we found BEFORE lunch!!

I wish we would have put it together again after lunch, it was at least 6ft. 

SCARY!

This has become my idea of candy.

A spoon full of peanut butter dipped in trail mix.

Sam and I tried to make the best of this disgusting bug/snake/mice situation by blaring my Zumba music and trying to get everyone to dance with us.  It turned into a pretty good time. We were all laughing, dancing, singing, and throwing snakeskin at each other hahaha.   The day went by so fast!!

Umm... the whole day I kept taking my shoe off because it felt like there was a rock in it or something.

Oh, don't worry, it was just a HUGE thorn that went all the way through my shoe!

OUCH!

That's gonna leave a mark.

 One of the tree crops in the village outside of campus.

They grow these tall wispy pine trees and sell them.

The branches and trunks are used as beams in the grass huts.

Not sure if I have showed you guys yet, but there is a long stone pathway that leads from the Elephant House to the school.  Volunteers and sponsors are able to purchase and engrave bricks along the pathway. It is called "the pathway of hope."

I took a pic of some of my favorite bricks that I see every day. 

Enjoy.

Sooo sick of tuna and peanut butter.

The internet was back up during lunch so I was able to get the Mamallapuram blog up and skype Jordan to tell him I was alive.  It hasn’t worked since, so again be patient with the blogs.  I will still get every day up, it just might be in a few days or possibly when I get home if it never starts working again.

Look who we found!

Annund!

On the way out to the village.

We got done workin a little early and Krissy was back to the room around the same time as us.  The internet stopped working again so Sam, Krissy and I decided to go on a jog through the village and get an ice cold Pepsi! We put our runnin shoes on and hit the road.  It was fun to see all of the cute little friends we made one last time.  We found a new little village shop to buy water bottles and a Pepsi from. (The didn't have Pepsi so we settled for a cold bottled water, anything cold here really is a treat!!)  Again , they didn’t speak a word of English so it was a fun little game of charades to get what we wanted!

The government school in the village.

We took our time walking back to the school and took lots of pictures of all of the things we would miss along the way.  It is soo crazy to think that we only have one more day until we leave the Rising Star for New Delhi.  I don’t wanna go.  I have loved it so much here.  I know I say that in every single blog but I just love it more and more every day!

I'm gonna miss our walks through the village.

T.I.I.

When we got closer to campus we wanted to show Krissy the burn marks from the fire and show her how close it got our house!!  She couldn’t believe it either!! It seriously is a miracle that the elephant house didn’t go up in flames.  While we were standing there talking about how CRAZY it was. we saw something in the distance, it looked like smoke rising so we thought maybe the fire was lighting back up.  As it got closer and closer to us we realized it was a tornado!! Okay, maybe not a tornado but a big dust devil.  It was taller then all of us, and moving towards us super fast.  For some reason we all went silent and just stood there, frozen.  We watched it get closer and then go straight through us, our hair was blowing everywhere like crazy, and we just stood there.  After it passed over us we watched it blow away and disappear.  At the same time all of us said, ‘that was weird.”  It was crazy, haha we stood through a tornado.  It was awesome.  Maybe this is one of those stories that you had to be there to think it was a big deal, but to me it was a pretty big deal.  Just a strange, quiet moment that we shared.

The kids were so excited about arts and crafts!

Annund made me a flower!

I gave it to Varalakshmi

Today was craft day at the school.  Some of the volunteers brought crafts for the kids to do.  We went and helped Sandra with her craft.  The kids glued tissue paper into outlines of designs and animals.  It was fun to do a little craft with the kid and watch them have a blast being creative!! I love these kids so much!

Showing off her beautiful fish!!

After craft time there was still about 40 min of play time

so we were able to head outside and play with all of our favorite kids!!

I love him!

So happy!

I love these boys!!

Check that handsome boy out!

 I found Ruthish and he wanted to show me one of his “rich man” outfits.  He seriously is the cutest thing alive.  He grabbed my hand and we ran over to the boys hostel.  I loved watching him put his cute little outfit on.  He was beaming at himself in the mirror.  You could tell wearing this outfit made him so confident.  I just loved seeing him that happy.  He kept combing down his hair and twirling in the mirror.  Darling.  The pictures say it all. 

Tonight at family night, Ruthish surprised me at the door with a cute little ring that he made for me.  These kids are so giving.  I LOVE IT!! I cherish all of the little gifts that they have given me and can’t wait to come home and show them off to everyone!! Tonight is our last family night.  I can’t tell you how sad this makes me.  I love snuggling up to these boys and playing “Mom” every night.  I will miss reading them stories, playing down by the banks, and curling up with Ruthish and a fairy tale!  Kala has been so amazing to just stand back and let us bond with these kids.  We were so happy to be able to give her a little time off each night.  I can’t imagine what it must be like for her getting 20 boys up and ready for school, fed, and then put to bed… every single day.  We let the boys write all over us today with henna.  They all wrote our names on their hands and arms and did the same to us so that we would never forget eachother.  I can’t put into words how precious these little moments are.  I will miss this EVERY DAY until I am back in India.

Getting pinned!

I seriously feel like a princess.

Saree's are so beautiful!

I love that these women wear them EVERY day!

They look like goddesses!

I just loved the boys in the background of this!

I'm gonna miss Kala!

Kala wanted to pin sarees on Sam and I tonight and take pictures.  I just love her.  She is so nice to pull out her beautiful silk sarees and let us play dress up.  Talking to all of the other volunteers has reassured us that Kala seriously is THE BEST!! Most of the other volunteers don’t even know their housemothers at all, or if they don’t have many nice things to say about them.  I can honestly say that I believe Kala and I will be friends for the rest of our lives. I would love to stay in touch with her and am so grateful for the friendship we have built. 

Ruthish and Vishva loved that we let them use our cameras to take pictures.  Haha Ruthish was nice enough to tell me that my hair was “not good” and kept telling me to pull it down and shake it out haha.  He is so cute, I just had to obey. Lol We compromised on a low ponytail since I don’t think he was any more impressed with the hot mess that was my hair after I took it out. (Give me a break kid, I worked construction all day and haven’t had a chance to hit the bucket shower lol)

Family night was over way too quick, we tucked the boys in and were SOOO sad when it was time for us to leave the hostel.  Sam and I cried the entire walk back to the elephant house.  I seriously can’t bear to leave these kids here.  What the Rising Star is doing here in India is so amazing, and they really are in the BEST place they could possibly be.. in India.  I just wish I could give them all of the possibilities we have in America.  I wish I could take them all home.  It makes me so grateful for EVERYTHING we have back at home. Even the people who think they have it the worst in the US would be living like KINGS here.  I have been so inspired by these kids, they still smile, they still play, they still laugh, and they still love despite of the circumstances they were given.  I have learned so much from these kids and I will never forget a single one of them.  I can’t wait to bring Jordan back to India so that he can meet all of the cute little faces that have changed me so much!

Goofball.

Krissy throwing her suitcase on Taylors bed.

I'm gonna miss my roomies!!

We gave Miranda all of the food we didn't wanna pack home since she is staying til the end of August!

Lucky!

Well time to start packing.

Sad

Tomorrow is our last day before we leave to New Delhi.

I asked if I could build a grass hut on campus to live in forever.

I haven’t heard back yet… I hope they say yes. ;)

Day 14: Sunday Funday.

The Internet is still down, so I don’t know how quickly I will be able to get all of these blogs up.

I am posting them as quick as I can.. so be patient.

Today we woke up early and hit the road to church in Chennai, India.

The  branch here is so amazing.  The first  meeting we came to  last Sunday, they had 3 comfirmations, this week they had three as well.  It is cool to see the church growing and reaching every little corner of the planet, even all the way down here in South India.  I love the church here. I will miss it and the members we have met here!

After church we took a taxi or a “tuk tuk” down to Spencers.  It is the only “shopping mall” in Chennai.  We wanted to grab a few of the things we saw last week, and eat some real food!! It was a CRAZY adventure  to say the least.  Seriously India has NO traffic laws, and if they do, NO ONE follows them.  When we asked our driver back at the school (Annund) about this, he said policemen are off on Sunday so people drive however they want!  A “Tuk Tuk” is a small motorized vehicle. I felt so exposed lol.. Sam kept reaching out and touching people just to see how close they were haha and motorcycles would brush your legs as they went by.  Puts a whole new meaning on “keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times.” If you don’t you WILL lose them.

First things first, FOOD! We ate at KFC & Pizza Hut as soon as we got to the mall.  It was so interesting.  The Pizza Hut  here was a fancy, sit down, “fine  American dining,” restaurant.  It was crazy to see the same menu, but be sitting in a restaurant.  When the pizza came out, it was AMAZING!!! Not sure if this is because it really was amazing, or because I have been living off of peanut butter, tuna fish, red rice and curry for the last two weeks. Either way, I LOVED IT!

The most people we have seen fit onto one bike is 6. 

It's crazy.

Praying for our lives in the "Tuk Tuk"

The graffiti here is awesome!

I love that it's all in Tamil.

This pic is mainly for Jordan's entertainment.

Reminded me of him.

Umm.... we may or may not be lost in India.

I think I'm the only person who appreciated at the time 

what an AMAZING story this would make for the blog.

Waitin for a ride in the middle of nowhere.

We were able to find some more souvenirs, and then it was back out to find a taxi over to the church to meet the Rising Star vans.  I don’t want to waste too much time talking about this CRAZZZZZY little adventure.  Please refer to the video on this post to find out what happened to us on our way back to the church!!  I think the video pretty much says it all.  Don’t worry family, I’m still alive.  When we FINALLY got picked up by the Rising Star vans, the others who made it there long before we did had decided to go pick up pizza on the way home for everyone who didn’t come to Chennai with us.  Pizza for two meals today, fine by me!!!

Our cute new leather sandals, waiting for our pizza from Dominoes.

After we gorged on pizza we headed up to the roof to try and catch some sun and do a workout!! I am a little bummed we haven’t been doing this every day.  It is sooo beautiful here.  The sun is hot, palm trees everywhere, monkeys in the mango trees, and two of my besties!! Life is good.  Ahh this trip is just going way too fast.

So since we were on a bit of an Italian kick today, we decided to cook some rice noodles I brought with an old box of tomato sauce we found in the kitchen for dinner.  Umm,  I don’t know how we messed up noodles and sauce, but it was disgusting!  Like disgusting even for India.  I feel like since I have been out here, I pretty much eat ANYTHING I can get my hands on because I am always hungry and there is seriously VERY little to choose from.  It only proves to me how HUNGRY our bodies are, because Sam, Krissy, and I choked down every last bite.  Sick.

TII (This Is India)

Family time is becoming so bitter sweet. I LOOOOVE playing with our boys, reading with Ruthish, and talking to Kala, but the whole time I am there I am thinking about how little time I have left with them.  I am trying to get the most out of every single second while I am out here.  I am going to miss our new little family.  I have grown to love these boys so much.  We did Henna and played down by the banks all night!!! It never gets old!

Basha ran outside to meet me with the new ring he made me.

I LOOOOVE it.

Ruthish and Basha

My boys.

I would sponsor both of them in a heartbeat if they didnt already have their sponsors.

Oh well, I will still write them letters and send gifts often!!

I love them so much.

The thing I will miss most about India is those two smiling faces!!

Basha wrote:

"Basha, I love you!"

on my arm in henna.

It will be a sad sad day when this washes off.

Basha I love you.

The other darling boy in this pic is Vishva, Sam is sponsoring him.

He is such a stud muffin!

Precious.

Finished!

The boys showing us their six packs haha.

We kept telling Ruthish he was such a strong boy and every time he would say, 

"That no muscle, that bwone"

with his cute little accent.

oooo I just wanna squeeze him, he is so adorable.

The boys wanted us to write our names in Henna on their arms so that they wouldn't forget us.

Ruthish giving Sam's new shoes a try.

Sam giving the boys henna!

PILLOW FIIIIGHT!!

This little boy reminds me so much of mine and Jordan's friend benny it's insane!

I pretty much just get beat up all the time.

It is a house full of boys haha.

I love it so much! 

Makes me excited for my own kids..

Bring on the boys!!

Monkey boy, Ruthish! 

The boys all had our names on their hands!

Ruthish showing off his sweet henna design!

Vishva, the boy Sam is sponsoring.

Basha!!

Me giving Basha a cute heart on his hand!

We did another lice check tonight in the Parakeet room!! Don’t worry, All of us are clear! Woo!! Let me just tell you, there is NOTHING scarier then getting a lice check done when you fear that you might really have lice.

* shudder * 

…still no internet so we decided to watch a movie in the Green House with a bunch of volunteers.  We watched due date and typed up most of our blogs into word documents so that when the internet is back up we will be ready to post quickly and hopefully not get too far behind!  It has been fun getting to know all of the volunteers and be able to spend time with them.  We had an amazing group of people out here, I really am going to miss a lot of them! I am grateful for the new friendships we have made in India!

I’m still so in love with this place.