Last Day

We had an amazing day today and are filled with so many mixed feelings. We are excited to come home and indulge in some Cafe Rio or a Venti Chai Latte and sleep in our own beds, but we are also filled with sadness. These kids have jumped into our hearts. They have volunteers come through Rising Star throughout the year at two-three week intervals and yet they are so open, so willing to share their lives with us. In America, I can see these transitions causing a closed attitude or cynicism. Here there is only gratitude. It's an important lesson for us all to remember.

We spent the day in Mamallapuram. J'Amy, Natalie, Claire, and Riley went surfing in the Sea of Bengal with James  (Promethean Spark) and Nery (Rising Star).  They said the waves were strong and they did more boogie boarding than surfing. They had SO much fun! Then they went to lunch at Moon Rakers - an amazing restaurant - then they went shopping.

Another group, Baylee, Megan, Paige, Michael,  Leslie, Erin (Rising Star), Klarissa (Rising Star) and Rosie (Rising Star) shopped first then went to the pool and the Sea of Bengal. They loved it. They swam, they had french fries and pizza and were basically in heaven. Paula and I shopped and then took a Rickshaw to the stone temples, which Mamallapuram is famous for. We had a ball! Here are a few photos.

Afterward, we had our last playtime. There were a lot of pictures and a lot of tears saying goodbye to our Rising Star kids!

Last Work Day!

We had a great time today! On the way to the medical clinic we saw a gaggle? group? barrel? of monkeys by the side of the road, literally two feet away from us. It was hilarious! Two of them were working together to raid some guy's knapsack. There were a bunch of mothers with little babies. So cute!

Then we had medical clinic! It was the smaller colony yet, sadly because it only has elderly people and there are only a few of them left.  However, the ones who are there are amazing!!! They are kind, funny, joyous people. We sang and danced with them and painted finger nails, and did puzzles. It was so cool! 

We had Klarisa, Leslie, Kelly, Riley, Claire, Megan, Baylee and J'Amy on our team today. 

The construction crew, Nery, Paula, Paige and Michael moved a ton of brick today. The got pretty innovative! Anything can be moved on a motorcycle or a bicycle in India. Here's Michael showing us how it's done. You can't see it in the photo, but he has a pile of bricks behind him. 

Jenna and Natalie are still teaching. They are on education duty, so I will try to get them when they get back. 

What's Up?

We have had a busy week at Rising Star. Each day we rotate between medical clinics and education or construction duty. We usually are done with our duties by 2:00, have an hour to cool off, then have kindergarten playtime, afternoon playtime, prayer time and dinner. By 8:00 pm, we have a few meetings debriefing the next day's activities and then playtime. We've made the Mango room into the Mango Lounge and the kids hang out in there or other people's rooms.  It's actually a lot of work, but at the end of the day, we feel good about what we have accomplished and the kids have stolen our hearts.
Here are a few photos.

Baylee, Megan and I are on construction together, so I only have pictures so far of the three of us. Here we are standing in a hole we dug. I know it doesn't look that impressive, but notice the large tree behind it. Yeah, roots galore! It was hot, humid and the girls did a great job. Baylee even invented a new method of digging called the "Baylee Swirl". 

Anytime we are on construction, we move a lot of bricks. These piles were from two piles of bricks that were out front. The men behind us were building the septic house. 

This is Baylee, Riley, Me, Klarissa and Abraham. Abraham is one of the patients who comes in for treatment. Even though he has no fingers and is missing half his foot, he still has the best personality. He is singing to us while Riley soaks his feet in order to clean them. Baylee has just cut off his gauze and next I will oil and cut toenails. Then J'Amy, behind us was wrapping. The nurse let her wrap a few patients by herself. Claire was doing eyedrops and Megan was taking blood pressure. 

After medical clinic, our group got to go to the zoo. We were a little hesitant at first and thought it would be 'sad'. However, the Chennai Zoo is beautiful! Parts of it remind me of the main sidewalk in Central Park. It is wooded and the habitats are spacious. It was huge and very well-maintained. 

This is Megan and Baylee and I getting ready for a day in education. We always have to wear the oh-so-attractive chiradurs and then the scarfs signify that we are teachers that day, not playmates. We teach everything from reading to computers. 

Riley is starting to work on our mural. I will post the first sessions and ours when we finish. 

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! We are all a little homesick today and missing the festivities of Park City. 

Working Hard

It's been a lot of fun watching the kids over the course of the week we've been in India.  It's hard to believe we are half way through our trip already.  I am so impressed with how much joie de vivre the kids have approached everything.  In Delhi it was shopping.  In Agra it was shopping.  And all points in between it was shopping, they even shopped from the bus!

They have brought that same joie de vivre to the school.  From the moment we arrived they have jumped right in.  Friday was our first full day.  We've all been divided into two groups, six people per group.  Our group's first assignment was medical.  We went to the largest colony in the area, we served 40 patients by the end of our visit.  Each of us was assigned a task: blood pressure, sugars, removing bandages, washing feet, or assisting in debridement and applying new bandages.  I was so impressed with the tenderness and compassion the kids showed when tending to the patients, it was truly moving and inspiring.  All the people we worked with were elderly.  We set up "shop", so to speak, in the front of the village's nursing home.  When we were finished with visited with a few who were so grateful to have us there.

Today was our second full day.  Our group was divided again, into two groups.  One group was assigned construction, the other education.  The group I was in helped to build a latrine.  Actually, village construction workers built the latrine, we dug the holes.  It was back breaking work - a western-style shovel and wheel barrow really would have sped up the process - but we left with a great sense of accomplishment.  It was very satisfying to have started out with a piece of ground and ended up with a brick foundation (and a 3.5 foot hole, not complete).  All the people we worked with were very helpful and kind. They went to great lengths to make sure we stayed hydrated - I don't think I'll be able to drink orange Fanta for a while. :)

PB

Rain Dance Link

So I have tried You Tube and the blog and neither will allow me to upload the movie of the kids' Rain Dance. It is on my Facebook page. You should be able to access even if we aren't friends yet. Here is the Link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201621223320950&comment_id=6222103&offset=0&total_comments=1&notif_t=video_comment

It should be subtitled "Pure Joy" because it was the moment we went from being individuals to a group. AWESOME!!!

Rain Dance

When it rains in India it pours and we have to celebrate! As playtime ended it started to pour and James with Prometheus Spark, who is an amazing dancer on Broadway, taught us an impromptu dance. I'm having issues getting the video to load, but here are some pics to set the mood.

Dance down! 

Rain Circle with Claire, Natalie and Jenna 

Finale! 

The Cricket Match

Cricket is huge in India! I have watched the game and for the life of me can not figure out how it works. Today's game was the Marriott employees vs. the Rising Star boys. It was serious. The boys on the team had a swagger that you could tell they were so proud. They all wore their red house shirts and looked like a real team.  The kids were so excited about it and talked about it for the whole week. All of the girls wore their very best clothes. One of my favorite little girls, Anita, said she was wearing her birthday dress, even though it wasn't her birthday. It was so cute! Here are some pics from lunch time and the game.

This is after lunch with a bunch of girls. I love all their bright colors. 

I want to take this little cutie home with me. She is absolutely adorable.

This is Anita. She is taking a 'selfie' from behind me. She is so smart and her English is one of the best here. She is a special one!  PS I get beet red when I'm hot. It felt like it was about 105. 

This is during the cricket match. Far off in the distance, the Rising Star kids are up. They played really hard, but the Marriott men beat them by only two runs, 76-74. 

The Kids

All of the kids have snuck into our hearts in only two days. They are immediately open, curious, and loving. In Western society, we are so closed off from others. These kids are an amazing reminder of what relationships can be. I'm hoping to get photos of more activities, like the Life Dance and class time, but here are a few from play time.

This little girl (I'm so bad with names and the pronunciations are difficult) wanted to do a selfie.  She was better with my phone than I am. 

There are four or five girls who are really good at henna and they have been showing their artistry on our girls. This one, I think is on Jenna. 

One of our girls brought finger nail polish, which has been hit with all the villages we've visited. 

Natalie and Jenna having a little girl time during play time. 

Cricket is huge here. There were two cricket games and one soccer match during play time and it is serious. Tomorrow we have a game with the Marriott people vs. the kids. They are all psyched! 

More cricket. 

The girls love doing our hair. These two were "washing" and cutting Leslie's. Then they gave her a fetching style. :) 

I've had my hair done and as Riley and J'Amy can attest to, it should be called The House of Pain Hair Salon.  These kids have the strongest hands on the planet! 

First Day

Late Wednesday night, we finally arrived in Chennai to our final destination at Rising Star. The next morning was orientation day where we got settled and saw the campus for the first time. It looks exactly like the pictures! It's so nice and air conditioned and the school is within walking distance!

After playtime with the kindergarden age kids, we came home for a little then went back for more play time except with all the students. The kids are just as amazing as everyone said they were, even a little bit better! They are so sweet, loving and sometimes a little sassy. It was a bit overwhelming at first having five kids run up to you at the same time yelling "Auntie Auntie what is your name?" With names like Krishna, Sheba, Gatena, Vignesh, Musa, Sumitra and Nishanti their names were very hard to remember. Then we went to individual prayer time. We split into groups (I was with Natalie) and went to separate houses. The kids would start off by leading a prayer then it was up to us. The theme this week was hard work so Natalie and I racked our brains to come up with a story or at least something that related. We ended up playing Simon Says and a couple rounds of name games for a good half hour. Luckily James, a super cool Broadway performing, dance teaching New Yorker came in and saved us. We ended with a closing prayer, dinner and bedtime shortly afterwards.

Today was a little different. We split into our groups and went off on the daily tasks of either medical, construction or education. I had the privilege of being in the construction group with J'Amy, Claire and Nery. We painted one of the toilet sheds the previous group had built. It was hot but not unbearable, just very very sweaty. It went smoothly besides getting paint in my eye multiple times (thanks Nery). This experience was especially cool for me because we were in these villages walking alongside the people and cows and dogs that live there. We'd seen poor parts of cities earlier in Delhi,  but that was from the safety of our big, air conditioned bus. It wasn't so much culture shock for me, but culture acceptance? I just felt so open and normal to me, there wasn't any shock. We finished the day almost identically to Thursday except with a new house for prayer time and different food for dinner. 

I honestly love everything I have seen so far in this country. I feel so blessed and fortunate for everything I have back in Park City, but these people seem perfectly happy with their stone houses and dirt streets. Their home is much different from ours, but that doesn't keep it from being a home. I could stay here forever! 

- Reilly Falter

*To answer some frequently asked questions by my friends and family: No, we don't shower in Western style showers, instead we get to fill a larger bucket with water and use a smaller bucket to pour it over ourselves. No, we don't have to wear saris everyday, instead we wear baggy pants and long, pretty shirts.. I can't remember the name right now. And finally, yes, we do have to squat to use the toilet.*

Random Agra Pictures

Shopping in Agra, the girls went Sari shopping. 

We are a curiosity in India and people come up to our group members all the time and ask to take pictures. These ladies were beautiful and had the most amazing Saris! 

At the end of the visit to the Taj, it was a downpour- monsoon style! 

Before the rains, Nataile Beal posed at the Lady Di bench. I think they are identical. 

There are three photos ops you must get, a Lady Di bench, a touching the top of the Taj and a jumping pose. Haha! 

Taj Mahal

We started the day at 5:00 am. It was drizzling and there was some discussion about whether or not we should go or wait until later.  We all thought we should just go for it because who knows if it will get better or worse later.  We had to transfer from our touring bus to a clean energy bus about two or three blocks away because they didn’t want the pollution harming the Taj worse than it already has.  

The beauty of the Taj is in its purpose, a tribute to the king's wife when she died, and the symmetry of the building. Amazing. 

There are two gates at either end of the Taj and then this one leads into the grounds itself. It is flanked by two entry gates on either end. Through this entrance is the Taj. 

Of course the most famous picture of the Taj is where you capture the reflection of the monument in the pools in front. Not bad for an I-phone... I will get more pics up later. We have playtime with the kids! 

Culture Shock

Park City is a bubble. Sheltered and protected.  I've lived there my entire life and never really known anything but the organization and calm that was there.  But coming across the globe to a country so full of people and chaos has opened my eyes!  We arrived in Delhi at 12:30 AM and just the drive to our hotel was chaos. Driving here, there are no lanes. You just go where you can and hope that people will yield to you.  The streets are full of life, exploding with it.  The markets are organized chaos, but more on the chaotic side.  The people here are kind and friendly and very, very plentiful.  Every where you look there are people.  Kids selling flowers, men selling magnets, women talking. I've never been any where so full of life! Coming here makes Park City seem like the smallest, plainest, most privileged place on the planet.

-J'Amy VanderVeur

Delhi Spice Market

My biggest concern coming into India  A few times, that septic smell comes up and is a little overpowering, but for the most part, the smells are exotic.  There is incense burning everywhere and the different scents pass from one vendor to the next.  In the spice market it was overpowering. Some of the chilies were so strong we all would cough just passing by their shop.   Everything was out in big bags full of chilies, nuts, every spice you could imagine. Sacks just full of them. And men everywhere were bartering and discussing. They seemed to have little interest in us. 

was the smell.

We went to a spice store and the guy told us about the healing powers of several different types of spice. We tasted cinnamon shards and turmeric and fennel mixed with mint to cleanse the palate.  In India, chefs use multiple spices and mixes to get just the right curry flavor. So far my favorites are the butter Chicken that is really more like a mild masala mix and something they call karma flavoring. The karma veggies were amazing! The selection of teas and chai were tempting. 

I love the compactness of the marketplace.  As Megan said, there is no personal bubble. Everyone is close.  The Muslims built this part of old Delhi and they did not believe in wastefulness.  There are small shops that two people can pass in with goods on either side.  Above the shops are more shops or peoples homes. If there is a small corner that could be built upon, they will squeeze it in.  Originally, the alleys in the market were built so small so that they could get the most from their space, but also so that the women, who were not allowed to go out, could talk to each other between homes.  The buildings are all colors, styles and in various states of functionality, most very old, some even from pre-colonial days.  

Frankfurt

Frankfurt!
It was a long flight over the pond, but we are in Frankfurt. It's 4:00 am in PC, but 12:00 pm here. The kids are getting snacks and doing a little power walking before our flight in an hour. We will blog when we get to Delhi.
Kelly

Safe and Sound!

Hi All,
I just wanted you to know that the kids have arrived safely, had fun riding bikes and traveling around Delhi and are on their way to the Taj Mahal tomorrow at sunrise. They don't have internet access where they are staying, but Maike said they are all taking lots of pictures. I am hoping they can start blogging tomorrow or Sunday! I can't wait to be in country and hear their stories.
Kelly