Catch Up

I really am a terrible blogger.  I’m so sorry that I have not been very good at blogging regularly.  I’m so busy here with teaching, playing, and laughing that I don’t often have a ton of time to sit down and write.  So today, I’m playing catch-up.

Let’s start with last weekend.  We took all 40 of the new session volunteers out for the day to Pondicherry.  It was fun to be able to go back to the little French/Indian town and do a few things we didn’t do the first time.  Right when we got there, we decided to go to this little temple where we heard you can get blessed by an elephant.  We got there and saw the elephant, but its owner took it away for lunch break before we got a chance to be blessed.  So we decided to run to a little grocery store for a few things while the elephant was on break.  I may or may not have come within inches of being hit by a rickshaw while crossing the street on the way to the store.  Don’t worry, Mom, I’m still alive.

 We finished shopping, headed back to the temple, and finally got our chance to be blessed.  I handed by camera to Callie, stepped up, gave the elephant a rupee, and she reached out and touched me on the head with her trunk.  It was such a cool experience to be interacting with an elephant in India.

After the elephant experience, we went back to the Italian place we ate at last time.  Once again, we had a serene little meal there in the open air restaurant on top of a building.

After lunch, we decided to catch a rickshaw to the Grand Bazaar.  This was my first time riding in a rickshaw and it was a lot of fun.  Our group was too big to cram into one rickshaw, so we took two and had ourselves a little race.  

The bazaar was one of the most incredible places I have been so far.  It was in these tiny little allies throughout a section of the city.  The whole thing was draped by tarps and fabric overhead to provide some shade.  I felt like I was in Aladdin. 

They were selling all kinds of fruits, vegetables, fabrics, grains, flowers and spices in this bazaar.  It was so amazing to see all the vibrant colors of everything.

 Many of the vendors had just laid out their produce on the ground. 

This guy stopped us and asked for us to take his picture.  His posing was obviously well-practiced.  I got a kick out of him.

Onions.  Lots of onions.  This is for you, Britt.

Have I mentioned how much I love the fabrics here?

So many flowers.

He was tired.

Motorcycles are everywhere in India.

View of the motorcycles from above.

It was a great little excursion.  I had a great time wandering through the bazaar and being blessed by an elephant.  India is so foreign, so crazy, and so incredible.

Classroom Highlights

It's so crazy that yet another week has flown by here in India.  Things have been busy, tough, and wonderful as usual.  Somehow, teaching all of these classes manages to completely exhaust me by the end of the day.  I love being able to spend my entire day with the kids and try to help them progress in their learning.  They are smart, loving, and adorable.  I think many of the details of the day-to-day would probably bore you a bit, but here are some highlights of the week:

1. Our shopping and movie-seeing excursion last weekend.  We went up to Chennai and spent the day shopping in an air-conditioned mall.  

We also went to see Snow White and the Huntsman at a theater here.  It had the fanciest seats I have ever seen in a movie theater.  Also, we didn't know that they have intermissions in the movies here, so were were really confused when the movie turned off randomly in the middle of a sentence halfway through the movie.  

2. Enjoying the beauty of the school.  I love the bright colors and the open air classrooms.

3. Morning prayer.  This is a tradition for the kids at Rising Star.  They get together at the beginning of school every morning and they all recite a few prayers in Tamil, the Lord's prayer in English, and the Indian pledge of allegiance.  

4. Teaching my classes.  There are definite highs and lows associated with teaching, but I just adore these kids. They are so sweet and incredible. I have been forcing kids to read here a lot. At least they pretend to be enjoying it for the picture.:)

In my 5th standard reading class, we read a short non-fiction book about different animals.  After we finished, I had the kids draw a picture of one of the animals and write a fact about the animal on the back.  We took this picture at the end of class.

Another of my favorite activities was when I asked my 5th standard writing class to write about what they would do with 1,000,000 rupees. Many of them wrote about buying cars, bikes, and houses, but some of their responses were so sweet and beautiful.  Here are a few:

I buy this world and enjoy with the people. --K. Rutish

I buy 5 star hotel and I give all of them food and help to poor people.  And they say thank you for you hotel food. --Theerti

I go to my parents and I will say "You take some money."--Mariyambee

My sister baby not have toy.  I go to shop to buy toy for my sister.--V. Thrisha

I buy pool and bike, but this is not my goal.  My goal is to help others and they be happy. That only my goal to help others and I help my mother.  And who not have a house, I give a house. And it so good for me.  You like to help others? I like to help others. --P. Vijay

I was so touched to read about their desires to help their families and the people of their country and their world.  They are truly amazing kids. They recognize the challenges many people face in their daily lives here in India, and they want to change it.  

5. Play time!  I love going over and playing with all those crazy, energetic, little fireballs.  I have been playing a ton with my little buddy, Veeran.  He likes to play a game where I sit on the bench and he stands on my legs.  Then I shake my legs around and try to knock him off.  We both get laughing so hard, we can't move.  I love that kid!

6.  The kids, the kids, the kids.  I can't say it enough, they are the life of Rising Star.  They are the whole reason I am living on the other side of the world for 3 months.  They are indescribable.  I love that Varalekshmi and a couple other kids come find me in my classroom every day at recess time.  

I love when Varalekshmi colors me pictures at recess instead of playing outside.

I love watching movies with the kids on Saturday nights as they pile on top of you.  I love their over-the-top reactions to the movies.  I love their energy.  I love their enthusiasm.  I love that they hate writing, but it's nearly impossible to get them to stop when it's time.  I love that the boy who I talked about in my last post (the one whose hand was burned by his mother) drew me this picture and was so proud of himself.

Every week with these kids, these staff members, and these volunteers is incredible and humbling.  I am so grateful to be here.  As always, thank you all for your love and support.  I miss you guys!

School Days

This week has been so incredible.  I swear I fall more deeply in love with this place every single day. 

School started for the children on Monday, so my real work here at Rising Star has officially commenced.  I am thoroughly exhausted and thoroughly delighted all at once.  I start my day off with a 7th standard computer class.  I basically just monitor the students as they work on a math program and answer their abundant questions.  Next, I head off to teach 5th standard writing. I teach a class of 26 students some basic grammar and writing skills.  English is a second language for all of these kids, so they are fairly far behind in American terms.  However, I am constantly amazed at their ability to quickly absorb information and do their school work in a second language.  After that, I have a two hour preparation period.  I spend this time planning my lessons and grading papers.  I then head over to eat lunch with the kids.  It is so fun to sit on the floor with them as they try to teach us to eat with our hands and tell us about their days.

In the afternoon, I teach a 5th standard reading class where we are reading a fictional book about the moon. Then I head to 6th standard English, followed by 4th standard writing, and 7th standard math.  It is so crazy and so busy, but I am loving every second.  I feel such a sense of accomplishment when I succeed at managing my classes.  These kids are used to Americans being the ones who play with them and run around with them, so it's hard for them to take American teachers seriously.  I have been so blessed with some intense Divine inspiration in those moments when I feel the class behavior start to slide.  The kids have been so well-behaved these last few days as they have begun to understand I am serious about their education, and it has given me some much-needed reassurance that I can do this job.  I know that teaching is the right profession for me, and India is where I am supposed to be right now.

Most of all, this week, I have felt joy.  I feel joy when I see the light bulb turn on for these kids as I'm teaching, and they suddenly understand what I'm talking about.  I feel joy when I am able to manage my class and keep the kids engaged in the lessons.  I feel joy when I feel a pair of tiny arms wrap around me and see the beautiful face of a child.  I feel joy when I laugh, tell jokes, and play games with some of the older boys.  I feel joy when one of the Indian teachers at the school comes up and pins a string of jasmine in my hair before morning assembly. I feel joy when I spend time with the other volunteers.  They are incredible and every single one of them inspires me every day.  I love this place, I love these kids, I love all the staff, and I love all the volunteers.  

Tonight is the last night of the nursing session, and all the girls are leaving really early in the morning. So when we were on the roof for dinner, the nurses all went around and said the most important lesson they had learned here in India.  I was so inspired by their answers and by the love that each of them had for this place and these people.   After dinner, the long term volunteers often linger on the roof to just sit and talk.  Tonight, I found myself overwhelmed with a feeling of peace and contentment. India is so full of trials, hard work, and physical discomforts.  However, all of those things are totally and absolutely dwarfed by the overwhelming love and generosity of the people who live here.  They are the kind of people I aspire to be in my life.  I feel myself learning from them, stretching, and (hopefully) changing for the better.

 

I can't express enough gratitude to the people here with me, to my Eternal Father, and to every one of you.  My life feels so full and complete when I feel your love from across the world. I wish you were all here with me to feel the magic of Rising Star.  I can't say it enough, thank you and I love you.

P.S. Mom, I promise there will be more pictures coming.  I have been so enveloped by the experiences and the energy of these kids that I often don't remember to pull out the camera.   But they will be coming. I love you!

A Hint of France

Vanakkam!

This past weekend, we had an awesome opportunity to go to a little beach town called Pondicherry (or Puducherry).  This town is about 3 hours south of Rising Star and has a French quarter.  We were so excited because, after weeks of nothing but straight up India, we felt we could use a little France.  We spent a bit of time daydreaming about European food and French pastry shops, but we tried to keep our expectations realistic because this is, after all, still India.

Saturday morning, we set out bright and early at 6:45 am.  We all piled onto the buses and began our journey to a place called Auroville, which was on the way to Pondicherry.  I seriously never get tired of looking out the window here.  India is so diverse and so foreign.  I am going to do an entire blog post dedicated to describing this crazy land, but for now, just know that it is incredibly fascinating.  

After a few wrong turns and a bit of miscommunication, we finally arrived in Auroville. 

 We really didn't know what to expect from the town, but we knew that there was a golden temple there, so we decided to go looking for that.  We had no idea where to go or what the temple was called, but we saw signs pointing in one direction and decided to start by going that way.  We walked along this beautiful pathway for quite a while.  

We got about 1/4 of a mile up the path, when we were stopped by a man who asked us for our passes.  We told him we didn't have passes, so he made us turn around and go back so we could get our free passes.  Yep, free.  We don't know why we needed them so badly.  However, in order to get our passes, we had to watch a short video about Auroville and the temple.  It explained how Auroville is supposed to be an idyllic town where people come to learn to concentrate.  It said something about how the temple was actually the soul of the town and they had rejected all religion.  It was all very weird.  

Finally, we were able to head back up the path and go see the temple.  In front of the temple, there was this unbelievably incredible banyon tree that I was so fascinated with.

Here are all the long term volunteers in front of the temple.  It looks like a gold version of the Epcot dome in Disneyworld.  The landscaping and surroundings were so beautiful.

Carl, Julie, Callie, Dane, Danielle, and Me

There was this beautiful bowl of Plumeria flowers floating in water.  We weren't sure what the purpose was, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

After lots of photos in front of the temple, we all walked back and piled on the buses to head to Pondicherry.

When we arrived, we decided our meeting point was going to be the giant Ghandi statue on the beach.  This statue was probably about 10 feet tall, and was so amazing.

There were a ton of people gathered around the statue when we got there, so we went over to see what the commotion was all about.  We discovered they were filming a Bollywood movie, so we stayed and watched for a moment.  I had no idea what they were saying, but it was so funny to see the crowd laughing at the jokes and enjoying that moment.

We then decided it was time for lunch, so we went in search of an Italian restaurant we had read about online called Don Giovanni's.  However, we're not very savvy navigators here in India, so we got a bit lost.  It was ok, though, because we got to see a bit of the city.

After literally wandering around back and forth in front of the building, we finally found the right place.  We went in to this beautiful, open-air atmosphere.  We were greeted by the owner/chef, Max.  He sat down with us and took our order and asked where we were from.  When Julie and Callie said they were from California, he went to the back and changed the music to "California Dreamin'".  He continued to sit and talk with us for a large portion of the meal.  He was so funny, personable, and wonderful.  We ate delicious food, sat, talked, laughed, and enjoyed the view in that restaurant for almost 3 hours.  

On the way back to the bus, we met up with a bunch of the other volunteers at a cute little French pastry shop.  We talked and enjoyed some milkshakes and coconut cookies.

The day was wonderful and peaceful.  It was fun to just enjoy each other's company and relax for an afternoon. I love all the things I am able to experience here in India, and I love my little home at Rising Star with all my heart.  Oh, and I love all of you.