Dear Katie

Yesterday we had a bit of a scare. One of the girls here with us, Katie, a darling girl from Texas with curly hair, woke up unresponsive. . . or I guess I should say she didnt wake up. She is diabetic and after all of the work we did the day beforeher insulin pump got messed up and her insulin levels were super low (12). Dr. Kumar came to the rescue and they carried her out and put her in a jeepish car and drove to the hospital going a million miles an hour. Doctors in India are really familiar with Diabetes, and from what I was told it is because of all of the rice that they eat. So they took care of her, gave her a blessing, and she is back and better than ever! Here is a pic of me with Katie and Bailey.

God will give

I am very interested in the school that gives these children such amazing opportunities. The children and most of the teachers live here on campus. There is the hostel, where the kids eat and sleep, and the school. Some of the kids are as young as 4 years old. Many of their parents live in the leprosy colonies and some have no parents at all. You would never know how many awful things they have seen in their lives, let alone the way some of them may have been treated by people in their communities, especially if someone in their families had been afflicted by leprosy. What kind of education can a school in the middle of the jungle offer these special ones? I have not seen their test scores or their report cards, but I have listened to them speak, seen them type, and watched them study. They work hard to get a good education. Like most schools, not just here in India but around the world, art is a subject that is neglected. They have a supply closet with paints and precious as gold paper, but no one has access to them. On Tuesday I am going to present on art integration to a group of the teachers. How can you talk about history without art? How can you teach about science or biology without models to look at? Art enhances all other subjects and life itself. I can’t wait to talk to the teachers about how they can use art to help the students understand material and as a way to assess their understanding, and use their creativity. Paper is precious to these children. When I taught my class on drawing they sat and waited for me to tell them more, and very diligently copied what was doing on the board. After the class the house mother, hER son, Karl Marx, was in my class,thanked me for coming to their school and teaching art. Then we talked about children and she asked me how many I have and I told her that didn’t have any yet, and then I joked about wanting twins and she said, “Just pray, God will give it to you.” Right on! That is so true. I wonder about all of the millions of prayers God answered to allow these children an opportunity to have a better life. Last night I was hanging out by the sinks in the bathroom (I was a bit sick) on the girls side of the living quarters and got to see the girls brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed. They were all brushing and staring at me with smiles on their faces wondering what I was doing in there. I told them I wasn’t feeling good and made a puking gesture and motioned to my belly. Next thing I know all of the girls are filling their mouths with water and pretending to throw up in the sink and laughing their heads off. This was all followed by a water fight. It’s like a slumber party with 20 girls every night in our room. I love it!

Lets go fly a kite

What do children all over the world love to do? From Tamil Nadu to Utah County making and flying kites makes it to the top of the list every time. Two times a week each of the volunteers gets to teach a class (a talent class). Today there were classes where students made rice crispy treats; flower clips friendship bracelets and a course on how to make French toast. They were all a success. I taught the kite class. The boys really wanted to learn how to draw people, flowers, and animals, but they flew their kites proudly and I promised to teach them a drawing course on Thursday. I was the school photographer today! I took class pictures and a portrait of each darling student.

Dani, Bailey and I

Its so nice to see old friends in such far places.

"Chase me Auntee!"

Imagine being greeted by what seems like hundreds of smiling faces, reaching hands, and trusting hearts. That’s how I felt today. We made it to the Rising Star Outreach campus today which includes school, room and board for children who have not had it easy in life. Some of them have parents who had been afflicted by leprosy and therefore are not accepted by some people here in India, some don’t have parents at all. I can’t believe how resilient they are! The journey to the center was a long, bumpy, cow infested, crowded road (minus the trip to Fabindia, mom I got you a beautiful Indian top), but it felt so good to get out of the city. Finally we are seeing the real beauty of India. Mango and coconut trees separate the earth from the sky. It feels like you are going to see a parade of Elephants marching by any second with Mogli on their back. But unfortunately, no elephants, not yet. I met up with my good friend Dani who has been here for a few months. She is one of those people you wish everyone was like. Always looking out for other people, and making people she meets feel so special and important. She helped me get where I am today. After we got here we ate a delicious Indian meal then we each chose a modest Indian outfit to wear around, and Dani put some sweet smelling strands jasmine in our hair. It is so humid and hot that our clothes are drenched within minutes. With the sweating profusely problem combined with using squatter toilets I don’t see a way to not get in better shape during my stay. We reached the school just as the children made their way to the freedom of play time. This involved answering their question of “what is your name”, telling them my husband’s name, pushing swings, chasing them, and creating mutiny with my “strawberry water”. I should have learned more from the movie The Gods must be crazy! I introduced the crystal light flavored water aka the “coke bottle” and the next thing I knew chaos ensued. “One more sip, one more, just one more!” Ten open mouths waiting for me to fill them with my Blender Bottle filled with crystal light. You can imagine the problem this began with only one Blender Bottle and many more mouths. I did what I could and I won’t do it again. We ate dinner on the roof and talked about our highs and lows while lighting that looked like Sanskrit writing flashed across a cloudy gray sky. After dinner Bailey and I headed to our “family” of children in a room with bright blue walls. We help them with homework and read to them before they go to bed . . . . Theoretically. They were wound up! Some of them showed us pictures of their families, some wanted us to read, some wanted us to sing. The, “If you give a mouse a cookie” books were really making sense today. I am teaching an art class to the children tomorrow, I can’t wait to see what they can create!

India blue

Here are some words of wisdom from our Hindu guide at the Kapaaleswar Temple.
Guide “Define Impossible”
Us “you can’t do it”
Guide “Spell impossible”
Us “I M P O S S I B L E”
Guide “What did you spell?”
Us “I’m possible”
The moral of the story, “nothings impossible”. However, no one is perfect. Our guide also compared a wife to a knife, and ice cream?! Some more words for the wise, you can’t enter a Hindu temple unless you are Hindu. It seems like you could cut the air here in Chennai with a knife. The humidity has turned my hair into Muffassa’s mane. The sounds of Chennai consist of honking cars and more honking cars. The smell is a mixture of jasmine and dirt; it is not nearly as bad as people made it out to be. We woke up way too late to make it to an LDS sacrament meeting so we made up for it by going to a Roman Catholic basilica and the before mentioned Hindu temple. I have been nicknamed “the teacher” by our driver, Richard. The same driver that waited for four hours at the airport, while our plane was late and we had fill out forms in order to find our bags that didn’t show up. Bailey is so tired she has fallen asleep again. At dinner we all looked dazed and confuse, I guess it could be jet lag. As we were driving around today I noticed that there is a color that ties everything in this city together. Pale blue with a bit of green in it litters the city, on buses, billboards, buckets, bags, and I’m sure a ton of other words that start with B. The city compliments the sky. I didn’t notice hardly any beggars or people suffering from leprosy in the streets. Things I read about India made me think I would be seeing sorrow on every corner, but instead I saw families cruising by on motorcycles, two little boys riding a pink bike down the street, smiling faces, fruit stands that had the fruit stacked in symmetrical piles resembling brightly colored art assemblages, and tables with stacks of flowers, filling the air with the scent of jasmine. Not bad at all. I can’t wait to get out of the tourists shoes and walk in some real ones. Tomorrow the real journey begins, and we will be heading to the Rising Star Outreach center. Until then, sit under a mandala and try to clear your mind, I’m going to pay a visit to the sandman.

the arrival

After following the sun for two days, we made it to India. We are safe. I will write more tonight.