The Rains Returned to India!!

What a long break from writing of our Rising Star experiences we had. If anyone is still out there reading, thank you for patience. We spent the month of October in the US--a glorious time split between Utah and Northern California, as well as our Laguna home. We had Padma, Becky and Amy with us for four days, when we first arrived. It was very busy and lots of fun. Utah included grandchildren visits, breakfast with the Gibbs, a visit with our former coordinators and long term volunteers, and President's Leadership Council at BYU. We had some good family and friend time in Laguna, and our 50th reunion at Stanford was not only fun, but yielded a couple of wonderful gifts from two of Ron's fraternity brothers for Rising Star. We spoke on a class panel and explained the Rising Star Outreach story, and many were touched. It's such a great story and we are always happy to tell it!

We returned to RAIN. November is monsoon month, with about 80% of the 55 inches they receive here coming in these monsoon times. We have cancelled sports day, two parents days, are celebrating "children's day" today in honor of Nehru's birthday but have had to go under cover fast three times so far. Assan Hospitality School is providing a feast for the children, and the food is coming out quickly before the next downpour. We did have three clear days this week and we took out all our clothes and bedding to hang in the sun for a few hours and try to dissipate the mildew odor. Things are growing in our shoes!

We have had some new challenges with the building projects, but slowly, slowly, slowly they creep forward. Ron and I will be here through Thanksgiving, and right up to Christmas as we have a large volunteer group coming the week leading up to the 25th of December. We also have discovered how quickly things go awry when we are not here--either it goes wrong or it stops!

Children are well--note their Christmas offering in the picture. Click on it and look closely at all the beautiful children. They are sending love to all of you. Everything is worth while when you look at the children.

An Auspicious Weekend!

We had two amazing and joyful happenings for Rising Star Outreach this past weekend. It started on Friday, when we received a letter in Tamil from the State of Tamil Nadu's equivalent to our Board of Education. They notified us that after many months of paperwork, visits, pictures, more paperwork, and a lot of leg work, our application had been approved for becoming a fully recognized school in English Matriculation. We are now officially the PEERY MATRICULATION SCHOOL!! I equate it to a college or university going through the process of becoming accredited. For many of our parents, a big concern has been having their children study at a school that was lacking this recognition by the government. It is very important in Indian schools. Our challenge now, is following the curriculum that is required with the new status. This is now serious education!

On this past Friday we had a celebration with all the children, teachers, principal, and all the administration who had worked so hard to achieve this goal. We had a wonderful banner (two actually): one hangs at the front entrance for all to see, and another graces the front of the school. We had a few speeches and sweets for everyone. Just as we finished this short program, the skies opened and we had a huge deluge of rain. Everyone was completely soaked, but our very Hindu Purshotaman assured us that it was the most auspicious thing that could have occurred--it was confirmation of a blessing from above. We'll take it!! Ron and I appeared in our school uniforms (given to us by Lucy Williams and Matt Goodell), and the children were delighted. Ron looked especially cute--just like some of our boys. His shirt was two sizes too small, and his shorts about 3 sizes too big around the waist. Of course, his socks were a bit droopy--that's the way we wear them.

On Saturday of the same weekend, we had our Board meeting with the Indian Board at the Courtyard Marriott in Chennai. One of our Board members is Rajeev Menon, AVP for Marriott over India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and the Maldives. Rising Star Outreach is the Marriott hotel's charity in all 10 of their hotels in these countries. For 6 months envelopes have been in all the rooms of their hotels that explain Rising Star's mission and making it convenient for hotel guests to donate if they wish to. Also at checkout time, guests are asked if they would like to contribute rs100 (about $2.00) to be added to their bill. With hotel occupancy being down 40 - 60% these past months, they still gave us a check from these donations for 10 lakh--$22,000! Marriott is building many new hotels as we write, with a beautiful new JW Marriott to open in Chennai a year from now. This can only get better. We feel so blessed with the great help the Marriott's have given the program from around the world. The Marriott Courtyard in Chennai have truly adopted us, and bring such wonderful hope and love to the children and to others that we serve.

Pictures: 2 new students of the 4th Standard; official banner announcing in English and Tamil our receiving school recognition; Karen Berry (Courtyard Marriott General Manager), Joyce, Padma, Rajeev Menon, Ron; some of the staff of the Courtyard Marriott and Board members, as we received the award and had pictures taken for local media coverage.

Where does the time go??

Is there anyone out there left to wonder if we are still in India or not? The answer is, we are still here and keeping very busy--no excuse, but the only one I have. Time flies--faster here, and we get further behind. What a busy three weeks we've had.

A few highlights: We had a wonderful puja at the volunteer block for the putting in of the front door frame. Who would guess that it was very significant to see that door frame put in with a blessing for the remainder of the building. Needless to say, we would just like to say that the building is completed, but we can only say that the frame is in, and we are continuing the process of completion, slowly, slowly.

One of our house mothers became engaged, and we were invited to participate in the ceremony: Ron spoke and I prayed. It was a Christian union, but I realized many things that I had associated with a Hindu ritual is probably Indian culture and not religious based. The celebration took place in a small chapel in one of the leprosy colonies where this housemother's family lives. It was a sweet experience.

Ron celebrated his 72nd birthday on the 1st of September--the second birthday he has celebrated here. My next one will be with family in the US, which I look forward to. Ron's was a grand event, with two cakes (one for breakfast) and a very large beautiful one for all the staff and the children in the afternoon. They do love birthdays in India, and of course they love the aged, and we are becoming that also rather rapidly.

We had a wonderful parents day the first Saturday in September. Always it is a happy day for some and sad for others who have no one that comes to see them. We try to keep those children busy by helping us with chores, but many times there are families from their colony who include them with their own children for food and a bit of loving. We did lose some boys that day, whose mother had decided they were falling too far behind in an English language school, and had decided to put them in a Tamil medium school. That was sad.

We lost one of our artists in the Bindu Art School at the Bharatapuram colony, but in doing so witnessed some great acts of charity by two of our volunteers. Arumagam had broken his hip and was finally admitted to the hospital that works with leprosy patients. For three weeks he languished, with limited food, no surgery, and no hygiene care. They finally discharged him, weaker, very dirty and smelly, covered with open bed wounds, and sent him back to the colony to die. We received a call from Padma Venkataraman asking if there were any volunteers who could go to the colony and help him. We had two with us at the time: Nicole Pryzbola and Tom Douglas. They took off immediately with bandages, washing materials, and food. They cleaned him as well as they could--he didn't want to be moved much because of the pain from the hip, and fed him a little. They returned for three days; they sang, he smiled and sat up a bit, he smelled better, they dressed his wounds and got him a bed pan-- and then he died. It was an incredible thing these two young people had done--they were truly angles of mercy. Their response was to thank us and Padma for the privilege they had been given to serve this man. That's the kind of volunteers we have here at Rising Star Outreach. A few days after he died, we printed out a picture of Arumagam, mounted it, and they took it along with a flower tribute to the colony, to pay their last respects. Many of the artists cried--I know Tom and Nicole also shed a tear. They were bonded to this dear man with charity, the pure love of Christ.

One amazing side note: last year Nicole's twin sister Megan came to Rising Star. She had written about many of her experiences in her diary, and talked a lot about one of the artists in the colony. She had taken a beautiful picture of him which she enlarged and gave to Nicole. It has been hanging on the wall in Nicole's room for a year. Arumagam was a very thin man, even when healthy, but he had lost a lot of weight in the hospital. She didn't connect him to her picture at first, but it turned out that the very man whose picture was hanging in Nicole's apartment was the one she was asked to administer to. I love these small miracles that we see here.

Pictures: puja for front door frame, housemother's engagement ceremony, Ron's birthday, parents day, Nicole and Tom at tribute for Arumagam, Arumagam painting.

Projects with the Volunteers - #3

Ashley Erikson comes from Boise, Idaho. She is the third of six girls in her family. She will be back at Utah State in the fall, where she is still debating her future life direction (i.e., major). She is a true outdoors girl--lives in the land of kayaking (certified guide), fishing, hiking, snowmobiling, and anything else she can find to do outside! Loves reading and traveling--she was always looking for her next good book, and she and Rochelle took off for a week to northern Indian and an Ashram! (She was going to meditate and decide on her major...hmmm) Ashley was in charge of the tutoring program with the children for the summer. She instructed the volunteers at the beginning of each session, then spent her days overseeing their work with the children in the mango grove. This summer, the tutors worked in a variety of subjects, as the teacher would send a child with a special need in math, science, english, whatever. We had to laugh a few times when the math exceeded the knowledge of the tutor--compound interest, and quotient something or other (which our American kids would do with a calculator--we don't have those in school here!) The children adored Ashley (just looking at her you would say, "what's not to adore"), and she did such a great job. The teachers were singing the praise of the tutoring program by the end of the summer, but particularly the praises of Ashley.

Ashley was also in charge of the evening meals. That meant planning food for anywhere from 50 hungry souls down to 10, depending on the week and the numbers of volunteers here at the time. She worked closely with the cook on the menu, but one thing, you could always find Ashley at about 5:30 in the afternoon, usually with many helpers--big and small, cutting a beautiful bowl of fresh fruit to go with the dinner, as well as tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. The Indian food, while tasty and nutritious, is not known to have many fresh raw fruits or vegetables--something we Americans crave.

Ashley has a huge, giving heart, and comes by it naturally. We received some wonderful gifts from her family for Rising Star--a projector, and an all day outing to MGM (India's version of Disneyland) and three new bikes. She also came equipped to make yummy desserts and other fun dishes with foods from home. How we've missed her chocolate pudding cake! She also showed us all how to have fun with the children--water fights, fairy walks with the little girls, wild races with the boys (she always won) or just swinging from the palms. Thank you Ashley for making life so joyful for us all this summer at Rising Star.

Pictures: Ashley and Kaity Gale, water fight with Joseph Stalin, fairy walk and evening devotional at dinner, one of Ashley's tutors with Archana (she got it!), Ashley in the Mango grove, swinging from the palms, and dressed in sari at last brunch at Marriott.

Projects with the Volunteers - #2

Rochelle Cronquist from Atlanta Georgia, is a small, but very powerful (personality, body strength, and determination) young woman. She is a Junior this year at BYU majoring in Public Health with a minor in International Development. She has run a marathon, spent several months in her favorite country, France, on a Study Abroad program, and counts this summer as her third trip to Rising Star. She has been in charge of all special projects, including after school activities, projects in the colonies, evening devotionals and assorted other things that fall under the category of "special projects." The other coordinators finally came to the conclusion she had way too many jobs to survive the summer. There was, of course, a lot of help from the others, but basically Rochelle handled many tough jobs on her own. She is lovely in a sari, but never afraid of getting dirty--she did a lot of that!

When I think of her, my favorite picture will always be handling the workers and the volunteers as they began in July to build three toilets in the Bharatapuram Colony, with the large group that came with Sally Reed from New Caanan, CT. Getting the contractor to understand that the three workers with him were not to do all the work, but rather teach the volunteers how to set bricks, mortar, plaster, build a roof, and paint the three "squatters" as we dubbed them was almost impossible. The contractor would fail to have the materials, they couldn't figure out why a group with materials and one mason should be at each site, and they would start at 7:00 when we would not arrive until 9:30 and a good portion of the work would be done. In the end, because of Rochelle's perseverance and determination the volunteers completed the project and felt satisfied, and the job turned out great. (note the pictures.) One man told us that he had to carry his wife everywhere, and he was so happy now that he had a toilet right by his home and he no longer had to carry her all the way up the hill where it was private. Always sweet stories of sacrifice and perhaps making a life a little easier.

She also led a group of volunteers in August to redo the walls of the barber's shop and put on a new roof. He was thrilled--small project, but great rewards. They completed this project the last day before they were leaving to go home. Rochelle had announced to me that she would stay as late as necessary to make sure the last of the painting, etc., was completed. She did!

Rochelle was outstanding in all that she did--tough as nails, and always a lady even when climbing on the top of the roof to paint under the eves. There was no job that was too daunting for this incredible young lady! Thank you Rochelle for being an inspiration to us all.

Pictures: Rochelle with Joyce and Ron at our farewell thank you at the Marriott; Rochelle and Kelsey Holloway putting the finishing touches on the barber shop; Rochelle and the happy barber; finished toilets (two of them--they completed three); and building the toilets with the volunteers. Rochelle carried a lot of bricks!

Projects with the Volunteers - #1

I thought you'd enjoy knowing a little bit about our projects that the coordinators have guided our volunteers in this summer. There have been several smaller ones that were not for the full summer, but there have been some that have followed through the last three months. We have had close to 100 volunteers who have spent up to four weeks with us. The volunteer program is under the direction of Amy Antonelli, and she was here for part of the time in early August. She had invited 5 very talented and dedicated women to run the program for the summer--she trained and taught them, and they came in May prepared to handle anything and everything! In the next few blogs, I will share with you their portions of the program and tell you a bit about these great leaders.

Kaity Gale is from Seattle, Washington. She will be a senior in Anthropology this fall at BYU. Next year she plans to start a Masters program in Public Health. The first week in October she will marry Peter... Kaity's program was unique, as she designed her own program and presented it to Amy a year ago. She was a volunteer herself in August of 2008, and after working with the people in the colonies, felt it would be a great thing to set up interviewing and story gathering in the colonies, with translators to assist with the language barrier. Her goal for the summer was to get the stories of these people, whose lives have been so different; they have been shunned and removed from the mainstream of Indian life. Within 20 years, the colonies may be a thing of the past, as leprosy is on the decline with proper medical help more available to prevent the horrible disfiguring which so easily identifies them as leprosy affected. The curse of leprosy hopefully will be gone, just as it has disappeared from the island of Molokai in Hawaii.

Kaity's work had the approval of Padma Venkataraman, who laid the groundwork for Kaity in the colonies. Kaity was amazed at how quickly the residents in the colonies accepted her, and with her the stream of volunteers who accompanied her and visited with the people. She opened doors with games (Jenga and Badmitton were two particular favorites), picking up garbage, singing songs and dancing, and just laughing and having fun. Her most joyful experience was getting to know the individuals so closely, and making so many good friends. She loved hearing their stories--some happy and content with life, even with all their problems, many so unhappy with the struggles they've been faced with. Her project was one of building trust--with the people of the colonies, and with Padma as her project developed. Padma was not sure how the people would accept so many coming to ask questions.

Kaity plans to compile her material (she has over 150 single spaced pages) into a book with individual stories or as a history of the colonies. A portion of the material will be used for her senior thesis and academic articles. As she has spent her time with these people her own knowledge of the Tamil language has increased greatly. There were also several wonderful translators helping, including Esther and Rhadika who are both here at Rising Star from the US and speak Tamil. We had several darling young men from Chennai, who spent a good portion of their summer back and forth on the train to be with Kaity and her group. The volunteers loved going out with her, and many were exceptionally good at the interviewing and making friends. Our smallest grandsons who were here in July, Jack and Match Hanson, were really loved by the people--and they in turn loved the experience. There were several of the residents who wanted to adopt them into the colony!

This program provided a unique opportunity for our volunteers this year. It will not be repeated next year, but something else will be available to give the volunteers a wonderful experience with the colony people. We feel so lucky that Kaity was able to be here with us, and with her training lead this outstanding endeavor. She has been incredible.

Pictures: Padma and Kaity (note picture of Padma's Dad behind); Sammy Stapley (volunteer), Raja (translator) and one of the residents; a game of jenga with Paramasivan; beautiful Kaity; Esther dancing with Maria. With the exception of the first picture of Padma and Kaity, all photos by Mark Olson and family.

Back to India

We have returned to the land of color (and heat!) A few problems were here to greet us, mainly having to do with the construction. We can't seem to leave and have everything move forward in a straight line.

We had two wonderful weeks at home with the wedding of our granddaughter, Katie, to Chance Krainik, being the highlight. The family gathered and celebrated for many days, which also was wonderful. We really loved having the opportunity to connect with the whole family at once. We have missed our August in Laguna and February in Huntsville trips with everyone. Katie was such a beautiful bride, and we liked her new husband very much. The evening celebration was colorful and a lot of fun! Cotton candy, popcorn, photo booth, candy table, ice cream stand and cupcakes and small hamburgers and hotdogs, made it all so festive. We all stayed and danced and enjoyed a remarkably warm Laguna evening for many hours. Our daughter-in-law Natalie had directed the creation of all the flower arrangements, along with her twin sister Monica Sedgwick, and Elizabeth Tempest, Katie Hanson, and Amy Curtis assisting. They were spectacular. We were grateful to be able to be there participating. Jenny and Chris and Katie Wilson did a fantastic job with all the planning and arrangements.

We returned to another volunteer session already in progress with about 20 super volunteers doing all the great things they do: work in the colonies with the medical program, the ongoing anthropology work also in the colonies, tutoring the children and painting in all kinds of places: houses, toilets (built by the last group), and the murals in the children's rooms and now up the stairwells. The groups also have switched off digging for all the pipes that connect the various buildings. On finding them, they have painted markers so we don't lose them again! Luckily, we had two nights of rain, so the ground was a bit softer than normal. It was a huge job, no matter.

Happy to be back--more of India and our experiences in the next entry.