Divali (or Dewali or Deepvali)

We have just completed the designated five days of the most important Hindu holiday in India, which is celebrated by Hindu and non-Hindu alike.  It is also a  special occasion for Hindus throughout the world.  Divali, as most of us here call it, is known as the Festival of Lights.  We have thought of it somewhat like Christmas, New Years and 4th of July, all rolled into one big holiday.  As I have read about Divali, I realize our celebration at Rising Star, was very small, compared to how it is celebrated throughout India, but our children loved what occurred, and seemed happy with it all.

A little history that I have learned about Divali.  The festival is calculated by the lunar, Hindu calendar.  It will appear somewhere in the end of October or early November.  The word Divali means "rows of lighted lamps" so, it is traditionally marked by lighting deeyas (or diyas), which are made from clay and filled with oil or ghee (they remind me of the ones we purchased in the holy land that are replicas of those from Biblical days.)  People get ready for this great holiday by cleaning their homes and surroundings, the purchasing and wearing of new clothing and giving charity to the needy. The stores were jammed the week before Divali began.  Fireworks are a big part of the celebration, which was one thing we did with the children:  firecrackers and sparklers are especially important.  Sweets are distributed (ours were more in the form of several sweet dishes as part of the meal), gifts are exchanged, homes decorated and oil lamps are lit.  We also had two goats, alive on Sunday, but covered with a curry sauce on Monday! Don't quite know how that fit into the Hindu holiday! We had a lot of nice clothing in the storeroom that people had donated to us, so each boy and girl got a new article of wearing apparel for the day, although for the evening excitement the girls had lovely outfits (many new from their families) especially for the holiday. 

Being the festival of lights, one thought is to wake up from the slumber of ignorance and pursue knowledge.  As light dispels darkness, so should knowledge dispel ignorance.  Through learning, man is expected to advance to the stage of enlightenment in which he realizes that God is the Light of lights, and that God brings warmth, love, and illumination to all being and therefore there can be no light greater than God.  The aim of Divali celebrations is to get man moving on the spiritual path and ultimately attain illumination by becoming one with God.  As they light the lamps in their houses, those celebrating divali are reminded to light the lamps of wisdom, goodness and God-consciousness in themselves.  It is through this, that they can attain the "Light of Lights"--God.

The festival is held in honor of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity.  They pray to Lakshmi for good luck in the coming year.  The lights are left burning all night, so that Lakshmi may feel welcome and enter.  The more lamps that are lit, the more likely it is that Lakshmi will be tempted to visit them.  Hindus believe she brings wealth when she visits.

Our employees all took at least two days off (plus the weekend)--family gatherings are very important, so many of them have to travel quite a distance to be with family.  Including the weekend, our children were out of school for four days, so that in itself was a celebration for them.  Our fireworks were very minor, but across Tamil Nadu they were incredible--even the most humble home has a display that makes our big 4th of July celebrations look pretty minor. I have never heard so many firecrackers in my life!  

It was exciting to be a part of this great holiday.

 

Birthday!

Joyce survived another birthday!  It's never been my favorite day, but this one was memorable, to say the least.  Jenny had informed the world that her already old mother, was going to turn a year older on the 21st.  You get to this point, and it seems like it would be nice to just coast past the day, without too much notice, but that was not to be the case this year.  She had asked a number of people to email me, to let me know that they were sympathetic, happy, understanding, thinking about how old I was, whatever!  I received close to 85 emails, and a few late ones are still coming in.  What fun it has been!  I was up at 3:00a.m. and went to the computer, and started reading emails.  I've never had such a nice night awake!  The real day began at 7:00 a.m. with the children putting signs all over our door, knocking loudly, and singing happy birthday at every opportunity.  They had wrapped all sorts of little packages, with toys from somewhere, made beautiful pictures, written cards in their best English, and found all kinds of reasons to be in our house with us, watching each new thing that arrived from someone.  One of the teachers gave me a beautiful blessing (Hindu or Christian?), everyone wanted to shake my hand (very traditional), and the traditional wish of "many happy returns of the day" was uttered all day long.  Never have I had more hugs and kisses.  The cook had made several delicious dishes and invited us for a special birthday lunch. Ron gave me a pretty gold necklace and earrings, and the women have been especially pleased with that, as it signifies that I am a married woman.  They all wear a gold chain that rests inside their saris or clothing, and I think they have been worried about me not having one.  Anyway, I do now.  Memorable day--a never to be forgotten birthday in India.

Our daughter sent me some of her thoughts on India, after her visit, that I wanted to share. Some of it was a bit effusive about her mother and father, so I have edited out a little, and some I have left.  Just remember, these comments come from a loving daughter who always says only the best!  Once again, I reiterate what a joy it was to have her here.  She wrote this as a letter to someone, and copied me on it.

"India was wonderful and horrible all at the same time.  It was great to be with my parents.  They both look great, their skin looks so good and they have a glow about them  Probably because everyone sweats 24/7 there due to the heat and humidity.  They feel good and they are happy.  It was a relief to see them doing so well, thriving in fact.  And this despite the very difficult living conditions they are in.  India is not for the weak stomached or faint of heart.  It is taxing on every level.  Nothing works well.  Most things don't work at all.  It is frustrating for them but they are learning new depths of patience.  The school and the children are a beautiful oasis in a country that is indescribably poor.  Living conditions for the majority of the population are beyond anything I could have imagined.  I have seen awful in Africa and parts of Mexico but that was nothing compared to this.  It is just so expansive in India... there is no end to it.  This was the horrible part of India.  After a week at Rising Star Outreach, Ann Tempest and I flew to Delhi for a few days.  We took a 5 hour car ride to the city of Agra where we visited the Taj Mahal.  The Taj exceeded my expectations.  It is magnificent.  I was so glad to see this wonder of the world, but the traveling was very difficult.  The roads in India are so dangerous.  There are no rules, or if there are any, no one follows them.  And then it is mile after mile of desperate poverty, filth, beggars, etc.  After a while I just had to close my eyes.  You just can't physically take it all in.  Needless to say, I was happy to get home.  The journey back was over 31 hours and by then I was quite ill with an intestinal bug.  I was pretty sick for 4 or 5 days.  Now that I am home and back into life, it's hard to believe I was really there.  While I was there, I was worried that would happen.  I don't want to forget the feelings I had there.  The work of Rising Star is miraculous.  The children have opportunities now that will change their lives and future generations.  The children are so beautiful.  They are happy and loving.  Joyce and Ron are Grandma and Grandpa to 171 students.  It is such a great thing.  What my parents are doing is incredible, admirable and inspiring.  They are giving so much but I know they are receiving much in return."  

Thank you Elizabeth.  She gives us way more credit than is due.

Week of Firsts!

We wondered if the sacrifice that our General Manager offered this past week on his birthday, as he attended the Temple  (most costly religious edifice, second only to the Vatican) in Andre Pradesh, resulted in our most recent additions.  He came to work on Monday with a baseball cap on, covering his newly shaved head.  He had given his beautiful hair to be used for wigs, fertilizer, other things to help the poor.  When, night before last, we were blessed with five new puppies from mama Snowball, (we still have two of her last batch), Ron asked Maren, our GM, if this was his doing.  He laughingly said, I did pray for prosperity for Rising Star, and we received all these new puppies!  Needless to say, we didn't need five new dogs--we've all agreed that we really don't need any dogs but we are not very good at getting rid of them.  We have worked on the neutering program, but it got bogged down in the three bid rule for everything we do or purchase.  This month, for sure!  We now have nine Indian dogs--they all look alike in India except for their coloring--and they are everywhere.  We have not helped the problem!

Our other excitement of this week, was the delivery of our first batch of milk from the village. 

We gave a micro-finance loan to five women in the nearby village to purchase 5 water buffalo. They will provide our milk (we will purchase it from them), which will then help them to repay the loan on the animals.  We have been told that the milk is very rich and will be nutritious for our children.  The rest of us think maybe we will continue to drink the milk we buy from the market!  (Cowards that we are.)  The milk will be picked up by us twice a day, we boil it, add protein powder in the morning and a bit of sugar in the afternoon, and it is then carried up to the children's rooms to be shared.  They love it--we're hoping they like the water buffalo milk as much as they have liked what they have been drinking.

Work has proceeded this week in spite of the rain.  The low wall around the playground, a pad for the big generator that will be coming to keep us in power at the school and the hostels, and a guard house at our front gate are all under construction.  The soccer field is still a bumpy, muddy surface, but all we need is a big piece of equipment to smooth it out.  That has been hard to come by.  The kids had a great game on it on Thursday, in spite of obstacles.  

Rain!

The rains have started!  Probably not the real monsoon yet, but enough in the last two days to make a big mess of all our roads, play areas and walking between the two hostels and out to the school.  Today, we finally loaded a big bunch of kids into the vans and drove them to the school. Anyone who was out at the wrong moment really got soaked.  Tonight we have a load of laundry still strung all over our room, that failed to dry--it has been inside hanging since early this morning.  Lots of moisture in the air!

Yesterday, we had a group of the older boys that went out to work on the big piles of sand that were dumped on Saturday, to try and reduce some of our lake areas.  They were so great as they organized themselves, carrying loads on their heads, and tossing the wet, heavy sands into the low spots.  The tool they use to toss the sand is like a large, short-handled hoe, and it is quite effective when used appropriately.  The boys worked for a couple of hours and the five or six mountains, were reduced to flatland.  This was all in the rain.  Next, the little boys were climbing out windows (not literally, but nearly so!) so they finally came out in the downpour and played on the playground.  They were such a mess, when it was all over, but I think the housemothers would not have kept their sanity without having them out for a while. Big problem with these rainy day weekends, is finding creative things for 140 squirrels to do!

It will be a new experience to observe when the day after day rains begin.  The average rainfall is 51" with about 40" of those in the fall monsoon (September through December), so we all may be web-footed by the time it's over.  Our wells (three of them) are so low, it's a bit scary. While we don't drink the well water yet (we're working on a reverse osmosis plant right now) it would be very bad not to be able to shower or flush a toilet!  We have noticed a change of the bugs that we are seeing in abundance, a lack of flies, louder frogs, and many more mosquitoes. 

One of our number (Amy Kirby -- doctors wife) had a funny experience (only in India is this funny).  They live in what we call the DLH (darling little house.)  It is cute looking, but is not very big, so they are tight with Karl and Amy, and their three little children.  They have had a lot of things not working quite right in the DLH--the toilet (American), the toilet (Indian), the electrical outlets (they burn everything up), the bedroom door handle (Karl had to break down the door the other day to get out), and several coconut trees that had not been picked and were dropping their heavy loads, barely missing the children!  They also came home on Saturday from celebrating Karl's birthday with a day out and discovered they had no water!  They had been at the beach surfing, so finally the parents came to our place to shower and get the sand off.  They are the best sports I have ever met about many difficult things!  The other day, however, took the cake.  Amy was in using the Indian toilet (the squatter we call them), and they had a drip of water that couldn't be stopped, and it made everything very wet. Her foot slipped and went down the hole of the squatter--a long ways!!  Luckily she didn't break an ankle, which surely could have happened.  Today in the rain, there were four workers over trying to solve the problems (they had all been there before), but Ron was assured tonight that they had a working American toilet, among other amenities.  I haven't talked to Amy yet!

The Feast!

It was quite a week, culminating in our great feast for all the parents and family members from the colonies who came on parents day to visit their children.  Christin Harding, from Boston, and her cute daughter Ann, were the directors of the production, with Ann Tempest as photographer and our daughter Elizabeth as a helper.  We planned for 450 people, and I don't think we had more than about 300 to 350 that we actually fed.  It was a very large amount of food that was prepared, with people coming from the village to cook in huge pots over wood fires all the biriyani that was served.  It was so much that it seemed worthwhile to hire that portion of the cooking out--money well spent to have it catered. Have you ever had a main course for a party for 350 people catered for under $40!  I'd like to bring them home with us for the big party we're doing for our grandson's "night before the wedding" celebration.

The preparations had been ongoing through the week.  Christin knew what she wanted to do (although she had come expecting to serve 30 to 50!), and she bought fun fabric in two patterns that stretched on the ground all the way through the mango grove nearest to the hostel.  Down the center she had the lovely traditional flower leis spread--orange, green and white, with a bit of red.  Almost India flag colors (minus the red.)  Banana leaves were at each place to serve the meal on, and except for the wind coming up and having to get the boys to try and hold everything down it all looked so pretty.  Christin is a fabulous party giver and caterer, and had recipes that were mostly followed by the Indian kitchen staff and all the American helpers who chopped fruit, broke green beans in small pieces, and assisted with potatoes, onions, garlic, etc.

The dishes served were lovely--biriyani in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian (with chicken), onions in a delicious curd, a potato dish with green beans, and beautiful fruit platters for dessert, followed by Hershey's chocolate bars that Christin had hauled from home.  (The chocolate almost caused a riot!)  We all thought it was quite memorable--not sure that the colony people felt the same way, but if it ultimately benefits their children they will think more fondly of it!

Christin is planning a cookbook, that will come out in December when she gives her annual Christmas party for her many friends of the Boston area.  Proceeds will benefit Rising Star Outreach, and help us on the path to funding our kitchen/dining facility.

Our week with Elizabeth here was so wonderful.  She was such a help and joy to have around--I really wanted to write her family and suggest they might get her back at Christmastime!  Becky Douglas was also here for the same period of time (actually she just left today) and that was also joyful.  Everyone here loves her so much--it is fun to follow in her shadow.  

We had our first Rising Star India Board meeting yesterday, here in our apartment in Chennai. We have some wonderful members on the board, including Padma Venkatramen (daughter of a former president of India); a retired high ranking government minister; a member of the Rotary International Board of Directors, who is also a member of the Madras Rotary Club that has given so much to Rising Star Outreach school and the micro-lending program; the head of all the Marriotts in India, Pakistan, and two other countries; and a man who heads up the Cobra out-sourcing program here for a big US law firm, and employs 50 attorneys.  It's a powerful group all interested and dedicated to Rising Star.  We were appalled with the report on the bombing of the Marriott in Islamabad, Pakistan.  30 employees killed (mostly security people, and about 10 hotel guests.  The person responsible parked a large garbage truck across the street from the hotel.  He set himself on fire, then ignited the 25 kg of explosives as the security people were rushing to aid him.  It was the largest blast ever in Pakistan.  Scary!

Always we must refocus on the children--it's why we're here and what makes us happy.

Playground!

Yes, the playground equipment arrived, and never have we seen joy like we observed when the cement was dry and the children were allowed to play on it.  The sound of joy is real--I don't know that there has ever been heard a prolonged sound of pure happiness as we heard that first day. The children have never really played like children in that way as they did that first hour or two. What would it be worth to have a bottle of that kind of joy to bathe in once in a while.  

It was a hard week, leading up to the installation.  The contractor and his  workers had not showed up all week, and Thursday was the day the play equipment was coming.  The ground was completely churned up, with no sand, only our red, clay dirt.  It had rained on Wednesday night so there were lakes everywhere.  It was discouraging--understatement!  We went over to our nearby village and talked to the Punjaet (local mayor) and shared our problem.  Pretty soon a group of about 15 men showed up with their primitive tools and several loads of sand, and began the process of smoothing about a half acre of ground.  By the time the playground people arrived the land was not perfect, but was ready enough for the installation to begin.  The workers from the equipment company spent the night Thursday night, and finally completed the job of getting each of the pieces painted and cemented into place late day Friday.  It was ready for play on Sunday afternoon.

The rest is shown in the pictures and engraved in my memory in sound!