The Kitchen

Kitchens are always exciting places, the hub of activity that makes us all happy, and that is no different at Rising Star Outreach.  Our kitchen is temporary, as we are awaiting the building of our new dining area and kitchen.  This will be a separate building from the hostels.  At present the kitchen is rather primitive, by our standards, but very adequate to produce some wonderful meals.

You may remember from a previous entry that one disadvantage to where we live is that we are right across the hall from the door into the kitchen.  It is continuously visited by many people, big and small, and is therefore a very busy, happy, loud place!  The kitchen is presided over by our head cook, Padmini, and her husband Govendaraj.  They live here with their two children, who are both in the school.  There are many helpers in the kitchen, including Vijaya and Magesh, two beautiful women who sit on the floor and do all the chopping of the vegetables. Vegetables are a big part of every dish.  The protein often comes from the lentils, so many of our dishes are vegetarian.  Chicken is included twice a week, eggs, three times a week, and fish, twice a week.  The children get milk twice a day, and in the morning it includes protein powder. The after school snack is milk and lentils or fruit. Their diet is really very good, although by our calculation they probably get too much white rice, which is pretty much empty calories. Everyone loves the rice!

Some of our favorite Indian dishes that they prepare here are Dahl, Biryani (vegetarian, or with chicken or egg), Masala (with chicken or egg), Samba rice, Brindal sauce, and onion curd with yogurt, tomatoes, curdled milk, and something green (parsley?).  Idli, a rice pancake, is good for breakfast, and of course many good breads:  naan, parota, chipotte, and puri.  They also do a great side dish with beet root, as they call it.  The beets are chopped with onion and always many spices.  The curd dishes are served, I think, to soften the spice--Indian food is spicy!!  So many dishes are based in the curry sauce, with peppers and other hot ingredients added.  Even the children's food is spicy.  (Remember, all towns, foods, personal names and words in general, have many spellings, in case you think my spelling is bad--it is!!) 

In the morning, the children begin with their milk (it's always boiled), then a bit later they get their Samba rice, or some noodle dish.  They carry big pots to their rooms (six girls rooms and six boys rooms) and eat sitting in a circle on the floor.  Every meal begins with Hindu and Christian prayers, and songs.  All eating is done with the fingers--right hand only.  When finished, they bring all the pots and dishes back to the kitchen area, washing their own plates and returning them to their rooms.  At lunch time, taking food to their rooms is repeated.  The staff are served on the floor in one of the downstairs rooms:  teachers join in this meal, as well as cooks, cleaning ladies, gardeners, after the teachers and office staff.  Their meal has more variety than the children's  food--we often take our dish and receive a plateful from someone in the circle who is doing the serving.  Today's lunch will be a vegetable dish, with cauliflower being the main ingredient--it's delicious if you can tolerate the heat!  For dinner, the children sit in big circles out on the front area--part green, part dirt.  The pots of food are placed in the center on the ground, and the children are served by the older girls or boys, or by the housemothers.  The staff eat much later, also outside (all this is of course contingent on the rain.)

Everything smells so good, and to watch these beautiful women in their saris, with the flowers in their hair, working so hard, just adds to the anticipation of a great meal.  The children are thriving with this wonderful food, and so are we!

India Independence Day. August 15, 2008

Independence 

Day 

Celebration and

Honoring Amy

Antonelli

What an exciting day for the people of India, and all the children and staff here at our little community.  It has been 61 years since India regained her Independence, and by our assessment started a giant (perhaps impossible) task of putting her many diverse peoples and cultures together under one government.  One language was impossible, except by naming English the official language, and dealing with the problem that most of the lower classes of people speak very little, if any English. 

Our children and teachers worked all week on a wonderful program of song, marching, dance and speeches in both Tamil and English.  The children, of course, loved it, and so did all of us watching.  I was so glad the volunteers were still here to make such a wonderful audience.  The town of Chennai was filled with flags and vendors in the street trying to sell car flags and stickers every time the traffic stopped.  I kept holding up all our purchases, but it didn't stop the sellers (mostly children risking life and limb) knocking on the windows trying to sell us more.

Indians are very proud of their country--there is so much that is good and beautiful.  It seems sad to me that the systems in government and business are often run with money under the table and a perpetual skimming off the top.  The infrastructure of the country leaves much to be desired: the schools, medical care, waste management and transportation are difficult, at best, and that means the people suffer.  There are so many who are poor and destitute. Driving the streets of Chennai is hard.  The people in the little villages around us look to have a better life than those in the cities.

We celebrated again on Saturday.  We had some of the members of the Rising Star Outreach India Board with us, as well as members of the School Committee (comparable to our school Boards--required by law.)  Samuel Ambrose has been the Chairman of the Board, and his term was completed.  He was honored as the outgoing chairman--he has done so much to help us stay on track these past three or four years.  It was Amy Antonelli's last day, and she too was honored.  She has been so tremendous these past four years.  We can't imagine going forward without her.  Four of the children spoke about their love for her and what they would miss most in her absence.  It was very dear and made us all quite teary.  Parts of the Friday program were repeated for our guests, much to the delight of the children, and then we served a nice lunch to all on the rooftop.  The meetings were completed, and at the conclusion we were exhausted!

A Morning on the Rooftop

The rooftop of the Girl's Hostel is a heavenly place.  It is off limits to the children (they're all at school at the moment anyway) but there is a nice awning with tables and chairs.  The volunteers eat up here every evening and have all their planning sessions, scripture reading, and other activities here.  The breeze is nice, and the view is nothing but mango and coconut trees, and this morning blue skies with clouds.  It is truly beautiful.  The property owned by Rising Star Outreach is one grove of trees after another--15 acres.  They are mature and during their season grace us with wonderful fruit.  There are some fields planted, as well, with sesame and some nameless plant that flowers and is planted like cucumbers with it's own mound and water well for each plant.  There are many other species of plants, none of which I'm familiar with.  The birds are plentiful, with Kingfishers, small parrots, and a host of others, some identified, some not.  We have time for all that later.

We had a little girl (Manimegalai--age 8) fall from a tree last night and break her arm.  They took her to the hospital in Changleput where she spent the night (with dear Amy by her side for the night) and she was to be operated on this morning.  A driver went to get her parents from the Colony where they live, and Dr. Karl Kirby and Amy are with them, also.  It's a government hospital and a bit scary.  We haven't heard anything yet.

All the women who work here are always dressed in their beautiful saris.  Many of the girls who are here (volunteers and staff) also wear them on Sundays.  I have not been so brave yet.  It requires at least two house mothers to dress those of us who have not worn them every day for most of our lives.  I think it is perfect that these women whose lives are so hard, and who have very little by worldly standards, choose to clothe themselves in such a lovely way.  The wage for most of these people is just over $2.00 US (100 rupees) per day, but they all look better than most of the rest of us (I'm speaking for myself.)  Something to think about.

Thank you for those who have posted comments.  Lets me know that someone is out there reading this.  Sorry for the long space between reports--it's not easy to get out on the internet here on the property.  We are still alive and well, and getting a better rhythm to our activities. 

Tamil--the language of Tamil Nadu

Neither of us have ever been great linguists--the best I can do after many years of being around Spanish-speaking people is make sure the proper beds get changed, the sheets washed, and the roses get fertilized, so I haven't had a lot of hope of learning Tamil.  Not only is the written alphabet (some 260 characters) completely unrecognizable, but the names are long, and the sounds are all v's, t's, k's, g's, and s's and combinations thereof.  To our ears it all sounds like that look that comes up on your attachments when it doesn't open properly--;sdlkfalsdfjSFskjfasfjasf--you know!  

Anyway, we're determined to give it a try as we know it will enrich our experience if we can converse a bit in the native language.  We have a tutor for this project:  his name is Deepan raj, and he is 12 years old.  Ron got a program in Tamil before we left home, so every evening we put on the program and Deepan raj comes to help enunciate and help us with breaking the words into syllables in sounds we can understand.  He is so darling, and so patient--I'm sure he can't believe how slow people can be.  His English is quite good--his accent is so easily understood as compared to most of the adults who speak English.  Anyway, last night he also brought his older brother, Modan raj, to be a part of it.  They both love the computer, and look forward to the day when our computer lab will be a real part of the school.  Thanks to Melissa Mitchell and others, that day is getting closer.  Don't hold your breath, however, until Ron and Joyce spout forth in Tamil--it won't be soon.

Yesterday was Parent's Day.  The first Saturday of every month the parents of the students that are able to travel, start arriving around 9:30 with picnics, gifts, and all the brothers and sisters, to visit their children.  Our children were all dressed so beautifully.  The boys had sharp-looking shirts, and the girls the prettiest, most colorful dresses I have seen.  They were dressed and ready before 7:00 a.m.  The families set up with mats and blankets under the mango trees and hug and love the children, as well as feeding them all their favorite treats.  The girls get flowers for their hair, and the mothers or grandmothers, aunts or dads, comb and brush their hair and add the flower leis.  They look so beautiful.  Thank goodness for 14 acres, as there are a lot of people that come and they are playing ball and games all over the place!  At the end of the day everyone is tired, some are very, very sad, (the little ones, especially) but they know it will all take place again in another month.