April!

What a busy, exciting month April is shaping up to be!  Ron and I have attended several events in the role of the Directors of Rising Star Outreach, India, as Honored Guests, recipients of gifts for Rising Star Outreach, and the representatives as the giver of gifts.  From Assan Memorial Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology we were invited to their Annual Day, and Ron was asked to give awards to some of the graduating students.  At the Rotary Club of Madras Central we symbolically received the gift that they had provided of 40 desktop Dell computers; and from the Women's India Association, we cut the ribbon to begin a new project of making sanitary pads for underprivileged women that came about from a Micro loan from the Agel Foundation.  We felt very privileged to be here to represent Rising Star Outreach on each of these occasions.  We have found the Indian people to be wonderful friends, with giving hearts and concern for the needy and underprivileged.  They continue to provide more and more help to Rising Star.

One example, is the groups that want to come to the school and be with the children.  This past week a team from the Cobra Legal Solutions came to spend a large portion of Good Friday with us.  They were so well prepared, having arranged ahead of time for awning covers, sound system, and coming prepared with games, relays, prizes, skits and dramas.  What fun it all turned out to be.  Our amazing cook Padmini had prepared a fabulous lunch for not only the children and all of the employees, but also for all the lawyers with us for the day.  Everyone ate together, with the Cobra people serving the children, and all of our employees (drivers, land workers, office administration) participating.  Not only did all our employees participate in the food, but also had a wonderful time playing musical chairs, and participating in the races and other games.  The children loved it!

The Marriott group come every month, and they will be with us next Monday for Environmental and Conservation day, bringing trees to plant on the property, and a contest they have planned for the children.  The people who come to visit show the children so much about what they can become:  attorneys, managers, people with good jobs who have achieved because of attention to their education.  Through fun, many things are taught, and our friends from Cobra and Marriott are so generous and loving--they brighten our lives as well as the children's.

On April 22, Rising Star Outreach will have their Annual Day--the last day of school, until June, and special guests, including all the of the Indian Board of Directors of RSO, the Punjayet from our neighboring village, District School leaders, and of course all of the parents of our dear children.  We will have a full program, including a talk by our Guest of Honor, Becky Douglas. Everyone is so excited that she is coming--even if it is only for two days.  The children have a wonderful program of song and dance and drama prepared, and then they will head home for the spring break.

Many of our Rising Star friends will also be heading home at that time, their jobs completed, including Gordon and Vickie Gibb, the Kirby Family, and Matt and Sara Zabawa.  We are going to be very sad and very alone with them gone.  We will go home for two weeks in May.