It's a sad day when you haven't posted in such a long time that you can't remember how to get into the system to do it! Just another MAJOR reminder of how badly behind on certain things in your life you are. Since I am now possibly the only one who needs or will read the end of the year wrap-up at Rising Star, I am going to try and give a picture of our last three or four months so that down the track I will remember. It has been such an incredibly busy time with with major steps in all areas of our program. Through the monsoon months, we managed to keep the building programs moving forward, and the children alive and mostly well--both good accomplishments! We completely turned the school program upside down, we kept our good doctor from joining a government hospital and leaving us, and we embarked on a major micro-lending program that has the potential to take us into the poorest states of India, across the country. We also greeted the Hendershot family, Steele and Sara and 5 young ones to Rising Star as the new managing directors. A bit of detail...

On the 19th of December, 39 members of the Patel family from Orange County arrived to inaugurate the CHRIS AND JESSICA HARRISON HOSTEL with a 5 day stay. As we all know, if you want to complete something you need to set a date for a major event: party, guests arriving, death to all involved if not completed, etc. None of them had made much of an impact on our builder in the 5 months since the building was scheduled to be completed, but with the Patel family (a wonderful Indian/American family who are major hotel owners in the U.S.) planning to be with us on a certain date it certainly spurred a few of us into even greater action. The builder was still invisible, but we hired our own people to work on much of the cleanup and finishing detail, and Ron and I went into "moving in" mode. We haven't done that for a while, as we have now been in our own home for 13 years, but it's still in the body when needed.

Literally, as the coordinators were picking up the family in Chennai with a large bus, and arriving on the property, we were doing last minute floor scraping and window washing, making sure all the new Marriott towels (ordered by the Patels) were hanging straight on each of the beds, and the food needed for their breakfasts was all in order in the kitchen. It was crazy, but except for the granite in the kitchen needing to be removed and relaid, the lotus pond needing to be sealed AGAIN in order to hold water, the roofing floor sealed and smoothed, we are closer to completion than we thought possible and we were able to play the smiling host and hostess that we wanted to be. The Hostel looked great--only a few of us knew of the unfinished parts (that is only sort of true, as the first morning they got up to bathe, there was only a trickle of water--hmmm... add water pressure to list of things to be worked on in January.) We were pleased with the look of everything, and think the Marriott family and foundation, whose monies generously paid for the volunteer hostel, will be pleased with the results. We have wondered over these many months where the contractors are that build the beautiful hotels in India, with finishing details as perfect as any you see in the world or in your own home, and an on-time philosophy ("On-time, On-budget") mantra guiding their actions. How naive we have been!

The school has had a busy and exciting few months. We received our matriculation recognition through 8th Standard in the fall, and that was part of the impetus for gearing up in a new direction. The syllabus for the curriculum in the matriculation program pointed out much of what has gone awry with Indian education. It is a rote system, no interactive teaching or learning, and from our standpoint BORING! Radhika Kannan, born and raised in California, teacher of Indian classical dance and educator in the California and Nevada schools came to us in June, anticipating a stay of 1 year. She had dance classes alternating with the Physical Training program, a 3rd grade English group, and 7th and 8th grade History classes. We felt by the end of the summer she was being underutilized. Our principal, Manjula, agreed and gave her the first standard class full time. The class blossomed. Soon, "centers" were appearing in the room and learning had taken on a new dimension. Other administrative changes took place as the fall continued, and as we moved into December the teaching was beginning to look a bit different throughout the school. In December Radhika was appointed principal for the coming year and a half. Manjula was made School Correspondent, a very important position in Indian Schools--she also is standing shoulder to shoulder with Radhika as this new program begins. A new era was underway. The teachers are becoming very excited about daily lesson plans, power point presentations, classrooms filled with ever-changing learning materials on the walls and in their lessons, and we haven't even gotten into January where the fun begins with exciting inservice challenges and materials. We've hired four new teachers with another outstanding one set to begin in June. The children's last exam period was condensed into one week (in India it is traditionally two weeks), but one exciting outcome was our housefather, Govendraj, tutoring the 4th standard boys in math, and all but one passing! There were about 5 that passed in the previous exams--it cost grandma a bit of money for ice cream, but money happily spent!! We look forward to a very exciting and challenging school year in 2010/2011.

Our medical program took on a new look. Our doctor, Senthil Kumar, had been offered a very lucrative position with the government including their paying for his post-graduate work in surgery. We were sick about the possibility of losing him, on many levels. He has lifted the work in the colonies to a new dimension with the self-help program that he and Karl Kirby introduced last year. Our population of patients was declining due to the incredible cure-rate of the most persistent and long-lasting ulcers. He has been recently married (a beautiful woman who is also a doctor) and her desire was for him to stay with Rising Star. Through a couple of weeks of negotiating, and against his parents wishes, he signed a new contract with us, and will begin in January with an outreach program that will take him further from our area of Tamil Nadu, both south and north, and possibly into Andhra Pradesh (a neighboring state.) He has the title of Medical Director, and the autonomy to direct others who work with the medical program. He reports directly to the Managing Director, and will continue with monthly reports on children problems and colony challenges. He is happy and so are we!

With Padma's visit to the U.S. in October, the micro lending program also took a giant step forward. We are officially a partner with a National Forum, known as Mithra. The Patel family gave us a wonderful gift just before their visit of $100,000 to be used for the micro lending program--that gave us the amount needed to complete our pledge. It is going to be incredible to finally be able to help those out of our immediate area--Padma has been so frustrated knowing there were so many others needing the kind of help these micro loans can provide. Padma's tour brought many blessings to Rising Star, but one that will affect the greatest number will be the funds generated for this micro lending program.

The Hendershot family arrived in November, and we all felt immediately like they had always been there. Their children and the Indian children had an instant love affair, and Steele and Sara jumped in with both feet--lice, snakes, lizards, frogs--nothing daunting. Steele will take over as Managing Director in the next few months as Ron and Joyce faze out. We love the family and can see them being such a great addition to the Rising Star family. Their young and boundless energy lifts us all.

Our trip to Stanford in October yielded such happy things for us--wonderful reconnections with some lifetime friends. It also brought to Rising Star gifts from some of Ron's fraternity brothers who became excited about what is happening in India, and a couple of their old contemporaries who are slogging through the jungle. We were privileged to be a part of our class panel, talking about what we are doing in India instead of retiring as we probably should. We thank our great friends at Stanford, as well as our tremendous Laguna Beach support group, who continue to believe in us, as we believe in Rising Star, and have opened their pocket books over and over as we needed some extra help. We can never express our love in the way it should be expressed to our family. Sisters, brothers, children and grandchildren have continued to bless our lives with their trust and faith, their support at home, and their continuing support to the children of Rising Star. Thank you, dear ones. The stars have always been in your crowns, but they shown very brightly these past 19 months. And dear friends, you have continued to write, to include us when we're in town, to care for our properties, to miss us. How blessed we truly are.

Future: We will return to Rising Star in Thottenaval village at the end of January, after we report in at the US Board meeting in Midway, Utah. We will not stay very long--we will continue to help Steele push to get the school ready for dedication, and then the dining pavilion usable for one and all. Steele is working on getting our accountant up to speed (as in the 21st century). The accountant (Purushothaman) said he felt such pressure, and Steele explained to him that a diamond is created from pressure--he said you will turn from a lump of coal into a beautiful diamond when you learn this new method. They all thought that was very funny! We will be in India for our Indian Board meeting the first of February, and also for the next school committee meeting. Such exciting things about to happen, I can't imaging not being there to be a part of it all in the coming months and years. It will be left in good hands, however: younger and stronger hands.

Happy holidays to one and all.

Pictures: India sky between downpours; welcoming sign for Patel family arrival; front view; our new elephant (we think of the hostel as the "elephant" house); courtyard with sky; Patel arrival; gathering for briefing in the courtyard; typical "guest" room. Our blessed Rebekah as Mary on Christmas Eve--we thanked the Lord for being home with family, even though half our heart is always left with our India family.