We've Started!

It's true--we have actually started digging.  What an exciting day for all of us.  We have in place the temporary housing for the workers, the land has been cleared, and the puja (religious ritual) was performed.  The marking of the building was done and indicated with posts and strings.   The contractor has rented a home in a nearby village and yesterday we were invited to the blessing on his home. We had to be present at all these occasions--in fact this morning we found them waiting for us before they took the first ground up.  

The first shovelful was dug at exactly 9:30 a.m.  A big digger can move quite a bit of dirt and as the day progressed there were large holes the whole length of the school for the foundations.  It was fun to see how many bosses there were standing around watching the progress.  Everyone likes to be the boss--and with that job you stand around a lot.

We have begun on the school first since we ran into some numbers on the bid, which substantially raised the cost of the volunteer hostel.  We think with a bit a redesign and taking off some frills, we are back in line with our original estimates.  At this point we are a little gun-shy to say the least.  Many things that would be included in a bid price at home are not included here.  Some are very important, like sewer, water, electrical, etc.  We have seen the surprises that can occur with foreigners who think the system works like their own.

Ron and Joyce are leaving tomorrow for Bhutan to spend a week exploring with their friends from home, Bob and Jelean Montgomery.  We will send pictures and tell you a bit about it when we return.

Mani's Auto Rickshaw and Friends!

Mani, our oldest and best driver, used to make his living carrying passengers in his auto rickshaw.  Auto rickshaws are the primary source of moving paying customers in Chennai. They have three wheels, a smelly diesel engine, and are built to carry three passengers.  We have, however, seen as many a ten in one vehicle.  They also are an incredibly cheap--sixty cents from the store six blocks away to our apartment building and that is without any bargaining. You can distinguish an auto rickshaw when they come from behind by their squeaky horn sound.  Two wheelers (motorcycles) sound like wounded ducks while the big buses are the gigantic tuba players.  Everyone moves away from buses.  Our Tata Sumo jeeps make a nasty, unpleasant sound.  The bicycles only tinkle.  Chennai is a city of deafening vehicle horns amidst an anarchy of traffic.

Mani has now retired his auto rickshaw to a side path amongst our beautiful coconut trees.  He drives regular cars and vans, so his auto rickshaw has become surplus.  It is fun to drive, but mostly it just sits too close to the trees around it.  For awhile, the children were interested in exploring its innards.  That curiosity, however, passed and so day and night it has had no visitors.  It is sad to be so neglected and lonely.

Then, a new family from the coconut trees moved onto our campus.  It may be the same family that has been around for awhile, but since monkeys tend to look alike, we could not be sure.  At any rate, they found Mani's auto rickshaw and fell in love with it.  I think they made Mani's auto rickshaw feel much better.  You can see why.  They play on and in it.  They are even more curious than the children, and best of all--they discovered a new use.  Everybody, even a monkey, needs to feel good about how he looks.  Now Mani's auto rickshaw is once again in service.  It is the place where the monkeys can come and check on their appearance before heading back up into the trees to start throwing the heavy coconuts at us.  Mani's auto rickshaw is happy again.

(Photos by our volunteer Theresa Claugus)

A Symphony in Green!

Last Saturday was our rice planting day--we were mesmerized watching a tradition centuries old, repeated in our very own back yard.  We have two large fields we have planted in rice--we were to plant four, but one will become the leach field for the septic system, and part of the other one will have a bit of the new school wing interfering.  It's still a big area, and will provide us with rice for a year and some to sell in the market.  

The day began with a snake--auspicious or not??  Not sure, but the guys got in the power box near the water pump and there he was.  They promptly disposed of it--they're not ever likely to think will this snake hurt anyone, or does it do more good than harm?  It was quickly dispatched.

The field has been flooded for a couple of weeks in preparation for the planting.  The first thing that occurred on Saturday morning was the arrival of a pair of oxen and the driver, with a board dragged behind.  He went through the entire area to be plugged with the rice, smoothing the bottom beneath the surface of the water.  At the same time, one man was tying bunches of the rice that has been growing in the "rice nursery," while 3 of our guys carried the wet, drippy bundles to distribute evenly in the wet area.

The women were sitting under the trees waiting until there were enough bundles for then to begin.  There were eight women, colorfully dressed in their saris, which they tucked up above their knees to keep from getting in the muddy water as they did their planting.  It took them from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. to plant the two fields.  It was done in a beautiful order, starting at one side of a field at the edge, and moving backwards until they had plugged each individual rice plant into the water.  They moved back to the start of that same field and did it again, working almost in unison. They are bent over for hours--back breaking--but so beautiful to watch.  I wanted to try it, but the snake deterred me a bit!

The rice will be harvested in three months--in the meantime, we will watch the plants grow and the field fill in.  As mentioned in a previous blog, a rice field is God's green.  

How do I know I'm in India?

My Indian friends do not all look or act like my friends at home.  The geckos and I have formed a new relationship--intimate.  This morning, it was showering together, then as I went to make the bed, I discovered a friend that probably spent the night with us.  A couple of days ago I was standing by the shelves in our room and a little one leaped off the top shelf to land on my shoulder.  This is definitely getting all too familiar.  We have a lot of lizards at home, but Indian geckos prefer a certain closeness that I'm not quite used to!

Busy week around Rising Star Outreach.  We are in the process of getting some micro- businesses started with the children, including chickens, and crops:  rice, chilies, watermelons, ladyfingers (okra to us), and vegetables with tomatoes, eggplant, etc.  The idea is to have each family (we have 3 boys families and 3 girls families) have a project that is there own to develop. The crops will be sold and the children will begin to work towards their future with bank accounts, to be used upon graduating from 12th standard.  We have a power tiller, which our land managers use to prepare the ground.  Some of the planting is then done by the village women and some of it by the children.  The children will be responsible for the weeding, and general maintenance of the planted areas. It will be a big job--we have several acres planted! The chicken problem has not been totally solved yet--we are down to 4 chickens after losing several to a night marauder.  The boys responsible for them have now built barricades around the coop, certain that no critter will be able to penetrate it. Our egg production has dropped to zero since the night terror.  We're hoping it will pick up again as they begin to feel safer.  Saturday was our biggest day yet in the fields, with nine boys planting half an acre of watermelons. They worked so hard hauling very heavy containers of water all over the field, after getting each patch prepared and planted with three seeds.  Ron and Joyce got into the act, but our land manager, Mani, directed it all.  They were tired, but they also had a ball playing in the water that was running to irrigate the rice field.  It dammed up making a great hole for cooling off! 

Next week the girls will start plugging the rice fields that are all prepared.  The green of the rice fields, is the most beautiful green seen in God's kingdom of color!  The rice has been growing in a "nursery", and will be tied and plugged ready to grow in the flooded fields.

Today was Republic Day for India.  We had a wonderful program this morning with a holiday the rest of the day. The children decorated the base of the flagpole with the Indian colors, gave speeches in Tamil and English, and performed more exercises that the PT Master (physical education or PE to us) had taught the children.  It was very fun.  India is the largest Republic in the world--for 59 years more people have lived in freedom than anywhere else.  It makes me think of all the contrasts we see here--so many living in freedom, but with such a minimum subsistence; so many living in freedom but with a government that is run on bribes, influence, and protection of a lot of evil people.  On the other hand, it is a country that is making available higher education to so many. Hopefully there will be jobs for all these engineers that are filling the thousands of colleges. We are working hard to prepare these beautiful children at Rising Star to take advantage of the higher opportunities that will be available to them.

Sorry the pictures are in reverse order--I always forget how they upload!

India, Land of Color

We're back, and happy to be here.  There's more for us to do, so for the present this feels like home!  The children were as happy to see us as we were to see them.  I'm sure there's always doubt that anyone will really return.  We ended our stay in the US with a great board meeting for Rising Star Outreach at the beautiful home of JaLynn and Greg Prince.  Our added bonus was having three more days with Matthew and Natalie Hanson and four of our great grandsons before we headed back.

We arrived during the week of Pongol (harvest festival), the biggest of all the holidays in Southern India (at least big in the length of time they celebrate--five days.)  The children will return to school today, after many days off.  We're all excited-- the children are ready to get back to a regular schedule.  Big event on Thursday was our first official field trip.  Children, house mothers, cooks, and assorted others were loaded into five vans for the drive to a nearby bird sanctuary and Mammalapuram, a big tourist attraction at the beach.  Exciting day--it almost finished off the adults, but the children having been up since 4:00a.m. were pretty exhausted as well.  Ron was so grateful not to have lost children in the high surf or scrambling over the great rock formations. Counting noses at the end of the day and having the same number as at the beginning was big! 

In the afternoon, we headed for the local village, Thottenaval, for a celebration with them of the blessing of the cows, part of the Pongol celebration.  The cows were beautifully decorated--clean, painted and decked with balloons, flowers, seashell necklaces, etc.  The children and mothers were also colorfully attired, with new clothes or saris if possible.  We were invited into three homes after the drum corp and parade show, and the puja (Hindu prayer with food offering) was completed.  We received food: hot buffalo milk with sugar, fruit, sweets, and chapatti with sugar, as well as a gift of money for each of us.  There is much we are learning about kindness and generosity.  We find ourselves being the receivers, more often than not.

Christmas and Wedding!

We received some great pictures and wonderful reports about the children's Christmas program and the party on the last day of school.  We were very sad to have missed it, but with our own schedule here in the US we were not able to be a part of it.  In addition to the "Dance Master" Shaun Parry having prepared the children for the program, the Marriott folks from the Chennai Marriott, came and brought all the food for several hundred, and gifts for all the children.  It must have been a fabulous day, and a great send off for the children for the holidays.

We also have had an outstanding couple of weeks--a terrific visit with all our family, old fashioned Christmas Eve with our home-grown Nativity, (two year old Seth looking a bit large and old for the baby Jesus),  and a great Christmas where our focus was on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It was such a perfect celebration where Santa was almost left out of the equation.  (There were a few children that were still happy he hadn't completely departed.) The marriage of our Grandson, Alex Wilson to Christina Koelliker  followed the Christmas celebration.  The evening of December 26th we had a fun party for the bride and groom at our home with about 75 guests from Christina's family and ours in attendance.  It was a beautiful occasion, with good food, lots of laughter and a few tears from the parents.  Alex is our first grandchild to be married, and even the Grandparents (us) were a bit nostalgic thinking of how fast the past 23 years have gone.  He has been such a great example for the 17 siblings and cousins following, who have truly looked to him as their guide. Now we will share him with his lovely wife and her dear family.

On Saturday, the 27th, we all journeyed to San Diego to the beautiful Temple for the marriage. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that the marriage and sealing that takes place in the temples, is efficacious for all eternity as well as for this life. It is very sacred to us.  Alex and Christina had chosen, both by choice and by the way they have lived their lives, to be married there.  The sealing/wedding was performed by Ron, as he has received the power to perform this ordinance in the temples.  It was a great day for all of us.

The beautiful reception in the evening was the frosting on the cake!!  Food, flowers, music, bride and groom--all was perfect (including the red velvet cake!)  We felt so happy we could be home and a part of this very special family celebration.  The cute couple are off to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, for a short honeymoon before returning to cold, snowy Utah to continue their studies at BYU. 

We have loved having the Elizabeth and Bob Tempest family here for the entire holiday, and our son Matt and Natalie Hanson and their family, are now also with us for a week, after being delayed with a bad bout of the flu.  We feel very blessed to have the Andy and Katie Hanson family and Jenny and Chris Wilson family in residence here in Laguna. We are sad to leave them again, but they are excited for what we are doing.  They join us in wishing all of you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.  We will be back in India by January 13th, after a Rising Star Outreach Board Meeting in Washington D.C. and are looking forward to the continuing challenges.   

Home!

It's nice to be home for Christmas--my bed feels good, the house looks beautiful (thanks to our daughter Elizabeth and her friend Dana Earl who flew from Utah to have Christmas ready for us). The lights outside are all up--thousands of them, carefully strung by our son Andy, and his sons Blair and Ben, our son-in-law Chris, and his sons Alex, Nate, and Jeremy.  Jenny had stocked the frig with everything we love, including blueberries, blackberries and raspberries--lots of them.  Katie had placed fresh flowers, hydrangeas, and orchids in all the right places.  It is spectacular inside and out.  Laguna is as charming as ever, always enhanced by the beauty of the Christmas season. We have been blessed with beautiful sunsets, as well as much needed rain.

Our wonderful family has greeted us with so much love, and we feel gratitude beyond measure that we can be home with them.  The grandchildren have all added inches and pounds and beauty.  Being in Church with our dear friends of so many years, was like a bit of heaven.

There is a slight restlessness in my soul, however.  I realize part of me has been left in India--I miss the children, the warm rain (we've frozen since we have been here), the wild roads, the cows, the colors and the Indian people.  Our landscapes down the freeways look like backdrops, waiting for someone to bring their paintbox and add the color and the excitement--even the garbage!! The driving is so orderly... and boring! The quiet is almost unnerving.   Who would have guessed! 

It's good to be home for the holidays... but for a few more months beginning in the middle of January, it will be good to return to a land we have truly learned to love.  

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas--at this wonderful time of year, we rejoice in the gift of God's Son.  All of His children are precious--those near, and those far away. May you feel the peace and joy of His love.

Lovingly, Joyce and Ron