My vivid picture of the day is Shama, one of our most beloved housemothers, sitting on a low stool with her umbrella, next to our lake (it used to be our playground), small bucket in hand filling bigger buckets for the girls.  Half of the girls were still getting soap out of their hair in the shower, when the water pump quit!  "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink"--or bathe in, we might add.  The rain has been incessant for several days.  Our huge wells have filled up by a third, at least.  I've never seen rain come down like this.  We have been without power a good portion of the last few days, but until this morning we have had water for all uses other than drinking.  It was quite laughable this morning.  One of our boys brought a small fish to live in our house.  I couldn't figure where it had come from, but as I am looking out the window at the "lake" I can see little fish jumping.  Anyone out there able to explain this to me?

School has been closed the last few days--when the government declares that schools be closed, it means schools are closed! Apparently you can get in big trouble if you don't close. Even private schools.  I suspect no one checked this morning, because after two days with all of us locked in the hostels (locked in by the rain) we were all a little crazy.  By the time the children ran their short distance to the school, they were soaked. Now we'll probably have everyone back sick.  I took a few children with my umbrella, and had to come home and completely start over on my clothes for the day.  To complicate things, the puppies have not left for their new homes.  Their new owners keep telling me that it is not auspicious to take them in the rain!!  Of course I am their adopted mother, which is also a 24/7 job when it rains like this.  At the moment they are locked in our bathroom, because the electrician is trying to fix another electrical problem (joke) and they were spending their time where one of the main panels resides.  Why do I care???

We have been concerned about the news out of Mumbai, but here at the land we feel very safe. No one would have a desire to brave our muddy-rut roads to do harm.  We are not being cavalier about it, but do feel that we are in a good spot.  Ron, unfortunately, had to go to Chennai today.  He called to say they were swimming through the streets in their vehicle.  We have heard that 60 people may have drowned or died in this last rain period.  The rivers run wild with this amount of precipitation all at once, and they live so precariously near the rivers.

This week, picture us not "Walking in the Sand", but walking in the mud!

Our Boys

 




Since we live in the Boys Hostel, we spend most of our evenings having a group of the older boys (6th, 7th and 8th Standard) with us for study time.  They usually come shortly after 7:00p.m. and stay until nearly 9:00.  For many, calling it study time is a very loose term, but they start right after they get home from school, knocking on the door to ask if tonight "they come for study."  I guess they say, "We come for study tonight?"  Two of the older boys who come are on the verge of being sent home, for incorrigible behavior, but when they come for study time, they are great. Wish we could convert the behavior in our house, to their behavior with their house mothers and their peers.  It's a sweet time, so when we spend nights in Chennai, they miss it, and so do we. One added bonus has been that they get to spend some time on the computer, which they adore.  We are still waiting for our desk top computers to arrive, and the number of laptops that we use in the computer class is small, so time on Grandpa's laptop is frosting on the cake.

I am including pictures of several of them, and since I haven't figured out how to put names on them, I will identify them.  Unfortunately, I'm missing pictures of a couple of them--later I will include those.  Boy reading magazine is Deepenraj, Rajesh has basketball, and Grandpa is shown with Madanraj and lots of little friends.  Arulraj is second down on the right and Shankar is busy coloring.  Krishnamoorthy is behind two of his pals on the playground (center).

Our 8th Standard boys are Kartik and Satish.  Satish is pictured above by the vegetables, getting some out for the cooks.  He is nearly 16, very handsome and extremely sweet.  He is so good with the younger boys, and has flourished with the attention he gets from us.  He is way behind where he needs to be in his studies, but he tries hard--we have a difficult time getting the older boys caught up: there is too much ground to cover.  Kartik is the youngest son of one of our long-time employees Mani.  Mani's home is in Chennai, and he is always our driver when we are here.  He is also the land manager, so he directs the work of all our men that work on the land.  Kartik had a major hip surgery this year, and consequently got even further behind in his 8th grade work.  His reading in both English and Tamil is poor, but he comes to "study" faithfully every night.  He is thoughtful and kind-- a little on the heavy side, so he's a big boy. Truly a gentle giant.  Kartik is 14. He is pictured in upper left.

7th Standard includes Rajesh and Shankar.  They are both darling boys, loving, friendly and great athletes.  They both excel in school, particularly Shankar.  Unfortunately, Shankar is one of our boys that spends a lot of time with the General Manager, for behavior unbecoming to a Rising Star!  He's got such potential--can it be channeled?  His father is very crippled with leprosy, and lives in Delhi.  His mother lives nearer in one of the colonies.  Rajesh is a leader of boys.  His mother is one of our house mothers, and his father is dead.  He is a baptized member of the church, and next week will give a talk in Primary, which he volunteered for.  Rajesh has a younger brother, Vignesh, and older sister, Priya who live here.  Shankar is 13, and Rajesh is 11.

In the 6th Standard we have a wide range of ages, sizes, and abilities in the boys.  There are two brothers, who are new to Rising Star this year--Modanraj and Deepanraj.  They are struggling to keep up, but Modanraj (age 14) has taken to working hard, and really trying to excel.  The younger brother, Deepanraj (12 years old), has quite good English (they both do), but would rather play, talk, look at story books or do anything other than work or study.  The boys mother died about 4 years ago, and Modanraj always carries her picture.  The father is very interested in the boys progress, and I think comes down quite hard when they are not doing well.

The other two boys that are 6th Standard, are young, and in the case of Arulraj on the edge of finding a new home.  We are working hard with him, but school is not high on his priority list, nor is following the rules.  He has a sad life at home--father gone, and mother very crippled. We keep hoping he will see the value in what is being offered to him here at Rising Star Outreach.

Krishnamoorthy, also 6th Standard, is just the opposite from Arulraj.  He is a stellar student, and while being one of the youngest in his class, is a solid citizen all round.  He is so kind and causes no problems anywhere.  We love having him around.  He shows for a lot of love from his family; you can really see what their home life is when you see how they behave.  Both of these boys are 12 years old.

It is a joy to get to know these young men.  They are like children everywhere:  the individual time spent with them is invaluable.  They truly thrive with the personal attention.  We insist that when they are in our house that they speak only English, so there are a couple of them, except when they forget, who are pretty silent.  We have high hopes that each can rise higher, than they might otherwise have.  We thank each of you that support a child--what a great gift that is.

Life OUT of the Big City!

We've had a week of not much internet connection, hence the lack of blog entries.  We're getting closer to a secure source, but we're not quite there yet.

This story is actually about life IN the big city.  Sara Tempest sent us a great article from the International Herald Tribune entitled "Urban Cowboys Struggle with India's Sacred Strays." The story is about the attempt to get the cows off the major highways in New Delhi (which they are committed to do before the Commonwealth Games, which will be in New Delhi in 2010.)  In the article it talks of "dozens of men who spend their days roping cattle on the streets of [New Delhi] as a part of a long and frustrating battle to rid India's capital of stray cows.  Since the slaughter of cows is banned throughout most of India, "there is perhaps no more stereotypical image of India than that of a stray cow sauntering down the middle of a busy street, seemingly oblivious to the traffic swerving around it."

These "cowboys rely on rope lassos and brute strength to capture the beasts, which often charge into traffic or kick or buck violently in an attempt to escape."  We have heard that there is a similar program in Chennai of trying to rid the city of it's thousands of cows, but we've not seen it in action.  I have included a picture, but this cow lives in Changleput, which is a much smaller city, and while there are cows everywhere, the town itself rather looks like there should be cows wandering in and out of the wild traffic.  This is an interesting problem that we have not encountered in Laguna Beach!

This week life Out of the big city, has us creating and using what Ron calls our "Indian tractor." We have had such a problem getting any heavy equipment in to smooth out our playing field, that Ron came up with a great design for our own dirt spreader--we think we should write John Deere and see if they wouldn't like to add it to their line of products.  It requires three men, and the one at the back has to be able to make the appropriate noises to keep the operation moving forward.  The guys were hilarious, and so proud of the fact that it really worked!  So was Ron...

We are also getting down our new walkways, which will allow us to walk from one hostel to the

other without slogging through mud in the rainy season, and sand in your shoes on dry days.  I have included only one picture of this, but we loved this man carrying the tiles on his head, as all building materials are moved.  It has been so fun to watch them making their cement, creating the base with very large rocks, moving the materials around, leveling with a long stick, and finally putting the tiles in place.  Next week a picture of the finished product!