Children On the Town!

Last Sunday four of our children had a special treat.  The Courtyard Marriott in Chennai were having a Christmas celebration, which included decorating a life size gingerbread house.  We were called and asked if we would like to bring four of our "Rising Stars" to be part of the celebration. We considered who we thought should be taken for this very exciting event, conferring with our school director and our general manager.  We chose two boys and two girls, all from the 6th standard.  Three of the children are 11, and the other little boy, Krishnamoorthy, will turn 10 this month. Each of these children are doing well in school, have good English skills, and generally are all around good citizens.  We pieced together some outfits for the boys, while the girls seemed to have more clothing choices that looked very nice. The only thing we laughed about (to ourselves) was the big tennis shoes that the girls wore with their chiddidars (traditional Indian dress.)  The boys on the other hand, had new sandals on one, and black lace shoes found in the storeroom for the other.  

We started with a buffet breakfast, with everyone from the new General Manager of the Chennai Marriott, down to all the cooks and servers making such a fuss over them.  The kids knew many of them from their visits to Rising Star, and of course the Marriott employees know the children.  The children were very impressed with the many choices for breakfast--I can assure you, that there are no choices here--they eat what is served or they don't is their choice. I was surprised with the things they chose--most of it American.   After breakfast, we went to where they were decorating Christmas cookies with frosting to stick on the gingerbread house. There were photographers everywhere, and our children were at the center of the flashes.  The local TV station had a reporter there, and she interviewed our girls.  I asked the girls if they spoke in Tamil or English, and the reply was "when the questions were in English, we answered in English, and when they were in Tamil we answered in Tamil."  Of course.

The bathrooms were a mystery to them--the boys wanted to know where the water was in the toilet area, (everything is washed down with a small bucket of water in an Indian toilet),  and the girls were amazed that the water turned on when they put their hands under the faucet. They were very concerned that it wouldn't turn off, and surprised when it did it all on its own. They didn't brave the American toilets at all.

They had a big jumping house set up, which the boys loved, but the girls would not attempt.  It was such fun to see the difference in all the non-Indian children, who were in a great majority, to our four beautiful unsophisticated children, that had never seen such a thing as a hotel, or all that was presented to them.  It was truly magical for them and for us!