Rain!

The rains have started!  Probably not the real monsoon yet, but enough in the last two days to make a big mess of all our roads, play areas and walking between the two hostels and out to the school.  Today, we finally loaded a big bunch of kids into the vans and drove them to the school. Anyone who was out at the wrong moment really got soaked.  Tonight we have a load of laundry still strung all over our room, that failed to dry--it has been inside hanging since early this morning.  Lots of moisture in the air!

Yesterday, we had a group of the older boys that went out to work on the big piles of sand that were dumped on Saturday, to try and reduce some of our lake areas.  They were so great as they organized themselves, carrying loads on their heads, and tossing the wet, heavy sands into the low spots.  The tool they use to toss the sand is like a large, short-handled hoe, and it is quite effective when used appropriately.  The boys worked for a couple of hours and the five or six mountains, were reduced to flatland.  This was all in the rain.  Next, the little boys were climbing out windows (not literally, but nearly so!) so they finally came out in the downpour and played on the playground.  They were such a mess, when it was all over, but I think the housemothers would not have kept their sanity without having them out for a while. Big problem with these rainy day weekends, is finding creative things for 140 squirrels to do!

It will be a new experience to observe when the day after day rains begin.  The average rainfall is 51" with about 40" of those in the fall monsoon (September through December), so we all may be web-footed by the time it's over.  Our wells (three of them) are so low, it's a bit scary. While we don't drink the well water yet (we're working on a reverse osmosis plant right now) it would be very bad not to be able to shower or flush a toilet!  We have noticed a change of the bugs that we are seeing in abundance, a lack of flies, louder frogs, and many more mosquitoes. 

One of our number (Amy Kirby -- doctors wife) had a funny experience (only in India is this funny).  They live in what we call the DLH (darling little house.)  It is cute looking, but is not very big, so they are tight with Karl and Amy, and their three little children.  They have had a lot of things not working quite right in the DLH--the toilet (American), the toilet (Indian), the electrical outlets (they burn everything up), the bedroom door handle (Karl had to break down the door the other day to get out), and several coconut trees that had not been picked and were dropping their heavy loads, barely missing the children!  They also came home on Saturday from celebrating Karl's birthday with a day out and discovered they had no water!  They had been at the beach surfing, so finally the parents came to our place to shower and get the sand off.  They are the best sports I have ever met about many difficult things!  The other day, however, took the cake.  Amy was in using the Indian toilet (the squatter we call them), and they had a drip of water that couldn't be stopped, and it made everything very wet. Her foot slipped and went down the hole of the squatter--a long ways!!  Luckily she didn't break an ankle, which surely could have happened.  Today in the rain, there were four workers over trying to solve the problems (they had all been there before), but Ron was assured tonight that they had a working American toilet, among other amenities.  I haven't talked to Amy yet!

The Feast!

It was quite a week, culminating in our great feast for all the parents and family members from the colonies who came on parents day to visit their children.  Christin Harding, from Boston, and her cute daughter Ann, were the directors of the production, with Ann Tempest as photographer and our daughter Elizabeth as a helper.  We planned for 450 people, and I don't think we had more than about 300 to 350 that we actually fed.  It was a very large amount of food that was prepared, with people coming from the village to cook in huge pots over wood fires all the biriyani that was served.  It was so much that it seemed worthwhile to hire that portion of the cooking out--money well spent to have it catered. Have you ever had a main course for a party for 350 people catered for under $40!  I'd like to bring them home with us for the big party we're doing for our grandson's "night before the wedding" celebration.

The preparations had been ongoing through the week.  Christin knew what she wanted to do (although she had come expecting to serve 30 to 50!), and she bought fun fabric in two patterns that stretched on the ground all the way through the mango grove nearest to the hostel.  Down the center she had the lovely traditional flower leis spread--orange, green and white, with a bit of red.  Almost India flag colors (minus the red.)  Banana leaves were at each place to serve the meal on, and except for the wind coming up and having to get the boys to try and hold everything down it all looked so pretty.  Christin is a fabulous party giver and caterer, and had recipes that were mostly followed by the Indian kitchen staff and all the American helpers who chopped fruit, broke green beans in small pieces, and assisted with potatoes, onions, garlic, etc.

The dishes served were lovely--biriyani in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian (with chicken), onions in a delicious curd, a potato dish with green beans, and beautiful fruit platters for dessert, followed by Hershey's chocolate bars that Christin had hauled from home.  (The chocolate almost caused a riot!)  We all thought it was quite memorable--not sure that the colony people felt the same way, but if it ultimately benefits their children they will think more fondly of it!

Christin is planning a cookbook, that will come out in December when she gives her annual Christmas party for her many friends of the Boston area.  Proceeds will benefit Rising Star Outreach, and help us on the path to funding our kitchen/dining facility.

Our week with Elizabeth here was so wonderful.  She was such a help and joy to have around--I really wanted to write her family and suggest they might get her back at Christmastime!  Becky Douglas was also here for the same period of time (actually she just left today) and that was also joyful.  Everyone here loves her so much--it is fun to follow in her shadow.  

We had our first Rising Star India Board meeting yesterday, here in our apartment in Chennai. We have some wonderful members on the board, including Padma Venkatramen (daughter of a former president of India); a retired high ranking government minister; a member of the Rotary International Board of Directors, who is also a member of the Madras Rotary Club that has given so much to Rising Star Outreach school and the micro-lending program; the head of all the Marriotts in India, Pakistan, and two other countries; and a man who heads up the Cobra out-sourcing program here for a big US law firm, and employs 50 attorneys.  It's a powerful group all interested and dedicated to Rising Star.  We were appalled with the report on the bombing of the Marriott in Islamabad, Pakistan.  30 employees killed (mostly security people, and about 10 hotel guests.  The person responsible parked a large garbage truck across the street from the hotel.  He set himself on fire, then ignited the 25 kg of explosives as the security people were rushing to aid him.  It was the largest blast ever in Pakistan.  Scary!

Always we must refocus on the children--it's why we're here and what makes us happy.

Playground!

Yes, the playground equipment arrived, and never have we seen joy like we observed when the cement was dry and the children were allowed to play on it.  The sound of joy is real--I don't know that there has ever been heard a prolonged sound of pure happiness as we heard that first day. The children have never really played like children in that way as they did that first hour or two. What would it be worth to have a bottle of that kind of joy to bathe in once in a while.  

It was a hard week, leading up to the installation.  The contractor and his  workers had not showed up all week, and Thursday was the day the play equipment was coming.  The ground was completely churned up, with no sand, only our red, clay dirt.  It had rained on Wednesday night so there were lakes everywhere.  It was discouraging--understatement!  We went over to our nearby village and talked to the Punjaet (local mayor) and shared our problem.  Pretty soon a group of about 15 men showed up with their primitive tools and several loads of sand, and began the process of smoothing about a half acre of ground.  By the time the playground people arrived the land was not perfect, but was ready enough for the installation to begin.  The workers from the equipment company spent the night Thursday night, and finally completed the job of getting each of the pieces painted and cemented into place late day Friday.  It was ready for play on Sunday afternoon.

The rest is shown in the pictures and engraved in my memory in sound!

The week of calm?!

Yes it has been calm, with a few hitches along the way.  We figured with the children gone, we would sail through all our projects, and be ready for a very busy weekend, and week following, to come.  Things do not always go as we plan, however.  On Monday last, we got word that a new volunteer was coming the next day.  Eugenie and her grandmother, Lynn, were on buddy passes so they flew when they could.  The grandmother is only here for 10 days, and they didn't realize that we would have no children here.  We were sad, and so were they!  Lynn got very sick that first night, and we were in Chennai, leaving Erin here to figure it out.  She got our wonderful Indian doctor, Senthilkumar to make a house call at 3:00a.m.  We were on the phone with Erin from 2:30a.m. on, so our night was also a little short.  We headed for the property first thing Wednesday morning, found her better, but she slept for most of the day. She's a real trooper, and by evening she was up and working on liquids.  The rest of the week Lynn and Eugenie have gone with the mobile medical van to colonies twice, visited two other colonies in search of our children for pictures and stories of them in their homes with family, have had day trips to Mahabalapuram, Dachina Chitra, a long (13 hour) day at Spencers Mall (hundreds of stores) as they waited for the driver to return for them. Eugenie will be with us until December, but we're sad Lynn has to return home tomorrow.

In the midst of all their activities, we have been awaiting a contractor who has only done half the job of moving dirt, and leveling the area where the new playground equipment is to go.  (More on that with picture, hopefully, next week.)  Anyway, promises, promises...  Each day we have waited, and again today with three phone calls and "we're on our way", "we're almost there",  still nothing.  The equipment is now set to arrive on Thursday, but we'll believe that when we see it, also!

We did have an exciting activity a week ago.  One of our kitchen helpers, Angelie, decided after great turmoil and more dramatics than we could believe, to marry one of our former drivers, Ganjendran.  He has recently been released as a driver because of some rather unstable behavior, including drinking poison (??) when Angelie told him she had changed her mind.  We were not too keen on having him drive our children and others with that kind of  nonsense!  Anyway, after great tears from Ganjendran, throwing himself at Ron's feet trying to encourage Ron to intervene, Ron insisted they have a three day cooling off period.  After that time, Angelie decided to go forth with the wedding, four days hence. Erin went to the wedding last Sunday and took the photo above (hopefully it's above--having trouble getting pictures on again.)  The grooms family were very dour faced, and most unhappy, as apparently Angelie's family is of a lower caste than his.  Sad. We just hope he treats her and her darling daughter Archina kindly.  They are currently living with his family. The beautiful flowers, which are solid down the back of her hair, were done by two of our house mother/teachers and the cook, the night before.

Busy weekend coming up includes the arrival of Eric Ottesen:  he is in charge of the Sabin Foundation which donated $90,000 for the purchase of our land.  We're excited to have him see what has been accomplished, and hope to interest the foundation with continuing help on the next phase of building for the school.  There is a group of four coming to do a big activity with the parents of our children, spearheaded by a woman from Boston (group includes our daughter Elizabeth (Yea!).  Becky Douglas is also flying in.  These arrivals are scheduled for the wee hours of the morning Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  On Sunday afternoon the children will all return.  We will let you know about that wild scene.

Auspicious and Inauspicious Days!

We have discovered that things get done (or not) according to whether the day is auspicious or inauspicious!  It was definitely an auspicious day last Saturday.  In addition to being Parents Day it was the day the children were to leave the property with their relatives to go home for a two week holiday. You can not even imagine the excitement on the part of both the children and the parents (or family member that came to claim the child. )   It is our first experience of seeing first hand this mass exodus from the property and it was lots of fun.  The parents came as near to 10:00a.m. as they could.  We had let them know there would be a program with their children being highlighted.  We had an awning set up and rented some chairs, so we would have a captive audience.  Behind this plan, was Padma.  With the property spread out the way it is, she has a hard time gathering the parents together to talk about their micro-loans, and other things that relate to their children and their relationship with Rising Star Outreach.  She teaches at that time, also: hygiene, finance, parenting, etc.  They all love and trust her, but sometimes they would like not to talk about their loans!

The morning went according to schedule, and after the program and discussion the parents are free to talk with the teachers; mid-quarter exams were the week before the break so the parents are always anxious to find out how their children are doing.  For many families (probably most) this is the first generation to have a real school experience.  There's a lot of pride in that.

An example of a day being inauspicious, when our new General Manager was to begin, he was scheduled to begin on a Monday.  He called on the preceding Wednesday to let us know he would be starting on Friday, not Monday, as Monday was not an auspicious day!?  Our chief accounts officer was offered a brownie one day.  He asked if he might take it home to eat it the next day, because the present day was not auspicious for eating the brownie.  We figure it all has to do with the horoscope.  I've wondered how many days I have jeopardized all kinds of things by not being more in tune with auspicious and inauspicious.

The snake hunters have not shown up for the last two days--inauspicious I guess.  They have found a number of small to big harmless snakes, but so far have not come up with the cobra. We keep hoping--it would make our walks around the property less worrisome.  The children never think about it, which is a bit scary.

Ron and I have been in Chennai since Sunday.  We were told (and read parts of it in the paper) that a couple of our missionaries in Bangalore were put in jail.  The Hindu's have been attacking the Christian worship centers, and somehow our missionaries found themselves in the middle of it.  Our missionaries in Chennai have not been wearing their badges identifying themselves for several days, but on Sunday they had them back on.  The church is not officially recognized in India--the name on the front of the building reads, "The Indian Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."  Monday and Tuesday we have worked to try and put our apartment in order.  We now have beds, but we have spent the better part of two days looking for bedding.  There is definitely not a Bed, Bath and Beyond in this part of the world.  We think the apartment will make our lives a bit easier (and less expensive) than the Marriott--our peanut butter sandwich tonight reminded me how much I shall miss the Marriott, however.  It's also going to take weeks to get an internet hookup in the apartment, so we're back to Bluetooth even in Chennai.

 

Happy Birthday Ron!

Indeed, we did have a very fun celebration on Monday, September 1, for Ron's natal day!  It started with the older girls coming early in the morning to serenade him with a rousing rendition of "Happy birthday"--they do a second verse also which says "May God bless your year..." repeated four times.  Nice.  Staff and children all added loving wishes as they met him. Throughout the day he received many nice emails from family members and friends--he loved that also.  

That afternoon we took the Kirby family, Vicki and Gordon Gibb, Erin, Katie and Emily and Nickesh, to Dakshina  Chitra which is situated on about 10 acres of well cared for property, and is a community service project of the Madras Craft Foundation.  They promote and preserve the cultures of several states of India, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.  The architecture of these different communities includes various buildings that have been brought and reconstructed on the site, making several village-like areas showing the differences between one community and another.  They are beautiful, mainly wood construction, although some in brick and stone.  We never see wood used in building in recent years--all wood that is used in India is imported now.

There are many crafts people who are working on site, and sell their wares directly to the public.  Also, they have many interactive things going on--making pottery, grinding rice, palm leaf decoration, pot painting, terra cotta doll making, block printing, basket making and others. 

It's lots of fun and very informative--come on over and we'll take you there!  After that stop, we went to a fun restaurant called Kabob Court for a delicious dinner.  One of the dishes was a beautiful seafood platter--including a large lobster.  We did end up with a biriani that was so spicy that Ron said if he'd had tonsils, they would have been burned right out!  We had not one but two beautiful birthday cakes--we got a little mixed up with two Hot Breads bakeries on the same road, and we had ordered one from each!  We had to eat the second cake the next night for dinner--darn!

The Kirby's six year old made a hilarious card for Ron, including such descriptions of him as "Faster than a speeding auto-rickshaw...with a flat tire", and "Stronger than the smell of Indian garbage."  It was so cute, complete with great pictures. 

It was a happy day for all, I think especially for the Birthday Boy!

Cobras and other bad critters!

Yes, cobras are around.  I was wondering if it was like a snipe hunt, but we've had two major encounters in the past few days.  One night, one of our drivers came back late with someone, and since he gets to his home on a bicycle, he decided to spend the night at the school (not sure who gave him permission to do that!)  As he was walking over to the school, squarely in the middle of the road was a very large cobra--head in that cobraesque pose!  He turned around and quickly decided it was much safer to jump on his bike in the dark night, and peddle rapidly down the road.  This morning as the children were walking to school, they all gathered in a group to watch possibly the same cobra in the mango trees right by the path.  So sad to have missed it--I must see one before we depart or it won't be a true India experience.

This is one for the books.  As Gorden Gibb says, this doesn't happen in Provo, Utah!  Mary, one of our very fine teachers, travels by bus from her home in Kancheepuram every day--about an hours ride.  Last Friday she was sitting in her seat on the bus and a man standing beside her set his package down--slightly on her foot.  It so happened, that in the package was a scorpion fish (you might check that out on the internet--I've never heard of such a thing.)  It totally nailed her foot with it's nasty stingers.  They stopped the bus, and some man jumped off the bus and ran into a pharmacy and got an antihistamine and an antibiotic, to give to her right on the bus! Drugs are easy to come by.  By the time she reached the school her foot was three times it's normal size and hurting.  Dr. Kirby said the good drug samaritan gave her exactly what he would have given her.  They pulled more stingers out then she went to sleep for a couple of hours and woke up with the swelling down and feeling better.  We will now keep our eyes open for scorpion fish as well as cobras!

The roads carry our most dangerous enemies...moving vehicles!  Right now we are on our way to Chennai to go to the bank, then meet up with our friends to celebrate Ron's birthday.  First hand I can describe what I figured out last week about how the system works on these crazy highways.  What I realized is that it's the old adage that "might makes right", or the big guy always wins!  The big trucks and buses are at the top of the pecking order--whatever they want to do is okay, because they are the biggest!  Next, in order are the big cars, then lesser sized vehicles,  auto rickshaws, motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles, down to the lowly pedestrian, who has absolutely no rights at all.  Dogs, chickens, and humans all command about the same respect on the roadway--you don't want to hit a cow or a monkey, however, or you are in BIG trouble.

Our storerooms are all filled with coconuts right now (a few less on the trees to land on my head.)  We are going to make our own coconut oil so we don't have to buy it--both the men and the women use it as hair dressing every day.  We are going to make a lot of oil from all these coconuts!

Our main crop right now is sesame.  Three women have been coming each day with their sharp curved blades to harvest the stocks. They receive 40 rupees a day--less than a dollar.  They are bent almost double for the whole day--tough work.  Murugan, our gardener, has been carrying bundles onto the school rooftop to spread it out to dry.  His wife cleans the school each day--she has not been happy about the sesame droppings up three flights of stairs. 

We've also had our peanut crop.  Vicky Gibb came rushing over a few days ago to see if we were on fire in our house.  It was across the hall in the kitchen.  They were not on fire, but were roasting the peanuts at a very high temp in a big wok type of pan.  Apparently, they pop open with the heat--they were burned black, but the peanuts inside were delicious.  The children had bowls of them for their afternoon snack.  Lucky children!