The Star Store Grand Opening!

Holly made a beautiful "Official Ribbon Cutter" at the ceremony to re-open the Star Store!


Students take a tour after the ribbon cutting ceremony to see what their new store has to offer!





The floor turned out so neat! Holly designed the globe to feature India in the center. Sillouettes of boys and girls holding red hearts adorn the outer rim. Eye catching and meaningful! Way to go, Holly and team!

S. Ambu's Wedding

S. Ambu, one of the maintenance workers at Rising Star Outreach, got married last weekend and the children, housemothers, and volunteers were priliged to be invited to the festifities. Here's a photo of the volunteers in our finest sari's, ready to climb into our "coach" and go to the "ball."


Cinderella may have had a wee bit more room in her "coach" than we did in our van. Thirty three in a vehicle built for 16 made the ride fairly cozy, but we made it!



This is a photo of the Marriage Hall where the reception and dinner took place.

The fountain in front.

A look inside the hall.


The thrones for the bride and groom...which we never saw anyone use during the evening.

Some of us sitting in the hall, waiting for dinner.

A few of the Rising Star boys and girls who attended.


Our photo op with Ambu on the "stage" in front of the red thrones.


Several volunteers sported traditional flowers and henna designs...all done by Holly, the resident henna artist!

The musicians survived the evening, despite all the mental death threats against them. (Indian music is EXCRUCIATING!)

Diana and me in the dining hall.

The food, which we ate with our hands, was fabulous!

The happy cooks take a break.

After nearly three hours in the Marriage Hall, the group took a walk to find the bride.

We came upon a small Hindu Temple a few blocks away.

Our first glimpse of the bride! As far as I could ascertain, this was also their first glimpse of each other. This is typical of many Indian weddings. They meet on the wedding day. Note how excited and happy they look. :)

It was good to get the next two photos from our friends who went to the actual wedding the next day. Our friend, Ambu, is smiling in the last photo. His young bride still looks fairly terrified.

Color is on the Rise...at Rising Star!

Holly began the job of redecorating the Star Store wearing a lovely matching chudador outfit....a rare find in the laundry room!
I, on the other hand, wore ugly denim pants and a paint shirt. :)

She did a fabulous job on her henna designs! She even wrote some Tamil words (Love, Peace, Patience, and Compassion) on her feet and was stoked when the Indian kids and staff could read them! She has become the resident "henna artist" here in the volunteer community.

Holly was given the opportunity to use her artistic talents to brighten up a very dull room which is the Star Store: e.g. a place where kids can cash in their "stars" which they earn for good scholastic achievement, good behavior, etc. Here she is walking towards that room and you can see a hallway in the girls' hostel.

Holly and I taped stencils on the wall and then began painting. It was fun but crazy because we needed 1 inch wide brushes but had 5 inch wise brushes. So, what we did was gather some of the bristles into a 1 inch bunch and dip that in the paint and then hold the other bristles out of the way. It was a two handed task which was even harder when we had to balance on the rickety ladder!
This all led me to coin the phrase: THERE IS NOTHING EASY IN INDIA!





Vadivu, me and Veeno ....both lovely ladies who work as House Mothers in the Girls' Hostel. Vadivu is helping Holly learn some Tamil. I gave up that hopeless endeavor when I found out there are 216 letters in the Tamil alphabet! YIKES!

Holly with our friends.






Holly and I absolutely LOVED working on the Star Store because, not only did it give us an opportunity to do something very pretty for a change, but it also is an activity which has a definite beginning and end. We can see the change in the room and know that our efforts will last for a long time.

New Saris and More Snakes!

Holly found new sari material on our shopping trip to Punducherry. These wraps take about 12 yards of material and are SO inexpensive, it is mind boggling. I think this one cost ten US dollars.
She added Jasmine flowers to her hair, which is what most of the Indian women do.



John with the cobra he found behind the volunteers' living quarters.
(I REALLY hope I am able to fly out of here before I find one myself!!)

Badalampurum

Patients arriving for care at Badalampurum colony. Notice how neat and clean everyone is and how beautiful the saris are on these women! This is a colony that RSO has been helping for a long time. The people have had the benefits of micro loans and many own their own small businesses. Helping these people was a totally different experience than at some other, "younger" colonies. A few of the men here helped us unload the van when we arrived and then reload it at the end....even though many were missing most or all of their hands. They felt useful and helpful! Such a great thing!



One of our sweet and beautiful RSO nurses, Charmilla, dispensing meds to the patients.



The room we had to use was not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. The flash from the camera gives the illusion that there was adequate light. There wasn't. The only light we had was from the two doorways. The bulbs in the ceiling were so inadequate, I looked up at one point to see if we even had electricity and regretted doing that, seeing a plethora of dirt caught in old cobwebs over my head. The floor was filthy and I was distressed to watch patients set their clean, washed feet down on that dirt and hobbled between chairs for further treatment. I spoke to Dr. Susan afterward and she agreed it is an issue we need to address.



Holly and me waiting for patients to arrive at our foot washing stations.



Melissa applies Neem oil to a patient's foot so the dead tissue can be somewhat softened for the debridement process.



Navimani, the debridement nurse, dresses a small wound on an abdomen; a very rare location for leprosy.



This patient was intelligent and sweet. His English was very good. As he sat down at my station to get his bandage removed, he said, "Just a moment. I will say a prayer to God to thank you for being here to help me." Then he put his deformed hands together in front of his chest and prayed out loud. It was incredible to see this act of humble gratitude. I felt like saying, "Sir, it is I who should pray to God for the strength to ever become as courageous and awesome and humble as you are!"