Sunday, December 11, 2011

I'm so excited... I've got excellent internet access right now, so I'll probably be able to post more often this week - until Friday anyway.

Today was a great day.  We left for church at 7:00 AM and drove for almost 2 hours back to Chennai.  They have been waiting for 12 years to get a chapel, and last week was their first week in their new ward house.  It’s absolutely beautiful and looks more like a small temple to me than a meetinghouse. 

         The new Chennai Chapel.

A "subdivision" ready to sell plots of land.  If you look really hard toward the back just to the right of the middle, you can see one house that is under construction.

This is a separate subdivision.  I thought it was a miniature golf course.  Each of the little "umbrellas" represents a plot of ground for sale.

After church, we came back home and they had a good lunch prepared for all of the adult volunteers and visitors.  It was one of the better Indian meals I’ve had, and Pam (the Director’s wife) made a vegetable salad and REAL brownies with frosting.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  It’s amazing what small things can make you so happy.

Lunch served on a piece of a banana leaf as a placemat.  I couldn't tell you what most of it was, but it was pretty good.

The school cuts all of the children’s hair at the same time over a two-day period, so today was hair-cutting day.   I hated to see some of the girls’ hair chopped off so short when they had such beautiful long hair.  The boys’ hair is cut every two months.

Promethean Sparks, a dance group that works in the USA and a couple of other countries, has two volunteers here right now – Ann and Diana – who have been teaching the children dance.  Tonight, the kids wanted to do an impromptu dance for us.  They were incredible!  Even this little tiny boy, maybe 5 years old, was awesome and danced all by himself when I asked him to dance for me and I would record him on a video.  Being a former modern dancer, I totally loved what they did.  I was very impressed.  There was one dance they did to a David Archuletta song that actually brought tears to my eyes.  At one point in the song, the children had to dance as if they had leprosy.  They took poses that made me realize just how real it is to them.  They knew exactly what to do because they’ve seen it in their own relatives’ lives.

Here at Rising Star Outreach, there are 190 students.  None of the students have leprosy.  Most are from surrounding villages, but some come from as far away at New Delhi.  They only get to see their parents about once a month.  They live here on campus in hostels with “mothers”, having about 18-20 children in each “family”.  The boys are in one hostel, and the girls are in another. 

Tonight we went over to the girls’ hostel and read stories to some of them.  The children are so starved for love and affection that it seems like they just glom onto any person they can.  I’ve gotten used to it somewhat from Africa, but it could be overwhelming otherwise.  There just aren’t enough adults around to give them all the love they need.  They are absolutely darling, however, and very polite.  They always ask my name and try to get into a conversation with me.  I love that.

We’ve decided to go work with the leprosy patients tomorrow.  I’m excited and nervous at the same time.  I’m not so much worried that I’ll get leprosy from them as much as I’m worried about how I will react to their deformities and wounds.  I hope I’m up to the task.  We leave here at 9:00 and won’t be back until 2:00.

Wish me luck,

Kadi