The Summer of the Most Love

Forgive me for not updating sooner, but I have been busy busy busy! These past few weeks I was in a dance show at BYU called "World of Dance" and performed a tap number in it. It was a lot of fun. But it kept me from blogging about my wonderful trip to India!

Wow, I don't even know where to start! I guess I will just start with my first week in India... with as much information as I can recall...

LANDING AT THE CHENNAI AIRPORT

After 14 hours of flying to Hong Kong, with a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong, then another 6 hours on a flight to Chennai, we finally made it! We were so tired, and the air was very muggy and hot, even at 2 a.m. I walked out of that airport feeling like I was in a totally different world. I basically was. I thought to myself, 'What the heck am I doing here?' The air was thick, the smell of curry surrounded us, and a billion Indian men were standing in a line outside the airport with signs written in Tamil or Hindi or whatever language it was. I immediately had culture shock.

The trip was not over. We had to drive another 2 hours to our hostels at Rising star in Thottanaval Village. We were so tired that our van of volunteers was completely silent. They even took a picture of all of us in our exhausted state. Now I can really understand what jet lag feels like!

WEEK 1

Many of you may be wondering what the Rising Star Outreach program is and what it does. It is a program dedicated to children of leprosy parents who are basically orphans. Rising Star's goal is to educate the children so that they can be the first generation coming out of leprosy families to function normally in society. Rising Star also helps with the actual leprosy patients in the colonies. It also facilitates projects in the colonies such as building of bathrooms, houses, and cleaning up garbage.

My first week at Rising Star was amazing. Even though I was in culture shock at first and I was not used to the heat, I immediately focused my attention to my purpose for coming to Rising Star. I wanted to forget myself and serve those around me. The first week was a bit difficult trying to remember all of the kids' names. I remember our first day at Rising Star, Carly, Sami, and I had some visitors at our door. There were 3 kids that immediately welcomed us and hugged us and loved us unconditionally. I went upstairs to the girls' hostel rooms and there were tons of little girls playing and jumping on us. We had a lot of fun.

Because the kids at Rising Star immediately expressed their love towards me, I immediately loved them. They are so easy to love. They are energetic, giggly, funny, fun, cute, adorable... I could go on and on! At Rising Star, the volunteers get assigned to certain families with house mothers (about 3 volunteers each) and the family I was assigned to was of the Kindergarten aged girls... ages 4-6. They were the cutest! My favorite times at Rising Star were the nights of singing primary songs with the girls in my family and reading them bedtime stories. Their cute, high-pitched voices really touched my heart... I immediately knew that God loves each and every one of them, and that they all have a lot of potential in life. I grew to love these girls more than I could have ever imagined. They also recited a Hindu prayer before they ate each meal.

The first few days at Rising Star, I had the opportunity to be in the tutoring group. We went out to the mango groves by the school, and Ashley, one of our coordinators, would escort a student to one of us tutors. These students were usually the ones that needed extra help. We tutored in Comprehension, Geography, Social Studies, and Math. I loved how the kids would come up to us and sit on our lap and let you teach them. It was my favorite. (p.s. did I not mention I am obsessed with mangoes and I was practically in heaven surrounded by them? It was fabulous!)

This is cute little Priya. She had probably the cutest smile I have ever seen. She loves to laugh, play, and take pictures. I miss her so much! We had a lot of fun together, playing on the playground, jump roping, and reading stories.

After tutoring for a few days, I was assigned to the medical group. This group traveled by van to the leprosy colonies. We would pick up the nurse and doctor, who would do most of the medical tasks. But what we volunteers were able to do was wash the feel of leprosy patients.

When we went to our first colony, I was a little bit nervous and not knowing what to expect. But as we walked in the home of a few patients, I suddenly felt this warmth and peace around me. I knew that I was supposed to be there in that exact moment. I enjoyed washing their feet and talking with them. These people are incredible. They are so humble and happy... it really put a smile on my face and made me grateful for everything that I have. These people live in the worst conditions - without food, hardly any clothes, families... and yet they are still happy and know that there is a God who loves them. I learned so much from the leprosy patients in India. Although I didn't get really close with any of them (which I am bummed about!), I was able to learn about some of their lives. I will expand on that later...

Basically, my first week in India was full of new customs, new names, service, and getting used to India in general. I felt so bad because I kept forgetting a lot of kids' names. I wanted to memorize all of them but there are just too many! Every night after the day, the volunteers and coordinators get together and have dinner on banana leaves at the top of the hostel (the roof). The sunset is always so beautiful, and the air feels so nice. It is nice to finally relax at the end of a hot day and feeling exhausted. We ate yummy authentic Indian food consisting of white rice, curry, onions, potatoes, and fruit salad. One by one, each volunteer has to give a "high" and "low" for the day... for example, my high for one day was a little girl named Kaviya writing me a letter saying "I love you Callie, I miss you Callie" and my low was feeling kind of sick. It was fun to hear about everyone's day, because something new and exciting came up from day to day. There is so much that happens in one day of India!