Arrival of Session #4

Emily and I picked up the new group this morning. This group is our largest group yet—20 people. Well 19, we are still waiting on one who is having visa issues. The makeup of the group is basically two family groups with a handful of lone travelers thrown in. Jordan from session #3 will be staying through this session as well—which of course we are all so happy about because she is an absolute gem! I am trying to convince her to come back in January, and I think it may be working………..I hope it is anyway. Having the families in this group will put a different twist on things for sure. Our youngest family member of the group is 8 and then we have a 12 and 14 year old. The younger ones are all super curious little boys so we will see how it goes. There is already a more family feeling atmosphere in the elephant house.

India’s welcome to session #4 was cute and wet! Alamalu had created a magnificent rangoli design just in front of the elephant house steps. Rangoli blows my mind. They are made out of chalk dust or some other kind of small material---sand, colored salt, etc. and I love them. 

After orientation we were just finishing up the campus tour (which ends at the children’s hostels/playgrounds) and before I could even finish what I was saying the children ran around the corner and literally jumped on/swarmed the volunteers. They were so excited to meet new volunteers and all the glossy eyed jet lagged volunteers broke out into the biggest smiles ever. It was

 one of the most adorable things I have ever seen.

After playtime, I stopped by the kitchen to pick up dinner. I was by myself, which wasn’t a huge deal until a torrential downpour ensued. Unbeknownst to me, one of the new volunteers, Lindsey, was walking behind me and was super sweet and caught up, took one of the pots from me, but everything was already a drowning mess. I was soaked, she was soaked, I was trying to hurry to get out of the rain and all that did was result in curry down my shirt and pants. It was quiet the adventure. The courtyard of the elephant house filled up with a good amount of water so the younger kids were frolicking around in it, splashing it everywhere, etc. I tell ya, something “Welcome to India-ish” always seems to happen on the first day volunteers come, and Session #4 got a flash monsoon right before dinner time.

The Adventures of Session #3

I’m pretty sure I blinked and session 3 had happened. I did miss the first day of this session (because I was coming back from Delhi) and the rest of that week I had to lay a little low because of whatever little souvenir I brought home in my gut. However, I am happy to report that after some oral rehydration fluids, Cirpo antibiotics, and deworming pill (yes, you read that right. I felt like I was an animal in a veterinarian hospital, which is dumb because we give it to the kids so it was probably good for me-it was humbling) my Delhi Belly went away. Then I just had to deal with Cipro Belly but whatever. Baby steps. Regardless of how short the time seemed, and the fact that I was sick or recovering for half/most of it, and the fact that we had Claartje and Rachel leave in the middle of the session, I was still able to participate in some things with them. And I was for sure able to get to know them. At first we were a little worried that they were not having a good time because we never saw them. As soon as they got home from this activity or that activity they went straight to their rooms and didn’t come out too much. We tried a few game nights but they didn’t last very long. BUT-come to find out, they were very social, they just weren’t the kind of group that was social outside of their rooms. But if you would go into their rooms you could join right in the conversations, hang out, or just join in whatever was going on. It was another group of all girls (sorry yet again David)—well my bad, there was a father and daughter that came so David wasn't the only man in the elephant house--and three of them have been best friends since forever; but by the end they all got to be very close.

With the exception of just a few (and I could be wrong about that, one never really knows), a lot of the girls were dealing with some pretty heavy stuff at home. I don’t know all the details, nor is it really my business to know, but it was cool to see them find solace in one another but more importantly in the service they were giving. They each opened themselves up to be touched and changed by this experience. I felt like there was a more palpable change in this group of volunteers then I’ve noticed in any other group we have had this summer. It was fun seeing Nick, the father in the group, become papa bear over all “his” girls. Secretly I loved watching Nick experience Rising Star and India with his daughter Annie—I know I personally won’t get the chance to do that in the flesh which of course made me a little sad and slightly envious, but mostly it was just really tender to watch. It was almost as cute as watching dance class with the UKG (kindergarten) kids in the dining hall—Nick in tow of course.

There was so much cheese this session! Mac and Cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches were made numerous times a day. Our adventures included a zoo trip, which we took after visiting a colony in the morning. It happened to be a holiday so the zoo was really crowded. The best part about the zoo was that we were the zoo. There were awesome tigers and animals but people didn’t seem to care about the white tigers nearly as much as they cared about the white people. Children cried, people stared, many pictures were taken and we literally were the zoo. I for one really like the tigers, especially the white ones. They are so BIG and not something I recall seeing at most the zoo’s I’ve visited. The zoo seems to be the place where couples meet up and do scandalous things like pair off and hold hands. I wish they wouldn't be so inconsiderate of all the undefiled children at the zoo. They are practically ripping their innocence right out from underneath them.   

No they are not taking pics of some awesome animal, they are taking pics of the extremely rare, exotic and seasonal Rising Star Outreach Volunteers. 

The signs were hilarious! There was another one that I need to track down a copy of it, but it was outside the bathroom and had the cost for peeing and pooping on it. They used more professional works such as urination and fecal matter, but the best part was that the cost was the same for each so yea...........

Some animal was missing that for sure...

Midget hippopotamus (I think the correct term is pigmy but I like midget better. No offense intended to anyone or anything.)

The threesome of besties are all cheerleaders at Wasatch High School and David was trying to get back in shape for BYU cheer camp which is coming up right after he goes home (which is to close for comfort) so they did some stunting at playtime. The kids absolutely loved the show.

Hailey has to be one of the funniest girls I have ever met

They worked hard (And were genuinely happy doing it)

 

And played/loved hard

We had a weekend in Pondicherry together. These girls knew how to shop. And eat. And find awesome bathroom signs. We hit up a french bakery that honestly tasted like kneaders. I could of sat and eaten there all day. I had a raspberry tart, chocolate cookie and a ham and cheese sandwich. They were to die for. I thought I was eating at Kneaders. I felt so strongly about them that I took a picture, but obviously couldn't wait to take little (or multiple) samples of each first. Pondicherry's grand bazaar is so large that I have been visiting it in sections. When I went with this group we hit up the textile section and the flower section. The things they do with flowers here is pretty amazing. After the bazaar we found this SWEET ready made saree store where I got a fancier blinged out type saree with the top and underskirt for $13.00 USD total. You can take the the bargin shopping girl out of the USA but you can't take the bargain shopping out of the girl. (Wom wom wom wooooooom)

I am going to miss these gals--and our papabear Nick. I don't know if I really thought much about how not fun it would be to make new friends and get to experience awesome things with them and then have all of them leave........the leaving of sessions is not one of the highlights of my job. I love my little brothers and wouldn't trade them for the world, but I also desperately wanted a little sister too. India is giving me a chance to gain a lot of "little sisters"-I can call them that since I am usually significantly older then pretty much all of them. I just hope India get togethers are still happening when I get home in April. If not, a lot of people are going to get a five foot two inch blast from their Indian past whether they want it or not. 

Missing Miss America

Sadly, Miss America departed for her homeland-the Netherlands. Campus just isn’t the same without her. She brought so much to Rising Star. To say she was dedicated to the work and to the children would be an understatement. She was ALWAYS moving. If she was tiered she could be a little quiet (expect for when she would break out into random song—usually about loving whatever food she was eating, peanut butter or the Pina Colada song), maybe take a nap but then she was right back at it. I don’t recall ever seeing her angry. She brought over A TON of these amazing dutch cookies that I'm convinced were laced with some kind of addictive substance because they were the best things I have ever tasted. We ate them all. Literally all of them. I am going to miss her energy, her perfect amount of goofiness, her snorting laugh, her enthusiasm as she performed her roles as the Community Outreach (aka construction) coordinator, her adorable accent and her enthralling sincere personality.

Whenever I think of Claartje, I will always think of Carl the goat. I think I have mentioned this before, but one day Claartje was sitting on her bed when she got a feeling that someone was watching her. She looked over her shoulder to see Carl the goat just staring at her through her window. I guess it scared her pretty bad. She was telling us about it, and I was about to wet myself because I was laughing so hard. A few weeks later, Carl started following me on campus. I would turn around to look at him and he would stop, but then as soon as I turned my back and started walking again he was right in tow. Claartje and I had a good laugh about that. All this added up to that fact that I may or may not of been responsible for obtaining and printing out several pictures of Carl and strategically placing them in Claartje’s path for the last couple of weeks she was here. I put one in her bed, on the inside door of her favorite squatty potty stall, etc. The best part was that eventually everyone got in on it—we even got Milo, one of the local construction workers, to give her one. Of course she figured out pretty early on that I was behind it all, but I never completely confessed to it until her going away party—when I gave her a card made out of the last Carl headshot.

So I’m defiantly missing our Miss America. And it is hard because her leaving signifies the start of almost all the long term volunteers and Summer coordinators, minus Brookly, going home. I’m sure their replacements will be awesome as well, but we have officially started the end of a great team. The only solace I am taking is in the fact that I’ve always wanted to go to Amsterdam and now I’ll have a friend to experience it with. Even still, my heart is sad. 

So I'm going to focus on pictures of funny memories with Claartje.

First up is this one. She wasn't really driving it, we just caught a ride on it together one Saturday in Mamallapuram. She was so scared, and cussing up a storm in my ear, and then apologizing all in the same breath. As soon as we got off she wanted to hop right back on and take a picture on it though. She always had me laughing. 

One day she came into Brookly, Emily's and I's room so excited about the butterfly princess net she has set up over her bed. She insisted that we come and see it.

This was from when she and I were exploring the ruins at Mamallapuram one weekend. It happened to be the weekend of my Dad's death anniversary and I'm sure she had other options of things to do but instead she spent time with me--just the two of us, chilling around. I was so grateful for that because I really wasn't feeling like being part of a huge group of people that particular day.

It was not uncommon for Claartje to let the children "dress" her up but doing her hair and adding flowers/weeds to it.

And then of course, who can forget Claartje being Miss America for our 4th of July party. "This is my favorite 4th of July celebration ever!"

Milo delivering a Carl pic

One of her Carl strikes back attempts

Accidentally all wearing purple to a colony one day

We made her a blueberry cheesecake as a going away present. And yes it is in a frying pan. Don't judge, we have very limited kitchen supplies 

And last but not least, Claartje just being her adorable self

Delhi 1.0 Day 4

I’m sad to report that my Delhi Belly came back full force today. Luckily, I had pretty good access to bathrooms today, but it defiantly wasn’t fun. Not fun at all.

On to happier things though-remember that comment I made about being disappointed when we didn’t get to spend some more time with the elephants at Amber Fort? Well, Benson heard that comment, and reached into his bag of tricks and had a little surprise for us this morning. He wouldn’t say why we needed to leave a littler earlier—which I kind of messed up, no-which my Delhi Belly messed up—but that we would be happy that we did. We drove to the outskirts of town, and made a turn onto a little side of the road and then passed a sign with an arrow that said elephant village. I wanted it to be a living elephant village, but was trying to think about all the different things it could be, such as a village with a shrine to Ganesh (the god that has an elephant head), or some elephant themed gift shop, etc. but luckily for me, my first thought was correct! In America we have parking garages for cars, buses, etc. In India they have parking villages for elephants. Most of them were gone working for the day, but there was one, which is all we needed. I guess the family’s who own the elephants live in the elephant village as well-so we were met not only by the elephant but the children as well. It was cool to just chill with her—especially since there were only four of us. It was amazing how close we got. In fact the elephant's owner kept telling us to go closer. When it was my turn the elephant grabbed my hand with its trunk, and brought it up to her mouth where she sucked on my hand for a bit. I’m pretty sure she was expecting food, which I sure didn’t have, but she didn’t seem to mind. I probably got my hand “kissed” because I was sporting my elephant Aladdin pants-so she knew I was a fan. The elephant sucking on my hand made me think of when the baby calves suck on my hands at Grandma’s house. It was seriously the most awesome surprise ever! What a way to start a day!

Watching him climb up on the elephant was so amazing! She just lowers her head and helps lift him up with her trunk and before you know it he is perched on top. I really wanted to try it but they wouldn't let me---go figure. :)

How would it be to grow up in an elephant village?

 After the elephant village we started our drive back to Delhi. Our driver needed to stop for his tea so we had a little snack stop. It was this cute little coffee shop, and sadly they ran out of chocolate brownies before I could buy one but it was okay because I ended up getting the best Oreo milkshake I’ve ever had in my life. It was seriously so good. We watched Indian television while we stuffed our stomachs. The little bit of Indian television we saw was seriously scandalous. There was this horrible cologne commercial for a cologne called Cobra. It involved a lot of hand stroking with the cologne finally squirting at the end—nice huh. Apparently, the old name of my oreo milkshake was “The Big O.” Again---there is so many sexually themed everything in this society even though they don’t promote boys and girls mingling until their parents marry them to one another. I don’t think I will ever understand it.

When we reach Delhi, we stopped at a market place that had American groceries. It even had-----wait for it-----DR. PEPPER! The rumors were true! You know I bought a few cans to take back to southern India with me. I also splurged on other American things such as refried beans, chicken broth etc. But I had to forgo somethings like ranch dressing and mac and cheese which were simply way to expensive--like $10 USD apiece! If Benson would have been able to get a hold of his friend I would have brought back frozen bacon with me too. Sadly that was a no go. Afterword’s, we experienced the Delhi Metro system which we road into Old Delhi. The metro system is owned by a Japanese company, but it must be the same company that did the London underground because the signage and PA announcements were exactly the same-complete with the "Please mind the Gap" lady. The only difference I saw is that they had certain cars designated for women only-which obviously we rode in.

Old Delhi was exactly how I pictured it to be-totally congested, have peddle rickshaws, shops everywhere, etc. There were also some wandering hands too, which I also expected but I was lucky enough to not personally experience that. Unfortunely, some of the other girls weren’t so lucky. After taking peddling rickshaw rides into the center of Old Delhi, Benson led us on another little adventure through the crowds of merchants, through some grain shops and up a zillion stairs, past a homeless man in the corner, and over a big dead rat and finally out onto a rooftop that overlooked all of Old Delhi. It was simply breathtaking. It was one of those times I just stopped, try to take it all in, pinched myself and thought “I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be living in India and experiencing the things I am.”  And then right after that (I know this sounds so stupid) I thought of the Aladdin game my siblings and I would play on the Sega when we were little-specifically the rooftop level.

You can see the Gate of Delhi in the skyline...it is the red stoned structure

Rose petals drying on someones roof

 Some views down into an alley and a mosque

After the rooftop, we visited an authentic Indian spice market. I got some good cooking spices. I am excited to put them to good use. All I want to do is cook now. I hear campus has WIFI back, so it looks like I'll be looking up more then a few recipes that call for my new spices. 

We took a bicycle rickshaw back to the metro, hopped in the car that was waiting for us once we got off, and literally ran to the next place-offically I don’t remember what it was called, but unofficially it was Benson’s special spot. We took off our shoes off and walked up a wide curved stoned path to this sight:

It is a temple that Benson would come to when he was little, and where he takes his children now. When Benson was investigating the church, he came here to think and received his confirmation that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints was true. I may have written the wrong, but even if I did, it was a very pretty and peaceful place.

The crematorium that is located behind the temple

Our final stop in Delhi was to a wholesale souvenir and carpet shop. I got a good deal on coasters that look very similar to the ones I wanted at the shop in Agra, but for way cheaper. And the carpets were incredible. They were hand weaved, very ornate, and exactly what you would think of when you think of Northern India/Middle East styled carpets. Think Arabian prayer rugs. So amazing! They even change colors in certain lights. But coolly, not all psychedelic like the horse that changes color in the Wizard of Oz.

The flight home was good-I was so exhausted that I slept for most of it. Delhi was incredible, but I have to be honest, I missed the kids more then I expected. I would see kids on the street in Delhi that would remind me of “my kids” back on campus and my heart would ache a little. Needless to say, I was excited to come home. Rajenjdran was there to pick up Rachel and I. We call him the Indian Santa Clause because he has a round face, kind sparkly eyes and a very warm smile. We got in late at night so we were beyond exhausted and it was so comforting to be greeted by him. He was so considerate on the drive home too. I was in and out of sleeping, but I was awake enough at certain times to realize that he was being so careful and mindful of speed bumps, potholes and the necessary stops just making sure he didn’t wake us up. It melted my heart some. The rest of my heart melted when I went to my room and was greeted by this:

 How sweet is that? I loved it! It is nice to be home.

P.S. The pink streamers are actually pink toilet paper. When we get free rolls in the wholesale packets of TP they are always pink. It's a nice touch. Hahaha.