Dear Theerti

Dear Theerti,

Happy Birthday!!

I wanted to make sure you know that even though I will be on the other side of the world, I will still be thinking of you on your special day, the 15th of August. Unfortunately, I could not stay. I have some other business to take care of in the United States but I will always be thinking about my dear friend in India.

These past three weeks have been an extremely rewarding experience.  Each day from the moment we met I have looked forward to our epic games of chase and seeing your beautiful smile.  Although I don't think that being the catcher all the time was completely fair, I would never trade those moments with you for anything. You were so fast and ran for so long I often thought I would never catch you. We played so well that even the other kids wanted to get in on all the fun.  We made a great team as we worked together to catch the other kids and make the game fun and entertaining for all.

And remember that night when we watched "Meet the Robinsons" you wanted me to sit next to you but 5 other boys were already using me as their human mattress. It didn't stop you.  You took my arm and yanked and pulled me closer to you, somehow you managed to get me close enough to talk to you.  Along with that night, you made my days tutoring in the library so much more fun when you poked your head in between each class period just to say hello.

Finally, the nights you saw me pass your window as I was returning from family time and you whispered, "Ray, Ray," until you got my attention and I looked up to hear you say, "goodnight." Those nights created a perfect ending to a happy day.  These past three weeks you have become a cherished and wonderful friend to me, a best friend. I hope you will remember me in years to come, but more importantly I hope you understand that I will never forget you. I hope you continue to be a friendly, kind and determined woman.

With much love from your friend,

Uncle Ray

Weekends at Rising Star Outreach

Weekends here at Rising Star are tons of fun.

We went to a beach town called Momallapuram, on my first weekend here and as you can see from the picture above I saved the entire town from a gigantic rock sliding down the hillside.

Ok... maybe that rock has always been there and will never budge.  The English empire tried to pull it down  with 9 elephants and it didn't even move.  I think the locals call the slope with the rock a butter bowl.

We saw ancient ruins of a Hindu temple up along a hill that overlooks the city. Where I found my inner peace and saw tons of mountain goats all over the place.

We then hit up an awesome beach resort, where we swam in the Bay of Bengal.  It was warm, refreshing and very salty. I am sure that water had healing effects.  We then jumped into the perfectly blue resort pool to rinse off whatever might have been in that ocean water.

The second weekend was our Delhi and Agra trip. On Friday we took a two hour bus ride to the airport and then another 2 hour flight to Delhi.  We met our tour guide at the airport and loaded into a 15 seater bus. The Monsoon season started the day we arrived in Delhi so we got to experience a beautifully wet Indian tour.

We first got take a bicycle rickshaw ride through Old Delhi.

Seeing Hindu Temples, Gein Temples, Muslim Mosques and even a McDonald's

Markets of every kind including the famous Old Delhi Spice Market most of which in the rain.

After a nice visit in Delhi and some food we took a 6 hour bus trip to Agra where our 5 star Hotel and the Taj Mahal resides.  Early Saturday we ventured out to the Taj Mahal, the "Palace of Jewels." It was breathtaking to say the least.  Our tour guide explained that the Taj Mahal, is monument for a true Indian love story.

This mausoleum was built by a Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal when she died in 1632.  The Taj Mahal is perfectly symmetrical, except for the tomb of the Emperor himself since he had planned to build a black Taj Mahal across the river but was imprisoned by his ruthless son at the Agra fort. The Taj Mahal took 22 years to complete and is made with the highest grade white marble which is as hard as iron and decorated with fitted jewels and precious stones like onyx.

After getting inside and checking out the porch around the Taj Mahal the monsoon hit again and we ended up dancing in the rain at the Taj Mahal.  After wards we headed over to the Agra fort that served as both a Palace for the Mughal empire and a military compound.  It was here that Shah Jahan was imprisoned until the end of his life in a tower that he could see the Taj Mahal from a distance but never again enter until his death.  The Fort had a legit moat with crocodiles, then surrounded by lions and the emperor's army: talk about security.

It was incredible to see the Glory of India up close and personal.  The next day as we headed back to Delhi we stopped along the way to ride an elephant.  What a great way to end a magnificent weekend.

Medical Day

"Good medicine treats an individual, not merely a disease."

~ Hippocrates

Medical Day is a very special, and emotionally spiritual day.  On a typical medical day we head to the colonies to perform ulcer care for the leprosy patients.  We set up an area, usually in a home of one of the patients with different booths. First off they come in and grab their file and have their blood pressure measured, sometimes that will include their blood sugar level. Once they have been checked by the doctor who will prescribe any needed medicine, access their conditions and update their file, the patients come to our other designated areas to take care of their ulcers which is usually found on their feet.  First booth: their bandages (if they have any) get cut off and their toe nails get clipped. Second booth: their feet and ulcers get washed and scrubbed with soapy water. Third booth: Oil gets applied to their dry skin around the ulcer and along their feet and legs.  Fourth booth: a nurse cuts off the necrotic tissue and applies a balm to the ulcer. A volunteer assistant then bandages up the ulcer.  

Some patients are very sensitive to the pain of the ulcer and even the slightest touch can bring on tears of pain, others on the other hand hardly notice the nurse digging into their ulcers to cut away the dead tissue.  The fact that some patients feel pain is a good sign that they haven't completely lost the nerve tissue in the area of the ulcer.  The lack of pain is the main reason most of these ulcers occur; because, without pain being a warning sign to them that something is wrong they continue to walk on a wound making it worse or they don't shift from a pressure point like we would when things get uncomfortable thus creating a worse condition for their ulcer.

However, more important than the medical care that we treat these patients with, the greatest healing we can do is to provide a great degree of love and respect to these individuals who have been rejected from society.  We had one patient come in who was the grandmother of one of the students here at the Peery Matriculation School.  She was full of energy and presented herself at the door with a loud, high pitched, "Vanakum" which is a greeting in Tamil.  I had the opportunity to put oil on her feet and legs.  When I was finished she took her two hands which were missing fingers and took them to her lips and kissed them and then touched my cheeks with her hands as a way to say thank you and express her love for us volunteers.  We then exchanged I love you's in both Tamil and English.  It was a tender moment that allowed me to truly understand that more than washing their feet and putting oil on their legs, the love we share as fellow human beings is the most important service we can share.

Special in Every Way

" We are less when we don't include everyone."

~ Stuart Milk

The first time going out to medical we got to visit a special needs school/home where we did height and weight measurements and a doctor performed a checkup on each kid.  This was a special opportunity where I was completely in my element because it allowed us to play and interact with these special kids.  There was one kid, Ashok, who was the tallest of the bunch and pretty strong.  He suffered from an extreme form of autism and couldn't verbally communicate and was also physically disabled, but he was smart and communicated very well with his hands and gestures.  We clicked and did high fives and fist bumping right from the start.

Within moments of arriving I was swarmed by these children eager to get attention and love.  Several of them just wanted me to hug and hold them, there was even one boy who started dancing with me to an unknown beat.  Once we got the children through the checkups we sang songs with them that included several hand gestures like "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" or "head shoulders knees and toes".  They did a great job in following.

Somehow, Ashok and I started doing fireman holds with the children where we would form a square by interlocking our arms to form a chair for a person to sit in.  We would then lift up a child and carry them around calling them kings and queens in Tamil which is Raja (King) and Reena (Queen).  Being able to pick up those kids and call them Kings and Queens was a special moment for me as well as for them.  Similar to the leprosy patients, individuals with special needs are also considered outcasts of the society and instead of being taken care of by the society they are shunned away, left as nothing better than the trash that lines the streets These children are not trash, they are children of God with incredible spirits: completely innocent, full of love and with a special capacity to trust and forgive quickly and easily.  It was a special moment to have them feel included and loved, and at least temporarily treated as the royal spirits they truly are.

Construction Day

"Whatever good things we build end up building us."

~ Jim Rohn

Construction day is a physically exerting experience, but very rewarding. On Wednesday, we headed out to one of the leprosy colonies to be helping hands in the construction of bathrooms and septic tanks. These projects are funded by the people themselves thanks to the success of their businesses, that were made possible due to the micro-loan program provided by Rising Star Outreach. As volunteers we help lower the cost by providing free unskilled labor, but the materials and skilled laborers are paid for by the leprosy patients who own the property being built on.

The colony that we went to was the most well developed out of all the other leprosy colonies. The people there has made huge improvements thanks to the micro-loans. There is a very good carpenter and barber in the colony as well as an art school and a community sponsored old person home. When we arrived there was music playing through these huge speakers at the community center. The community center was built last year by pooling all of their money together so they can celebrate life with each other. There must have been a party that day because it was the first time our construction volunteer coordinator, Kim, has heard music played on loud speakers at the colony. The music was uplifting and created a fun environment.

Our project that day was moving several piles of cinder blocks from the road to the back of the house where an outhouse would be constructed. At first we tried picking up one or two bricks from the pile and walking them behind the house as we tried to avoid running into each other. After the first two houses like this we decided it would be easier to do a pass along train from the front to the back. The music continued to play and Brenda and Kim started to really get into the music and dance as they passed the bricks along. There were two other women sitting in front of the house watching us and they had the biggest smiles on their faces as they enjoyed the dancing entertainment. Watching them made the work easy and fun, I had a smile from ear to ear. I would have joined them but I was lifting the bricks from the piles and had little opportunity to dance along.

The day seemed to zoom by as we worked hard. As we were walking back to our van we run into this tiny little woman with the huge bottom bottle glasses. We told her that we liked the music and emphasized it so she could understand with dancing movements, the she started dancing right back and it was awesome. I took a picture of her and our Coordinator, Kim. Try to imagine this little old woman dancing.

Returning to the colonies we stopped and got some delicious ice cream and then came back to the campus and after resting and taking a much needed shower went to play time with the kids. Somehow I got roped into doing the swings by a sweet little kid who said, "Uncle, please push." When it was discovered that I am an expert swing pusher I was not allowed to leave the swings for the rest of play time. The hardest part was convincing the kids to get off the swings in order to allow other kids who have been waiting to have a turn. They would just look at me with those big brown eyes and ask, "Uncle, please... just one last time." Unfortunately, they are not that good at keeping their promises of it truly being the last time, but somehow I was able to create a fair system of only pushing the kids three times before they had to get out. It was an exhausting day with construction and swing pushing but at the same time it was a truly fantastic, worthwhile day.