So I'm skipping my post about the Taj Mahal for now because I have so much to write about and want to get caught up. We rolled into Rising Star around one o'clock in the AM on monday morning and boy did it feel good to be back. We got some sleep and then we were off to do health screenings on the staff here at rising star which includes teachers, kitchen staff, security, and the drivers. It was really nice to meet the adults that make this place run so smoothly and become better friends with them. I wish I had some more time here cause on of the cooks has become my new friend and I'd love to take some cooking lessons from her. We then went to play time where it was my family's turn to ride bikes. Jayamary a UKG (kindergarten) student fell and scraped her knee and I felt so honored that she ran to me to console her. She is an absolute doll and I want to put her in my pocket and bring her home. At family time on monday night, I was welcomed home from my 5 day absence with lots of loving embraces. I am always so impressed with how open all of the girls are with showing affection and giving complements. They are able to just open up their hearts to us volunteers even though they know our time with them is so short. It truly has been an example to me of how to love those around us. You can't go around withholding your true feelings because you're afraid of getting hurt or left behind or what they'll think of you if you open your mouth, you have to let down your guard and let the love pour out no matter who they are or what the circumstance. You should give compliments freely and open yourself up and not be afraid. They are my little shining stars and have become some of the best examples I have ever seen of how to love another person.
Me and Jayamary
On Tuesday we did anemia screenings on a good portion of the kids and they were quite the bunch of rascals for us. The boys were even more afraid than the girls, it was quite funny to watch. I even had to talk one kid out from under the table, my convincing skills are getting quite good if I may say so myself. During interval (recess) one of the little girls jumped on my back when I wasn't paying attention and I hit heads with the little boy in front of me along my brow line. It hurt pretty badly and the little boy could tell that I was in pain, so to make things better, he grabbed my face pulled open my eyelids and blew into my eyeball. It was pretty comical, but also so sweet cause here we have been consoling them after we had poked and prodded them doing all of our medical procedures and he had turned around and comforted me. It is so hard to work with the UKG students because they don't speak English very well and we have no way of communicating with them when we are about to do a procedure like giving a shot and no way to say sorry afterwards. It made me think about how important communication really is and how we take the ability to communicate so easily with the people around us for granted at times. I just wish I could have apologized to that little girl who cried all the way home after her shot.
Oh so tasty!
I also got a chance to eat lunch with the kids which is my favorite and today I even "went native" as my friend Beth calls it and ate with my hand. I was instructed by my good friend Jana as to proper hand eating technique. I also ran into my friend Ruthish who I mentioned earlier as being one of the funniest kids at Rising Star and convinced him to allow me to take his picture. Seriously, I could hang out with him all day long he makes me laugh so hard. I also think he is the cutest thing ever.
Ruthish
Later in the afternoon, one of the house maids, Meera, who is so beautiful and kind, dressed us all up in sari's so we could feel like real Indian women. She was so kind to stay after work and fold our sari's just right so we could take pictures in them. After we got all of our Sari's on, our professor Karen took pictures of each of us and I felt like it was prom all over again. She is such an amazing teacher and I have loved spending so much time with her here in India, she's like my mom away from home. Then a long term volunteer for Rising Star named Lex came out and it turned into a fashion shoot. He worked for a photographer and had us doing all of these poses and I felt rather silly, but hopefully some of the pictures turn out all right. Here is one off of my camera so its more normal.
Me, Kirsten, Beth, Ashley, Becca, Camille, and Meera in the middle
Later that night, I went to family time wearing my sari and the girls acted like they didn't know who I was when I walked into the room. They kept looking at me and when I asked them if it was because I looked silly in my sari, they said no, it was because I looked so beautiful. I think it is so interesting that they find pale skin so pretty. Women here put face chalk on to make their skin lighter. They think that the lighter the skin, the more beautiful you are. I think that is so crazy because some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen are Indian. Isn't it funny that we always think that what everybody else has is the prettiest? I wish that as women we could all just become comfortable in our own skin and widen our idea of beauty to accept all sizes and skin tones. The girls then decided that I needed my hair done and then that I needed a makeover. They all pulled out the little makeup that they had and did my makeup the way a true indian woman would. They drew on eyebrows, gave me a bindi (the jewel in between your eyes), and even drew on a beauty mark. I felt a little like a clown after they showed me myself in a mirror, but I loved it because they had done it out of love. They even pulled out their pretty jewelry to let me borrow so I could feel all dressed up. I just love them all. It was so neat to see how giving they are of what little they have. They would do anything for one of the volunteers and not even bat an eyelash about it. I also loved to see how excited they got about giving me a makeover. G. Devi even said that I was all ready to have a baby and when I told her I didn't have a husband she said, "that's okay, you marry my brother." So mom and dad, I guess you won't have to resort to an arranged marriage for me, the girls here have already got it figured out.
This is the only picture I dare put up, any closer and you might have nightmares
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