Rising Stars

Today was a big day for Rising Star, but my day started out pretty much the same as yesterday. I went to the "Art Colony" again to help with the Pearl Jewelry micro business. We arrived and hour earlier today so the ladies weren't there waiting for us like yesterday. We took advantage of the time and walked around the village. We went by the new community center that Rising Star is building and I was immediately distracted by the mangy little puppies lying in front of the building. I wanted to pick them up an play with them so badly, but they looked like they were already flea infested! For any of you who know how much I love puppies, you can imagine how hard it was for me to walk away from them without touching them :(

Once we got back to the old community center where we do the jewelry the ladies started to trickle in. Today went smoother than yesterday--the ladies were really getting the hang of it. They made some beautiful necklaces (in half the time and with half the help) and again it was great to see their sense of accomplishment and the pride they took in their work. Also, we got to go say hi to the artist in the Bindu Art School again, so that was fun. There were a couple low points in the day... First, one lady brought her tiny 6 month old baby and laid him on her on the floor with out a diaper or pants. She did lay her on a blanket and she had a little rope around the babies waist. I couldn't figure out why at first, but then the mom pulled the blanket up through the babies legs and tucked it into the rope in front--so I guess blanket subs for the diaper :| Anyway, the baby was turning over so the blanket didn't stay in place that well and the baby was basically rolling around on a dirty floor. Which reminds me, yesterday the same mother and baby came in, but the baby was fully clothed and we didn't realize she didn't have a diaper on until Heather was holding her and she peed all down her...lol... I didn't see it first hand, but I love the story.

The second bad thing that happened today is that I almost lost my stomach at one point (after I was so happy with myself yesterday for maintaining my composure). What happened was, a elderly man from the community center came out carrying this tin bucket full of greenish liquid with lumps in it that and it didn't smell so great. I thought that it was human waste and he was only standing about 3 feet away from me with it. I quickly moved to the other end of the room. However, it turns out that it was their lunch--just the sauce that went on top of their rice. So, I sat down and ate with them.... Okay, that's a lie. I was still struggling with the smell of it and remained on the other side of the room until they were finished.

Once we finished with the jewelry, we found out that our ride was an hour behind schedule, so we explored the village some more. We came across a little store and found that three of the woman who had come to make jewelry ran the store. It was fun to see them in their own house and we met their grandmother as well. All the people in the village are so friendly and excited to see visitors. We were welcomed into homes and had a chance to see what life was like for the people. I was surprised to see that most of the huts we passed (made of dried palm leaves and mud) had electricity. They connect a wire to the main city lines and bring it across the trees and into their house (just a small fire hazard). So one of the huts that we visited had a small beat up twin sized bed, a chair, and a TV, with a light bulb wired to one of the trees out front---wow.

I was a little bit sad that our ride was late because everyone on campus had been preparing for David A's visit (as we have been referring to him--you may know him from American Ideal). Heather had spent the morning preparing the "Pathway of Hope" (a walkway made bricks which are engraved with donors names--don't worry, bricks are still for sale if you would like to buy one) for David to cut the ribbon and walk down while the kids sing and throw flowers (he's helped bring in a lot of money/awareness for Rising Star). Anyway, as it turns out David and company had been out visiting the colony and were just headed back to Rising Star, so they stopped and picked us up on the way. It was really funny getting out of the van on campus because all the kids had their flowers ready and all the photographers were set up.... so I quickly moved to the side and the show proceeded. It was really cute though. David and his mom are so sweet-he barely said a word as we drove in and then when he saw all the kids lined up along the path he pulled out his phone and wanted his mom to get a picture. After the kids finished with play time David, Sean and on of our other big guest, Stacey (a judge and choreographer from Dancing with the Stars-Canada) worked with the kids on a performance they will be doing tomorrow in Chennai for a big fund raising event. It was so fun to see the dress rehearsal, and especially to remember the meaning behind their dance--it's a lyrical style dance, but Sean had them help with the choreography by thinking of someone they knew that had a hard life, and to make a dance about their suffering. The first day they rehearsed the dances, they shared their stories--many of them described the suffering of family members afflicted with leprosy, others had stories of domestic abuse, or other similar hardships. Buy the time they were done sharing their stories, the whole room was in tears.

This day has been pretty incredible, but this blog is getting long, and it's late.... which reminds me of one last story. The kids wanted us to come read stories to them again tonight, but by the time we finished dinner and got over there most of them were already in bed, so rather than waking them up, we tried to sneak back out. A couple kids spotted us though. They tried to get us to come back and read to them, but we told them that we didn't want to wake the little ones up and tried to say good night. They responded with, "No, bad night. Come read." It's hard to capture how humorous it was--but if you could listen to their broken English and there spin on the popular phrase, it was pretty funny.

And on a final note, my roommate just found a beetle in my hair. SICK :( ...but at least it wasn't lice :)