Family Time with the Tamilarasi House

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This little one in our house is name Tamilarasi too,
 coincidentally. Doesn't she have a dynamite smile?

Quincy and I are assigned to the Tamilarasi house. The houses are named after the house mother of that particular set of girls.



 

The hostel has many houses. A house consists of a main gathering room and two large bedrooms and a small room for the house mom to sleep in. It has cement floors. The girls are split up between the two large rooms. Those rooms also have laundry hanging to dry in them daily. 

They have a cabinet that stores their blankets, folded uniforms and play clothes. It also has shelves where the girls can store their personal belongings, like their backpacks. The building itself is two stories high and has a large communal bathroom and showers on each floor. There is a separate boys building nearby.



The girls all have shared chores to get the laundry done, help do hair, organize snack and keep the place tidy. The older kids get the weight of the chores.



At bedtime they sleep on the hard floor on a mat or blanket with a pillow. At first I was taken aback when I saw this but most of these kids sleep this way in their own homes. As a matter of fact, the conditions are cleaner for many of them as some of their own homes sometimes have dirt floors and the toilet is an outhouse squatter.



Daily we have family time. The girls look forward to Quincy and me arriving from 7:30-9 every night. Usually they are working on homework. We have helped them study for tests, do math and we were no help when it came to homework taught in Tamil.  Sometimes we brought books in and we read them to each other. We had wonderful conversations about one another’s lives. Many of them are fascinated by where we come from as we feel the same about them.




Check out my pipe cleaner headband that was made for me.

Thursday nights are what they look forward to. That is designated talent night. The volunteers are in charge of planning something for their house to do. I was really worried about this when we were asked ahead of time to plan this.  I guess I was worried about not boring the older kids or doing something that has been overdone. All this worry was so unnecessary. I’ll tell you why. These kids old and young are so grateful for anything. It amazes me and makes me feel sad that I don’t see this more in the states. One evening a girl brought out some treasured pipe cleaners and we were forming them into headbands, bracelets and flowers. I don’t remember the last time I have seen older kids be entertained by these.



  The first Thursday we brought in these foam picture frames with all kinds of foam stickers and letters. I had them put their names on it and decorate them. The house mother got their pictures to put in them and they hung them high up on the walls in their bedrooms. Not one sticker went to waste. They scavenged the leftovers and they all were so proud of their creation. I was disappointed I didn’t have my camera with me on this activity.

 

The next week we made edible bracelets. This was a big hit!  The girls loved this and we had many photo opportunities. I had some sugary thin ropes that they strung Fruit Loops on. The finishing touch was a gummy, peach apple ring to be threaded on as the big jewel. The children don’t get much sugar, so they were savoring every bit of it. One story I heard later from a volunteer in another house was that one of my girls took an extra peach ring I gave her into one of the other houses and split it eight ways so those girls could try it. That touched me. I witness this generosity all of the time with these kids.

This is our favorite girls after getting their bindis on and some are still
eating their tootsie pops!  Each one of them are so unique in their own
special way.  I am blessed to know these young women.

The third week I had brought Tootsie Pops. They all picked a color and we played the right and left game as I read them a story about a Mother Kangaroo trying to make her baby Roo smile. They had to pass their sucker to the right on the word smile and left on the word Roo. I told them that we picked this book because of all of the smiles they have shared with us and how much they have made us smile. After that, we talked about how special each one of them is on the inside and because of that it radiates outwardly. I read them The Ugly Duckling and we talked about how they need to always stand up for each other and be the best sisters they can to one another. We talked about looking for the inward beauty in others rather than judging only on the outward package. After that we had them say something they think is special about themselves on my video camera and then Quincy put a bindi between each of their eyes signifying the beauty shining outwardly. It was a special night. In both our hearts we knew that our dreaded last day was rapidly approaching and our precious time with our newfound family was coming to an end.



Family time has been a bonding time. We have had some special moments. Every evening we have tucked these girls in, hugged them and gave a kiss when needed. They have showered us with love and embraced us. Every night I would tell them something that my Scottish grandma used to say. Good night, Sleep tight, Don’t let the bugs bite. Sweet Dreams. By the second night they were saying it too. Sweet Dreams, Tamilarasi house. You all deserve them and hopefully you will follow your dreams as you continue to grow into wonderful women. I love each one of you girls and will miss our time together. 

Construction Day! Day 4

This is our Scorpion crew
Raymond, Stacy, Quincy, me, Savannah
Notice the huge speakers to the side.  These provided an abundance of the current  pop Indian music played throughout the colony. It was quite the variety; polka, techno, rock all sung in Tamil.  It made working so much fun.

Heavy lifting, dirty sweat, a slight sunburn, consuming gallons of water, lots of laughs and teamwork was what a good part of our day consisted of.  We left around 9:30ish today to serve in the Benarahar colony.  This colony is the poster child for Rising Star.  It has an Art School on site, a barber shop and a woodworking shop and other businesses operating through the micro loan program set up through Rising Star. A while back the residents gathered and compiled a portion of their micro loan business money and saved to build a community center to hold celebrations and gatherings in.  It is thriving and the people are so welcoming.  When anyone sees you, they say "Vannakum." (spelling?)  This means "Hi" or "Have you eaten?"  They are very concerned for other people's welfare.  The conditions are very rugged but liveable. Despite that, a smile is always shared with whomever walks by.  The people like the volunteers.  Rising Star has earned this as they have been helpful to create positive change in many ways.

Kim, our coordinator, passing Quincy two cinder blocks.  These two girls rocked it with their strength.

There is a hole in the center of where the stacks of blocks are stacked.  This is where the outhouse is being built.

This is a completed outhouse and to the left is the septic that is partially completed.

Our job today was to move stacks of cinder blocks into the backyards of four different homes.  These were being used to construct bathrooms outside of their homes with Indian style toilets.  Tomorrow the group will be transporting large, heavy cement rings as part of the construction for a septic system for each one. 

It was hard work but surprisingly fun.  In the colony some young men had rigged up these ginormous speakers so Indian music could play throughout the colony.  Kim,  our volunteer coordinater, Ray and I were heading up the relay line as we passed cinder blocks one to another. Ray was taking them off the stacks, passing them to Kim and than she would pass them to me and so forth.  As the music was blaring out of the speakers we started moving to the rythym and her and I just started breaking out in dance and showing our creative moves as we passed blocks.  There were a couple of elderly ladies sitting on their porch nearby getting such a kick out of this which made us do it more.  Those big stacks went so much faster and our funky dancing created such a happier atmosphere.  Afterwards the lady thanked us and took my hand and walked me part of the way to the next stop.  It was a moment.  I'm smiling just thinking of it.

During our time there we took blocks back to four different residences.  I don't know, we probably moved at least 400 or more blocks. 

This picture of the grandmother and her grand daughter is precious.  We loved photographing this child until she cried.  We felt bad.  The grandma offered to have us hold her but she wasn't having that.

This is a structure for a home.  They will be contstructing a straw roof on this in a week or so.  The homes are very primitive.  They have packed dirt floors and the barest of necessities.  Cooking is mainly done outside.

This was a dead scorpion we spotted along the way.  It was cool to see a real one.  We also are the Scorpion group.

 Here is one of the fancier homes.  Sometimes you will see a house like this right next to a hut.  It is real random. 






This is another residence.  None of these homes have indoor plumbing.  There is lots of dirt piles, garbage and cow poop everywhere.  You have to watch your step.

Isn't she darling?  So tiny.  She is with Kim, my dance partner
that is in charge of construction.

We also got to take a few pictures along the way.  One tiny, little lady came up to join us at the end.  She couldn't be much taller than 4'11, about the height of my Scottish grandma.  We asked her if she liked the music and she started to dance along with us.  It was so cute and it created another moment. 

After we got back I took a craved bucket shower and put my fresh chududar on.  We have a wide supply of these to wear.  We are required to wear these in respect to Indian custom.  They are loose and make me look about fifty pounds heavier than I already am.  This is when I am reminded of my goal of being trimmer.They can be very hot for someone that is not used to this heat and humidity.  Some of our volunteers look so cute in them.

We had some free time to chill out in the Elephant House.  Then we went out for play time activities with the kids around 3:45.  I went out to where some of the older kids play some organized sports.  Girls play badminton with one another.  They also play this game called Kibbler (spelling?).  It is a combination of two teams playing tag and wrestling a girl down.  I am going to video and share this sometime as it was quite unusual.  I still haven't figured out the rules.  Boys were playing a volleyball like game and soccer too.  Quincy was doing the volleyball game with the boys most of the time.  I was visiting with the girls and trying to figure out how Kibbler is played.  It was extremely competitive and sometimes arguments would arise.  The older girls or the better players are usually able to difuse them quickly.

One of my favorite moments was that so many of the girls could remember my name.  They would holler it over to get my attention.  They pronounce it similar to my family in Scotland..."B-danda." First a is pronounced long.  It is really cute.  I only wish I could remember each one of theirs.  Some of the names are so different that pronouncing them is a challenge.  Sometimes they will come up and ask me, "Do you know my name?"  When I am stumped I will usually reply, "Do you know mine?"  When they don't, we smile, they spell theirs to me and teach me how to say it and I do the same for them.

At 6:00 we go to dinner on the top of the Elephant house.  Today's fare was red rice (not my favorite) a chicken flavored soupy curry with potatoe, coconut curry, a type of green bean, an extremely spicy bean dish, and this puffy soft rice circle bread.  We also had fruit salad and vegetable salad.  I find here that I eat so much less and my appetite barely exists.  The food here is so different but fun to experiment with.  Breakfast and lunch we are on our own.  It usually is cereal in the morning and  a packed sandwich and fruit for lunch if we are away from the site. I'm glad I brought a few snacks to add to it.  If we are in the school we get to eat with the kids.  That's fun.

Family time is always at 7:30.  Today when we went over there the girls were busy with their homework.  We helped them with that, read with them, told stories and just hung out until just before 9:00.  The girls love this time with us.  They are so incredibly sweet and I just don't know how I will be when it is time to leave them.  They are fascinated with the fact that Quincy and I are mother and daughter.  In each house there is four rooms.  One for the house mom and three larger rooms for the girls.  They all have mats that are put on the floor and they sleep on those with a blanket.  It is so simple and so hard.  I will never feel the same when my own kids complain about their mattress not being comfortable enough.  A day at Rising Star makes one realize that you do not need much to be happy.  Sometimes with less life is more appreciated.