Adventures with Carol and Mimi!

Amitram and Aravind
These are a couple of the cutest kids here! They have smiles that light up the room. I would love to pack these two up and bring them home in my suitcase. They have been here for about 7 months. They are both really good friends with Oaks and are in his UKG (kindergarten) class. They have an amazing story! Their mother was burned in a supposed kitchen accident. Kitchen accidents are fairly common here and are usually assisted by a mother in-law! The little boy who is four witnessed this event. The little girl still thinks her mother is alive at home. I met the father and mother-in-law last parent's day. It was awkward for me seeing them with the children.

I am reading a book called "May you Be The Mother of a Hundred Sons", written by Elisabeth Bumiller. The author is a lady who spent many years living with the Indian women where she learned about their culture and their life..quite an amazing book!



The Carnival
We had a school carnival and my mom ran the bobbing for apples booth, Carol ran the picture booth, and I ran the cake walk. The children had a blast that day. We had some volunteers here for a few weeks, (Charity, Dani, and Sarah) and they did an amazing job organizing the carnival and also with everything else they did at rising star. If only all the volunteers that come through were as amazing as they are!






Elephant Rides!
We went to the silk capital of India-Kancheepuram! We looked at material and bought a few saris and then we went to the temple to get an elephant blessing! If you give the elephant a coin in his trunk he will tap you on the head and give you a blessing. We watched a few people get blessings and the elephant slobbered all over their head so we all decided against the blessing and just to stand beside it and take a picture. We then thought why not lets get a ride on it Bare Back! I went first, he put his foot down and I climbed his leg and then pulled myself up by the rope tide around his neck. His skin was rough and his hair pokey! It was kind of gross because I could feel his hairs in his back poking through my pants. Carol went next and then Boston. My mom really wanted to go but she was in a skirt and it really would be difficult to stay decent and climb up the elephant. We also made our driver Vel(who is in love with Belle) ride the elephant too. He was very scared, it was funny to see him holding on to the driver behind him as he rode.




The Colony
We got to go to two different colonies. The Bindu art school which is in one colony and we purchased some artwork painted by some of the leprosy affected.
We also got to see them painting. The other colony we went to was with the Medical Van and Dr Kumar who is the doctor here for the 8 colonies that we service. We are also in the process of expanding to other colonies a little further away. Cole took most of the pictures at the colony. I thought he did a very good job!







This is Ambiga"s family...the one laying down is her father. He is 36! I was awaken to a phone call early this morning telling us that her father passed away. We went to her room to get her and brought her to our house to tell her. It was sad! We sent her home today for a few days to be with the rest of her family.