First day

 Camille and I had a 30 hour travel time to India plus a 12 hour time difference. We took three flights – Los Angeles to Dubai,  to New Delhi,  and then to Chennai  where Rising Star Outreach, lifting people with leprosy is.    We flew on Emirates Airlines, great movie selection and decent leg room for economy.   When we got to New Delhi India, collected our luggage and went through security without a hitch. The next thing was to figure out where our domestic flight was  which I purchased separately because it was a lot cheaper.  After trying to go through the domestic portion of the international airlines, which was not correct, I was directed to a bus stop to go to the domestic airport.  

We waited in line at 3am to get a ticket to travel on the domestic bus. We had to show the boarding pass from the flight we just took. Fortunately Camille kept hers! We had to wait for one packed bus to exit and then the next bus was also patch that we were on. Every single person on that bus was male except for Camille and I. I have read about men groping women on buses  and was a little concerned. I told Camille to be aware. There was one seat left and I made sure she was on it. I had a really heavy bag or small bag.   Fortunately, there were very nice men on the bus. One man gave up his seat for me, and another one hurled my very heavy large piece of luggage on top of the luggage holder. When we got to the domestic airport, we had another line to go through to check in our bags.  I knew my heavy bag was over the luggage limit . Fortunately they took Camille's bag limit and my bag limit and combined them together and then I was only 5  he lives over and it was a little under $30. That was way better than the Emirates over baggage fee which was $175, which I did not have to pay. 

 We were met by Natalie  and a driver.   Natalie is a college student from  CAL state San Lou Obisbo  who is originally from Park City Utah. She came to Rising Star Outreach sia high school student and then again as a college student and was working as the out reach  coordinator  for the summer,  an unpaid position that includes room and board. She just had to pay for her airfare.   She was wearing an Indian outfit,  a long tunic with pants, which we are all required to wear every day because we are going into villages and we want to respect their sense of modesty.   The men all wear western outfits here and the women  in the villages we are traditional Indian clothing- sarees. The trip back to the Rising Star Outreach center was over an hour into a rural area.  After driving on the freeway, on the opposite side of the road as the United States, with people not paying attention to the road line markers and everyone was passing everyone with a ton of motorcycles everywhere carrying  loads of people and things.  The driver honked his horn a ton  to show everyone that he was coming through. You honk if you pass someone.   I was sure glad I was not driving. I did not feel unsafe, but there were a bunch of near misses, that had nothing to do with our driver.   The traffic going the other way was stop and go because there was a large Hindu religious festival all week in Chennai. It took them several hours to get to the airport to pick us up because of the traffic.   We stopped off at an ATM to get money out of the bank, I got about $100 worth of Indian rupees which hopefully will last for what we need.   Then we traveled on smaller and smaller roads until the road could barely fit two cars and then we traveled on a bumpy dirt road to get to Rising Star Outreach, a boarding school and offices to help people with leprocy. We were met at the guard security gate and let into the property. It was an extensive piece of property in this very rural area that had  a number of buildings on it. We were led to the building that the volunteers used to be able to stay at, but because of changes in Indian law we could no longer sleep there.

The only foreigner who could sleep in the campus dorms  was the dance instructor, Susan, a college student who is on a work visa through another organization, Promethian Spark.  She was getting her dance club kids ready to go to a festival in  New Delhi that the sponsoring organization was paying for. These kids would fly there. 

 Camille and I were led to the former volunteer dorms that were now our daybeds.  We  rested in a little bit before lunch.  We ate lunch with the 320 school children on the floor, in a covered cafeteria, eating rice and curry with our hands like they were.  

Camille and I were summoned by some five-year-olds to come sit with them. They wanted to play and singing songs. They were really cute. We found out that these kids live here most of the year and they are able to see their families once a month if they are able to visit. Most of the children are children of leprosy patients and grew up in a leprocy colony. A few of them come from the local villages and go home every day. They want the local villagers to associate with the kids of leprosy patients so that they know that they can interact safely.  

After lunch, Natalie showed us around the campus – the classrooms, the computer room, library, medical clinic, a chapel dedicated  to The founders granddaughter who died of cancer, and we looked inside the dormitories.  Inside the medical clinic there was a boy that was sitting on one of the beds and he had just had a hole in his heart repaired, paid for by rising star out reach. All of the medical needs of these children are paid for by rising star outreach.  In the classroom, The boys and the girls are kept on different sides of the cafeteria, and different sides of the classroom. Arranged marriages are usually what  happens in  the villages  in India. . 

 The school goes to 12th grade, but a regular high school is India is to 10th grad11th and 12th grade are like junior college. And they specialize in different areas. The first class that started from the beginning recently graduated   And up for 12 kids that went through the whole program, five are now in medical school. For kids of leprosy patience, this is an amazing feat to bring them out of poverty through educating their children. 

 After lunch in our tour, we had a little bit of time to rest and relax. Then the other two ladies that are in our group, Heather and Shanta came back from working in the leprosy colony that morning. He told us that they help to relieve pain by doing oil Robbins, and saying with  with people to help lift them up and to show them that they are valued people.   Later that evening Shanta told us that she had had experience with people with leprosy before and she had a big part of her heart for people with leprosy. That was part of her incentive and volunteering here. Both Shanta and Heather had both worked in Africa   Before.

Lepracy colonies

Grad class of 12 5 are in medical school

Ate rice with curry with our hands like all the kids. Wash their clothes and dishes themselves. Medical treatment one kid had a hole in his heart repaired. 

Sang songs with girls.