A Giant Emo Chicken

            

The colony we went to today is said to be the poorest one in our circuit. As soon as we pulled up, I could immediately tell a huge difference. The colony was in a narrow fenced in portion surrounded by fields. People sat in the dirt, and stared at us as we pulled up.  We sat in the bus for a minute, and then a few of us ventured into the colony. Many people did not even live in grass huts, but instead had a home that consisted of nothing but a tarp held up by sticks.  This colony was a smaller one, and many of the leprosy afflicted were not there that day. They could not afford to take even one day off from begging/working and so we had about five people to treat.  We wandered from hut to hut, greeting everyone we saw with a bow and the word "Vanakuum." One elderly couple sat in the doorway of their hut. The woman was toothless and wore nothing but brown rags. They had been married for 60 years, and both of them just sat there and smiled at us. She gave me a big hug, and later when we were washing feet she came through the line, and kissed all of our hands.

There was this cute little interpreter who lives at the colony named Mary. She wore a button up shirt, and had this bright, intelligent personality. I immediately noticed something different about Mary. It turns out that she was a Rising Star Outreach student until about three years ago.  She failed her eighth grade exams, and her parents had her married within a year. When I met her she was balancing this beautiful baby boy on her hip, and when we asked we found out that he is her son.  Shawn Perry was her dancing teacher, and he said that even though she claims to be 21 there is no way that she is older than 17.  Mary now lives in the same devastatingly poor colony that she was raised in. Everybody does drugs, and most people drink excessively. It broke my heart to look at her with her perfect English and bright personality. In her face I saw the faces of the children I have come to love in the past couple of weeks. I especially thought of the girls. Unless you come from an upper caste, it is basically impossible to succeed as a woman in India.  Mary started crying when she talked about Rising Star. When children are admitted to the school, a memory book is made for them. This book contains photos of their family, pictures they drew, and messages from volunteers that got to know them. Mary proudly brought out her memory book, and showed us every single page. Once again she was holding back tears. I wanted to put my arms around her, and just bring her back to America. She could live in my apartment, eat my food, and have the opportunity to go back to school. For now though, all we can do is pray for her and offer our help if she asks for it. 

Mary with her beautiful baby.

 Rising Star hires the greatest employee, and our driver for the day is no exception. His name is Anandan and today was his birthday! Happy Birthday my friend! Someone hunted down a piece of chocolate cake, we put together a goody bag, and then the entire bus sang happy birthday. In India it is tradition that the person who is celebrating their birthday give gifts to everyone else. So Anandan made a quick stop and came out with chocolate bars for everybody. What a great guy :)

Anandan likes to stop at cool places on all our drives, and today was no exception. I was deep in thought at the back of the bus when I suddenly began to hear rumors involving a temple and a Giant Emo Chicken. My first thought was that maybe Emo Chickens were an important part of the Hindu religion, and that we must be going to temple with idols of Giant Emo Chickens. My second thought was that that would be ridiculous because I am pretty sure that the word emo has yet to make the trip to Chennai. In retrospect the Giant Chicken idea is a little odd as well, but I promise it kind of made sense at the time. I asked someone about it, and the temple rumor was nullified. (Apparently hinduism does not involve the worship of chickens.) They (Reba..cough cough) were pretty darn confident that the Giant Emo Chicken was a done deal though. I was still puzzling out the concept of a huge chicken with oddly colored feathers and a depressed personality when Anandan pulled up. It was an EMU farm! 

This is the emu lady. She was so sweet, and loved my blonde hair.

This fellow tried to eat me. 

Haha apparently the United States is not the only country that does not have emo chickens in our encyclopedia of feathered friends. We got out and took pictures of the emus. They were a little vicious, and a flock of them kept making a strange sound in their throat that sounded suspiciously like war drums. Maybe I am just paranoid though. :) Thanks Anandan for our wonderful visit with the Emo Chickens. I will never forget it :)

Anandan (Driver) and Kiran (volunteer)

Velu and Seankar

All of our drivers are very protective of the volunteers. They make sure that you do not get ripped off at stores or chased by creepy men. In my case Anandan walked next to me for 2 minutes and in that time he saved me from an angry emu who could apparently fit his head through the fence, and he stopped me from stepping on an wayward machete. These men treat the female volunteers like their own daughters, and I know that we are always in good hands when we are with them.

As we drove home that day, we talked a lot about Mary and the difficulties that the Rising Star children face even after graduation. I started thinking about the magnitude of the problems that India has, and I tried to puzzle out where you should start to fix them. Is it better to create more jobs? Improve the education system? Promote human rights? There is so so so many social problems in India, and they all just seemed overwhelmingly huge. I voiced my thoughts to my fellow volunteers. “Where do we start with a country like India? How do we even begin to create a lasting difference?” Sean Perry answered very simply with, “We start right here.”

I love you all so much! I hope that you make today a great day. In the words of my fabulous Auntie Deborah, “Enjoy the Moment”

I love you!!!!!

Peace---Becca

Benson "The Hairy One"

Ebinezar, my little reading buddy, giving me henna

I love these two!

Kala, my amazing House Mother