In India if you have leprosy you are considered less than the dogs because you are cursed from God. These leprosy affected people are forced to live in colonies where they can't receive help and their kids have no way to progress because nobody wants to educate or hire somebody that comes from a leprosy colony. Rising Star Outreach is an organization that provides care for these people that have leprosy and teaches their children English in this school that the kids live at. I went to India this summer with this amazing organization and had such wonderful experience learning a lot and growing from the examples of these sweet people. jai ho.
There are somewhere around 100 kids I think at the Rising Star school. Every afternoon we played with the kids on the playground until we were completely exhausted and dripping with sweat. Since there are so many kids I would be doing the same thing for a very long time. Like for instance, I pushed girls on swings straight for at least an hour and a half. Here I was giving piggy backs for a serious chunk of time.
We had the opportunity to go up to Delhi one weekend and ride an elephant, see a HUGE Indian wedding, shop, see the spice market, and see the Taj Mahal. So sweet.
Archana and I working in the school library. Some days you went to the colonies and helped with the medical team and other days you spent the morning tutoring the kids.
Here I am with the nicest man at a leprosy colony called Moot. We just looked at stickers together not really talking. It was amazing to see how we could communicate without having to talk to each other.
When we went with the medical team our job was to rinse the feet of the people so they could get new bandages from one of the nurses.
Every night we ate dinner on the roof of the school and saw the most beautiful sunsets and lightning storms from up there. I'm not even a huge fan of Indian food but I managed and the cook actually made some yummy stuff. My favorite were these little crisp chip-like bread things.
Rising Star also does micro-financing and gets people going with businesses. They have an art school where people who have leprosy can express themselves through art and then actually sell their paintings for a lot of money. I bought this one from this lady that honestly was probably 4'8'' no lie.
just one of the wonders of the world. nbd.
We went to this cool temple festival thing one night in the village that's nearby where we stayed and got this henna done.
Making some sand cakes one afternoon.
Every night I went to a "family" where I read to them and helped them with homework. Every night as I left all the boys would say, "Love you Auntie Sarah!" It was so sweet to see the immense amount of love they had.
They dedicated the school and dining hall while I was there and had a huge festivity. It was such a big time ordeal that we all put on saris. I felt very pretty in mine except that I could barely walk. After that I had so much more respect for some of the construction ladies that full on built buildings in saris just like these.
Leprosy kills the ends of your nerves which can be seen by this beautiful lady.
This man was blind but because of Rising Star he was able to have surgery and regain his sight. When he was trying to tell me his story he just kept crying and saying, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
I learned so much from my time in India. A few of the things I learned:
1-We have so much to be thankful for
2-Kindness can go a long way
3-Sometimes it's hard but it's important to do what's right
4-There's a never bad time to let somebody know you love them
5-Gratitude is huge
i was born in new york city.
There are somewhere around 100 kids I think at the Rising Star school. Every afternoon we played with the kids on the playground until we were completely exhausted and dripping with sweat. Since there are so many kids I would be doing the same thing for a very long time. Like for instance, I pushed girls on swings straight for at least an hour and a half. Here I was giving piggy backs for a serious chunk of time.
We had the opportunity to go up to Delhi one weekend and ride an elephant, see a HUGE Indian wedding, shop, see the spice market, and see the Taj Mahal. So sweet.
Archana and I working in the school library. Some days you went to the colonies and helped with the medical team and other days you spent the morning tutoring the kids.
Here I am with the nicest man at a leprosy colony called Moot. We just looked at stickers together not really talking. It was amazing to see how we could communicate without having to talk to each other.
When we went with the medical team our job was to rinse the feet of the people so they could get new bandages from one of the nurses.
Every night we ate dinner on the roof of the school and saw the most beautiful sunsets and lightning storms from up there. I'm not even a huge fan of Indian food but I managed and the cook actually made some yummy stuff. My favorite were these little crisp chip-like bread things.
Rising Star also does micro-financing and gets people going with businesses. They have an art school where people who have leprosy can express themselves through art and then actually sell their paintings for a lot of money. I bought this one from this lady that honestly was probably 4'8'' no lie.
just one of the wonders of the world. nbd.
We went to this cool temple festival thing one night in the village that's nearby where we stayed and got this henna done.
Making some sand cakes one afternoon.
Every night I went to a "family" where I read to them and helped them with homework. Every night as I left all the boys would say, "Love you Auntie Sarah!" It was so sweet to see the immense amount of love they had.
They dedicated the school and dining hall while I was there and had a huge festivity. It was such a big time ordeal that we all put on saris. I felt very pretty in mine except that I could barely walk. After that I had so much more respect for some of the construction ladies that full on built buildings in saris just like these.
Leprosy kills the ends of your nerves which can be seen by this beautiful lady.
This man was blind but because of Rising Star he was able to have surgery and regain his sight. When he was trying to tell me his story he just kept crying and saying, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
We had a Lange family tradition/favorite LEMONADE CAKE which was made with love by Rachel. It was super good.
Mandy and Brittney at the ice cream eating festivity. If you feel like you are in the room with them it's because I got a new camera which I love because it takes bomb photographs.
Kelli's family even came into town from Vegas so we got to spend some time with Adam her broski.
Cute candles.
We also went up to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. We didn't see any shows but we mostly walked down Main Street and embraced the ambiance there. We did get some free hot chocolate too so that's always good.
Just the crew waiting for the shuttle. It was freeeeeezing but still super cool and fun.
We also went to Joe Vera's for dinner. Apparently this is an Edwards family tradition and everybody goes all the time with my grandparents so I'm a little confused on why I had never been there before but it was good. Kelli also wore a sombrero for some of the time which is always fun but when we started singing Happy Birthday nobody joined in or even gave us a pitty clap so that was a little weird but whatever.
I was supposed to put the dash between the B and the day so it said B-day but I didn't understand what Rachel wanted so it just says Happy B'day haha
Rach had the great idea to decorate the family room to surprise Kelli when she got back from school on Friday. It was fun to put up streamers and stuff. Oh and you KNOW we are gonna keep them up for at least another week. Party all week baby.
Running with all my homies during track season. We had a lot of fun with my flip video this season .
Angela is one of my teammates from South Africa and her mom works at a school there so during this track season we become buddies with some of those kids and wrote back and forth. I also taught the whole team how to knit and we knit about 70 scarves for the kids which they LOVED.
My mom ran for her second term in the House. I was her campaign manager again....we won. woo hoo.
Took Sally the Suburban up to Northern California for our friend Jenna's wedding. Slept about 8 hours in three days.
Went to India with Rising Star Outreach and worked with the leprosy affected and helped in schools where their children stayed. Loved it. I really want to go back.
Passed off #72 on my life goals sheet and rode an elephant in India.
A lot of the kids had hard names to remember like Bala Kumar, Nanda, etc. but the little boy in red's name is Ebenezer. That alone made him one of my favorites.
Lived with Rachel and Maddie during the summer in cs#304
North Carolina trip with the family which included eating kettle potato chips which I am now obsessed with.
Another life goal achieved with riding on a segway and yes that is a wild horse behind us.
Silly bands were huge at my family reunion up in McCall. My cousin Sunny had 60 on one arm. I don't think she totally understood the concept of trading bands but mostly taking others that she thought were pretty.
The whole family with our matching moose shirts up in heaven aka McCall, Idaho this summer.
The Fall was the last time we all got together before everybody started embarking on their new lives.
Cross country in the Fall with the best trip being Notre Dame with the beauty of Fall in full bloom around us.
Winter with the family especially my sweet nieces.