india. jai ho.

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