my little moments

This week has been filled with tiny moments that have reminded me why I absolutely love India so much and most of all the kids here at Rising Star Outreach. It’s always the little things that reassure you the most that you are on the right track. Here are some of my favorite happenings from the week…

1. You may know that my family sponsors the sweetest girl in the world, Maryiambee (maybe I’m a little biased?). She also has a sweet older brother named Basha; who, unfortunately, struggles a lot more than some of the other kids. He has been asking the principal for a math tutor for some time now and she had been looking for someone to help out. I very hesitantly accepted, but since I am the one who has the most flexible schedule it worked best for me. Now, you may know that I am terrible at this voodoo magic that people call math, so I was a little scared that I would mess this kid up more than anything. My first session with him was a little rough, since I agreed to tutor only 20 mins before I needed to be over, so I didn’t have so much time to “mentally prepare” myself. The next day I had this incredible assurance that I could help him out. I started focusing not only on math concepts, but on answering with confidence. He is so hesitant to even say an answer that it’s hard to get anywhere with him. And I think that maybe if I push this enough with him in tutoring that maybe I can help him have more confidence in general, something that he greatly lacks. He is so awesome and has the capability to learn so much. I just hope that I can help Basha see that. We are only a ½ week into tutoring so we’ll see what he and I really can accomplish. Hopefully a lot. Confidence in your answers!

2. For many of the volunteer sessions we have a water fight with the kids. I wasn’t really feeling like getting soaking wet this time so I was mostly hanging to the side, but I did have a battle to pick with one of my boys, C. Vignesh. C. Vignesh is hilarious. He attacked me with a water bottle as I was walking to lunch on Tuesday, and I made a promise to get him back at the water fight. Unfortunately he has tutoring during playtime and LifeDance practice right after. So I waited. Yes, I waited for 2 hours with a bucket of water so that I could drench him. I had to steel his shoes and have another kid hold him down for me, but have no fear, he was properly paid back for drenching me.

3. You may remember Ismail who I dedicated a whole post to. He is a bit of a punk. Sometimes, his way of showing his love for me is by punching me as hard as he can as he walks by. Not necessarily the most loving thing, but trust me, it's his way of showing he cares. But, he truly did prove his love to me tonight when he punched me as hard as he could (he is only 10 so it doesn't actually hurt...usually), and then just stood there and hugged me for about 5 mins. It was awesome. Another volunteer also walked up and said "You love your Dani don't you?" He smiled huge, nodded, punched me, and walked away. Yup, I need no further confirmation. 

4. And my favorite memory for the week, happened one night during family time (my favorite time of the day if you remember my last post). I was snuggled up with one of the kids, Sanjay (also pictured in last week’s post), and he asked me to start singing to him. It was so precious, as I kept singing more of the little boys kept on gathering around me. The best part went a little like this...

Sanjay: Auntie, sing a Christmas song.

Me: Well what Christmas song do you want me to                 sing?

Sanjay: Jungle Bears!

Me: …I’m sorry Sanjay I don’t think I've ever heard the song Jungle Bears.

Sanjay: Ok, it goes like this Jungle Bears, Jungle Bears

Me: Uhh, Sanjay? Do you mean Jingle Bells?

Sanjay: Oh yeah! Could you sing that one?

I died laughing. Maybe someone had taught it to him as Jungle Bears to fit in with India, or maybe he just really misheard that one, but it was hilarious. He also asked me to sing him America songs, songs my mommy say to me when I was his age, and Jesus songs. It was absolutely precious, and knowing that I was lying on the floor, with kids on top of me, with a fan and dust blowing down my throat I probably wasn’t sounding my best. As I got up to leave, Sanjay grabbed my hand pulled me down, gave me a big kiss on the cheek, and whispered “Thank you for singing to me Dani.” I couldn’t of possibly felt any more warm and fuzzy inside as I walked home that night.

I love these kids. I love Rising Star Outreach. I love India.

peace. love. and jungle bears.

p.s. if you are interested in sponsoring a kid from Rising Star, or want to know more about what that entails check out www.risingstaroutreach.org or shoot me an e-mail at danicronquist@yahoo.com or send me a message on facebook!! 

my elephant blessings

You know your week was absolutely incredible when you got blessed by an elephant, and that wasn't even the best part. But, we can get to the best of the best...very last.

So that elephant blessing....

I got my elephant blessing in Pondicherry this weekend and it was pretty awesome. There is just an elephant, a beauty named Lakshmi, hanging out in front of a Hindu temple, you put some rupees or some grass in her trunk, and she gives you a bonk on the head. 

I just think any creature this giant and beautiful is absolutely incredible. Isn't she stunning?

Even though this was awesome, nothing in my week could possible beat hanging out with the kids at the school. I just love them so freaking much. The other volunteers probably actually want to take me down sometimes because all I can possible manage to say when I get back from playing with them/ hanging out with them is, "You guys, I just love them so much!!!" 

Here are some of my sweet darlings...

Above are Sudah and Abiniya. They are both complete goofs and even though their English is still a work in progress we crack each other up. 

To the right is Maryambee, who my family proudly sponsors. She is an absolute joy and I feel blessed to get to spend time with her in person and not just via her sponsor letters.
Over on the left here is Ragavan, one of the newest kids. He was climbing around and motioned for me to take his picture and then let him see. Since he is one of the kindergarten kids his only way to express to me how much he loved the pictures of himself was to say "Yes!" louder and with a bigger smile every time he saw another one. It was insanely precious.

This is Sanjay and Veeran. They are the sweetest! Sanjay is an incredible reader and Veeran is just the happiest little boy you have ever seen. They are both always smiling and cute. Veeran is also particularly fond of taking rides on people shoulders, and once he is up there...good luck getting him off. 

Unfortunately I have no pictures to show of the boys that truly are my sunshine, since they are all in a dance group during play time when I usually take pictures. Every night for what we call "family time," from 7:30 to 8:30, the volunteers are sent to the boys and girls hostels which are divided into families with house mothers running each one. The volunteers in our sessions are assigned a specific house to go to each night, but the long term-ers get to just roam, but I can't help but always go to the same houses. The volunteers are supposed to be helping wind the kids down, reading, helping with homework, etc. As the coordinator in charge of this time each night, you would think that I would be on my best behavior and an excellent example at all times....but that's so hard to do when my boys M. Vignesh and Ismail are chasing me around, and C. Vignesh and I are having a mini water fight, and Joseph and I are having sit-up competitions, and Vimmal is picking me up and singing "Call Me Maybe," and the list just keeps going on. It also doesn't help that as I am trying to make sure that all the volunteers are leaving at 8:30, that by a group effort of the boys, I am often held hostage so that I stay for just a few minutes longer.

Family time is my absolute favorite part of everyday. 

But, the best of the best part of this week that I promised before? I was chatting with Joseph last night and we have officially decided that he is my little brother and I am his big sister. As I was leaving the hostel last night and walking home, he ran out to the balcony and shouted "Dani! Dani! Goodnight big sister!!" 

Maybe the elephant blessing sounds a little cooler to you, but I now have the most incredible little brother in the whole world. I know for a fact, that with a week this incredible, that elephant wasn't the only one blessing me.

peace. love. and blessings.

my friend Ismail

Ismail. I love him, desperately. Up until yesterday, he was being a total punk and would only speak to me in Tamil. But, I didn't care, because it meant that he was talking to me.

Maybe because he saw that I had rekindled my friendship with some of the other boys. Maybe because the weather has gotten cooler. Maybe because he was tired yesterday.

The reason is irrelevant, but he has officially reaffirmed to me that my love is not one sided. After snuggling up to me at lunch to tell me about his day, and then practically falling asleep in my arms last night, and then coming to find me in another hostile so that I could come help him with his homework, I have no doubt that my friend Ismail is one of the coolest, sweetest (sometimes a punk) friends I have ever had.

oh yeah. he's pretty adorable too.

hopefully it wasn't a one day thing. even if it was. it was magical.

my life in India is perfect. I don't ever want to leave.

peace. love. and Ismail