Wordless Wednesday

Eagle scout project 1

Vinnarasan

Elumalai

Mageshwari

X. Michael

Karthik

Mariyadoss

Sebastin

We recently benefitted from two eagle scout projects. Two friends from Arizona, Taylor and Max, each visited Rising Star with their families a few weeks ago. Taylor delivered school supplies and Max delivered books.  Taylor brought us a large quantity of colored pencils, glue, scissors, stickers, and sharpeners. Enough for the whole school!

Here's third standard A making good use of it all.

Quotes

My pictures aren't uploading, so we'll do quotes instead.



"Ma'am, you will be here when I am in 10th standard?"
Balakumar, 6th standard
(Heartrending)


"Ma'am, when are you leaving? I know! In 2016, correct?"
Nagaraj, 7th standard
(A group of short-term volunteers was leaving, which makes kids a little insecure about when others may be taking off as well).


"Are the Japans bad boys, ma'am?"
Revathi, 4th standard
(4th standard had read about Amelia Earhart, and I showed them a short documentary on her life, from YouTube, which unfortunately confused everyone by offering the alternate theory that she was actually alive but had been captured by the Japanese).


"But I thought your initials were C.M.! Celina Ma'am!"
Nishanti, 4th standard


"Ma'am, take out your eyes!"
Everyone
(The kids find contact lenses the most fascinating things in the world. They think you are removing part of your eyeball).


"My dad drink alcohol and my dad beat my mom."
M. Vishva, 4th standard, followed by Moorty and Revathi making the same claim
(We were having a class discussion about alcoholism, but I wasn't expecting testimonials).


"Ma'am, have you been to Antarctica?'
S. Vishva, third standard
(I was explaining that I was going to Europe for Christmas and pointing to the map. To them, traveling to one is as likely as traveling to the other.)


"Ma'am, have you been to the moon?"
Subasri, fourth standard
(going to America=going to the moon)
 

Wordless Wednesday (Berlyn, this is for you! Don't miss us too much!)

Siblings Varalakshmi and Veera

Sponsor a Rising Star child

Click http://risingstar.donorshops.com/products/sponsorachild.php to see pictures of children who are in need of sponsors.

Sponsors pay $30 a month. The money goes towards a child's food, uniform, shoes, books, and other school supplies. Your sponsored child will write letters to you about four times a year, and can recieve email printouts from you at any time.


Children are just about delirious with joy if their sponsor is able to come and visit them in India. Here is Anitha with her sponsor, Sandra Rigby.

Happy Independence Day!

Kanmani

Oh dear, Kanmani's little note in the last entry seems more dramatic than it really is. Worried people are now emailing me. I should have explained. He did not actually run away. He left school during the last period, which is math homework time. Our 200 children all do their math homework at school. Only little Kanmani can't manage it. I spent an hour searching for him, only to find him happily playing in the mango grove behind the school.

He's a Dennis the Menace figure, not meaning harm, but unable to avoid it. At every turn. Whether it's bringing a dead fish to class, chewing on safety pins, or swearing the American dollars I find in his pocket were lying "in the grass." But he's also Robin Hood, always sharing the proceeds of his plundered goods. Even I've benefitted a time or two.

(Not quite) Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

I couldn't limit it to one picture this time:

This woman is a construction worker who came into school for water.

Maimonisha and Anitha

This year's new 10th standard, just five girls: Karpagavalli, Logeshwari, Soniya, Manodaya, and Megala.

When the kids go marching in

Our students have been marching...and marching...and marching. What appears perfectly synchronized and rhythmic to me is to the PE teacher an undisciplined tangle of misguided steps and arms swung amiss.

We are preparing for August 15th, India's celebrated Independence Day. And this is how the kids spent last Saturday. They do this for hours on end, to the beat of a big drum.

And the man of the hour, "PT sir" himself. At least half of our kids aspire to be him when they grow up. How he is able to control the entire student body with a mere twitch of his mustache, I will never know. He is the only adult on campus whom all the students adore and for whom they behave as angels.