Auntie!!

"Auntie, auntie, auntie" is my favorite thing in the world to hear. Auntie is what the children call all of us. Which is just so adorable, and I've wanted to be an Aunt for like ever. And was always jealous when the poly kids would call people auntie. But now its my turn. I now probably respond to Auntie just as fast- if not faster than my name. Which many of them also know because of Soniya. They say "you martha?" and after I say yes they say "you Soniya's sponsor?" and once again I say yes...and Love it!
(also side note-sorry in advance if I repeat myself, I tend to do that a lot, and with blogging everyday its bound to happen a few times).
But (the story above) happens everyday. And I just love it. I wish everyone could come meet the child they sponsor. I mean obviously they really care about the child if they are sponsoring him/ her. But it just a deeper level for me now. I need to see her be successful in school, to get that education that will in turn get her an amazing job. Also Jenny (who is a session director- who has been here all summer) and a group of us were talking about the children's futures. Since they are the children of leprosy patience many many people will not hire them. However rising star has already established several connections, that have promised to hire the children from rising star if they get good grades. Jenny also explained how amazing this is. These jobs are with company's like dell, and other people who have outsourced to India. So with these jobs the children would be making WAY more than the doctors or teachers in India. So these are very coveted and high ranked jobs.
So when you call a help line several years from now and get someone from India, just remember before yelling at them that they might be a child from rising star!! One of my children from Rising Star. So just don't do it. I'm sure they are trying to communicate the best they can with you, and you will eventually work out the problem.

Anyways back to me being in India. :) haha
Today I was in the group to do Construction. Jenny explained to us on the trip there that us doing the construction is much less of a money saver, than it is just the importance of having these leprosy patience see that us (as the highest class, as white people) want to come and work for them. As they are below the untouchables in India's unofficial caste system. Just to have someone not walk to the other side of the street is a blessing to them. It was so wonderful seeing all their smiles, even if some of them were because they were laughing at all of us weak girls. One lady pointed to my RED face and then to the sun, and said "very hot" I smiled and said "just a little." We worked really fast, or maybe just Jenny says that to everyone. However I got very tired very quickly. Which made me disappointed in myself. But we did finish, which is good.
Well wow I have so much more to tell you about today. It was basically a super epic good day.
We do highs and lows every night at dinner, and everyone struggled finding lows. Which is great!
Okay so I will now more quickly tell you about everything else.
Today the children had a special dance recital. Katie who is another one of the session directors she has also been here all summer. Has been teaching the children dances. And so today they performed and I cried. I felt like the proudest parent in the world. They just had these amazing smiles smeared across their faces the entire time. And Katie had them dancing to Micheal Jackson, and just all these adorable moves. At one point she had the little boys doing sit-ups to the song "We will Rock You!" It was THE most adorable thing I have ever seen. I seriously had tears in my eyes the entire time. Not really sure how Man In The Mirror becomes emotional. But I think its when there are 12 little kids all dancing there hearts out, and then a room full of people (none of which are their parents) but all love them so so very much.
Anyways I have no good pictures from that- but there are many blurry ones on facebook for you to look at.
Then it started to Pour, and it rained for like an hour and a half straight. So we cancelled talent classes, and we all had to walk back to the volunteer house in the rain. And since we were already soaked, and we have something similar to a swimming pool in the middle of our house. We did the most logical thing, and had a dance party. We learned a dance to Jai Ho, and we jumped in all the puddles, and just lived up the fact that we were in India, dancing in the rain. Then Sisi and Katie had a slow motion dancing contest and it was Amazing. haha Loved every minute of today.
We also had a delicious dinner.
Then of course we got to spend some more time in our Families tonight. Not sure if I already explained our families. But basically three of us have been assigned a "house". My house has boys that are pretty young most being in 3rd standard. One in 5th and one in 8th. (Oh by the way standard is just like grades). But they are all just so cute. And the one boy in 8th standard did three dance numbers today, and was SO good. anyways I'm about to fall sleep...so sorry if this last bit doesn't make any sense. Here are some pictures to make up for it.

Meet Soniya!
Isn't her smile beautiful?!



Also just another cutie, he hung on me the entire play time yesterday. Just love him to pieces!



This is during my reading tutoring- he was just soo cute that I couldn't resist taking away from his valuable learning time to have a mini photo shoot. haha I mean really look at him!



Also sorry this is so much longer than I planned. I will write less tomorrow- promise!

xoxo Martha