Woo Hoo...New discovery

First off, just to let everyone know. I am in Idaho now. It was nice to see those i saw in California and sad to not see some of you either. Hopefully I will be able to see you on my next visit.

Now this is just a quick post, but the other day I went to meet a friend in Idaho Falls(30 min S.W.) at a coffeehouse(coco for me :) ). When I walked in I fell in love. It had a classic look to it with nice wooden floors, small tables scattered strategically around, large comfy couches, and my Favorite personal touch....Books. I don't know why I love books so much, but i do. Maybe it was my parents having a library themselves in our home instead of TV. I just know i feel home when there are books. But back on topic. It was great. To those who might be reading this and are in Idaho, here is the information for it:

The Villa Coffeehouse
344 Park Ave
Idaho Falls, ID 83402


iI know, i should of taken photos, but i didn't have my Camera. It was nice to just find a simple place to relax and talk. So....Just letting you know my new discovery. :)

Transfer from India to Thailand

India was  truly amazing and will always keep a spot in my heart.

Now I am in Chaing Mai, Thailand visiting my Family. Thailand is a lot of fun. Amanda and I have decided it is a combination of Hawaii and India. It is extremely beautiful and the people are nice. 

So in the last 5 day Unc(my mothers uncle cleve, and i call him unc) and his family have taken us to the following places.

Monkey kingdom

OUR INTERNET CONNECTION IS TO SLOW TO UPLOAD MORE PICTURES, SO I WILL UPLOAD THEM WHEN WE HAVE BETTER CONNECTION.

Bug kingdom

Elephant Camp

Snake kingdom

Tiger Kingdom

Kareoke 

And of course AMAZING Thai food

Good bye RSO

So even though this post is about 14 hours late, i am still going to write it as if it was Friday night, cause that is when i started this post

My time has come to an end here at RSO. :(

Tonight while saying goodbye to the boys i could not hold it together. I had tears streaming down my face. The boys kept telling me to not cry, cause I will see them again. It was very sweet. I was suppose to be out of there at 9pm, didn't leave the Hostel(where to boys sleep) till 10pm. A piece of my heart will be left behind. But my mind and heart has grown so much.

A saying i have started saying to explain the way Indians live their life in comparison to us in America is that we try to MAKE the most of our time, and the Indians try to GET the most from their time. I feel i have adapted that into my life, but we will see how far that goes before I start making the most of my time. It will be interesting.

I am now planning on coming back next year and staying for at least one year, if they have a position for me on the staff here. It would be so cool, cause then i can get to know the staff at the school and their families as well, also see the kids grow and go through a whole year of school. Meet some of their families and get to know them better. Each one has such a unique story that i could take years to learn them all.

So, a question many people have asked me, is "What's in store now?" and the answer to that. I am planning on finishing my associates in April of 2012, and then return to India for a prolonged period of time. Then who knows. I know i am not sure. But i will see what life has in plan for me then.

But for the next 2 weeks, i get to travel with my totally awesome sister Amanda. We are in Delhi, India for 2 days. Then we are making our way to Thailand to see our Uncle. Well, will update ya when i have Internet access again. See you all in a couple weeks.

Thanks again to all those who helped make this experience with Rising Star Outreach happen. I will be having a Fireside/lunch-in kind of a thing when I return. So i will let you all know and hopefully you can attend. But take care and feel free to ask questions. I would love to answer any questions you have.

Where does the time go?

Can you believe it has been 2 months since i left America?  I know i cant. I also cant believe it has been 10 days since my last post. There are not enough hours in the day. So, what has been going on with me? A lot. Like I said in my last post, I am a coordinator.  I have been helping lead this session of 37 volunteers through their 2 weeks of service here in India. It is a lot of work. This is my daily schedule

800: coordinator meeting

830: Morning Conclave

850: assemble the tutors for that day and head to campus

900: give instructions to tutors(every day we rotate, so things are always changing)

915-1205: tutoring/observing

1205-1240: lunch

1240-1400: more tutoring/observing

1400-1545: this is suppose to be free time, but i usually have work to do in here

1545: cut fruit for dinner w/ tutors

1600-1700: Track duty (watch the children who misbehaved run laps)

1700-1815: Work with teacher/staff on english(oncw in a while it is free time)

1815-1930: dinner

1930-2100: family time

2100-0800: free time( but then amanda has the computer, so no blogging)

and it starts all over again. I have been able to go with medical every third day though. Its creepy but awesome all at the same time. Yeaterday we went to a colony called Vangalor(i think). I was helping wrap the patients ulcers. Then i swapped positions with another volunteer and the nurse, Navoomani, told me to sit in her seat. THe women here are very stubborn, when they tell you to do something. It is difficult to say differently. So i took her seat (which i right in front of the feet with ulcers) and she hands me the scissors.

She wants me to cut off the flesh that needs to be cut. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH. That was scary. Luckily one fo the guys i had to take care of was chatting with another patient and was laughing the whole time. It was still weird.

Tutoring though is going good. Difficult sometimes cause there is a lot of room for improvement, but we cant progress since the "official" principal is not here in India and wants it her way. So we do it as close to her way as possible, but sometimes still have to switch stuff on my own. Like 2 crazy kids trying to read Hansel and Gretel with 1 tutor. HA HA i dont think so. That went out of control in about .2 seconds. Other than that the tutoring is going good.

So a sweet story to tell, then i must go.

The other night the boys in my family discovered I was leving Saturday Morning for good and this is how the conversation went. Imagine 9 boys from age 9-14 years old and also i had brought over a whip, just to show them how to crack it.

Me: Yes i am leaving on saturday

boy 1: ok, I will hide in your suitcase

Boy 2: i will come too and keep you company

boy 3: i am coming

Me: ok, lets go see if you will fit

Boy 4: Wait, we can not fit all in the suitcase

Boy 2: oh...well...I know. We will sneak to Chennai(where i am flying out of) and kick the airplane so it can not leave

all the boys: yeah yeah, that is a great idea( as they practice there kicking moves in the air)

Me: but i think the plane might do more damage to you then you would to the plane.

Boy 6: Yep, planes are very strong and we are still young.

Boy 7: Ok, then we will steel your whip, and not to hard. We will whip the pilot and climb into the pilot seat, and fly the plane here to RSO campus

Can i just say i love these boys. Ok. I will wright at least 1 more befor i leave campus on Saturday morning here (friday night in america)

Lets Try Something New

Ok, We all know that I do not have the best memory. But this was worst than before. I haven't written in here in a long time. Sorry. So instead of trying to play catch up, I am starting today and going forward.

Hi, My name is Lex and I am the Educator Coordinator for the Next 2 weeks.

Yep, you read that right, I got promoted from volunteer to coordinator. This entails I organize the volunteers into tutoring schedule for the students who need a little bit of extra help. I am excited to be back with the school as well as being able to go with Sarah and Patrick to medical whenever they go.

OH YEAH, SARAH AND PATRICK ARE HERE. So stocked. I am super excited they are here.

So to get an idea of what I got to do last week, and what is in store for the next two weeks. Click on this link and watch it. The music is great as well, so if you can, turn those speakers on.

http://gallery.me.com/risingstaroutreach#100404

Well. I am off to a coordinator meeting. I will do better with my blogging.

Oh, before i go. A quick story. So I finally went to medical last week on thursday. It was SUper. As much as i know i don't want to go into anything medical now. It was still great. There was this tiny old women who was the sweetest thing ever. The sad part was that her feet and hands were almost not there at all with the effects of leprosy. She couldn't walk without her special shoes, so instead of putting the shoes back on in between each station, i carried her. She had the biggest smile on her face, and just was amazing. She had the sweetest spirit with her.

So now i am off to the meeting. Please watch the video, it is amazing.

I'M NORMAL!!!!!

I am now a "NORMAL VOLUNTEER". This is a high and a low. A high because now i get to interact with the other volunteers that i live with. A low because I love working with the teachers and the school so much.

So some of you may be asking....a normal volunteer, what does that mean. Well first off, I'm still my weird goofy self(that will never change) but i am now apart of group #3 and we get to rotate through the different jobs that need to get done. There are 3 categories of jobs. #1 is Construction; #2 is Education; and #3 is medical.

I have done the first 2 already. With construction we moved about 300 cinder blocks, 500 bricks, and 80 pans of rocks. and these are all low estimates. I didn't mind it as much, the hardest part was the brick dust that got in your eyes, nose, and mouth every time the wind blew. The people in the colony though were happy to see us and always waved at me when i waved at them. Come on, who doesnt like to wae at a giant white guy(thats me).

Next with Education, That was today. We stayed in the library and had a student every 20 minutes come in. It was hard with reading, since I am not really trained in tutoring for reading and not that good at it myself. But when it came to math...OH BOY i was excited. I love math(at least the stuff i know). I got to teach the finger trick for anything from 1 to 10 for the 9 table.

Well, other than that, not much is different. Oh i was playing a game with the kids called Go-Go(AKA: tag on crack) and kicked a stick. I am ok. just got a small spot on my massive foot. Dr. Susan(on campus doctor) got it cleaned up and bandage on it and i got my tetnis shot.

Well, off to dinner i go. Love you all.

Tomorrow i will put pictures of me doing construction and medical. WOO HOO

Not sure what to call this post.

Hi everyone.
How are you? Hope the Answer is good. So today is Friday and it is now 5 pm here in India, So 430 am in California.

So I know I have nor written all week and i am sorry. I have been busy working all week with the school getting ready for the transfer from one principal to another. It takes some hard work to make that happen smoothly. I hope it all works out on monday. The acting Principal up to today was totally amazing. She postponed her own trip to thailand so she could help the school more. The official Principal is working on her VISA in the states and having a difficult time at it. Now we have a coordinator from the volunteer group stepping up to the plate. i know she will do amazing, but it is always difficult to go after a school year starts and then change the principal 4 weeks into the year. Oh well. worse things have happened.

So if you follow my blog i stated in my last one that i would be becoming an official "normal volunteer" last monday...... that did not happen. April asked if i could stay on the final week and the coordinators left the decision up to me. I chose to stay with april for the week. SO... now i think i will be a "normal volunteer" on this monday coming up, but as i have stated before. I will wait till it happens.

OK, Becky Douglas the founder of Rising Star Outreach came here this week. And oh what a wonderful women she is. So sweet, full of love, and has a strong will to do what she puts her heart into. She was here one week(shortest trip she has ever taken) but those 5 days and seeing her work and also hearing her story was just amazing. So she is also leaving today.

Then today the Courtyard Marriott Hotel came to the school and did a little carnival for the kids, with a magician, face painting, Ballon shapes(swords and non swords was the menu) and of course music. The kids loved every moment of it. The Marriott also provided lunch for the kids, which was awesome. It was a lot of fun, but of course there was one down side. My camera had a dead battery :( i wish i had pictures.

Ok the best part of this week though was the after the festival the male teachers were all sitting together and they invited me to sit with them. There we sat, talked, and laughed for about 45 minutes. It was like i was one of them. Then afterwards, We went and played cricket. Thats right. I now know how to play cricket. i am still getting use to it, but it is fun though. It was awesome to feel like someone that belongs here. Not just another volunteer, but as their friend. One of the teachers is getting married at the end of august and invited me to his wedding. Even though i would love to go, i will be back in the states and i have to wait 2 months after leaving India before returning. (India's rules) Another teacher invited me to a festival in his village. I hope i can go, he is getting the exact dates and i will check with the coordinators to see.

Well. I have lots more to do today here in India, so ta ta for now.