attack of the children...AAHHHH

So, getting you all up to date has been a challenge for me, with finding time and all that. But today is the day. you will all be caught up. YAY.

(this is Stephen, we are buddies)

So it is now Thursday June 2nd, 2011 at 3pm. today was not a good day for me because i have been having bad stomache cramps all day and a really bad headache. not a good combo. luckily most of the volunteers this session are nurses or pre-med students, so i have been taken care of. Its nothing to be alarmed about, so please dont be alarmesd. the only bad part is that they had me stay in the room and rest today. so no playing and eating lunch with the kids. :( sad day. 

But yesterday Wednesday, was a good day. I finally got all the teacher's inventory done the right way. Substituted for the last time 6th Standard Science, and delivered mail and messages to the teachers. I know this doesn't sound as grand as going out to the Leprosy Colonies and helping them, but this is important as well. The leprosy-afflicted individuals have their children going to school here at RSO. And this work needs to get done. Everyone on campus has been working 110%, So i am very happy that i can get in there and help out the teachers and the students get what they need. Here are some pictures of Wednesday.

Walking into campus and seeing Amanda (my sister):

These pictures are from lunch time.

Then later that night we DeLiced(shampoo) and DeWormed(a pill they took) the children, i was there taking pictures of the event.

This is Cartic(standing up). He studies Government off campus, but lives here.

Her are the girls getting their hair shampooed

These are the little boys in my Family. Yes, They sleep on a mat on the floor. Its pretty comfortable. Better than sleeping in dirt.

these girls were giggling when i took their picture. 

not sure his name, but he is a rock star with his hairdoo

Stephen and I

i cant remeber his name, it starts with a V.

i think his name is Ashcoft, not sure. But has a great smile

Stephen

Kala, She is the House Mom of my Family.

 

Rising Star. The Beginning of the Best Summer...EVER

Hello everyone,

So here I am. In the volunteer Hostel at Rising Star Outreach Campus. I am staying in the Banana Room. Check it out:

My bed is the one in the bottom right corner.

And then the rest of the room. 

But the best part of our Hostel is the showers....

Thats right, Indian Bucket Showers. fill the big bucket up, and use a little one to get the water all over.

But if that isnt good enough for you...just wait for the toilets. This is why you do squats when you work out. to prep for the "Rocket Launcher"

3....2....1....and SQUAT. HAHA

OK....now after giving you the grand tour of the bathroom and bedroom, we do still have the luxuries of a kitchen. 

TADA....we now have 3 fridges, microwave, toaster, stove, table, 2 cleaning faucets, 1 drinking faucet, a washer, and a dryer. woo hoo.. the high life. lol. but seriously. its awesome. 

I have gotten some comments about what I have been doing here in India. So here is the dirt. The first day of school was monday. The Principal is in America dealing with Visa problems, and not all teachers were here on monday. So the school was understaffed. Since Monday to today, I have been the assistant to the temporary principal. Thank you Sgt Parker Davis from ANA, for training me to be a good assistant and the bookstore at ANA for dealing with crowds and hot tiny work places. LOL. So here is the Breakdown for what i did each day so far.

Monday

AprilMam (for people in authority they say there name and then mam or sir at the end of it. But i am just uncle to the kids) had me do supplies checkout and inventory for each teacher and each class. It was very confusing because no one really knew what we had, what they were called and the teachers knew what they wanted, and what they called it. So after about 10 minutes of working in an area of no organization and no prep, i got the hang of it and got things moving along. 

After supply checkout and inventory, AprilMam had me substitute a class...(YIKES...i can barely get people my age to listen to me....how am i going to get a bunch of 6th standard children too...) So what do i do? Play Hangman with the words being diferent animals. The students know english pretty well. But have problems with their A's N's M's L's and some others. They say yAy, yeN, yeM, and yeLl. so we worked on that.

After the class, it was lunch. i went and ate with the children and had a great time...can i just say forks are overrated. it is so much easier to each rice and curry vegetable sauce stuff with your hand.... :D yum yum yum here is a picture of a boy in my family eating, I think his name is Vegnash.

After lunch I went back to doing inventory. I got back to the hostel around 6pm and ate dinner at 630. We ate dinner on the rooftop of the hostel and ate off of Banana Leafs. We do this every night. i love it. And at dinner we go around and everyone says a High and a Low that they had that day.

For me, My High was getting all the teachers the right books and keeping a detailed record. 

My low was realizing i left my other pair of jeans and both shorts at the hotel in Chennai. (dont worry, I am getting them back today)

Then after that it was off to bed.

Tuesday was exactly the same other than the fact that i helped a new teacher (volunteer teacher from Utah, USA) get situated and ready for teaching. the hard thing about tuesday was that teachers wanted more books, or exchanged the ones that they had to different ones. it got really confusing and found out the way i was suppose to record everything was the wrong way. So, yay for restart and learning how to deal with the Language barrier. 

For tuesday, even though i didnt make it to dinner, my highs and lows were:

High: I remembered 6 names in my family.(the families here at RSO(Rising Star Outreach) are groups of kids ranging from 4 years old to 15 i think, might not be exact. For those of you familiar with ANA or military, It is like a company)

Low:I had to redo all the inventory.

ok, i am out of time. Tomorrow, i will catch you up 100% and stay up to date. Sorry for the delay but we just dont have a lot of time to be online. i have many pictures to share with you. So...Talk to you tomorrow. 

Quick catch-up

hello everyone, sorry for the day delay.

Yesterday was a very long day. Lets see, Where did i leave off? Oh yes

After Amanda and I woke up, we went to T-Naguy(not sure if it is spelt right) to look at the shops. There were so many

 shops and so many people. It was awesome. Not to many photo ops that day but i will take a photo of the street before we leave Chennai 

area. 

After T-Naguy street, AManda and I took a Tuk-Tuk from T-Naguy street to our hotel, got over priced on the ride but oh well. 

Later we went to the 2nd longest beach in the world, Marina Beach. It was so cool there, it seems like they have a festival every  night there. Homemade rides for the kids, and when i say homemade, i mean homemade. Like metal circles, held off the ground, with those plastic cars for kids you would get at Walmart back in the States. I think i got a picture here somewhere. 

 Merry-Go-Round meets the Swings ride. And yes the guy in the middle is turning a hand crank to make it work. no gym needed for this guy. Here are some other photos for Marina Beach

look at all the trash, i am very greatfull that that our beaches in the states are so clean. But this is still a beautiful picture, Amanda is in it. 

So after Marina Beach we went to a temple. I want to say it is for Vishnu, but i cant remember, it is the Hindu God that has a Elephant Face. Not sure what his name is. But here are some pictures from it.

yes, thats right. We are barefoot. you arent even aloud to bring shoes on the premises, we had to leave them in the car. huh, maybe i should become Hindu for the barefootness. just kidding. 

That was all we did on Saturday.

Then Sunday we met up with Rising Star Outreach and headed off to the school. We went to church on the way and it was sweet. There was a Baptism and there was only like 30 people there if that. very small and met in the basement of a building. I will get a picture next time i am there.

But after church and driving a long ways we made it to Rising Star campus. I am short on time so Tomorrow i will post more pictures and let you know more of what we are doing. 

LAX to HONG KONG/HONG KONG to CHENNAI.....a long flight

Hello out there. Hope everyone is doing good. My sister Amanda and I have made it to Chennai, India. We got in Saturday May 28th @ 130am. We went through Customs, got out bags, walked out into the waiting area and it was WARM....at 2 in the morning :(. lol well, I'm not going to let that get me down. We got outside and a driver from the Marriot was waiting for us with our names on a piece of paper...i felt legit. :) 

So to do a quick recap, Amanda and I left LAX around 1pm thursday May 26th, 

flew west to Hong kong and landed there around 6pm Friday May 27th. 

We had a 4 hour layover so... what do we do? EAT EAT... and EAT some more :D

Then we flew from Hong Kong to Chennai India and landed in India at 130 in the morning...ouch those were long flights. We made it though and are excited to explore.

Now speaking of exploring, the sounds of cars honking outside the hotel are making want to be out there. So i shall write tonight and tell you all about the day's adventures. till then

PEACE

So what is Leprosy??

Leprosy (Hansen's disease)

Last Reviewed: November 2006

• "Leprosy" is also available in Portable Document Format (PDF, 12KB, 1pg.)
• Versión en español

What is leprosy?

Leprosy is a chronic bacterial disease of the skin and nerves in the hands and feet and, in some cases, the lining of the nose. Leprosy is a rare disease in the United States.

Who gets leprosy?

Anyone can get leprosy, but children seem to be more susceptible than adults.

How is leprosy spread?

It is not clear how the leprosy germ is spread, but household and prolonged close contact is important. The germs probably enter the body through the nose and possibly through broken skin. The germs get in the air through nasal discharge of untreated lepromatous patients.

What are the symptoms of leprosy?

Tuberculoid leprosy symptoms are a few well-defined skin lesions that are numb. Lepromatous leprosy symptoms are a chronically stuffy nose and many skin lesions and nodules on both sides of the body.

How soon after exposure do symptoms appear?

It usually takes about four years for tuberculoid leprosy symptoms to appear and about eight years for lepromatous leprosy symptoms to appear.

When and for how long is a person able to spread leprosy?

In most cases, a person will not infect others after about three months of starting treatment.

What is the treatment for leprosy?

Patients with leprosy should be treated by a doctor who has experience with the disease. Treatment is with multiple drugs for six months to two years.

How can leprosy be prevented?

The best way to prevent the spread of leprosy is the early diagnosis and treatment of people who are infected. For household contacts, immediate and annual examinations are recommended for at least five years after last contact with a person who is infectious.

Help raise a star in India

Hi there,

Lex Cowan here, working hard as usual. Hope this letter finds you well. I have been in Idaho since 2008 working on my Bachelors degree in Therapeutic Recreation. This degree will prepare me to work with individuals with “special needs” and that is the reason I am sending you this letter.

As you may know, I have a passion to help others as well as travel. Wouldn’t it be amazing to do both? Well I have that opportunity knocking at my door. I have the opportunity to travel to the east coast of India and work through an organization called Rising Star Outreach. You may have heard me talk about this, but just in case, here some information for you about the amazing work they do and the difference they are making in India.

Leprosy in India is considered a curse. Those who contract the disease are outcast from society and are often consigned to remote leprosy colonies where they have no choice but to beg for their survival. Rising Star Outreach helps these families by educating their children, offering medical treatment, and, using micro-credit; giving parents a way to go from begging on the streets to becoming self-sufficient. Can you think of any better way to spend your summer? I can’t! My sister and I will be traveling to India this summer to volunteer with Rising Star Outreach.

I’m writing to invite you to join me this summer as my stateside partner in my efforts to help families affected by leprosy. Each volunteer is expected to raise funds to help pay for the programs and initiatives of Rising Star like the children’s school, medical clinic, and colony support projects. A small part of that money also covers the cost of my stay. Please join me in making this happen! I know that many of you will feel similarly inspired by the work of Rising Star Outreach. Rising Star requires that I include at least twenty-five other people in my commitment to serve with the idea that everyone involved will share in the blessings of my service.

By contributing $50 or more, you will become a Volunteer Partner. I hope, while I’m in India, you will follow my blog at lexcana08.blogspot.com(this site) and keep up to date on the work I’ll be doing. As my stateside partner, you will be helping to facilitate that work.

I will be leaving for India on May 25^th and have been asked to have my money in to Rising Star by May 20th. If you would like to partner with me on this project, you can sponsor by:

CHECK - Leave a comment asking for the form and i will email it to you

OR

CREDIT CARD - go to www.risingstaroutreach.org/volunteerpartners and follow the directions.

I hope you’ll be able to join me as a partner in this adventure! It will be an honor to have you along for the ride.

Together, we can bring hope to people in need.

Thank you,

Alexander (Lex) J Cowan

Lexc.ana@gmail.com

(760)559-1131

"lets get together and be alright"

Hey everyone, sorry for the inconsistent updates, i am now going to try again to make it a habit, each saturday i am going to update this blog. so wish me luck, lol.

So what is new with me?

Well, I am currently in California working as a auto mechanic and specialist at Marina(dad's company) saving up to go to INDIA. yeah, you heard me. I'm going to be going to INDIA at the end of May. I'm working with an organization called Rising Star Outreach (click for more info).

My sister and I are searching for State-side sponsors to help us help more children in India. Read my Blog titled "Help raise a star in India" to hear more information on what is going to be going on there and if you would like to become a State-Side Sponsor, click HERE or read for more information on the other blog post.

Other than that, life has been pretty simple. well, till next saturday.

Adios(bye)