Rising Star Day 12-15

 Hi!

I have been terrible at blogging lately and so first of all I would like to apologize. Second of all I would like to explain myself. You see, as much as I hate to say it, my time here at Rising Star is coming to a close. Therefore, every night has been fun filled and there has been no time for blogging. So I will sum up the past few days as best I can:

On Friday we served in the colonies again. They rotate colonies every day so every colony gets visited every two weeks. This time I did the washing. It was a really small colony so I didn't do much but I really enjoy doing the washing. After their wound is unwrapped, they put their feet in this antiseptic water to soak the wound. That's what I do. Then we put these cute little blue booties on their feet and send them on down the line. There was this one man that made my day. He was crazy and so funny. He kept dancing and singing and everyone was loving it. Since the colony was so small and we weren't working there very long, we stayed and played some games with them and then...we had a dance party. I played Jenga with this one lady who is a Jenga master. Holy cow. She took out like three at a time. 

This is the funny guy.

Jenga Master. 

After the colony we went to this Catholic temple. There aren't a ton of people in India that believe in Christ, but there definitely are some and they have a few temples. It's interesting to see the Indian influence in the Catholic and Christian religions. We talked up basically The Great Wall to get to the temple and throughout the trek up the stairs there were statues telling about the life of Jesus while this creepy chant was playing. It was an experience. 

On Saturday we went back to Mammallapuram and spent our time at Ideal Beach. It's like a resort and we swam and went to the beach (the Bay of Bengal) and...we built a SANDCASTLE. Also some of you have asked if I've eaten anything weird. Well, I can finally say YES. I had squid. Friend squid. It wasn't terrible, but the texture was terrible and under no circumstances would I have tried that in America. All for you, India. 

Squid.

On Sunday we went to church again in Chennai and it was testimony meeting. It was way cool because a lot of the older boys from Rising Star who are LDS bore their testimony. Sunday was a good day. 

This is our awesome crazy rickshaw driver. Next time we come to India we're going to his house for dinner...

And today, Monday we switched up the groups so I was on medical again! We went to a bigger colony and there were 5 of us and we were so busy the whole time. So busy. But it was awesome. I'm used to helping like 3 people but today we helped like 30 people. This time I did oiling. So after the washing they came to me and it's kinda like pampering so I just put oil on their feet and rub it around and then I clipped their toenails. Today I saw some intense wounds but it this miraculous thing because it doesn't even phase me. It is pretty nasty sometimes but it's no big deal. It's a blessing for sure. One thing that's hard to see is the people in pain. But pain is actually a good thing because it means they still have feeling and their nerves work. Many of them have lost that in their limbs. 

We also went and saw another temple that was in the process of being built and it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I don't know why I thought it was so cool but there was this giant shrine of one of the Hindu Gods and up close it just looked so cool. 

Now some funny things:

I love UKG play time. It's play time with the Kindergartners. It's probably one of my most favorite things about the school. That age is just so cute. At first it was hard because they barely speak English but they are just so cute and we love singing this baby shark song with them (It may or may not be my new favorite song...). 

These older boys at Rising Star were pointing at me during play time and whispering. The kids do this a lot because they like to talk about the volunteers but they were saying that I'm rich because my hair looks like Rapunzel. Uhh....... 
It was way funny but pretty sure that means I need a hair cut. 

Also I love to tease the older girls about having boyfriends. I don't know if that's ok because the culture is really reserved as I've mentioned before, but it is so funny because they freak out. And they love it. I know they secretly do. It's like their my little sisters. 

And how could I forget?! We saw MONKEYS!!! I will take them home. 

OK THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. BYE BYE.