April 11-12, 2015 ( India to Home)

It was our last day with Rising Star and it was also our last day in Chennai before flying home. Today was mostly a driving day.

We left Rising Star at 9:00 a.m. and started making our way to the temple that was a hour + drive away. That temple was a Hindu temple and the best part about it was that it had an elephant. This elephant had a shaved body and paint on his forehead. This elephant also seemed pretty young. If you gave this elephant money, such as a coin or a bill it would touch your forehead, which is a blessing and then give the money to the priest. After the temple Mom, Saychelle, Bryan, Ashley, Erica, and I all walked around town. I didn't get any thing but other people got ice cream. I was hot and sweaty and when I got back into the van Katie and Josh were in there without air conditioning for 5 mins! We were all hot! 

I hopped in the back on the bench with Jeremy and Josh. Jeremy and  we played on my phone then Katie joined in too until we got to the mall which was a couple hours away. At the mall in Chennai we ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I was ready for some non Indian food. After lunch I walked around with Josh and before leaving I got a chocolate hazelnut Pinkberry. 

Rising Star dropped us off at the Courtyard Marriott, same with Van Sootens and we had to leave Ashley, Bryan, and Saychelle, the ones with Rising Star. I hope I will see them again. 

Rising Star was a nice experience. It was different than the other service projects I have done. It was different in how you weren't working with the students every day, you are doing different things, like medical work or construction. You still have the option to be with the kids every day, but you don't have to. I chose to be with them every day. I liked playing basketball with the students during playtime. One of the students,Basha who I visited at storytime, has his birthday one day apart from me. He is May 15th, and I am May 16th. I will think about Basha on my birthday.  

At the Courtyard I took a nap around 2 hours then ate dinner. After dinner with the Van Sootens I watched part of X-men with Katie, Jeremy, and Josh then we had to say goodbye because we were driving to the airport. The Van Sootens were really fun and I liked being with them. 

We left the Courtyard and Mom and I got driven to the International Airport in Chennai. We flew an airline named Lufthansa, It is a German airline, which meant we were flying to Germany. We had a 9 1/2 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I liked Germany right away when I entered the terminal because of it’s quietness. cleanliness and it’s style. We had a couple hour layover there before we caught our flight to Denver, CO. During that time we ate lunch and did some Blog. On the plane I sat next to 2 young adults from San Diego, CA and I would be sitting next to them for around 10 hours. It was a fairly easy flight but there was turbulence that scared me.

When we in Denver, AMERICA we only had less than an hour to get to our gate. But before we got to our gate we had to get off the plane, walk through customs, recheck our bags, walk through security and walk to our gate, Z 71 which was one of the farthest gates. Every thing was going well until security's scanner showed something was wrong with our boarding pass. So then we had to run upstairs to the United desk where they printed us new boarding passes. We then ran back downstairs to security and luckily it worked. Through security we didn't walk, we ran all the way to our gate which was basically the last one so we didn't miss our flight! We made it!

We took around a 45 min flight to SLC, UT, USA! Walking out of the United terminal we were welcomed by Dad, Kendall, Anne, August, and Leisl and Kendall Simmons and my sister's friend Avery and her fiancé! And they had signs with Mom and my name on them! That was so nice. I was glad to be home.

April 10, 2015 (Rising Star Day 5, India)

Mom woke me up just at the start of morning orientation so I had little time to get out of bed. It was our last full day at Rising Star and the second to last full day on our whole Asia Pacific Trip!

Today we toured around a Leper Colony. We didn't do any service that day but we did support a cause by Mom buying paintings from the leprosy affected artist's gallery. Our guide was an Indian fellow named Vincent, he gave us a lot of facts about the colony. One thing I did at the colony was I messed with a dog by faking to pick up a rock, and when he saw that  he ran which scared everybody. On our tour we stopped by a woman’s house who had goats. I was able to hold 2 goats, one of which was 4 days old! Baby goats are mainly more chill then the elder ones. One of the last things we saw was the Leprosy paintings. These paintings were painted by leprosy affected artists and they tend to have a style of using dots in their art work. We saw one man at the front of the building who was a painter. That was the man who painted my dad's painting around 7 years ago.

On the way back to Rising Star we stopped by a temple up on the mountain top. The temple was closed so we just walked around the outside of the temple.

I was at the Elephant House for a little before tuk tuking to the junction. I tuk tuked to the junction with Josh and Bryan on a hunt for a lungie. A lungie is a piece of fabric sewn in a circle to be like a man skirt. I bought 2, 1 for Dad and 1 for me.

Back at Rising Star we had our last play time. Adavende showed me these seeds. I wasn't sure what to do but they told me to stick it in my mouth then take it out. A few moments later it exploded open! We tried doing it to Mom. She didn't know what to do either but then once moistened a couple times it burst by her mouth! To finish the play time off I played some knockout basketball with the students and volunteers.

We had our last dinner in the Mango Room since we didn't have as many people. After dinner in the Mango Room we walked over to the students' dining hall for the students' talent show. The talents the students performed were skits, songs, and dancing. During the talent show I gave Basha my email. After the talent show Basha gave me a necklace that had a dragon in it. After most or all the kids left we walked over to story time. I told Basha and another boy about my travels then I had to say goodbye for a while. My eyes got watery when about to leave Basha because we had connected and become friends. 

April 9, 2015 (Rising Star Day 4, India)

Our service of the day was medical. Before our medical work we got dressed and ate breakfast. We had a drive that was about an hour to a leprosy colony. I was the same job as last time, water manager, but this time I had another person working with me, Katie. Though, this time was busier. Instead of being inside like last time, medical was outside, with a breeze too. The trees that the medical people were working under was a Tamarind tree and had unready fruit, but we still ate it.

On the way back Jeremy, Bryan, Josh, Aunt Sandy, Stu, and I talked about food, mainly American food.

When we got back I broke into Mom's backpack and consumed 2 sandwiches in the Mango room. Later that day I walked with Mom over to the handicraft fair. Saychelle and the girls from school were the ones who were running it. I got a camera holder made out of fabric, and I also got a star made out of a straws. Mom bought other things too. After being at the Handicraft fair I played pig, I won 2 out of 3 of the full games we played.

That evening we ate dinner at the green house then visited the boys hostel before bed. I visited the boys room who I usually visited, the one with Basha and Madiven. Basha is the one boy who I talk to most. He is 14, talkative and friendly, generous and nice.