en kappal muzhuvadhum meengal

So I was looking up a phrase foe the day for my blog and I found a site with a whole bunch.  The last helpful Tamil phrase was en kappal muzhuvadhum meengal... meaning... my hovercraft is full of eels...

Now that we have that settled, here are some pics from the week. 

Ebenezer

Basha

Hari-  he is using his markers as a cane.  This is him pretending to be an old man.

Some ducks...

A sick child sleeping in the principles office. 

Diagrams from some students.

Cricket practice.  They have a big game with the Marriott staff coming up so they are in training!

Naveenraj bowling

M. Vijay going home from school.

Saree

Apparently I cant get the a right in saree because the kids always correct me.  Today was kinda lame but good at the same time.  We were all going to a wedding of one of the House Mothers here at Rising Star.  I  unfortunately was up all night with the flu.  So I pretty much look like death in these pictures but I couldn't not get dressed up with everyone.  I had gotten my saree and I wanted to wear it even if I couldn't make it to the party.  

Julie and I 

Berlyn looking hot!

Dane and Carl

Carl and Miranda.  I think they look like brother and sister in this shot.

Dani-  finally got her saree back from the tailor about 10 min prior to this.  Almost had to go in nothing!

Miranda sitting side saddle on the Elephant House elephant.

Julie looking like a model.  So pretty!

Berlyn chose such a great saree!

Carl and Lola... yes again she is in her startled position.  This picture make me laugh every time I see it.

So when everyone went to the wedding I stayed behind.  I was going to help with life dance but because there was no school there wasn't Life Dance.  So I took some pics of the kids.

Durga Devi (Anu) -  She needs sponsors if anyone is interested!!!

Sudha

They love it when I wiggle Rudy on their faces.

This is Joseph.  He was playing cricket with the other boys.  He is so graceful even when he is catching a ball.  He's in Life Dance and is such a talented dancer.

This is M. Vijay.  I never know what he does with his glasses.

There are these red flowers on these trees that the kids love to eat.  Here he is throwing the volleyball up there to see if he can knock one down.

He got bored of that so his brother Ronjith came over and they were hitting the ball back and forth.  Madhavan joined it too.

On my way back I walked with the kids on trash pick up duty.  Hari is in the blue and he loves to perform for the camera.

The sky here is so crazy.  The clouds never move and the sunset is always amazing. 

Nangu

Happy Fourth of July!!! 

 We got to celebrate a little earlier than the rest of America but celebrate we did!  It was so cute, the school staff had told the kids that the American volunteers were celebrating their Independence Day.  All day long we were wished a happy Independence Day from the kids and staff members.  They even helped us throw a dinner party that night.  They prepared as American of food as they could including chicken nuggets (curried fried chicked, actually really good), french fries and the rest was Indian.  We added Hot Dogs, Pringles, chips and salsa, corn on the cob, soda floats (rootbeer is not to be found) and ice cream bars.  We also put our dinner in the star store and 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls were able to come and celebrate with us. We had a big speaker and played music, ate and there was even a food fight with ice cream and butter.  

We have to have decorations for a party!  So we made signs and posted them everywhere.

You have to have fireworks on the 4th!  So Miranda drew some and stuck them to the palm leaves so they would be "bursting in air"

We used sidewalk chalk (Go Danielle)

We even used some quick dry henna to stamp our feet with Made in USA or Made in America

Food was done!

I cooked the corn with my mixture of milk and a little sugar.  This was my favorite part of the meal.

Here we all are

YAmy, Miranda and Danielle

Ragu and Vimal

Nagalekshmi, Megala and G. Devi

G. Devi's plate of goodies

Vimal went up for thirds, his favorite part was the french fries.

Deepenraj with a coke float.  Oh and Berlyn creepin'

Julie was our barista.

G. Devi and Amy

Carl and Vimal

Joseph... he started it!

They ended it....

Nangu means four.

Pombu

Today we went into Chennai for three things 

1. Snake (Pombu) Park

2. Shopping for Sarees 

3. Sparky's Diner

First we got the worst over with and that was the snake park.  Dr. Susan said we should go there to see it so we did.  We paid 10 rupees to get in and we were immediatly met with some poisonous snakes of India.  It was freaky when you would be looking at one and then there would be another that you never saw start to move in a tree.  I know that I have been walking around more than just the one I have seen...  scary thoughts.

At the snake park  they have other things like crocs and lizards and some turtles.  The best part of the visit was the turtles.  Not only were they super cute and totally not poisonous but there was one that was trying to crawl up this brick.  We all started cheering it on because he was trying so hard.  Every time he slipped we got louder.  We were growing quite a crowd.  The little guy we called Buddy was straining his poor little neck and trying so hard to get closer to us.  I won't tell you what happens because Julie has it on video and you have to see this little guy work so hard.

Click here for video

At 11 Am they do a snake demonstration and the last snake they bring out and basically anger for about 10 min is the king cobra.  For many reasons I had to zoom on this picture so its not really clear.  And lets just make this known -  I HATE SNAKES  -  They freak me out and now I am scared all over again of India because I don't want to die by snake bite.  Oh please don't let me die by snake bite....

So after the park we went to check the next item off our list.  We are going to an Indian wedding for one of the House Mothers this next week in Walajabad and we needed some sarees to wear.  So we went to T Negar to go shopping.  We first went to this really nice shop that for me was a little too over whelming and basically i had no idea what I was doing and there was no one willing to help the lost little white girl.  So we went to another shop that was swarmed with people and when we walked in there was floor to ceiling stacks of sarees and there were more floors going up.  We had hit the mother load.  The only problem is now we had too many choices. So we went row to row and ended at the raw silk section.  Julie and i got ours there and I got another one.  I will show you then later when I go and get the tops made.  So you get the saree fabric and with it somes additional fabrick to have the shirt part made out of matching material.  So we have to go to the jumction to the tailor to have it made for us in the next week. 

After the sarees we went to the center of the street to wait for Anandan our driver.  While I waited I froggered myself across the other half of the street and got this sugarcane drink with limes. It was good but I needed a lot more lime in it for my taste. 

Then we were off to Sparky's Diner for some American food.  The promise of Mexican food and the glorious nachos could almost be tasted on the drive over.  When we finally got there our hopes were dashed.  DASHED!  Sparky's was closed.  CLOSED!  But no fear! Anandan to the rescue, he talked to a guy on the street and around the corner was another place that surved burgers and pizza and some mexican food. This place was awesome!!!!

For some reason we started talking about vampires... I really don't remember why.  So Anan decided to show us what vampires look like with straws.  It cam included with a song and dance.

Linner was awesome because I had a grilled chicken burrito with black beans and salsa!  It was AMAZING.  Almost as amazing as the sizzling chocolate fudge brownie we had for a snack earlier that morning.  Along with my burrito I had a vegetarian egg roll and a lime drink.

On the way home it started to rain.  Here is the ride home from my window seat...

Notice here it says "Don drink and Drive"  So if your name is Don...  drink and drive.  The next one says Safety First Speed Next.  They have other ones that are awesome like - Use Your Head, Wear A Helmet- Drinking Kills Driving Skills- Use Helmet, Avoid Death

Here is a lady on a bike with socks on her arms.  It doesn't look like socks... but they were.

I tried the whole way back to get a good shot of lightening and failed.  ipods aren't the best for that so I'll try again later.

In case you didn't know INDIA IS AWESOME!!!!!!