Day 6

I spent most of the day with the school kids. They need quite a bit of tutoring, especially in English. There are a lot of issues regarding the school- I had no idea before I came. For example, when parents enroll their children, they only tell the school their age (not their grade level) which creates quite a disparity of education in each grade and makes it hard to teach. It is practically unheard of in India to hold someone back a grade. There are about 20 of the 160 students that don't live at the school but in the nearby village. Their parents aren't affected by leprosy so they just walk to school each day. It is really important to have good relations with the village to keep the school running but many of the village children are the biggest trouble makers. Also, the leprosy-affected parents will sometimes try to pull their children out of school so they can take them begging, or fulfill an arranged marriage (at age 13!) and Rising Star fights hard to keep them in school. I admire the sweet American woman who has taken on the job of vice-principal and is doing everything she can to improve the school.

On a brighter note, by the time these children graduate and are proficient in English, they will have so many opportunities. One of the most prestigious positions in India is customer service. As you may know, many companies outsource their customer service to India. To give you some perspective, most doctors in India earn around 500 Rupees/month (or $125) while the customer service workers earn 1400 Rupees/month ($350). Quite a jump in pay scale. What is even better is that the Marriott is a great supporter of Rising Star and has agreed to employ the graduates. This means these children of leprosy afflicted parents who otherwise may have been beggars will become India's elite. Wow!

It was fun to get to know some of the students. You wouldn't believe some of their names. We actually have a Joseph Stalin and a Karl Marx attending the school. Joseph has a brother named John Kennedy, but he unfortunately got kicked out for bad behavior.

Tonight, I stayed late to help a girl in ninth grade (or standard nine as they say here) with her math homework. I don't know how many years it has been since I have done quadratic equations but I sure needed some review. Once I remembered enough to be able to help her, we had a great time.

Love these kids!