Diwali

Happy Diwali! Yesterday, was such a fun day. The kids had no school, so they were super excited. Instead of school, we had them do an art project for their sponsors (they decorated paper picture frames) and after a crazy rainstorm in the afternoon we had fireworks in the evening. They got all dressed up in their nicest clothes and we had a wonderful day!

Some of the girls working on their picture frames.

Bugi, one of the girls in life dance troupe, worked so hard on her picture frames and they were so cute!

Since the girls were getting dressed up in their best clothes, they of course had beautiful jewelry, which includes these adorable bangles. Its so cute because they jingle when they walk.

Don't they look adorable.
Most of the children at Rising Star live on campus in the hostel. They live in "families" and have house mothers who watch over and care for them. This is a group of the girls with their house mother. There are four girls houses and four boys houses.
In the evening, some of the volunteers went over to the hostels and the housemothers dressed in saris. (so complicated! I don't know how they get dressed in those by themselves). Here's a picture of me dressed in my sari and looking goofy with a few of the girls.
So after getting all dressed up, we went out in front of the hostel, and the male staff members and volunteers set off fireworks. Diwali is the festival of lights, and traditionally people go around to their neighbors sharing sweets ands setting off fireworks, so even though the children were at school and away from their families, it was nice that they were able to participate in some of their normal traditions.

Some of the boys enjoying the fireworks.

This is my new buddy Steven.
After the fireworks, all the kids got sparklers to play with.
Melissa, Holly, Anne and I all got dressed up in saris.
Lyndsey opted out of the sari, but she's still beautiful and she's a wonderful volunteer coordinator.
Sharmila is the best. She coordinates the mobile medical clinic and she is the most beautiful woman and she has the most sincere beautiful spirit.
At the end we got a bunch of the staff together to take a picture. One of the RSO boys took the picture, and unfortunately he thought we wanted lots of black space in our picture. Oh well. Its still nice to have the memory.
Happy Diwali!!