For the Love: Curry Up for Lunch!

Lunch time at Rising Star Outreach (www.risingstaroutreach.org) is one of the best parts of my day, because most days I go and eat lunch with the kids. My job here keeps me on campus most of the day instead of in the colonies, which is a bummer I don't get out to the colonies as much as I'd like, but it does give me the chance to see the kids a TON! At lunch in the dining hall, it makes me feel like the most popular kid around because there is always an invite from 1 - 200 children to come sit and eat with them. The little kids are fun to sit next to, but since the really young ones don't speak much english yet, the meal time conversations consist of "what is your name?"... "what is my name"... then lots of smiles and watching them eat. Sometimes this is fun just because the little ones are soooo cute! And watching them eat all Indian style with their right hand and no utencils is adorable. But today I sat with two boys, Praveen and Sanjay. They are both a little older, probably about 8 years old. They were so entertaining! I think they are by far my best lunch buddies. They talked to me the whole lunch and were just cracking me up the entire time. They told me their nick names for eachother (well, they didn't tell me one of them because it's a bad word in Tamil I guess). Praveen even wanted to know how everyone in my family spelled thier names. When he got to spelling out the "Domm" part, it went like this "D - O - yem - yem". If you've been out here to rising star or anywhere in Tamil Nadu, you have already heard the "yem" sound when someone here tries to say "M". After sitting with Praveen and Sanjay I got hugs all around from the rest of the kids, and walked with Priya back to school. I don't know how I am ever going to leave this place! I am just going to have to hire some little kids at home to hug me every hour.