I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.

-Mother Teresa

My time at Rising Star has ended and I don’t even know where to begin for this last post. Sitting in the Chicago airport is almost surreal. 5 flights down and only one more to go. I've been working on this post for the past week on and off as me and three other volunteers completed our extra touring in India, but everytime I sit down to write I become absolutely overwhelmed. Even though I am heading home it still feels like I'm leaving another home behind.

How do you summarize 4 weeks that have changed your life for good? How do you explain the feelings and the sounds and the beauty of such a magical place full of incredible, strong people. I hope that my blog has helped you to feel as though you were there with me the whole way, a part of the journey, but at the same time there is absolutely no way to get the entire impact through using simply words. It is colors and feelings and sounds and smells that you don't ever fully understand until you have experienced them and I am so grateful for even having the opportunity to experience them for these 4 short weeks.

It's hard to imagine that girl who left the U.S. just four short weeks ago. I'm obviously the same Kenzie but so many things have changed and happened that I hope will help me to be a better person in the future and for the rest of my life. I have been changed for good, and I hope to be able to keep my experiences close to me and always keep their impact in the back of my mind.

I have sung and danced with people who live with a crippling disease and became blind to the differences. I have washed the feet of people shunned from their own communities and sometimes even families. I have carried bowls and bowls of rocks on my head in order to create a place where marriages can be performed that otherwise would not be possible. I have hugged and read to children who will change the future of an entire country.

I have visited huge forts and palaces. I have visited dirty homes surrounded by trash but filled with the most amazing people I have ever met. I have seen corruption, I have seen beauty. I have cried and I have laughed to many times to count.

I have walked through crowded cities full of people and down quiet empty dirt pathways underneath shining stars. I have learned to love without judging, and how to put others before myself. I have learned the importance of family and work and friendships. I have learned that it isn’t all about me, and no matter how much I try to help other people they always end up teaching and helping me more then I could have ever imagined.

I still can't tell you why certain people are given certain trials, or why some people are born into hardship they did not ask for, however, I can tell you that all of the people I met with hardships were some of the strongest most loving people I've ever met. Sometimes I wonder if the best people are put in hard situations. I wonder if I would be strong enough to handle being shunned or deformed, I am bessed to have grown up in a happy home in a beautiful country, but I wonder how I would be different if I had not.

It's impossible to say "alright okay well thats all the end." because that is the last thing I want to say. The experiences and feelings I've recorded here are simply the beginning. the beginning of a way of life. A life full of service, a lifetime of learning about myself. It is true that you find yourself through losing youself.

So please consider this blog anything but finished, I hope to update it someday soon with new experiences and moments whether they be across the world or across the street!

It's official India has stolen my heart;

and I wouldn't have it any other way.

with great love,

Kenzie

RSO summer 2010

"Change the World"

session 4

"Crossing borders to break down gaps"

Rising Star has been such an amazing experience, and I promise I'm in the process of getting my final two posts done about my last day and my feelings about the trip as a whole. They will be up soon; it's just very hard to put into words, and I really want to get it right.

However, this post I think is slightly different then anything so far, and kind of a funny one if I may say so myself.

While we were in New Delhi, we all noticed something interesting. Everywhere we went people would simply stare. It's kind of awkward because even if you look back at them, it doesn't faze anyone. I think it's just different then in America. Not only do we get stared at but people are constantly pulling out camera phones and taking pictures. Although as a group of 17 girls and 1 boy, we were a pretty entertaining bunch in New Delhi, we're like the entertainment. So, for your enjoyment and just to give you a taste, I have a few pictures that I've taken all over of the crowds that gather. I'm not going to lie, it's almost like having our own paparazzi (although I'm not really sure what they do with the pictures they take, and not to mention I'm probably talking or blinking in most of them:))

This first picture is from our point of view. That's our tour guide taking a group picture (the guy in the black shirt) of us in front of the Taj. Please note the crowd gathered and the guy on the far right with his camera out.

Another group watching Chelsea get her picture taken.

The group that followed us all through Agra fort.

Another picture from our point of view -- yupp that camera is pointed at us too.

and a few more

It's hard to tell but these guys were watching us get our elephant rides. They were calling up friends that came on their motorcycles. The crowd just kept growing!

And last but not least at the hotel pool!

But hey, who can blame them when this is our mode of transportation:

"Nothing screams tourist like a big orange bus with 'tourist' written across the front!"

And you may be thinking, "Kenzie, how did you entertain yourself in the back of the bus on the 6-hour bus ride to the hotel while everyone else was exhausted and staring out the windows like zombies?"

Funny you should ask, let me show you:

the front of the bus

the middle of the bus

the back of the bus

Yes, yes that is me with my face pressed up against the glass, slightly embarrassing, but definitely worth watching the expressions of the people staring change from  blank, almost angry-looking stares, to looks of pure shock once they spotted me at the back as we zoomed by.

Once the other volunteers rejoined the living and realized what had been going on, they all joined in and laughed so hard at the reactions and laughs we got. I will miss all of the people here; we have so much fun together just being ridiculous.

(and thank you to Jenny for having us recreate this moment in pictures for the full effect after hearing how I had entertained myself)

with great love,

Kenzie