"STOP MONKEYS!!"

As any parent can tell you, being with kids 24/7 makes everyday a little adventure. Kids really do say and do the darndest things (that Bill Cosby always gets it right). Living at RSO with 160 children ranging in age from 4 to 16 has brought all kinds of hilarious moments that add an extra shimmer to what could have been called a regular old day. Here are just a few recent stories about being with the RSO kiddos:

• Everyday from 4:30 - 6:00 is playtime for the kids. They are free to run around outside, play on the playground, play soccer...basically do whatever they please that doesn't involve major injury or harm to another human being. A few days ago I went over to playtime just to say hi and hang out with the kids (my intentions were to maybe sit with one of the quieter girls and just have a little chat). As soon as I got there, though, two of my favorite little boys from 1st standard, Christraj and Veeran, ran over and started climbing all over me. As I always do when the kids start climbing on me, I started referring to the boys as monkeys (monkey #1 and monkey #2 respectively). Karthik (another 1st standard boy) saw how much fun it is to climb all over Kenady ma'am and started joining in--I now had three monkeys hanging off my neck and breaking my back. Being the idiot that I am, my way of getting the boys to stop climbing on me was to be extremely dramatic, break-out the excited hands, and yell "STOP MONKEYS!!" The boys thought this was absolutely hilarious and copied me hands and all, "STOP MONKEYS!!" Now, in a testament to my background in performing, I realized I had a very captive audience--something that may be good to capitalize on. And in a testament to my idiocy, I wanted to see how far I could take this whole monkey-thing. I bowed to the boys and said "Thank you monkeys, " in my best wise sensei voice--they copied me exactly. Now came the ultimate test.....I ran away. And, lo and behold, my instincts were right--they ran right after me. I repeated the "stop and thank you monkeys" dialogue with the boys copying after each--they were loving this. By this point we had two more monkeys join the crew, Karthik Raja (a boy from second standard) and Archana (a first standard girl). Again, after I said "thank you monkeys" I bolted, this time clear across the playground. I later had another volunteer tell me that it was the funniest thing she had seen all week--seeing me running full-tilt across the playground with five kids running behind me. We continued on with the monkey game for the rest of playtime. We crept around the playground, hid behind trees, pretended to be dead monkeys...basically anything that popped into my head. What made it all better, though, was that the kids were laughing and playing and loving every minute of it. They all had their monkey numbers memorized (halfway through the game I stopped referring to them by their name, only by their monkey number) and were sad when the bell rang to signal that playtime was over for the day. I bowed and said good-bye to my monkeys before I headed off to dinner--just another afternoon with the kids at RSO.

At playtime with Veeran and Archana--two of the monkey children. (Archana's face kills me in this picture btw).

• Everyday between 7:30 and 9:30pm is deemed family time with the kids. This is the kid's time before bed to finish homework, read books, and just generally get ready for bed. I try to stop in at all the houses during this time and say goodnight to everyone but I usually stay a little longer at Jayanthi's house--this was my designated house last summer and it holds a special place in my heart. Most of the girls from this house remembered my good night ritual from last year (kissing my hand then touching their head and then doing the 'I love you' hand signal) so I have continued it on this year...as well as adding to it. There is something about being in a foreign country that lowers your inhibitions because I do things here in India that I don't do in the States....like sing in public. I am by no means a singer....not even a little bit. So, the fact that the minute I go into Jayanthi's house now and she immediately starts telling the girls, "Ok, lay down! Kenady is going to sing with you now!"shows that crazy stuff happens when you're in India. Naturally, the first song I taught them as the new in-house singer was "Baby" by Justin Bieber. They had actually heard this song on the radio and requested to learn it....so I obliged. Now, every night they request to sing the baby song. I contest that there is nothing better in the world than singing Justin Bieber with 30 little indian girls--it's the ultimate girl's night. Video of this is coming soon.

Just one more story for the road...

• As previously mentioned, I like to stop by all the houses during family time. Last night, after I sang with the girls, I headed over to the boy's hostel to Kala's house. Kala is basically a rockstar who has managed to exert herself as the most respected housemother and teacher at Rising Star while still having an AMAZING sense of humor and immense love for all the kids. Because she is so awesome, and I love the kids in her house, I spend a lot of time there. Last night was particularly great because by the time I got there all the little monkeys (ukg - 3rd standard boys) had gone to sleep. I walked into one of the back rooms where the older boys hang out, to find Kim 2 and Rebecca having all sorts of nonsense fun with the boys...I immediately joined in. We did everything from fake ninja fighting to jumping contests to the macarena...yep, we literally busted out the macarena folks. At one point Deepenraj (an 8th standard boy) pretended to hit Ashok (a 7th standard boy) over the head with a weight (don't ask). Being the crazy kid he is, Ashok proceeded to pretend that he could not remember who he was or why he was at Rising Star--he could have gotten an Oscar for his performance because he WOULD NOT break character. He was roaming around the whole room acting completely lost and confused...it was hilarious. Then he kicked it up a notch and decided that he would pretend to be dead. Again, his performance was Oscar worthy because as much as the other boys tickled and moved him he wouldn't wake-up. Finally, Kala said, "Well, if he is dead then let's go take him to the garbage." The other boys capitalized on this advice and proceeded to pick-up Ashok and carry him to the garbage. You would think that the prospect of being put in a garbage can would be enough to make the kid break character....it was not. Ashok continued to play dead and let the other boys deposit him straight into the garbage can...and he stayed there dead.

 Ashok would not budge....therefore we got plenty of pictures

It wasn't until the other boys had lifted him out of the garbage and started putting him into the large bathroom sink that he finally woke-up and broke character. George Clooney better watch out because Ashok is an up-and-comer for sure.

On the way to the bathroom sink with help from Kim 2...what great role-models we are.

Well, I hope these little anecdotes have brightened your day, entertained you at work, or helped you further procrastinate a research paper/ studying for a test.

More to come soon!

Vanakkam