We recently had the opportunity to spend a week with a family from India and would like to share their wonderful story with you. 

 At Idex, 2008, we were approached by a gentleman requesting that we give his wife, Sarita, a sculpting class, as she wanted desperately to learn to make the babies that she was seeing at this show.  We were very hesitant as there was a language barrier between us, in fact, Sarita did not speak English at all.  After much persuasion by her husband, we agreed to work with her for 3 days in our Florida home.  I could not imagine how I could teach someone who I couldn’t talk to but her husband, Sunny, agreed to sit in on the class and be the interpreter, although his English was not fluent either.  I was so stressed as the class approached, as I just was not sure how this would work out. The class dates came and they arrived, bringing their 4-year-old daughter, Ishi, with them and she is the most beautiful, angelic little girl you could ever imagine. Her smile is like  pure sunshine and happiness just radiates from her. The class went extremely well, and at the end of the three days Sarita had sculpted an adorable one of a kind infant.   I was amazed at what she had accomplished in spite of the fact that she understood very little of what I was saying.  She sat beside me and watched and was able to duplicate my actions perfectly.  I was so impressed with her talent and felt that before long she would be well known in the doll world.

 Over the next few months, Sunny would call with questions of where to get more supplies, as it was difficult in India to obtain the materials she needed.  Sunny works in the U.S. and he travels back and forth to India frequently as they have 2 more school aged children in India.  

Sunny then called that Sarita had been working very hard at sculpting, often working 11-12 hours a day on a sculpt. She was determined to be successful and now she wanted to learn to cast her babies in silicone.  We explained that this would be very difficult to learn with the language barrier between us and we tried everything to talk them out of this class. We explained that it would be next to impossible for them to set the studio up for casting in India since there were no supplies available there.  Let me tell you Sunny is very persistent! :o) He kept telling us his wife’s dream was to create silicone babies and it was his responsibility to see that her dreams came true.  In the end, we agreed and the casting class was held in March 2009.  Sunny, Sarita and their now 5 yr. old daughter, Ishi came to stay with us for 6 days in our home in Florida.  We so enjoyed having them stay with us and learned so very much about the differences in our cultures. The language barrier did not cause the slightest difficulty during the visit and although the class moved at a slower pace, we put in very long days, working into the late hours of the night, but in the end, Sunny and Sarita were casting their own sculpts. We became adept at sign language and getting our points across one way or another.  And little Ishi did not have one bit of trouble communicating with us.  Watching her talk to us in her sign language, facial expressions and in her attempts at English was just heartwarming.  By the way, she can count to 150 in English and knows all of her colors in English but not in her own native language!  We thought that was interesting.   

As a reward to Ishi following the end of the class, we took the family to Disney World and had such a wonderful day.  We’d like to share some of the pictures we took throughout the week and I’m sure you will agree that Sarita’s first silicone baby doll is absolutely precious.  She even rooted the hair.  She is sure to go far in the doll world and this is her dream.

We are so honored that we have been blessed with meeting this family and sharing time with them, having them as guests in our home.  It has really opened our eyes to the fact that no matter where one comes from in the world, there are wonderful people and families just like us.  We must remember and that language barriers, skin colors, and cultural differences should not stop us from realizing that we are basically all the same and want the same things for our loved ones.  Sarita has proven that dreams can come true with determination and hard work.

And now, on April 10^th, we will go to their home in Georgia for a few days to assist in setting up Sarita’s casting studio and when she is in the U.S. she will cast her sculpts here in the states where she can obtain the materials needed.  

Rita and Larry

Some pictures from our week
Click to enlarge