As a young child, Rindra sometimes faced challenges. “I think I was mostly misunderstood,” he shared. As a middle child, he laughingly attributes some of those struggles to what he calls "middle child syndrome." “It was more than that, though,” Rindra explained, “It's hard when you don’t understand people. There was a language barrier for me as a child.”

Originally from Madagascar, Rindra grew up near Luther House in Albuquerque. His mother and siblings attended the University of New Mexico (UNM) and were active members of the Luther House community. Some of Rindra’s earliest memories, around the age of seven, involve large dinners in the chapel at Luther House. “It was a great place to sit down and have a meal together,” he recalls. As he got older, Rindra would visit his sister Ranja and brother Rado while they were living at Luther House. “I thought Luther House was a place for International Students, and in a way, it was. I didn’t know it went beyond housing and food for International Students."

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