Village Games part DEUX

first of all, i hope matthew caught the subtle reference of hotshots in the title......

so i didn't get to a computer the next day, or the next,. and now the thing i typed up won't come off the disk,. so i'll talk abotu something else for now....interestingly, though, village games have come up a LOT recently! In english class yesterday, one of the girls (this was a community class for people 14-25) told me about this game she likes to play with colored coins, and spinning and some set of rules that didn't make it across the language barrier) also....after class I came back to the children's home to find deepa avidly watching some o the girls (12 or so) playing some complicated game that involved one person singing a song while running grom one line, around someone who is sitting a ways away, and then away from chasers positinoed at various places depending on....well, i don't really know what. We were utterly lost. THEN, i played cricket with someone briely and engaged in enthusiastic cheering while a younger girl tried to play badmitton with me. THE ROCKS (!!!) still ahve a special place in my heart. I have spent countless hours throwing and catching little pebbles and i'd be glad to show you all the moves when I'm stateside. There are 33 levels of the rock game according to one UCH inormant.....phew! I've gotten thorugh them all, but, of course, i was lapped MANY times in the process.

We're back at the children's home now and it feels good to be home. (Don't worry, mom, i know where real home is!) Being away made me realize how settled I have started to feel at UCH. When we got off the ECR (main road) bus from Chennai to Alamparai, we were greeted by Muragan, one of the two watchmen at UCH. He was one his way home to the next village or the night, so we were lucky to catch him. It was uncannily idylic to actually step into Kuddapakam and see a familiar face within two seconds. We were all giddy during the auto-ride back....and then overwhlemed by the kids in a very good way. After being back for literally about five minutes we started tutoring our fourth standard group, which was just how we wanted it - they told us we should rest. I had quite a good time with mine in the beginning. One of my girls in that group is increidbly industrious and loves having any new learning thrown at her....when I don't give her something to do, she creates little projects for herself which range rom building the perfect study-fort complete with a seat for both o us and an English notebook etc.....so making up math problems or herself to do. She's kind of a dream to teach. (She can also be quite wild, so it's not all sunshine and daisies, but I really enjoy her) My other girl in that group is without a doubt the most stubborn person I have ever met. She struggles a lot because of that; she is way behind for her age group and doens't like accepting help. She read one book to me very, very well and I was beyond thrilled because that usually takes a huge battle of wills.....She was excited to see me after a hiatus, and so was working hard. Then things got tough for the second half of tutoring time. I think about how best to interact with and help her all the time; I want to appreciate her unconditionally because she hasn't had a lot of unconditional support in her life, but I also can't bend to her incredibly powerful and stubborn will. Sometimes I have to be a bit abrupt and mean with her....and 'm getting surprisingly good at it (I'm kind of a softie.....). I guess it helps to explain that she is quite possessive of me in particular, and truly demands my attention in a bit of an alarming way sometimes. I'll be tutoring her again on tuesday, so I hope it goes well!

A note on Tuesday......about a month and a half ago, Deepa and I changed our schedule such that we teach Monday,. Tuesday, Friday at school.....but since have never taught on Tuesday becaue of the crazy holidays and schedule things that go on here and random days of feeling sick.....so i we actually do teach this Tuesday we're going to have a party. When I say party I mean - we're going to open Kate's bag o Cheese-puffs that Annette sent in the mail! Living on the edge, to be sure! well i don't have much time, so this is totally unedited, but that's okay, my audience will appriciate the authenticity o my typos, perhaps?

Love you you all!
~Alice


PS: Tamsin - if you give me your email I would love to email back and forth about Uluru and answer any questions you have! Where are you from? How did you hear about UCH? I won't respond right away due to internet availibility......but I will respond eventually. All the best, Alice.