Auroville etc...

We went to Auroville yesterday!!! I heard so much about it before we came to India, and have talked to many people here in India about the unique vision of this little city, so it was exciting to finally make it there.....it's only 45 minutes away from us here in Kadapakkam, so it's kind of funny that we hadn't been there yet! For those not familiar with Auroville - it is a city outside of Pondicherry founded about 40 years ago by people aiming to create a completley clobal community....a place that nobody owned and therefore belonged to everyone in the world. Yes, many of these people were hippies. The Uluru Children's Home has a partnership with a group from Auroville that is devoted to reforestation and environmental education. Hopefully construction will begin soon in the UCH compound on an environmental eduction center that will be open to the general community. (There will be a fence deviding it and the main UCH area). The long-term aim is to also return the area adjacent to UCH to how it was years ago before human development and then se that area for nature walks/eduction open to UCH children and the whole community. There are so many exciting things happening at UCH! We also visited a school in between Auroville and Kadapakkam that used to be one of the very worst in Tamil Nadu before this organization became involved about ten years ago. It is now an incredible place for school children, high schools, and locals looking for vocational training. We were treated to a tour of the facilities including the art classroom (!!!), the environmentally friendly water-recycling program, the science classroom, and the general grounds. More ideas for UCH.....

Well, the children are watching "Narnia" - in Tamil...we just spent the day on an epic quest to help them update their photo-albums. It was TRULY epic in scope and execution but I will allow Kate to explain it because she's funny and another Kate's Korner is sorely overdue.

Love to you all!
~Alice

Musings....

I'm in Mammallapuram and only have a few minutes left on internet.....I was going to post something long, but it's just too overwhelming at the moment. We're leaving the Children's Home on the 27th or 28th which seems so so so soon. This place is so difficult to capture and the longer I'm here, the more normal it seems. It's my life - it's not some social experiment, or exotic adventure anymore. (though it certainly is an adventure, I suppose). I've been here long enough that I've created my own little world. Not that I won't want to come home or won't be excited to see friends and family back home - but my two lives are becoming increasingly separate. I know it will be easier to blog about my travels because again things will be new, and changing, and not my everyday life. That aside....I can find some things to say about the past few days!

Deepa and I taught our last class at the local school on Wednesday. 6th, 7th, and 8th standards are having exams until he 20th and then holidays begin....so we had to finish up! It was a little sad, but luckily we knew it was coming so w taught every day we could last week and this. We have developed quite an extraordinary rapport with 7th standard. There aren't any UCH kids and that standard, so all our relationships there are completely based on our teaching. That somehow makes telling the really bright students off for always answering more fun, more of a game. in 6th and 8th it's kind of awkward because the UCH girls are simply better educated and we know them better, so we have to worry about not playing favorites. There were still lots of good things going on in those classes, but 7th was our big success. One of our last stories was The Lion King. They were so fantastically excited about it and all shouted, "Nooooo!!!" along with me at the point when Simba yells no at Scar because Scar killed his father. (there had been a similar moment in Pocahontas so they were ready!) One of our star students, Prabu, gave Deepa and I a little Indian sweet as a thank you which was too kind of him, but so thoughtful. I'll miss 7th standard! Deepa and I are going to keep coming sticking around school for the fifteen minutes or so after the UCH kids get there and before the bell rings so we can chat with all our students.

I hope all is well with you!
Love,
~Alice

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.

Village Games: A Rope of Sand

Hola, mis amigos!

Essentially.....I am incredibly happy at UCH right now. The first three weeks were quite tough, and it took longer than I had expected to feel comfortable here, but now I am truly in my stride. The kids are as feisty and naughty as ever, but now I know it's Sugashini shaking her butt at me, Kalpana ripping my hair from its roots, and Sandhiya literally screaming three inches from my face.......a month and a half ago that seemed like a cheeky butt-shake, anger-management problems directed at my scalp and permanent hearing loss. Now, I kid you not, I readily submit myself to hours of that sort of thing. Suga loves to shake her hiney, Kalpana is one of many over-eager (but well intentioned!) hair-stylists at Uluru Children's Home, and Sandhiya is the world's most insane child, but she's a smart cookie and I get a kick out of her! (Favorite Sandhiya-moment......Kate was walking with her to school a week or two ago and she just randomly turns to kate and says, "Buttock! B!-U!-T!-T!-O!-C!-K! BUTTOCK!" So I realize the posterior has featured heavily so far in this blog entry.....I'll tone it down.) Once I mastered the kids' names....life started getting more and more fun/meaningful/entertaining/rewarding. I am SO glad we're staying at the Home for three months and I'm starting to wish the stay were even longer.

DEEPAVALI!!! So we missed out on Halloween and Thanksgiving this year, those being distinctly American Holidays......but we did experience our first Deepavali which is also known as Diwali in the north. Deepa's Usha athai (Deepa's father's cousin) and Uncle Gopal (I have a snowball's chance in hell of spelling the Tamilian word for Uncle correctly and Deepa's asleep....), Ram (their son), and Pati (the word of Grandma....she's Usha's mother) came to Uluru to celebrate with us. Now there's a straightforward sentence. We woke up at 6 though the children were up earlier getting excited...and, honestly, they always wake up incredibly early. It kind of terrifies me when I think about it too much. The older girls wake up at 4:30 to practice traditional singing. I'm all for extracurricular activities but that blows my mind. I can't imagine a gaggle of American teenage girls CHOOSING to wake up two hours before the sun rises. In any event; first thing we watched the girls get new clothes as presents from Deepa's aforementioned family. Then they all put their clothes on and looked so beautiful! The three of us also received new clothes as presents so we now have tunic-like shirts of the same style but different prints! All the children had oil baths before they put on their new clothes. That doesn't mean they actually bathed in a vat of oil like I was initially inclined to believe....their hair was washed in oil. It's a common hair-care thing in India, but especially on Deepavali, as I understand. Deepa's family saw to it that the three of us also had our heads bathed while a short prayer was sung. the morning was spent shooting off loud fireworks; the larger ones were set off in the path next to the Children's home and little sound-producing guns were passed out to all the kids. Don't worry, mom; they guns were incredibly benign, small, plastic things that made a little pop. And everyone still has both of their eyes. The rest of the day was spent running around, playing the ROCK GAME that will be explained shortly, and eating. The whole affair had a Christmas sort of feel in terms of scope and significance, but of course didn't actually seem like Christmas to me without family.

THE ROCK GAME!
Around Deepavali, which was on Thursday, November 8th, the children had a four-day weekend. I spent HOURS. literally hours -

haHa! A cliff-hanger. I'm quite tired so I'm going to bed and I'll finish this rock game business in the morning. (If you can't handle the suspense, don't worry.....I'm about to talk about rocks for a long time, so it's not that urgent.)

Love,
~Alice

PS - I didn't actually get to the explanation for the Village Games: A Rope of Sand title, so I'd like to give a shout out to Ashok as a consolation. Don't worry, more is on the way as is more softball tutelage!

Kate's Corner: A Walk on the Wild Side

Hey all. So, after a long hiatus, Kate's Corner is making its much-anticipated comeback on Alice's blog. I tried to back this comeback about two weeks ago, but as soon as I began typing, I became violently ill. Apparently, there's a darker force behind the corner. But that's behind us, so here it is. Finalmente.

I am calling this edition Kate's Corner: A Walk on the Wild Side in order to increase the overall edginess of Ms. Minor's blog, which I currently feel to be lacking.

So, time has passed, my friends. But here are some moments that have stood out and that no one--even the guy who knows none of us and apparently found out about this blog while at a chinese restaurant---can do without.

Ms. Deepa Sivarajan

In an attempt to include Deepa more in this post (the last was a little alice-heavy), I thought to include a rather snappy dialogue that took place in our last weeks of travel. It involves Deepa and Man.

Deepa: I live in the USA.
Man: You have an Indian Face.
Deepa: Yes, my father is from Chennai, my mother is from Kerala, but I was born in the US.
Man: You have an Indian Face.
Deepa: Yes.
Man: Your Face. It is an Indian Face.
Deepa: Oh.
Man: (indicating Alice and I). They do not have Indian Face. (indicating Deepa) You. (indicating face) Indian Face.

Well, you learn something new everyday.

Problems with Trains
Though it’s hard to top Alice’s first adventure, the three of us never stop having fun on trains. Going back to Chennai from Delhi, we learned a lot about blending in, as we were the only members of our car (about 40, I’d say) not enlisted in the Indian National Air Force. Though it goes without saying, we were quite the hit. Our seats were dead center, so any trip to the bathroom involved running the gauntlet of well-wishers who wanted us to eat their soup/play their guitars/tell them how much it cost to buy a red rose in America. To make matters worse, Alice and I both had to use the bathroom an inhumanly large number of times. We also made a go at locking ourselves in the bathroom quite frequently—three times, in fact. This really increased our anonymity.

FRUIT
Fruit has been mentioned here and there on this blog, but now we’re coming clean. We miss fruit. We spend a lot of time thinking about fruit. We often manipulate the children to get them to talk about fruit. We spent an entire religious ceremony scheming about how to claim a second fruit cup. We just started teaching new English classes, and as our new students filed into the classroom, we greeted them with the three essential questions—“What is your name?” “How old are you?” and “What is your favourite fruit?”. We considered asking only the third, and identifying our students by their respective answers, but there was too much overlap. Sometimes we go to town and get wild and buy huge masses of fruit in one go. Most recently we went so overboard that one of our pineapples fermented. Shucks.

In the Jungle
Our first major undertaking at the Children’s Home was an attempt to get a large number of youngsters to sing and dance to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” for the Annual Day Celebration. Feeling on top of our game, the three of us spend an evening teaching the subtly complex dance moves (A spin. A hop. Some wiggling. Oh, how we tried). All is well, until several children appear to be dead. They are lying, splayed out on the floor, unresponsive to human voices. But we’ve never gotten so far in the song before, so we shoot for home, and continue to dance and wiggle around their lifeless bodies. Eventually, one by one, they come to. It seems the threat imposed by the three of us and the general jungle atmosphere kick-started a long-dormant “play dead” reflex in some of the kids. But we may never know.
(A side note: After three weeks practicing the song, we give the children masks on Annual Day, which are so thrilling, that not a single one of them remembers to sing.)

Vietnam
One of the biggest perks about living at UCH, is the opportunity to go engage with Mother Nature in the great outdoors that surround us. Sometimes we engage well. Sometimes our engagement is sub-par, at best. A couple weeks into our stay here, Alice and I aren’t in the mood to walk all the way to the ocean, so opt for swimming in the backwaters. Deepa, the enlightened member of our group, reads on shore as the two of us plunge into the water that is a) Significantly warmer than air temperature b) Six inches deep c) Sitting above mud that is undeniably terrifying and d) Possibly made of (or shall we say, strongly supplemented by) fecal material. We don’t hear about d) until several days later. But Alice and I, flat on our stomachs, press onward, pulling ourselves through the mud with our elbows. The whole scene is very Vietnam War. We emerge on the other side, scratched and tired, and spend about ten minutes hobbling around the sand bar, as we each have only one shoe. Thus concludes our adventure. I have no idea why we did this.

Shame
The shame concept has certainly made it onto the blog, but given its prevalence, I thought I’d delve a bit deeper. Currently, at The Children’s Home, shame is in vogue. This manifests itself most clearly when the children forcibly strip one another—lifting each other’s skirts, pulling up shirts, and generally undressing their peers. The general ruckus is always accompanied by a shyer, earnest girl, who will helpfully point out, “Auntie. This! This is shame.” I am grateful for these reminders on the boundaries and intricacies of shame, so we don’t forget, and started stripping each other on our morning walks through the village. But, seriously, shame is no joke. Alice was walking home, wet from swimming, and a village girl barricaded the path until Alice agreed to take her offered duputta. There was a moment last week when I hid myself under a desk because I heard a man in the hallway and was wearing a wide-strap tank top. And then there’s Deepa. Read on…

Rabbits
About a week back, I was teaching English class to a group of about 10 local fishermen, when I noticed, lying in the center of our circle, were Deepa’s underpants.

Shame.

They have bunnies on them. Shame, Deepa, shame. I was using the unemptied backpack we had taken to Madurai, and they must have fallen out. Luckily, I was able to snatch them up before anyone noticed. Otherwise, Deepa would probably have to fly home.

Let There Be Light (and wind)
Last week, Alice and I came across a character of the highest esteem. This would be, of course, The Very Helpful Boy. It all began in the community hall, as we were waiting for our English class to turn up. TVHB began to turn on fans. And turn off fans. And turn on more fans, while simultaneously (with the other hand) turning off fans. And turn off fans for a moment, and then very quickly turn them on again, and then, when you least expect it, turn them off. And then on. And all the while (every five seconds. no joke.) asking, "Auntie, fan?", "Auntie, good?". Finally, someone who knows the fastest way to a woman's heart is through an expertly arranged fan configuration. I have never met someone so desperate for approval And then he starts on lights. Alice and I sit, for—I kid you not—thirty minutes, as TVHB turns switches on and off, in what can only be described as the display of the century, a spectacle of wind and light.

Nothing Like a Good Old Fashioned Bus Ride
As mentioned above, I became quite ill while last typing up the blog in Madurai, but the story continues from there. That night, we took an overnight bus back to UCH, which was, as can be expected with our transportation exploits, one step short of fancy free. It's all fun and games until the Austrian ladies get on board. You see, one of them has a suitcase. This suitcase cannot be kept on the bus, but must be stowed beneath in the storage container. The storage container will not open. We sit, as the storage container continues to not open and the bus driver gets into a verbal/physical fight with the various forces responsible for the closed nature of the storage container. Ninety minutes later, the suitcase—roughly the size of a large cat—is placed on the floor. All is well again until we get to the rest stop. Our rest stop, ideal for resting, is in fact, The Gates of Hell. The smell is expectedly foul, there are two huge loudspeakers projecting human screaming, and the bathroom line is longer than that wall in China. We wait. And wait. And the bus driver starts honking. Then the bus begins to move. We sprint back, leaving the French lady alone in the bathroom (in these situations, each woman for herself), as her boyfriend gets down on his knees and begs the driver for mercy. He stops the bus. Lucky, this time.

Well, family, friends, Alaskan stalker, Man from the Chinese restaurant…that wraps up this editor of Kate's Corner. Email us all. Send us things. Try to one up Leslie Minor in the care package category, but give up immediately, because it cannot be done. Seriously though, send us a line...hearing from any of you (except for Cassie the Alaskan) would be nothing short of wonderful.

Love, love, love
Kate

Deepa's...something starting with D, just to defy Kate?

Hi everyone! Deepa here, for the first time. Kate was actually feeling a little tired, so she went to lie down instead of updating Kate's Korner (oh no! But she's not here to protest). Though I don't know if I have anything to say that Alice hasn't already written about. (By the way, if you're not reading this on a blog reader, make sure you go read Alice's post from today as well, not just the one on the top of the screen.)

Some things that Alice didn't mention about our lives at UCH: firstly, Annual Day! In our very first week at UCH, everyone was in quite a flurry over the upcoming anniversary of the founding of the Home. We were given the impression that it would be a big function, with a number of guests and perhaps some of the important donors. The children were preparing different types of performances, and many of them were taking part in a rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - they would sing the song and do a little dance, wearing special animal masks created by the volunteers, and would be accompanied by another group of children playing the song on the recorder.

The recorder groups were having quite a hard time with the song, especially since most of them were more interested in figuring out how to play songs from Sivaji (the most popular Tamil movie at the moment, which we saw when we were in Chennai - and it was a really good thing that we did, because it's seen as common knowledge at UCH!) on the recorders. Eventually Megan, the volunteer coordinator, decided that they would just have a separate recorder performance to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Hot Cross Buns". Then, we had lots of singing practice sessions, and all of us have now heard the words in the jungle, the mighty jungle more times that anyone should ever have to. (The ironic part is that the second verse is in the village, the quiet village - a line that was never, ever sung quietly!) AND we spent lots of our spare time creating and painting papier-mache masks for the children.

Long story short - Annual Day was not as big a shin-dig as we thought it would be, considering that the only people there were us and the staff. Who are always there. Oh well. It was still quite fun, except for the minor things that went wrong - the recorder group never learned the second part of "Mary" and instead repeated the first two lines over and over, the girl who was supposed to play the Lion (a three year old, no less) bowed out at the last moment, and then the singing group, who had practiced a simple little dance made up by Kate and Alice to do as well, completely forgot to sing because the background music was so loud. Again, oh well. The three of us did get to wear saris, which made up for it all!

That was just a tiny snippet, but Alice really did say it all! Plus we have to get going - we have spent so much time on the Internet today, you have no idea. Love to you all, especially to my family who have been haunting this blog so well! Thanks! And we'll come to Bangalore soon, we promise. The book circuit awaits!

-Deepa

We're Settling In....

HIIIII!!!!

I have to apoligize to my adoring public for not blogging in the past two weeks. I know, a criminal sin. Dad - try to limit mom's blog-checks to one a day perhaps? Thanks :)

First of all - thanks to everynoe who has sent us a letter, email, posted a blog comment....when I miss home, having that connection to you all feels wonderful. Also, thanks for the birthday wishes! Mommy, I got the birthday card! A classic Leslie Minor creation.

A bit on UCH! Uluru Children's Home is the brainchild of Dr. Chandran, a close college friend of Deepa's dad, Murali Sivarajan. (Hi, Murali!) When Dr. Chandran and several of his friends (including Murali) were in medical school, they bought land outside Kaddapakam with the intention of building homes there many years off into the future. Over time the friends ended up in all corners of the globe - Dr. Chandran in Melbourne, Australia. He and his wife wanted to start a school for young girls in the area whose families couldn't support them. He co-founded The East West Foundation to begin work on this project. First he built a health clinic in the area to gain the trust of the local people. The clinic now serves abotu 15,000 people from Alampara, Kaddapakam, and surrounding villages! Four years ago, the Children's Home opened its doors to its first child. Currently there at 39 kids in the home, most girls, though there are a handful of boys. They range from infants to mid-teens and come from Chennai, Pondicherry, and everywhere in between. What I didn't at all grasp before coming to UCH is that The East West Foundation encompasses far more than a children's home and a health clinic. The foundation is working hard to promote the local education which is far from acceptable at the moment. The children from Uluru go to the local school because they want the children to be integrated into the community. The Uluru kids also get tutoring at home, so the poor local education really effects the other local children the most. I don't yet know the half of what The East West Foundation is doing in the area, but I do know that it is not just a foundation for the individual children in the home - it is also promoting everyone in the community and the families of all the children in the home.

I guess we've been In Alamparai for over 3 weeks now, haven't we? I suppose I should be a bit chronological about this, but the lines of time are a bit blurred now that we're settled in to one place. When I last wrote things were tougher and newer. I'm so glad I have three months of Alamparai because I'll need every moment of it to grasp the place. I'm fully aware that I'll never understand India because I never will have grown up in rural India. But, by the same token, I'll never understand the folks over in Tennessee.....it's not such a curse, just an observation. I was talknig to an Australian who is working at Uluru Children's home for a year on education in the area about just this the other day. We were discussing a situation that she knows of where a woman has been unfairly disgraced and ostracized by her community (it seems a bridge of privacy to go too far into it here). Of course we couldn't possibly understand her neighbors that turned away from here. To understand, we would have had to grow up in rural Tamil Nadu. Also, to understand, I would have to believe that the woman deserves to be ostracized. I can't have both an insider's and an outsider's perspective on the situation, so I suppose by that token I don't truly want to "understand". I accept that and simply hope to make my own views encompass a bit more - not only in India, but India's a prime place to begin.

How we fit into this place.......our daily schedule. We walk the children to school every morning (it's quite fun and, of course, hoooottt). Deepa and I have been teaching at the school three days a week in the mornings. It's quite exhausting, but the more we teach there, the better I feel our lessons go. Deepa and I have really got a team-teaching groove going on at this point! We're getting good at picking up each other's slack, explaining points while the other writes on the chalkboard, clueing each other in when we're being too confusing, and making each other have fun! When we get there each morning, the headmaster sends us to either 6th, 7th, or 8th grade (they call it "standard", not grade). Then we teach until the headmaster sends us along to the next class. Clearly, the random, "popcorn-teach" method of classroom assignments makes preparation a bt tough. (: I enjoy it quite a lot though it is mentaly and physically draining. The kids are incredibly loud and we've got to keep things rolling to keep their attention up. Not speaking Tamil makes discipline a constant challenge, but I'm becoming more harsh than I thought possible!

The headmaster often stays and watches us teach which is a little weird....considering there at 300 students in a school where often times only 3 teachers show up and there are invariably not enough teachers for every room....it's kind of frustrating that we aren't let alone. Hopefully we will cease to be novelties soon and he'll give us some space. The other issue with having him there is that he answers our questions and tells the students what to say. Does he want to show off his English skills? Does he want to the students to look smart? I couldn't tell you.

We have UCH kids in a couple of our classes which is fun fun fun....the older kids are much more reserved with us than the younger ones. They're not quite so impressed with us just for existing, so it's been nice to have a way to spend time with them and show them we want to get to know them. The sole problem with having UCH kids in our classes is that they're way beyond their peers in English due to having English speaking volunteers around at home, and receiving extra tutoring. The academic levels of the kids are frighteningly varied in any given classroom. That makes teaching to 35 students quite complicated; we don't want to bore or overwhelm anyone....we're working on striking a balance. Possibly, the headmaster will allow us to teach smaller groups of shorter periods of time - we've already brought this up with him. This all goes on until 12:15 or so and then we walk home.

Lunchtime! (FYI, the rice is NOT killing me, I promise! I like Indian food, I swear. YES, there are really interesting side dishes and I'm learning to love potatoes here, something I I've never loved at home....I like breakfasts here a lot too. And we can buy fruit if we take a rickshaw to the market. So - don't worry about me!!!! And Ashok, although you focused your training on the north we DID have dosais for breakfast this morning and I thought of you and my first Delhi-dosa over a month ago! Also - hey, who're you pushing out of the car!!!). Most afternoons Kate teaches English classes at the local community center and another volunteer, Deepa, and I take it in turns joining her. These classes are for people ages 16-24 (about) who dropped out of school for some reason or another and want to learn English. There's a boys' class and a girls' class. Most of the boys are fishermen now, and the girls work hard all day too. They really truly want to be there and learn, so they're a pleasure to teach. Of course it is a mental challenge as well - coming up with good lesson plans and trying to get everyone talking. A couple weeks ago, after our first English class, Kate and I went swimming in the backwaters with a couple girls from the class - so fun! Neat to get to know people our age.

The evenings are spent playing with the kids, going for walks in the gorgeous surrounding area (backwaters, palm trees, a grassy expanse, wonderful sunsets.....), some frisbee now and again, and then just before dinner we tutor a pair of girls. We each have two pairs and we alternate between them. I adore tutoring, it's been an absolutely priceless way to get to know some of the shy girls....I think I'll talk about it later because I'm running out of steam and I want to do it justice!

MY BIRTHDAY!!! My b-day was on Saturday - the 20th. It was absolutely marvelous! Kate and Deepa truly outdid themselves and I was unbelievably touched. They planned a massive treasure hunt that tok me all morning....the first clue took OVER and hour and a half!

You sport! You jolly Peach!
Follow that papery pinnacle...
(Rapunzel syle!)
And your next destination will be REVEALED just after a word, starling in it's familiarity.
(On the back they wrote FIFTY FIVE using little fives....)

It's pretty confusing, right? I went off on sports - cricket for a while...the world series for all too long, and I even perused my iPod for 50 cent songs in a desperate moment. We've been quite avid readers on this trip so the papery pinnacle clearly led to a book of sorts......Eventually Enid Blyton came to me in a fit of inspiration - it was all me!! That was after at least 45 minutes of struggling. For all the non-anglophiles out there (sorry, Deepa! and meaning no offense to people who like Enid Blyton which is probably half my readship because half my readership seems to be blood related to Deepa!) Enid Blyton is a British children's writer that everyone in the English world besides Americans reads when they're growing up and Deepa was really obsessed as a youth. She bought a "Famous Five" (one of the series) book at a Delhi book far. So the You sport! You jolly Peach! bit was about being British. We also make fun of Deepa for saying things like, "torch!" for flashlight, "current" for electrical power, and "savory pie" for meat pie and "sweet pie" for....well...pie.

So I was briefly sidetracked to British things before latching onto Enid Blyton for good....I'll sumarize the rest....other clues led me to a word in the middle of the book that led me to a refridgerator and the next clue. A word scramble, a jumble, and a riddle later I found my treasure! Bangles, fruit, chocolate, and a plastic cricket bat! Wow this is an epicly long post! Well, we spent the afternoon celebrating the Saraswathi pooja with the girls. It was the holiday for the god Saraswathi in addition to the birthday of another girl at the home. So we watched the girls sing prayers and everyone dressed up in new, beautiful clothes, and we did a pooja. Also, they smashed some chocolate cake down our throats (I'm not kidding, the little girl who shares my birthday and I sat in front of everyone and the slammed it in our faces!). That evening we caught a bus to Pondi (Pondicherry) and had some birthday dinner thoguh I was already stuffed. Then we caught the night bus to Madurai where we are now. Gouri met us there!!!!! I'll talk about that excusion later because I'm still in the middle of it and this is the most epic blog post ever!

Love you all! I'll be sending Kate along to catch you up on the funny bits in a few minutes. Keep me updated on your lives!

Love,
~Alice