Day 10: Tutoring again, and the village!

Today I had tutoring again.  Another family came and joined us this week so it kind of messed up the rotations so now we all have an extra education day.  

I'm bummed it wasn't an extra colony day.. buuuut I LOVE the kids, so I am happy to spend more time with them!

This is a picture of our group at "morning conclave" it's a little meeting/devotional we have every morning with everyone.  Our group was huge today!! 20 people! 

Yay!! Sam's group and my group were combined for Education today.  It was fun to be able to do a rotation with Sam!! Krissy was in Education with me yesterday.  It has been so fun to get to experience at least one rotation with my friends.

I tutored Ruthish again in math today.

That kid.... seriously, someone help me figure out a way to bring him home with me.

Please.

I gave my camera to one of the kids at interval today.  It seriously is the best way to get pictures of all of the kids and whats going on at the school.  I feel like some of my best pics were taken at the school.  They LOOOOVE to use the zoom button... as you can clearly see in the picture above.

I 

Will

Get

(whoa, this picture)

All

Of

Their

Names

And

Add

Later!

 Playing with Veera.

I love him so much. I am thinking about sponsoring him, he doesn't have any yet.  He is seriously the sweetest thing ever.  He loves to cuddle and be held.  He is in my family and ALWAYS comes and curls up on my lap and nuzzles into my neck during story time.  I'm in love.

We played the 1,2,3 game over and over.  He would run all the way to the other side of the field, we would scream one, two, three, and hold up our fingers.. then we would run towards each other as fast as we could and I would pick him up and spin him in a big circle in my arms.  He would have played for hours if we could have, but interval is only 15 minutes.  There is my workout for the day.

Caught me counting.

"One, Two, Threeeee!!!"

I was pretty bummed, I didn't eat lunch at the school today.  I wanted to FaceTime Jordan so I went back over to the Elephant House during our lunch break.  I was a little late getting back to the school so I didn't get to tutor Basha today.  Bummer.  But, I did get to meet some new friends in the computer lab, so that was good! These kids are so smart! I love it!!

Haha these little faces are sooo cute!! I am so glad I have all of these pictures to remember them by.  I have learned quite a few of their names, unfortunately it has been mainly the kids from my house in family time, and from life dance, not many of the kids above. Although I don't know their names, I do know ALL of their faces.  I love them so much, It has been so fun playing with them now that we are all friends and they are comfortable around us.  Kindof a bummer that as soon as you start to form these bonds with the children it's nearly time to go.

When school was over, it was back to the house with Sam!! The power had been out all day so our laptops/ipads/phones were all dead and unable to charge.  Our room was 1000 degrees, and NOTHING in the fridge or freezer was cold.  Sam and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to take a walk through the village outside of the school grounds and check out the scenery.  We have been wanting to do this since we got here, but we are always so busy catching up on our blogs during our break between rotations and play time that we haven't gotten a chance to do it yet.  We were way excited for our adventure!

Walking off campus.

We were a little worried about security letting us out, but when we got there he was nowhere to be found and the gates were wide open.

Coincidence, or perfect timing?

Our view directly out of the gates.  This Field is taken care of so well by the villagers, they grow their own crops.  The foresty trees in the distant background are actually planted there, it is this really intresting, super tall, and whispy type of pine tree. They use the wood to build wooden beams for houses.  These trees are planted everywhere here.  It is so crazy, it looks like a forest until you look closer and realize all of the trees are in perfectly straight rows.

Turned Right and walked down the street towards the village.

This cute little lady was gathering berries from some bushes along the road.

I LOOOVE the view.  These pictures don't do it justice but we are literally in the middle of the jungle!

We met the most adorable little ladies and child on our walk. 

They were so shocked to see us walking through their village. I'm not sure if any volunteers have ever left campus just to walk before.  It was so fun to try and talk with them with their broken english.  We talked about our clothes, our husbands, our jewelry... naturally.

I hope I got some good video footage of them.

It was seriously so amazing to just hang out with the local villagers for a minute and get to know them.

It's so crazy to see them sitting in the dirt outside their little grass houses, just chatting away and gossiping and thinking to myself... these ladies are best friends, this is what they do, everyday, we totally just walked into their lives and we come from a whoooole different world but we are still able to connect with them about all of the same things I chat about with my girlfriends at home.

This was a really cool experience.  I will try and steal a pic of them from Sam.

Most of the houses here are painted bright tropical colors.

It's fun to see them make these humble little cement or stone houses their own.

Most of the villagers live in woven shacks, so to have a nice cement house like this means you are livin' the Indian dream!!

The village well, and a BRIGHT green house in the background. 

It is beautiful.

Oh, just walking down the road. Checkin out the scenery.  Feel free to enlarge this photo to see if he is really naked.  Of course he is not, he is wearing a turban, and a red string tied around his waist.  Sadly this is what most of the villagers and children look like, turbans and loin cloths or nothing at all. 

They all wear these red strings around their waist.  We were told it means so that they will never be naked.  They wear it all of the time under everything.  A lot of the kids at the school have them on as well.  Not sure if it is a religious thing or just cultural.  But (no pun intended) Sam and I laughed FOREVER when we stumbled upon this man.

Another photo of the green house and the well.

Sam and I weren't sure which way to go to keep walking towards the Junction, 

so we ran up to see the street sign.

Oh yeah, we're in India.

We got a good laugh out of this too.

Maybe it was just our mood?

Walking through the village, you can start to see the garbage 

getting thicker and thicker on the roads and in the gutters.

We found a little shop that a man was running from his home.  He sold all sorts of snacks and candy.

Sooo good to know that an ice cold pepsi and chips are only 10 minutes away!!

It was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to communicate with him what we wanted, but after lots of charades and a HUGE language barrier later we were able to get this much.  The poor guy, haha we tried to buy 3 Pepsi's.  He only had one. I hope it wasn't his personal beverage lol. Maybe he will stock up some more in hopes that we will come back... which we will.  

(Notice my cute bracelet from Basha, as well as the accidental crazy Henna, some little girl drew a flower on her hand at interval and then came up and tugged on my hand and arm to play with her...result, abstract henna.)

 EVERY family has their own cow, goats, chickens and a small field for crops.

It is so awesome to see these people that are able to sustain for themselves.

I woud love to be able to do this at home.

Passing back past this small government school, (and road sign)

all of the students, and the teacher were waiting along side the road to wave to us on our way back.

They must have seen us walking the opposite direction. It was sooo fun to have all of these people  so excited and waving at us.

We whipped out our cameras to take a photo, and I just want you to notice the differences if you can.

It is so funny here, the kids love to laugh and smile and play, but for some reason as soon as you pull a camera out, instead of smiling and posing they go instantly still as a board, straight face, and stand up straight and tall.  And EVERYONE does it.  In america we "say cheeese," or pull funny faces and here they are sooo serious in front of the camera.

ALL of them, including the teacher went perfectly still.

So.. instead of fun pictures of them waving and playing, we got a semi-creepy class portrait lol

We pretty much couldn't stop laughing over this one either.

hahaha.

It never gets old.

Almost home!

Krissy was in the colony today...and on our walk home, we ran into the medical van!! We made her get out and walk home with us!! So fun.

The sunset at dinner tonight was sooo beautiful!  I wish I would have brought my camera up to dinner on the roof.  I am going to miss these Indian sunsets.
The days just keep going faster and faster it seems.

Kala is seriously the sweetest woman alive.  She told us all about her family in India and how close she is with her sisters.  She gets to leave the school and live with them during Christmas and for one month during the year.  Tonight at family time she had made Sam, Becca, and Me a jasmine hair piece.  The women here make these beautiful jasmine hair pieces that they weave through their braids and into their hair.  They smell AMAZING. I don't think i was really a big fan of jasmine scented things at home, but now I can't wait to find a lotion or candle to remind me of these beautiful flowers!!

I read with Ruthish tonight.  He has to read for 15 minutes each night and I just love to snuggle up in the corner with him and a good book! He reads with the cutest little accent!! I have to try and get this on film before I leave.  He is an excellent little reader and ALWAYS finishes the book no matter how long it takes him.  We usually read 20-30 minutes.  I love how excited he is about reading!

Love you!

I don't wanna come home.