September 22nd

September 22

This was a very long and fun day at Bethania! We woke up when we heard all the girls getting up to do their chores around 6.15. We then sat with the kids as half of them got ready to go to school for morning exams. Some older girls were braiding the younger ones' hair, some kids were pumping out water, some feeding the dogs, some studying... Big Muthumari, a leader among the children, braided everyone's hair. She's a freshman with a friendly smile. The kids are so sweet, always looking for nice things to do. Alegasarmy broke us open a coconut with a machete, for us to have coconut water with our morning tea. We then had prayer time with the children before breakfast. We stood and waved goodbye to half the kids as they left for school. "Bye sister!" "Goodbye sister!"
We went to go play Uno cards and draw with the year 7 boys as the older girls studied. They are all very fun, trouble makers but very sweet. We colored curious george coloring books and read the english stories. We went for a walk and they climbed trees to pick Guavas for us. These boys sure can climb trees! Yesterday ChellaPandi climbed two stories up a tree with hardly any branches to get a ball stuck on the roof. I love all their smiles and sweet, fun personalities.
Pandi is a little gentleman who wanted to give us more guavas than we could hold. Antony is very smart and affectionate, and loved coloring. Alagarsan is outgoing and louder, while still very sweet at heart. They're all such individuals and love and need all the attention we can give!
By 12 the kids here left for their exams while the morning exam kids came home. We played Uno with the grade 6, 8 and 12th grade boys until lunch.
After resting a while, it was back to games! We took down some nail polish and nail stickers for the girls which quickly turned into a huge activity for the boys and girls. I painted Nandini's, Vena's and many more girls' nails, and when I looked up the younger boys were also coming up to me to show me their rose, blue and green nails with butterfly and heart stickers!
A big hit was also a game of capture the flag, though we're not sure if the concept of being stuck in jail ever sunk in. Especially true for Kumar, a year 8 boy who is very fast and took off with the flag no matter what!
Several tag games later, as it started to get dark, we sat outside with all the kids for bible reading and prayer time. Their singing and reciting in Tamil sounds so musical and lovely, especially combined with the noises of nature outside. We tried to follow along in our English bible.
The coloring books, crayons and gel pens later came back out, a huge hit. Paige drew portraits of many little girls- Priya, Moogambigai.. Kelsey also tried to draw some animal pictures for the girls, though with considerably less artistic ability! Stickers as always disappeared quickly, though the kids always ask before taking and not a single crayon or pen ever goes missing. The children are all so sweet and loving, and we're so glad to be here!