October 20th and 21st

On Tuesday after breakfast we did more field work, removing stones from another plot of land. It was really hot out, and changed to kitchen work after about an hour. We peeled the small onions for a while with two women. Our hands still smell of them as a souvenir of our work. Its difficult, especially considering the massive quantity of onions we consume here. Those, tomatoes, and peppers are the primary staples here, along with rice of course.

We had our lunch at 1, after a shower (exciting new development- we recently realized that the guest cottage has running water from an actual shower head! So we got to take a real shower not involving a cup and bucket. It was strange actually having two hands to use, instead of one pouring a cup. Oh, how easily we get excited here... It was great!) We read and rested for a while until tea when the kids came home a little before 5. We then played some chess and Uno with the boys, the younger girls came up with an inexplicable version of Chinese checkers. Yet to figure out how anyone actually wins in that game. We gave Muniyappan the song lyrics he'd requested, and he proceeded to diligently study them while listening to the song on repeat. What a good student. The boys taught me proper technique for how to throw a spinning top off a string. Next step is learning their game, where they all stand in a circle, throw the tops in and try to hit each others, or get it in a circle drawn in the dirt. Still don't really understand that one... I love these kids.

Much of the evening was spent on English studying. Each night is dedicated to one subject, the same for students of every grade level, and Tuesday is English homework night. We had the girls read their poems and stories to us, helping them with pronunciation. They did well, and it's easy to tell how much time they spend in class repeating and memorizing the same sentences over and over again. They memorize questions as well as pre-formulated answers from their text books about prose or poems too. They probably have limited understanding of these poems they have memorized, but can recite them well. I had some problems with Nandhini though, and tried unsuccessfully to get her to say the word "artist" about 20 times. We compromised with her sticking with "Arshchess"... close enough!

With the grade 9 girls we learned about the internet and computers. They were really excited about the idea of email. 'When I go to Dindigul sister. When you are in America. I will write you an email letter Sister!' 'Super Sister!' We read passages about the internet in their text books and drew and labeled parts of the computer.

Through most of the night and starting again early Wednesday morning, we could hear music from a wedding. Muthimari told us that it is her friend's sister's wedding, going on in Kanivadi. The bride is 18, right out of high school. The wedding probably will go on for three days, typical for Hindu weddings. It's crazy to think that it's normal for girls our age to be getting married and starting a family, so young!

Wednesday morning started with our normal getting water challenge. We carry down our two big shower buckets, over to the big rain water tanks. We fill them up and lug them back up the stairs, dodging dogs and trying to spill as little as possible. We got to witness a particularly amusing dog and cow chase this morning as well. The dogs all start barking and those cows start running, the little puppies, following behind their parents, barking and yowling. Literally an entire family of dogs chased this one young cow, its nose rope dragging in the dirt behind it. This is a daily occurrence.

We spent the morning doing our normal stone-moving out in the sun. It's still really warm here. At 4 we went to pick up the kids in the Bethania bus! It was really fun. We had to sit in the bus for a while with all of the elementary school kids while we waited for high school to finish at 4.30. We played thumb wars, rock paper scissors and other hand games in the hot bus. Other students coming out of school all came to surround the bus to see us and bang on the windows. "Very bad, sister. Beating , sister." They helped protect us by shutting all the windows and doors on the sweltering bus, to show their love :) it took a while to convince them that 8 year old children harassing us wasn't as bad as suffocating! We sang songs and watched Zues, Bethania's big Labrador, chase the bus the way home.

When we came home, we played some ball games like monkey in the middle and our version of handball, while the older boys played cricket. The kids were doing their wash, but the well has dried up. We've been in a drought the whole time here- the soil is dry and cracked, and the plants aren't growing well. There are some large tanks of rainwater here, but with 40 people here, we need a sustainable, steady water supply! The kids jumped up and down, pumping and pumping the water pump, but no water is coming out. Little Muga came over, 'sister! No water! I am very very angry Sister!'

This evening after Christmas practice, we did English lessons with the 10 boys. We read parts of Snow White to them, and had them draw pictures and label important objects. Then we tested them. They all got tests with the pictures (houses, brooms) that they had to name. We also gave them some word jumbles to help them with their spelling. It was a good exercise, but difficult as always because of the different levels in the group. The boys all help each other too. In the end, we always go through and correct them with each kid and have him read the correct answers. It was really a fun learning exercise and they all love the bright colors and the drawings of the big snow white book. We read aloud and then discussed the story, pointing out vocabulary, and learning new words.

After dinner we sat with the older girls in the hall to help them with homework, our nightly ritual. I helped Saraswathi pronounce a list of 200 words and their abbreviations. Most of the words seem really strange and not useful in everyday life at all. Not sure why 10th grade students need to memorize what "UNESCO", "FBI", "CIA", "BBC" and "UNICEF" stand for, when they don't even know what these things are! Paige worked with Mary on a list of similarly not useful words, such as "adieu" and "barbarous", that they need to memorize the pronunciation but not know the meanings of. They have to memorize more than 200 words like this, 'Baroness, adjunct, awkward, abscess..' We have many issues that we want to discuss with whoever is writing these Tamil Nadu state English books!