November 13th and 14th

November 13th
We woke up at 4.30 this morning because the girls wanted us to wake them up then so that they could study. The power was out then though, so they couldn't do any studying until 5 when the lights could turn on. They love this new alarm clock discovery and keep wanting us to set it for them! They have one more day of exams left on Saturday since there was no school on Monday. Tomorrow is Nehru's birthday, so is celebrated as "Children's Day".

This morning all of the children were very happy that Bethania has running water again! For the past 6 months no water has come out of the taps because it has been so dry. Finally yesterday, the kids could wash their plates from the outside running water tap instead of pumping it from the well or getting it from the rain water buckets. In our room we finally have running water too and a toilet that flushes! Everyone is very excited that the recent rains have been sufficient and all of their praying for more rain has worked :)

We spent the morning doing some stone collecting in the mud and writing our going away cards. We did some wash and hung it up inside, as it rained more in the afternoon. The 8th and 6th grade girls came home at 3, and we played some card games with them. We tried to teach them BS, which took a while to grasp. No one really understood at first that they were actually supposed to lie, so would just tell us, "No sister!! No 7!" "Shh!! Don't tell us that!" Once we got the hang of it, it was fun though. We did some hair braiding too, and Rani put about 10 of the yellow flowers that she'd picked in Kelsey's hair. "Garden head!" It was pretty hilarious looking, with yellow and purple flowers from the girls and Eishwari in my head and more hanging from my braids. Dhana Packiam told me I look funny! I loved it anyway!

The kids came home at 5, and after tea there was Christmas practice and Tamil studying. The kids' dance is really cute and getting better! They all studied a lot in the evening for Tamil exams the next day.


November 14th
Even though it was a Saturday, we woke up some of older girls at 4.30 again so that they could study for their Tamil exams today. Thankfully the power was on this time! Some girls were already awake and had gotten up at 4 to study in the hall. We took some pictures of everyone at breakfast- every girl had bright yellow flowers in their hair and looked really pretty!

We spent the morning peeling onions and trying to keep the three really cute baby chickens out of our onions and bowls of rice. These chickens pretty much go everywhere- walking through the kitchen, office, dining hall. Our other unofficial job was to make sure the dogs and Zues didn't eat our adorable chickens.

The boys came home early, around 11.30, right before it started to pour again. We had lunch with them, passed out Starbursts, and then listened to music, played chess and Uno. They are so sweet and funny and hanging out with them never gets old. Little Karthi's dancing never ceases to entertain. And Chella, Sethu and big Karthi generally accuse someone of Uno card cheating, so the no beating brother rule needs to be enforced. Satish has invented a new version of Chess, where the King really has no special importance and the game can keep being played after the king has been taken. But, 'Sister no teaching' because she doesn't know the new chess game! Hahaaa.

When the girls came home, we hung out with them, talked about the exams, colored pictures, played cards, chess and took rest. After rest, we enjoyed some delicious kaseri, sweet grain with cashews and cardaman along with tea. We fed some to one of our favorite baby chicken friends and the skinny puppy, because that poor puppy doesn't get enough food with all the other dogs around!

Tonight Ramya asked us if we had a handkerchief because she doesn't have one, and a lot of the kids are getting sick again. We don't have any to give the kids, so we gave her a thing of paper table napkins we bought in Madurai. Here, a place without real disposable paper products, everyone was extremely perplexed by the tissues, and laughing hysterically. Ramya made us take pictures of 'sister giving American handkerchiefs.' We would try to explain that they're actually from India, which didn't make it any less exciting.