Weekend Fun

Hello all,
Last night was fairly similar to the night before it, I played games with the children and (finally!) I am getting the names. Anitha showed me how to write my name in Tamil, and I proudly wrote it in the front of my sketch book. When Maha saw it, however, she burst out laughing. Apparently the way we pronounce Robby can't really be translated to Tamil. They spent probably a half an hour pondering my name and writing it probably twenty different ways. After each try they would look back up at me and ask me to say my name again, and each time they would say Robby???!!! with a sort of shocked and confused look and then scratch out whatever they had just written. The girls finally came to a consensus about the spelling, but who knows what it actually says. They then asked for my last name, and I just said "no, no, no, no, first name is enough!"

Right before dinner Xavier started yelling at the children and it was a little scary because I had never seen him like that before; he has always been very good with the kids. I asked Kumari what was going on, and she said that someone had called about all the noise. Apparently this happens fairly often, and there have been threats of kicking Wide out of the neighborhood due to noise. Already people around the house we are moving to this coming week have complained about what the noise will be like. The people in the area make points saying that the other orphanages in Tiru are quiet, but Kumari counters with the fact that this is the only orphanage here that takes in young children and that is why it gets loud. Either way, Kumari can't wait to have a house on the land we visited yesterday because they will own it, so it won't matter if people complain. Once the kids quieted down Xavier spoke to them softly, and was soon back to his normal self.

This morning marked the beginning of my first weekend here. First I ate breakfast and was greeted with a chorus of "good morning sir." Most of the children call me sir, despight me insisting on Robby; saying sir, however, is custom and Robby is too hard to say. Kumari got her mother's medicine together and sat with me while I ate. Kumari's mom is beautiful and very old. The one vision that always comes to my mind when I think of her is from my first day here. She was sitting outside and her leather-like feet were literally covered with black flies. It was so strangely beautiful. I have never seen her walk, but every time I look she is laying down in a different room. Whenever she sees me she smiles, nods, and presses her palms together, and I do the same in return. She got very sick several months ago and is now on a lot of medicine; all the children fight to be the one to give it to her. Kumari told me that sometimes her mother misses her mouth when she takes her pills, and the children like to see who can find them. Her mother, however, always insists that she swallowed them, even when they are visibly on the floor around her.

Kumari went to the market and I stayed with the children. I tought them to spell their names in English. Most know the letters, and were able to get their names fairly well, but letters like n/h and i/j seem to confuse them. Some of the younger ones came to me with one of the other's names written down and insisted it was their own. I'm pretty sure they were just copying from the person nearest them that knew what they were doing. After practicing their names for a little while they all demanded I put a check on their papers to prove to others that they had done it correctly.

Santhosh came up to me and asked me to play snakes and ladders. At first through his accent all I heard was snakes, and I almost panicked. Several of the children are here because their fathers were bit by snakes, so now I am terrified of running into one. When he pulled the game out, though, I realized my mistake and several of us played. I feel no shame in admitting that I came in last, it is a game of chance after all. Priya then tought me a new game with coins and numbers. It involved a lot of thinking and Priya and I played with some of the older kids. Priya won.

A boy that used to come here but now goes to a university came and brought the kids candy bars. My instincts from home were to make a little speach about not wanting to find the trash everywhere, but I held back. There are no trash cans here. When I asked Kumari where the trash can was on my first day, she looked very confused, then Prince skipped up to me, took my tissue, and threw it over the side of the porch. That is how it is done. When we are playing on the porch at night sometimes the wind comes from that direction, and the heavy stench of garbage comes with it.

The kids seemed pretty calm, so I decided to bathe. It is my first time washing since being here. They do not have a shower, instead there is a big bucket and a pitcher. The same bucket and pitcher that we use to rinse the toilet after we use it (since it does not flush). I bathed and shaved. I kind of enjoyed using the pitcher and how heavy the water felt coming down all at once. I was warned back home not to bathe naked, and thank goodness I didn't. While rinsing my hair some of the children come up to the strangely low, glass-less, and shutter-less window and waved to me. The children, and some of the adults, don't wash with water. Instead they rub scented talc powder all over themselves and into their skin. After washing, Gold (his name in Tamil means gold, and I have been told to call him gold) and I took to motor bike to get more drinking water. This was my first time buying something here, and was fairly uneventful; I motioned to my empty tank, the man said fourty, and I handed him the cash.

We ate lunch, and now everyone is resting, so I thought I would give an update.
I hope all is well back home!

Peace,
Robby

Just a handful of the kids; they love cameras and looking at pictures of themselves, and were all fighting to be in this one.

Kumari peeling ginger. The room she is in is where all the children sleep on the floor. I am in my room taking the picture. The hallway leads to the kitchen and to the room that the boys who pay rent stay in. To the right of the hallway is the door to the Xavier family's room, and the bathroom comes off of their room. It is one level, and the ceilings are tall, though the doorways are short (I have hit my head many times). On the terrace we hang all of the clothes.