Yesterday we went out into the colonies and moved bricks!! It was hard manual labor! I was dripping with sweat, covered in dirt, and my muscles had never ached so much in my life! But it was seriously the sweetest experience of my life. The last house we brought bricks to was the family of an elderly man with leprosy. He had just lost his wife on Wednesday and was very very poor, but he was so grateful for our help he went and bought all of us bottles of coke! I couldn't believe what an optimistic kind man he was considering the circumstances he was in.
In one of the colonies, Bharatapuram, we had a chance to stop by the Bindu School of Art! Here they sell the artwork of those with leprosy and their families!! It was so cool to see all the colorful paintings! They had pictures of everything from tigers to flowers to penguins to fish! Every single one of them was unique in their own way! I didn't have any cash on me so I couldn't purchase one, but I hope I have an opportunity to go back cause I definitely don't want to miss out on these one-of-a-kind treasures!!
Today after tutoring, I ate lunch with the kids at the school cafeteria! It's nothing like you would expect...no tables, no chairs, no cups, no napkins, no forks....They all sit in a circle on the floor with their bowls of food, scraping the sides with their hands to get all the rice! When they want a drink, they help each other pour the water from a communal pitcher directly into their mouth. It's the cutest thing to watch them try to aim to get the water in their mouth and not all over their uniforms! Surprisingly they are really good at it!!
Are they not the cutest??
This is one of the boys sweeping up the cafeteria with an Indian broom!!
The girls are obsessed with playing Concentration. You know the game where there's a category and you have to clap your hands in time while naming something in that category without messing up!! It's so fun!! Everyday at break and playtime they run up to you and will say, "Auntie, Auntie do you know how to play this?" putting their hands in the air, ready to play the hand game! It's hilarious!!
One of my favorite girls is Thrisha (see picture below). She is a fourth standard student from the Bharatapuram colony I mentioned above. She is such a sweetheart and so smart! I tutor her sometimes in math and she just blows me away with her skills. Her mother has one leg and I believe only one eye. Last night she showed me a picture of her sister who died as a baby. She loves loves loves that picture. She keeps it on her at all times: at school, at home, on the playground. Its precious. In fact, as she got up to leave from her tutoring session today, she said, "Wait! Where's my picture?" She wanted to make sure she had it before she left. She really will not go anywhere without it!!
I'm excited to say I am slowly but surely adjusting to the heat!! Today it thunder-stormed which was absolutely wonderful!! And very beautiful!! And apparently this weekend we are traveling to a beach city to go swim in the ocean so that will be a nice way to cool off!! I'm excited!!
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