Lice is Nice?

I had a great day today.

Started off with a Hindi exam, where I got a 60/75. Not bad, huh. I know colors and how to tell time!

We read the cutest poem the other day from my First Grade hindi book called "Gudiyaan Rani" (Queen Doll):


How cute is that?!

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After class, I went to an orphanage. Yesterday, I met with the director from a ngo called Udayan Care where they do all kinds of really great things for abandoned children. One of their unique projects is having these long-term residential homes (kinda like an orphanage, but with only a few number of residents). There's one home in Sant Nagar, about 20 minutes away from my place, where 12 girls aged 7-15 live. This organization puts a lot of emphasis on education: girls are given really strict schedules and study hours; and they provide scholarships for them to go to college and get their degrees.

So, I went today - to check out the home and meet some of the girls and just help out in any way that I can. It was amazing! The home is located in the middle of this gully. And when I walked in, the entire place is painted in purple and pink (very girly). I think there's only about 4 rooms, so there are beds everywhere; there's one study room and a kitchen.

I ate lunch with the girls, got to know their names and what they like to do. Then, I helped some with homework. Today, I helped a girl named Anjali who was not at all interested in addition and subtraction. Instead, she was obsessed with finding her glasses, and then playing with my clicky lead pencil. "Didi - ek baar karo!" (every time the lead would break, she would squeal with delight and made me click it so that more lead would come out).

It was really touching to see some of the interaction amongst the girls, and between the girls and their supervisor (there are some women who come and volunteer to take care of the place and give supervise the girls - provide some guidance with homework, etc). For example, one of the girls didn't want to eat, so the supervisor took her plate, made itty bitty bites for her ("mountains of rice", like my mom used to do!) and then she ate the food. Or another girl who wanted 20 rupees for a cooking class at school, and brought the supervisors purse from the corner so that she could get the money. I can't believe that these girls have no one. No mom. Or no dad. Or no sisters or brothers... it's just so uplifting to see members of the community step up and take over this mom role of disciplining the girls, educating them, making sure they eat, and all of that.

Anyway, I'm going to be coming in every Wednesdays for a couple of hours and help out with recreational activities (painting, art projects, sports), tutoring/homework, internet help, and also educating them on certain topics.

Next week's lesson is going to be on lice.

Why?

Well apparently, one of the girls has lice. This was the topic of conversation during lunch, by the way. "Yesterday, Puja* had so much lice! She combed her hair in the bathroom and two whole tiles full of lice came out! It was like rain!" Which meant that (of course), my scalp immediately began itching and hasn't stopped since.

Please, god. No lice for me.

Now which one was Puja again...?

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*name has been changed to protect the identification of the children.

xx