From monsoonal rains to Hindi classes

Written by Elizabeth Handby - GapBreak 2009, India

Things are going really well. We had our second day-care class this morning and I love the kids so much, there are very cute, especially Tilsi and Manju, who are both 2 and 3 and they cannot speak much Hindi but when I prompt them to speak they will say 'my name is...' and ‘I am fine how are you’. We have 2 blind children and they are willing and happy, although there was a little bit of a fight.

We did our first orphanage class last night and its all boys. There are 3 in our class and one really struggles but the other 2 are great. Every second day we do craft with them and play games on the other days. The kids love to play thumb wars and high fives, plus when we sing to them in English.

We do lots of lesson planning and it takes up our evening, so by the time it comes to bed time, we are absolutely exhausted.

I have been really tired for the past 2 days because the past 2 nights we have had terrible storms, Monday night was so bad we had just fallen asleep when it began to rain so much and really windy and thunder and lightening that the power went off and Emily and I raced around the whole room shutting all our windows and door to the balcony and man oh man.... then it got really really hot cause there was no breeze… Then last night in the middle of the night it happened again... the power went off and we ran around the house again, shutting windows. Unfortunately on Monday, parts of the house flooded. It was amazing... and all yesterday there were major power cuts. I think its because of the monsoon which starts soon.

We are planning a trip to Agra for about 3 weeks time to see the Taj Mahal so I am very excited. I am also planning my travels after the placement to Delhi, Mumbai and somewhere along the Ganges.
i went into town the other day. We went to an Indian supermarket and it was cool. Emily and I went to a temple the other day and we went in and ate some food of the Gods and got a few photos.

We have been going to our Hindi lessons, I am finally understanding a bit.. I think that its hard but I can remember some words and which words are hard words and which are soft. if a word has a h in it its hard and if it doesn’t its soft. We have been watching some Hindi channels. Music and TV shows and they are so lame and funny but good i guess. I am going to buy some henna and do my hair; apparently it lasts for 3 months so I cannot wait.