and then I loved

Today was my last day with my 1^st grade class with them as 1^st graders…next time I see them they’ll be 2^nd graders. And as we hurried through Oh the Thinks you can Think!* By Dr. Suess (one of my favorites) it started going through my mind. The ending of things. As we walked to the buses I walked a moment with each child holding their hand and telling them that I was glad I was their teacher and I was proud of them, thanking them for cards and fun memories. And giving parting hugs. Towards the end some of the kids gathered around me, running into my arms for their hug, telling me in broken English that they loved me and “bye!”. And as they clung to my hand or held me in their hug or ran to me it caught me by surprise: this love I have for them. This intense warmth of love. Tears were in my eyes.  And as one little boy pulled me down to his level he told me “I love you ….AUNTY” (which is huge. I’ve always been mam here never aunty) and as he said it I knew he had put emotion and love behind it as this huge smile spread over his face. And giving my cheek a kiss he ran off to the bus with me calling out after him “I love you!” as tears began to threaten to fall. I held it together to give my final hugs and get my kisses but as I walked back to the classroom to get my books I had tears streaming down my face. I sat down and looked at the empty classroom and thought “how can I leave?”. I got myself back under control long enough to walk back to my house where I promptly broke down again. I have two more months till I come home. Two months.

My heart is gripped with the finality of it. That I can never again go into Class 1B and see those kids. The finality of the fact that I leave in 9 weeks. How can I leave? How do you say goodbye? How is it Already half way through March?! How do you leave these kids that love you and you love in return?

  

*I’ve been reading them the story and making them colour as we go along, of course I didn’t show them the pictures till today. To get them to be creative. It starts easy: draw some birds, something yellow, blue, red and pink but then they have to think up a “zong”, a “guff”, a “snuv”, “The Vipper of Vip” what Na-nup looks like and Da-dake! For kids that can’t draw anything without copying a picture it was intense~but wonderful and fun. The end results were amazing!

TRIP!

Tomorrow the other girls and I are starting on our trip. We all will go down to delhi and then go see the Taj Mahal. Katie and I will continue on by ourselves! We'll spend the night in Agra (where the Taj is) and then continue west to Rajasthan, which is known for colour and to be more like Aladin-ish (is it sad that I still base things off cartoons?)! I'm so excited. We're going to Udaipur (the bone-white dessert) where we want to ride camels and horses and see things! And then we're spending a few days in Jaipur, the capital of Jaipur. It's the PINK city. How awesome is that? a pink city! I am so excited. We have lots of llllooooooonnnnnggggggg train rides (more than 10 hours) so thats the least exciting part. We'll be gone for 10 days and I'm expecting it to be fully magical.  Pictures are definitely to come!

I love being here!

I’ve been here for a week! It’s been a great week. I’m settling back in both on the farm with the boys and at the school. Our house is being redone [bathroom tiled and painted, room being painted, marble counter in the kitchen!!!) so Ruth and I in Kara and Jeremy’s (two new awesome volunteers!) house. It’s been nice because I have my own room so I’m not afraid of waking Ruth up when I get up at 3 and 4 am. Gotta love time changes. Hopefully we’ll be back in our house by the end of next week!

         School has been really great! I’m working with Kelly in 1A (first grade) for two periods, teaching phonics with both of the second grade classes, teaching in KG for two periods (so much fun!), and then I still have my “fun class” with 1B. I love being at the “big school”. I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be. It’s a nice feeling! Of course there have been some not so nice things…getting used to the cold showers…(yuck!), the food (which is normally tasty but still a big change), the electricity coming and going, and not being able to understand a lot of what is being said…. BuT I’ve had so many more highlights:

*My first day my class 1B started screaming “hello”s and ran up for hugs.

*The teacher I worked with gave me a big hug and said they missed me and why hadn’t I come sooner.

*Ratan told me he saw me (it wasn’t actually me someone who looks like me) at the hospital and I had a little baby who was so cute and kept falling down when he tried to walk.

*Bharat asking me “Who are you?” and then answering his question as “I am Bharat, boy, son of God” and telling me I am Kalana, daughter of God.

*reading stories with the boys

*Playing tea party with Joshna

*Having one of the little boys (in class 1b) grab my hand as I was handing out papers and stammer “Mam…I…..I…you beautiful”.

*Teaching sign language to my classes

*Having the kids say “ka” for the sound c makes! No more “sa”!

*Buying a dozen bananas for $.60

*Telling the story of Job in assembly, my first assembly since coming back…I loved being back up there doing assemblies!

*playing catch phrase with the other volunteers.

*chow mein birthdays

*having CONVERSATIONS with kids at school (their English has gotten so much better!)

*Mukund’s improvements. The other day he came and found me at school to show me his 92% test. I love that kid.

*Rahul giggling and trying to hide from bedtime kisses.

*Miraj telling me about his day.

*Getting mob hugged by my old playgroup class.

*Seeing all my “favorite” kids.

*playing with Joshna (Ken and Frieda’s awesome 4 year old granddaughter who just moved out here with her parents!)

*Spicy “cheetos”

*the Mountains

*The new volunteers who are all totally awesome!

*Phonics time is my new favorite part of the day!

*playing on the teeter totter to show “weight” and a “scale” with some kids I take out from 1A.

*Wearing bangles again

I love being back in India.