Monday started mass hysteria. The kids have come back to
campus—but not all of them. We wanted all of them but school started for the
entire state of Tamil Nandu so the trains were most likely packed and
unfortunately, the children coming from leprosy colonies usually get pushed to
the back of the line. Which sometimes means pushed days back. And no one has
phones so we just have to wait until they show up.
While some of the nurses went out to colonies myself and two
other girls stayed back to “help” with the first day. We spent most of our time
with the UKG kids—which are the newest and smallest and most adorable ones.
They also happened to be the ones that “speak next to no English” and who spontaneously start crying. I can’t blame them though. They
are anywhere from 4-6 years old, and some of them were dropped off by their
family for the school year because their colonies are to far away to go home to
each night. We have family days once I month but still, that's hard when you're a kid. Despite the
tears, these kids are resilient to say the least. It has been fun helping with
education this week—I helped some kids operate a computer for the first time
ever and even tutored math for some. Ill be honest I got a few questions wrong but
mostly I always gave them the right answer. Oops. What do you do.
Besides getting the kids back into school mode, we have had
numerous health classes with the older kids and medical testing/procedures with
all the kids. Not all are finished but mandatory delousing and deworming of all
the children are on the list-along with what I am sure will be the highlight of
their entire week-the birds and the bees talk. That should be interesting in a
culture where boys and girls have to sit on separate sides of the room and
basically aren’t really allowed to talk to one another but then eventually
enter into an arranged marriage. And I
thought Mormon dating was a mess. One of the funniest things I’ve noticed this
week has happened during eye exams and reading tutoring with the kids. They say
all their letters with a H sound in front of them so it ends up sounding like
Hhh-A, Hhh-M, Hhh-E, Hhh-L, etc. Ill see if I can get a video of it, but it
makes me laugh every time. It is adorable.
Each night we go to the children’s hostels and read the
older ones books. The younger ones have usually fallen asleep—so we just step
over them. It is funny to see how they sleep—all on the floor and sprawled
across one another. There are bunk beds but there are not enough for each kid
so they all just grab a pillow and hit the cement floor. They defiantly become
one another’s family. It is fun to see
the older kids “take care” of the younger ones.
