Anti-American Frat Boys

Just a couple of notes about some of the kids:

Orphan: Guddu knows few words in English, but he seems to be really happy, although not at all interested in attending school or studying at home. He paints or makes designs all day. He also sits with the young kids and helps them as well. I do plan on doing more advanced feeling-based art projects with him and need to start making plans for that. He takes to me really well, though and I'm sure he'd be interested in whatever I provided him with or with whatever I asked him to do-so I should really get on that. He lost his leg when he was living on the railway tracks and collecting bottles for money- he didn't get out of the way fast enough, I guess.

Child from the slum: Alisha has really changed vastly since I've arrived. Every day i put her on my lap and try to get her to smile and I've been successful pretty much all week! Also, today she wrote 4 letters by herself, and repeated all of the letters when I asked her to (A BOLO!\SAY A!) which really took me by surprise. I'm going to keep working on that, but now a new challenge- Abdullahaman is a small boy of 3 or so who does nearly nothing himself. Including standing/sitting/speaking/drawing/writing. Although he did make a "D" on his slate today and said "Dog" and "cat" when I asked him to. There is hope! They are pretty young though, so they may just be very shy and still learning Hindi as well.

As far as my social life goes, I've been having a blast spending time with the other volunteers. We found a great place to dance and have some (free) drinks on certain nights, and in general, everyone is realy fun and supportive of one another. I've also met some locals and had a great time speaking with them. Yogen might take me to see a Hindi film this weekend (no subtitles!). I'm very excited.

The food at home has become quite redundant and I find myself losing my appetite regularily. I think I'll probably head out for food about once or twice a week to keep sane about it.

I have a cold, but it's not anything to fuss about. Peter is picking me up some oranges at the market and other girls have given me some vitamins as well.

Yesterday, when walking home from my project in a market with indian music, I thought to myself: "I may never want to leave this place."

Erin