Another lovely filled-to-the-brim day in India! The Internet was down again yesterday and this morning but, of course, it's back now. Yesterday was a tutoring day for me. All the children I worked with came so far just in the 20 minutes I had with each. I can't believe how smart these little ones are. I've tried to learn some words in Tamil, their native language, but forget the words within seconds. I am doing really well with names now though. I have all the names of the 20 girls in my family down to a tee. After lunch three of us had the chance to teach 1st standard (1st grade) an English class. We decided to go through the alphabet and play games with the class. All the kids put a y in front of every letter they can so A in "yay" H is "yach" S is "yes" and you get the picture. It's super cute but it's a big goal to get them to pronounce sounds right so they are able to get better jobs out of school. Helping them was an absolute riot. I kept telling them to copy my mouth and exaggerated every sound. Their little faces were adorable, the whites of their eyes and their pearly teeth popping out from their dark faces. I couldn't get enough of it.

Play time last night was a blasty blast as usual. I heard the whole story of Belle and the Beast from Sagaya Mary grinning voice. She was so excited to play Auntie Andria and tell a story instead of listen for a change, that she would talk faster and faster and start throwing in Tamil words. The story was just as enchanting as ever, if not more. Then we had a amazing dinner on the roof and all the volunteers really bonded over talking about the various activity's of the day. An interesting thought came up. There always seems to be such great things that come from crappy situations. This whole organization was started because a mother lost a daughter who had secretly been sending money to an Indian orphan. She wanted to see why her daughter was so intrigued with India and traveled here to honor her memory. She was so touched by the people inflicted with leprosy, she started the outreach program and now it is working wonders. If that daughter had not died, these thousands of lives would not be what they are now. If these children's parents didn't have leprosy, they most likely wouldn't be receiving the education they are that will help them go serious places in life. They are receiving a better education than 85% of Indias children, which prior to now was unheard of for "untouchables". Now even parents in nearby villages are begging to have their children enrolled at the school. This is on such a large scale but I realised even in my own life, such beautiful things have come out of the hardest times I have gone through.

Then it was homework and story time. The kids are all studying for midterm exams on Monday so studying was serious business. Again I have to say the intelligence of all the students is incredible. I told the 4 little ones a few stories and sang them to sleep laying on the hard floor. I was so comfortable with the ceiling fan and four sweaty, probably lice infested, heads resting all over me, it was hard not to fall asleep right there on the concrete but I managed to pull away in time to kiss the older girls goodnight. They call me Auntie Butterfly and the love is as thick as peanut butter.

Abisha, who is only 5, has stolen my heart fully. In fact I've decided to sponsor her. These children only need $30 a month to cover ALL their living expenses and being here with them I've decided it's affordable for sure. I always thought those commercials with the slow zoomins on sad starving faces of skinny children on T.V. were bogus and a huge scam. Some of them may be, but I'm so glad to know that this organization is as real as the sun.

Today was a different day. It was our day off. We all piles on the bus and went to Mamalapouran for a day of shopping, sight seeing, and the beach! We saw some ancient temple ruins that were incredible and crawling with people. There is a gigantic boulder they call the butter ball that is positioned on a slope of rock so it looks like it should be falling, but it's been there since the beginning. It was amazing to see. We all shopped till we dropped too. I have to say I have become quite the little bargainer. I can't believe how much you can get for such little money here. It feels like your spending a lot because of the rupees though. For example: I bought a pair of shoes (of course) for 250 sounds like a lot but actually they were less than $5. screeeeeeeeamin deal I know! We unfortunately missed the beach due to lack of time, but I'll have another chance to see the ocean for sure.

As soon as we got home I ran over and kissed my girls goodnight and now I'm in my new night dress that kind of looks like a mu-mu only HOTT, typing away with blurry eyes. Joyfully Fatigued.