Hello everyone!
Trusting that all has been well at home, this week has been a little different than most. As our group doubled in size, we worked to adjust to the new routines with all of the children present, and dealt with the challenges of sick and hospitalized children. The progress with everyone here continues to shine each day. Within my primary group, they’re all beginning to grow in their abilities identify and write an increased number of numbers, they’re growing in their phonics skills, catching on to the concept of 1 to 1 correspondence, and also learning more and more conversational English. When we began teaching them basic greetings and English words, they would simply repeat the words that we’d speak to them. Now, they’re beginning to reply to “Hello, how are you?” with “I’m fine!” and a smile, so they’re definitely beginning to understand more and more. When they want to be picked up, they will say up in English, instead of Marathi. They’ve learned to tell us when they want to play, when they want water, and when one of the other children has been hitting on them (smile). Many of the children in Rachel's group have started to show progress, moving from never saying anything to babbling and speaking to her in baby-talk ---- which is mountains more than what they had been doing before. The growth each day is remarkable and we’re definitely enjoying seeing them blossom before our eyes.
The little girl whose eyes were barely open when we arrived has kept her eyes open all week! Early in the week, she would keep them open fairly well and then open them all the way up once she heard one of us come into a room. As the week progressed, I began to sneak downstairs each night to check on the children and also to see how she was with keeping her eyes open. When I went downstairs the last two nights, she was playing, talking, and running around with her eyes opened as wide as she could possibly get them. After three weeks, the child whose eyes were once always closed has become an extremely bright-eyed toddler. The other little girl, whom they believed to be a mute for two months, sang twinkle, twinkle little star with a few other children and me on the swing yesterday! One of the caregivers looked over almost as if she had to see it to believe it and just beamed as the little girl sang the song and moved to the accompanying hand motions. She’s starting to repeat many more English words, as well as Marathi words. She’s to the point where she’s babbling, singing, or talking as much as, if not more than, all of the other children in her group --- and it just delights us.
This week was the first week the children were able to enter their small, blowup swimming pools and just just had a blast the entire time. While there was only about 4 inches of water in each pool, you would have thought they had taken a trip to the beach with as much splashing, laughing, jumping, and "swimming" they were each doing. Being here has certainly taught us to cherish the small things, as the children are experts at it. Their lives are so simplistic and, coming from America, it's amazing to watch while taking it all in. With everything from a little extra food at dinner time, to more milk at snack time, and even down to the one piece of chocolate they receive each evening, they certainly know how to show appreciation.
The older children that have just joined us this week have certainly made themselves at home very quickly. As I sat here and starting typing this update, the phone in the lounge beside our bedroom rang twice and then stopped. Immediately following, the phone in our bedroom rang. I picked it up and the person on the other end hang up. A few seconds later, it rang again and this time I answered and the 10 year old from our group was on the other end. His excitement was obvious, as they’d achieved their goal of figuring out how to contact us when we were “off of the clock.” They screamed, “Jackie tyie, you are coming down!?” And, as we’d discussed earlier, if I could understand them in English, I would respond appropriately. It was a little incentive to get all of the children to speak as much English as possible. I responded and told them I would be down but I intentionally waited about five minutes to see if they’d all again. About two short minutes later, the phone rang again and when I answered they said, “Tyie, are you standing there? Come fast!” My mission had been achieved and I joined them downstairs for dinner this evening, which pulled more conversation in English out of them. They’ve started to teach me fruits and vegetable in Marathi and Hindi, and I repay them by teaching them the English words for said items. So far, I have mastered grapes: Grapes, Ungal, Draksha!
Besides the day by day progress here, all else is well. The staff has asked if we will host a workshop to teach them how to make creative items with play-doh and we weren’t exactly sure how to respond. Being here has definitely pushed us deep into our creativity bags but we are certainly no experts. I’ve started to teach them one or two new items each day, and they’re delighted when they achieve success. In turn, the chef in the kitchen teaches me one or two new things each day. I’ve learned how to make fresh Chapati (similar to our tortillas at home), fresh coconut French beans, Indian rice, their special recipe for Chai tea, and I’ve learned how to process buffalo milk so that it is safe for the babies to drink --- it’s been quite an experience, to say the least.
Three weeks in, two to go.Blessings.
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