I promised a certain reader that I'd try to write more...
Being back in Khardah has been nice. I was getting tired of constantly being on the move. Being a tourist is ok for awhile, but I really prefer to stay in one place and get to know it and its people well, rather than just looking and leaving.
I was definitely very happy to see all of my students again, and I think they were excited to see me too.
At craft class on Saturday, the kids painted used clay chai (in Bengali, cha) cups to be used for decoration. Lots of them painted the same design, but Binda made hers very intricate and beautiful. It was interesting because the next day at craft class, they made birthday cards for Imelda (a volunteer who is from Ireland but lives in Australia) and Binda really struggled. She could barely draw hearts, let alone write "happy birthday". But painting she had been fabulous at. She's 15 I think, but she's way behind the other students. She barely speaks any English, and I don't think she goes to school outside CRAWL. In CRAWL, she's in Bobby's class with the little kids, learning the alphabet and such.
Sealdah was empty on Sunday because of some puja or other. My favorites weren't there, so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing them on Friday. It will have been four weeks since I've seen them at that point.
On Moday, I had a nice relaxing day at the flat. I started reading "Am I a Hindu", which explains the basic aspects of Hinduism. I'm living in a Hindu place, but I really know nothing about Hinduism. Anyway, that's changing now. I got about halfway through the book on that one day... When I went to play football with the kids, they didn't want to play, so we just walked around Khardah until it got dark. I enjoyed it. After that, all the volunteers went out to eat at the Penguine Inn for Imelda's birthday, and we had cake and ice cream back at the flat.
Today, Aude (volunteer from Switzerland), Imelda, my mom (she's staying at the flat and volunteering with CRAWL for two weeks) and I went into Kolkata. We had breakfast and went to a little store that sells imported foods, and then we went to the Victoria Memorial. None of them had been before. The weather was great, unlike when CRAWL went for the field trip.
We did play football today. The kids are too damn rough with eachother, but I didn't have the energy to police them today.
That's all for now, I think...
~m