At school on Friday I gave a test to the advanced students. I haven't graded it yet but I think the majority of them did pretty well. With the intermediate kids, I did a small unit on measurement. After we measured a few flat, boring objects, they measured their feet and then they took string and measured the distance around their wrists, ankles, heads and waists. The kids really enjoyed it.
Sealdah on Friday was fun. We just roamed to hand out food. We fed 70 kids. A few weeks ago, one of the volunteers left a salwar that she had bought but didn't want to keep. I said I wanted it, but then I decided to give it to someone at Sealdah instead. I gave it to my favorite girl, Puja. I've talked about her before. She's 15 (maybe 16 by now), married, and has a nearly one-year-old child. I'm sure the salwar will be far too big for her since it was a little big on me. But she'll appreciate it so much more than I ever would have. She didn't come to Sealdah on Saturday and Sunday, so I haven't seen her wearing it yet.
Sealdah was good on Saturday and Sunday as well. The usual coloring, washing, food distribution. There hasn't been very much wound care recently, which I'm happy with. I know its good work, but I really don't like it. It grosses me out. We played with the jump ropes again this morning, which the kids loved.
For "computer" class on Saturday, the boys wanted to make lassis. For those who don't know, lassis are a yogurt drink which are really popular in India. I told them that we could do this if they then wrote down the directions for making them in English. They agreed. So we had a fun, out of the box class. The lassis themselves were mediocre at best. The boys didn't really have any idea what they were doing, I think. We had all the ingredients right, but in the wrong proportions. Joy added way too much water, so they were too thin. They tasted alright, but the texture was wrong... I think I could make them properly now if I tried though. So that's nice.
At craft, we finished making the puppets we started last week.
My phone got stolen on Friday, so after class on Saturday, Bobby and I went to the police station to get an order to block the SIM. (Bobby came to help translate) Also with the paper they gave me, I can get a duplicate SIM with the same balance. India is so different from the US in this way, its crazy. In America, I think the police don't give a damn about peoples' cell phones. You can go to Walmart and buy a prepaid phone and that's that. But here you have to submit a photo, a photocopy of an ID, a permanent address. And the police have to order the stopping of the SIM. But it's what the process was at the police station that was so amusing to me. Bobby and I waited in line for nearly an hour. When we got to the front, the man told us to write out a report saying I'd lost my phone. We went across the street and bought a piece of paper for half a rupee. Then the officer dictated to me what to write. It was so hilarious and dramatic. "I, blah blah, daughter of blah, residing at blah, unfortunately lost my mobile, model # blah, SIM # blah, while at Raharabazar (not true) on 7/3/09 (it happened on 6/3/09). Given the above circumstances, I kindly request you to make a log of this in your diary. Thanking you, Maura Farrell" Then the officer wrote something down in his book, stamped my paper, wrote a number on it, and I was on my way. I just have to submit that paper with the stamp at a Vodaphone store, and I'll get a new SIM.
The police station itself kind of remided me of something in an old Western movie. There was one main room, with smaller offices off of it. There were two desks in the middle of the room, with officers seated, helping people who were in line. At the back of the room were two jail cells, one for men, one for women (the women one was empty). The detainees were just standing at the bars, listening and watching everything that happened. I could see a small chalk board hanging with a name, a number, and "THIEF" written on it. I'm sure that's what they have the prisoners hold when they take their mug shots.
I stopped by Piya's house on my way home to get a list of ingredients from her so her computer class could make something also. I wanted to go quickly because a previous volunteer was at the flat and I wanted to talk to him some before he left. But of course Piya's family insisted that I sit down and have some tea. I felt so bad when they asked me about what had happened and I told them about 1200 rupees (maybe $23) and my phone had been stolen, and acting like it wasn't a big deal. That is a fortune for them.
Today Piya, Arati and Kajal made suji at "computer class". I don't really know what it is in English, but its quite like cream of wheat. The ingredients are milk, butter, sugar, suji (this a grain of some sort that I guess is a close relative or the same as what is used in cream of wheat), cashews and raisins. It was really good.
At GK, we watched more of the Ganges documentary. The DVD player was giving me hell, so we didn't finish it today like I thought we would. We'll finish next week. Today was Lauren's last day of Sealdah and school. She leaves on Thursday morning, but Wednesday and Thursday are Holi festival, so there are no projects on that day. The kids all made nice cards for her. She'll see all of the girls and some of the boys at least once more though. Even so, it was really sad. I'm sad to see her go, but also her leaving makes me think about what it will be like for me to leave. I can't even imagine it. It will be hard.

~m