finally

Sorry I haven't written in so long. Once I get behind, I avoid writing because I have so much to say to catch up. So I'm not gonna do very much catching up. But here are the most recent occurrences:
Instead of having school, for the next three weeks (the current week included) we are doing "summer camp" with the school kids. This is because they are all currently on their equivalent of a summer break in the US from their Indian schools. So the camp runs from 10 to 1 and we do crafts and GK. Every GK is some kind of science experiment or fun activity.
A new volunteer named Michaela came on Sunday. She's from the Czech Republic, but she's lived in the US for the past 11 years. She's staying only for two weeks. She's kool. Then on Thursday, two Dutch women (friends travelling the world together) came. Their names are Tessa and Alie and they'll be here for 3 weeks. They're also really fun. All three of these women are over 30, so I am by far the youngest in the flat. That's ok though.
I went to Dum Dum for myfirst time ever since being in CRAWL on Thursday. Because of the altered schedule for summer camp, Dum Dum and school don't overlap. It was nice. Much fewer kids than Sealdah and much less hectic. Everyone is more polite and things feel more organized. More gentle. I am still partial to Sealdah though, because I know all of the people there. I know I would grow to love Dum Dum in the same way if I went consistently, but I will only be going for three weeks, and maybe only one day in each week. We'll see.
At summer camp, we've painted clay vases, made dry flower boquets (which involved painting dry coconut flowers and turned out beautiful), made wall hangings, and decorated big sheets of paper on which we will put a small poem or drawing from each student. For the GK part, we've made mold gardens, played with a parascope, grown (or are in the process of growing) sugar crystals, and talked about taste and taste maps (ya know those maps of the tongue that show which part is responsible for which taste? Well it turns out its a myth, but we had the kids taste sweet, salty, sour and bitter things anyways, and they tried to decide which part of the tongue tasted those the most. It didn't work very well...)
Sealdah has been empty the past two Fridays, but its been really fun on the weekends. I just love taking the kids to wash and brush their teeth. Its involvement with them a new level. They appreciate it so much too. And they're all so sweet. Also, because my Bengali is improving, I can talk to them a fair amount now, which is really fun.
I have just under seven weeks left until I leave, which is really unbelievable.

~m