Kaalai Vanakaam!
I hope you are all well and have had a good week back at work/school/university. We have certainly been back into the full flow of work this week!
Balwadi was back in force with at least 35 kids there on Friday. We always leave feeling totally exhausted, and that's only after an hour there! We are looking at 'Festivals' with the kids this month, and this week was on the topic of Diwali. So on Wednesday we decided to make some firework pictures with chalk on big sheets of black paper. My little group of kids very quickly covered their paper in chalk so that it was too white to keep writing on. Stupidly, I then decided to show them that if you spat on you hand to make it wet, you could make a hand print in the chalk powder. Doh! By the end of the session I had been accidentally spat on numerous times and the paper was a soggy mess of chalk and black mush.
Fun Station has also been growing in numbers- I think we have had at least one new kid every day this week. Which is great, because it means that word is getting around and they must be enjoying it, but it does add to the chaos! There is a five-minute overlap when the boys are arriving and the girls are leaving, resulting in about 30 kids in a tiny room making more noise than I thought was possible. We have had some problems with getting rid of the girls this week. They always want to stay on for the boys' session, but obviously are not allowed to. They have also been waiting for us to finish Fun Station and then plead with us to be allowed to come back to our flat. Again, this is obviously not a good idea, but they are certainly persistent and you feel so bad telling them that they need to go home! We have a few kids who are too young to stay for the studying, so we quite often find ourselves dropping two or three kids back at their homes on our way to our flat. There is one little girl (maybe 6 years old?) who has started coming and is deaf, presenting a few challenges! She is lovely and very bright, and apparently does not know sign language or anything like that and just goes to a normal school. So Fun Station is as crazy as ever, but the kids are great and despite the madness we are all enjoying it. Oh yes, and apparently they are all coming back to England with me (so they say) so brace yourselves!
We are STILL waiting for the new class to start at Jacob's Well (the Indian sense of urgency is non-existent!) but have been assured that they are definitely starting with a class of 10 girls and we will be teaching them. Lessons are going fairly well. We have introduced a 'Star of the Week' certificate to promote the good behaviour and I now have a very practised 'angry teacher' face! One of our lessons this week was interrupted by a tiny little gecko that ran across the floor, causing all the girls to hop around screaming for a while. It is amazing how much havoc such a small creature can cause! I was really touched by the card and gift that they all gave me for my birthday. They only found out it was my birthday yesterday morning, and so in their 45 minute lunch break they went to buy me some biscuits and a pen that they wrapped up, pass-the-parcel style. It was quite entertaining opening it with them that afternoon!
On the work front, I don't think there is much else new. We have been doing quite a lot of office work recently and still have heaps of typing to do, but unfortunately there is a fair amount of competition for one of the two computers at the office and so we rarely get a chance to do it. The next couple of weeks are a bit strange: next week, we are only working on Monday as Tuesday is a holiday (Pongal, the cow festival) and Wednesday to Friday we are going on a retreat (I am not quite sure what that will entail yet...) The following week the Bangalore team are visiting us and then we are visiting Bangalore with them. So a busy time coming up!
Oh yes, the other exciting news is that Oasis have officially signed their contract with Vyasarpadi and the work there is just beginning now. There is already a Fun Club running with about 30 kids attending, and once we are back from our busy couple of weeks we will be going there every evening to run it. And Becky told us to expect even more kids by then! I am really looking forward to it. There is also a possibility that we will start the Fun Club in SM Nagar again, which would be great although I'm not sure how we could possibly fit it in.
The other event of this week is that I joined the vast club of 'People who went to India and got sick'. We had a really nice dinner of Gobi Manchurian at a roadside restaurant, but unfortunately I saw my Gobi for the second time later that evening. I don't think I will be able to eat Gobi again for a long time!
In church this week, we watched the 'Indescribable Part 2' video, which was very good. We also paid a visit to Sparky's and sat with some friends form church. Julie had been given a huge block of cheese by a friend who was visiting (cheese is something that you just cannot get over here) and so there was a whole queue of people waiting to try a small sample. Clearly bringing in cheese is the way to make friends here! Sabrina and Helen were VERY excited to have a lump to bring home. I just can't understand all the fuss over the stuff.
I have decided that the Post Offices here are even worse than the ones at home. I went to buy stamps this week, and after waiting for ever and finally asking for my stamps, the lady informed me that because I didn't have the exact change she wouldn't serve me. Grrrr. They are more unhelpful that you can imagine! So that is my excuse if you haven't had a letter from me yet.
Other occurrences: Sabrina and Helen have banned me from tidying the flat which is quite nice! A dead bird almost fell on our heads yesterday. Oh yes, and of course, the birthday celebrations! The office staff spent all week plaguing me with hints of rotten eggs and tomatoes to help celebrate my birthday (they decided to make it yesterday because we are obviously not at work on Saturday). It wasn't too bad, though. I had a stunning Nemo cake (due to the renown of our pet fish!) and we had a pretty vicious cake fight in the office yesterday. It is a bit of a tradition there that after cutting your cake and having it fed to you, someone will put a handful of cream in your face and this eventually ends up in everyone running around the office throwing cream and icing at each other. I found yet more icing in my ear this morning!
Sabrina and Helen bought me two beautiful pot plants as a birthday gift, for outside our flat! I have been wanting to get some for ages, just in case you think that is a strange gift. Not sure what we are doing for the rest of today, apart from going to the Fruit Shop of course!
Well, I think that is everything for now. I will try to upload some photos later.
Prayer points:
- Thank God that the work in Vyasarpadi is starting and that we will be involved there.
- Pray for the new Jacob's Well class as they begin soon (I hope!).
- Pray for all six of us as we go on our retreat, that it will be a good time of rest.
- Thank God for the increase in numbers at both Balwadi and Fun Station and pray that this continues and that we handle more children without any problems.
Must dash, lots of emails to reply to this week! Thank you muchly for those, btw!
Kandace xxx
"Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit will be explosive; they will make a noise and an impact. Their words, lives and presence will change things."
We were given a Christmas gift called 'Grow Jesus'- basically one of those little toys that you put in water and they grow much bigger, except ours is Jesus. This is part of Sabrina and Helen's conversation one evening this week:
H: "What do you think we will say when we get to heaven?"
S: "Dunno."
Helen walks into the kitchen.
H: "Whoa, look at the size of Jesus!"
