This and That

We had two children enrolled yesterday - brother and sister ages 2 & 3 years old. They've been here before and we are hoping that they won't be staying long. Their mother is a young woman who grew up at FFC. I went to the toddler room and the boy was crying for his Ahma in such a sad way that I couldn't help but pick him up. He layed his head on my shoulder, one arm flung about my neck and shuddered with his sobs. He eventually fell asleep there and when I tried to lay him down, he woke up and started crying again. I sat beside him and he lay his head on my leg and cried a bit more while I rubbed his back - just a child seeking comfort. I kept thinking about all the things I should be doing - helping build the path for one of our blind girls, handing out donated gifts, working in the pre-school or kindergarden.... and then I decided that giving comfort to this one boy who was missing his mama was the most important thing I could be doing at that time.

This trip I've seen something I hadn't seen before in India. Funeral marches. I think they must be transporting the deceased to the graveyard or crematorium... the body is placed on a cart and is covered by a transparent veil. The cart is pulled by 4 or 5 men with what I assume is family walking behind. Some time later, the cart passes on its way back, empty now with just the men pulling it for company.

We are planning a volunteer dinner tomorrow night as two of our group head North on Thursday and I am leaving late Friday night. Two new voluteers arrived yesterday, one from Toronto and one from Portland. Our plans may be for naught though since we learned today that the entire state of Tamil Nadu is going on strike tomorrow in protest of the attacks against the Tamils in Sri Lanka. We've been told that all of the shops will be closed as a result and I imagine that the restaurants will be too. It will be interesting to see but my post may have to wait if the Internet Cafe is also closed.

One of the labourers came to the guest house yesterday to fill some holes in the walls - one of our volunteers is convinced that by filling these holes, the ants and cockroaches won't be able to get in. It was interesting to watch the processs though... he first threw water at the holes (about the size of my fist) and then mixed up some sort of concrete in a bowl. Then he took careful aim and threw handfuls of the mix at the holes, mostly getting the mix in. He then took broken up brick and placed chunks into each of the holes, threw more concrete mix at the hole until it was full and then smoothed it out. Looks like it did the job....... although we spied a cockroach at the bathroom sink some 4 hours later.....