Wednesday October 22
What to do? I wandered around this morning and found a small group of boys playing marbles. That gave me an idea. I returned to my room and got a pocketful of marbles (konchi) and returned to the fence. I never knew marbles would cause such a riot. As I offered the players a few marbles, suddenly there was a deluge of bodies and arms reaching out for a marble! It's amazing how these little guys can squirm their fingers inside your clenched fist to extract a marble! So I tried to bring some order out of chaos and make them line up so I could distribute the marbles fairly. Then there was jostling for position and some boys got several marbles while others got none. The plaintive looks of the boys who were without sent me back to my room for some more, and finally a third trip until I had lost all my marbles!
Today was also a bit of a workday. A clothesline pole had pulled out of the ground and needed to be re-seated. It took awhile to find some digging tools, but when they arrived they came with 6 or 7 young men to handle them, dig the hole out and lift the pole back in place and fill around the base. Not before I unstringing the lines attached to the other post, then restringing them for a fait accomplis. There was a lot of laughter and fun during the process. They certainly try hard to express themselves in English.
After the work, the boys wanted to go swimming. They would pay. I tried to explain we had never paid the day before when we had taken a few boys to a little water hole just outside the compound. They insisted it would cost 40 rupees each, 400 for 10 of us. Curious, I wondered where THAT was coming from. I followed them as they made their way to Papa Frank's. Now I knew where their ATM was. Fortunately, he was in a meeting and I just said, "Let's go!" They had a driver for the hostel jeep and away we went. Yup, to another location with an outdoor pool about 30x30 feet square and 5' deep at the deepest end. I couldn't see the bottom through the green water and I found it just a little slimy. Visibility less than two feet. We spent an hour there then went home for a shower...for safety.
Then it was nap-time after lunch and then watching the kids play some of their games, games I had never seen before. One game was fascinating...placing a short (4") stick on the ground with two pointed ends, then taking a club like stick about 30" long, smacking the short stick to make it bounce in the air and clubbing it in baseball fashion to send the short stick sailing into the field. It took Carsen a few tries to even get the stick off the ground, but eventually he did. But the skills of the other children were amazing!
And so another exciting day winds down as we wait for supper and then turn in. Tomorrow is Diwali and fireworks are already being discharged! It promises to be a loud day tomorrow.
What to do? I wandered around this morning and found a small group of boys playing marbles. That gave me an idea. I returned to my room and got a pocketful of marbles (konchi) and returned to the fence. I never knew marbles would cause such a riot. As I offered the players a few marbles, suddenly there was a deluge of bodies and arms reaching out for a marble! It's amazing how these little guys can squirm their fingers inside your clenched fist to extract a marble! So I tried to bring some order out of chaos and make them line up so I could distribute the marbles fairly. Then there was jostling for position and some boys got several marbles while others got none. The plaintive looks of the boys who were without sent me back to my room for some more, and finally a third trip until I had lost all my marbles!
Today was also a bit of a workday. A clothesline pole had pulled out of the ground and needed to be re-seated. It took awhile to find some digging tools, but when they arrived they came with 6 or 7 young men to handle them, dig the hole out and lift the pole back in place and fill around the base. Not before I unstringing the lines attached to the other post, then restringing them for a fait accomplis. There was a lot of laughter and fun during the process. They certainly try hard to express themselves in English.
After the work, the boys wanted to go swimming. They would pay. I tried to explain we had never paid the day before when we had taken a few boys to a little water hole just outside the compound. They insisted it would cost 40 rupees each, 400 for 10 of us. Curious, I wondered where THAT was coming from. I followed them as they made their way to Papa Frank's. Now I knew where their ATM was. Fortunately, he was in a meeting and I just said, "Let's go!" They had a driver for the hostel jeep and away we went. Yup, to another location with an outdoor pool about 30x30 feet square and 5' deep at the deepest end. I couldn't see the bottom through the green water and I found it just a little slimy. Visibility less than two feet. We spent an hour there then went home for a shower...for safety.
Then it was nap-time after lunch and then watching the kids play some of their games, games I had never seen before. One game was fascinating...placing a short (4") stick on the ground with two pointed ends, then taking a club like stick about 30" long, smacking the short stick to make it bounce in the air and clubbing it in baseball fashion to send the short stick sailing into the field. It took Carsen a few tries to even get the stick off the ground, but eventually he did. But the skills of the other children were amazing!
And so another exciting day winds down as we wait for supper and then turn in. Tomorrow is Diwali and fireworks are already being discharged! It promises to be a loud day tomorrow.
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