Today was activity day at the school day. Basically it is madness. It is very fun because the children get to color, play with blocks, color, and dance. The older children participate in making candles, sewing, and embroidery. Basically no traditional learning takes place on Wednesdays. I played blocks with the little ones. Let me tell you, there is a lot of wheeln', dealn', and stealn' going on in the play group classroom of the Vihan school. I gave each child five blocks and next thing you know children are snatching, trading, and ever so sly, hiding the blocks in their satchels. Yes, I said satchel (British for school bag). I told Hannah, my friend from the UK, that I was going to be speaking British by the end of my trip. The children love playing with the blocks, and school is the only opportunity that they get to play with anything like blocks. It is very sad though because the children are always on survival mode and they rarely get the chance to truly be children. Rather than sharing and working together with the blocks, they think only about number one because I think this is what they have to do here to 1) get any attention and 2) to survive. I danced with the older children later on in the day and it is so much fun. When a song comes on the radio that they love, they all start singing and dacing like crazy. The people here are so animated and colorful. This four year old has pretty much taught himself how to break dance, and he is pretty dang good. The girls take their shawls and begin dancing with them, and the boys dance just as much as the girls.

I have to add that I haven't eaten meat since I came here. Wait, this is a lie, I tried mutton (goat meat). I tried it once and other than that I have not eated meat. Most of the volunteers loose weight here, but the food really is full of fat (oil and butter) , I am not sure how. Maybe because the increase walking or the dramactically decrease in the consumption of processed foods. I have also lost weight, it is nice, because I run my butt of at home and do not loose weight, and here I do nothing and the weight just falls off. I like India. I also like biscuits (Indian and British for very plain tea cookie). They taste good and are a great snack (process food for the soul).

I believe I am going to begin private Hindi lessons. I am excited about this because I only know a few words of Hindi so this will come in handy for me.