Today

My pride and joy is our new library. We've had great books sent from American donors, and I've spent the last two weeks organizing and setting it all up. The response has been phenomenal; I have to kick kids out every afternoon when I need to leave. Here's Rasheed Basha and Gokulraj, two guys crazy about books.

 

I meant to blog more frequently, but the days are very full. I have to remind myself to eat and sit down occasionally. Today I made sure kids knew where to go (we added tutoring classes in the morning, and the younger students get confused), helped latecomers hurry along, taught mini-English classes to various teachers (Rajesekaran, Dhanesekaran, Indumathi, Mathavi, Thanika), taught first grade library hour, taught second grade (aka hell's angels) library hour, shuffled kids to afternoon tutoring hour, observed four tutoring classes and made sure teachers were pronouncing words correctly, helped one teacher learn how to use Wikipedia and the printer, brought library books to kids not in tutoring hour, checked out library books to approximately 1452 yelling children, had 4 others read to me, stayed behind to clean up the aftermath: a serious mess of a library, made copies of math worksheets, finally went home, helped boys with their reading, ate, helped another with his reading, discussed some problems with the directors, crashed.