Getting Schooled

Oh Mondays...

It's so strange to have to go to classes instead of just playing around...
I suppose you are all wondering what classes I'm taking...
I suppose I'll tell you...
I had trouble forming a schedule because they really only give you a very vague idea of when classes are going to be, where they are being held, and who is teaching them...all of the classes that I tried to go to for the last week or so ended up being non-existent or scheduled to be held at a different time than I thought they were. I made it to one class and sat through the lecture for 2 hours before the professor informed me that she really didn't want any American students in the class...But with a little bit of patience and stick-to-itiveness I got a schedule. It is as follows:
Basic Hindi-- I'm excited to be able to read things soon!
Kuchipudi Dance-- It's still not clear if this class exists or not.
Indian National Movement (1900-1947)--History, Gandhi, politics...should be interesting.
Ecological Anthropology-- I don't really know what either of those words mean or what this class is about, but I needed a fourth class and I kind of wanted it to be something completely different from all my other classes...so there you go...

I'm also taking an extracurricular Khatak Dance class and I'm still doing the 6am Yoga boot camp certificate course (I'm badly in need of a nap). Other than the fatigue the yoga is going well, today I touched the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

This weekend was really busy.
On Saturday our program took us out to a rural school called the M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation. The organization works to abolish child labor one child at a time. The kids there are either orphans or they have some pretty grim life stories. We spent the day there, the kids sang a song for us, then we heard a few of their stories, then we ate lunch with them and played games all afternoon. Our digital cameras were extremely popular. I took mine out to take one single picture and it was immediately pulled from my hands by the two girls on the right. They quickly figured out how to use it and filled up my memory card with really artistic images like the one on the left. When it was time to leave I had to pry it from their fingers in order to get it back. A lot of the girls in my program who have longer hair got bombarded by little girls wanting to give them braids, and not one of us left without getting a bindi painted on our forehead. And they were relentless with the frisbees. Everyone (little kids and us big kids) had a good time despite the language barrier. "Fun" seems to be a pretty universal concept. I couldn't tell whether or not the school had running water or electricity and the classrooms were very sparse, but if nothing else the school is a friendly and fun environment. Compared to the lifestyles some of these kids had before, that's a huge improvement. Even though it was a fun day it came along with a lot of harsh realities about the world. How does one write lightly about these things? If you have any ideas let me know.