Day 7- 1 week of being in the village!

Today, I woke up to another gloomy day. No rain, but lots of clouds and a general dismal feeling. I went outside and pretended it wasn’t so gloomy! I took my chair outside as I do on sunny days, set it up and read two days worth from God’s word. I am going through the One-Year Bible- the Chronological Bible in the New Living Translation. Anyway…in spite of my positive attitude and efforts to ignore the greyness of the day, it was still cold and eventually I had to give up and go inside.

Robin and I had some green slimy stuff for breakfast, or lunch rather. (We eat our first meal of the day around 12 noon). We figured the chunks were probably potatoes, but how they got green we weren’t sure. Robin couldn’t finish hers. I did, but didn’t enjoy it very much. I mainly ate it because I knew it would be another 10 hours before we would eat again! After eating we went to Deepa’s house for our language session.

Today’s language session was…okay. Deepa has a hard time with teaching us pronouns. Mainly today, I was trying to take a verb I already knew the way Anju had taught me and figure out the differences in her Kahani and Deepa’s. I figured out one difference, but there were others that I’m not 100% sure if they were different or if Deepa just didn’t understand. Ahh!! She also seems to be impatient with us- not waiting very long for us to say the answer to a picture she points to. From being a teacher, it is hard to not just give the answer, but so much more joy comes to both the teacher and the student when the student is the one who has learned it and can produce it. When she sees that in us, I think she’ll give us more time and chances to figure it out on our own…hopefully.

While Robin was having her language session, I hung out with the kids. We had a good time taking pictures and talking- about what, I don’t know! Haha! One little girl, Dicksha- is sooo cute! She and I have had a few conversations. She’s 6 years old and speaks fairly clearly and doesn’t seem to mind repeating things or saying them slowly so I can understand. So far, she has mainly spoken in Hindi, however, so I’m not sure if she is more comfortable in Hindi, or just figures I don’t know Kahani (which I don’t), or what. Anyway, she has become a good little friend! (Golu, and Diksha - this might be my favorite picture!)

When Robin was finished, she to came and joined us – sitting on the ledge. An “aam” (old woman) came by and said something to the kids and then sat down right next to me- so close she was touchin me in fact. We took some pictures with her too- she seemed to enjoy it. She talked to us, but I didn’t really understand anything she said!!!

A little while after that, we were back at home and Joyti served us chai. This is normal, but I have forgot to mention how the flies in our room also like chai! Most of the time after we’ve taken a few sips, a fly manages to get stuck in our chai cup. We have nick-named our chai, “fly-traps!” and are thankful for them! Today, I had not even taken one sip before one flew in- and, what’s more, I even had the cup in my hand the whole time- trying to not allow flies to go in, but still…he got in! Ugh!