We're here!

Hari Om!

We finally arrived after a very long and tiring journey. On the 20th, we took a bus from Hyderabad to the orphanage, a six hour journey. We arrived early the next morning and were welcomed by all of the girls. After taking a tour, we sat down to see what the girls had learned before our arrival. They performed dances and sang songs for us. Fighting jet lag, we played with the girls for the rest of the day and finished early at eight.

Yesterday, we started our classes in the morning. While focusing on math and English, we decided to evaluate the students to see where to start from. The girls are very open and incredibly intelligent, which made our evaluations easy.Today we finished up evaluating the children and began teaching. With help from the local teachers, we are covering a lot of material.  It doesn't take long to feel at home here in Chinmaya Vijaya.

In math we are starting with addition and subtraction for the younger students and for the older students we are moving into more advanced math, such as long division. In English, our main goal is comprehension. Many of the girls know their alphabet and how to read, but they do not know what to retain. We are making it our job to fill in that gap.

In the afternoons, we are working and learning at the NRI Hospital and College. Yesterday, we were welcomed with a tour of the NRI campus. We were not able to go today because of local political disturbances. (To see more about the NRI Hospital and College visit: http://www.nrias.com/)

The girls here are a big family. They have taken to calling us 'Akka' and 'Annaya' or older sister and older brother. Poorviamma, the resident Brahmacharini, and other volunteers, are helping us understand the family. The older girls help the younger girls get ready, eat food, do homework and even tell bed time stories. We have quickly become part of the family here, and it is going to be hard to leave!