11.4.11

Yesterday I met some of the children. My first introduction came as I was cleaning and de-cob-webbing our front sitting room with a hand broom made of twine and grass. It was 6:30 and past dark so I had the front door closed, but the curtain was not pulled. Slowly I began noticing little voices: “Didi, good night.” “Good evening, Didi.” “Hello, Didi.” The voices were close. And in English. Must they be addressed to me? I looked around. From the darkness beyond my front door, all I could make out was the white of little eyes and smiles peering up at me. A lot of them. I lay down the broom, climbed away from the dusty couch I’d been bending over, and opened the door to emerge into the darkness that was full of small, dark children. There must have been 15 or 20 of them at first; a gathering which quickly grew to 30 or 35 as I became a curious attraction. “Didi, (older sister) what’s your name?” “Didi, where are you from.” “My name is _____________ .” “Didi, tomorrow the 5^th grade class is going to __________ to have a picnic!” “I am in the 5^th class, Didi.” “Me too!” “Do you know Hindi, Didi?” “How long will you be here?” They were beautiful. A small one, probably age 4 or 5, slipped her cool hand into mine and held it for most of the exchange. I wanted to pick them up and wrap them in my arms so badly. But thinking better of it, I resisted the instinct and chose instead to take some time to get to know them to learn what was acceptable and appropriate. There would be many opportunities later to express love. After 15 minutes or so, after the conversation had cycled through 50 or so children, they ran out of things to ask us (Kathy had heard the noise and joined the exchange) and with a chorus of, “Good night, Didi!” skipped off to play before dinner.

About an hour later, we were fetched by a petite older girl, Sonya, who was in the 11^th grade, to dine with the older girls. After washing two plates in questionably sanitized water to bring with us, we quickly followed her to the cafeteria where we enjoyed delightful conversation and simple food with the older girls. Here are some things we learned about them:

- They have 5 subjects in the 12^th grade: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English, and Hindi.

- They wake up at the Home at 5:30 am and go to bed at midnight.

- In their free time, they love to read Christian romance novels.

- They want to be nurses, doctors, and teachers.

- They do not like eating so many carbohydrates late at night. “It is not good for health.” (The dinner DID contain a lot of starch.)

- After dinner, they would watch TV, do homework, have devotions, and go to bed.

Later, as Kathy and I retired to our rooms and prepared for bed we heard the commotion of many moving young people in the girls’ dormitory directly above and next to us. I smiled at the ceiling and asked her, “Do you think we’ll be able to sleep past 5:30?” This morning the loud sound of a metal utensil repeatedly hitting a metal object at 5:34 answered my question. Any antagonism I would have felt was more than made up for when I heard the sounds of small voices singing praise songs in Hindi 20 minutes later. I moved to the next room and opened the window to the cool morning breeze and sat to listen.