Having Fun!

Thursday

Today is pretty darn hot - all the kids and I want to do when it is this hot is retreat to our rooms and nap which is pretty much what everyone does during the hottest part of the day. My sister texted me from Ga. this morning saying it was already 72 at 5:21 in the morning - sounds pretty darn hot there too.

Let’s see - what’s happening at CED?

We have been playing games and reading stories.  This morning I read Kevin Henkes book - Julius, the Baby of the World.  I thought I was only teaching the little kids today but all the older girls were there too.  Everyone LOVED to book - plus, as some of you may know, I am a little bit of a ham so the acting was entertaining for them as well ;)

We played a word building game and then we played telephone which was a big hit and caused quite a few laughs.  They were all so determined to find out who the person was who got the message mixed up - pretty funny stuff.  After that we played a game the kids in my class love to play - it was the detective game where one person leaves the room (the detective), a pretend crime is committed and the “criminal” is chosen and then the detective returns.  The detective goes around the circle asking,” Where were you at the time of the crime?”.  The criminal is allowed to change their answer to the question while everyone else MUST say the exact same sentence. They could have played that all day. Last night we played duck, duck, goose which was a blast.

While the kids and I have been having fun there have been a few other things going on as well - not all fun.

When we returned from Mussooorie the other night ( after the 5 hour traffic jam), Karma told us that the room under the Reception room was flooded.  The rain storm was awful - it poured and hailed.  Six people lost their lives in DehraDun when a very large sign or banner fell at the ice cream store - it was a horrible storm.

Anyway, when we got home Karma ( the only adult from Dolpo that Lama Tenzin has also rescued, and Choeyni’s mom) told us that the rain water was under a room.  The next day the girls spent all morning bucketing the water. 24 1/2 buckets - the big 10 gallon buckets...they filled them, brought them up, carried them out to the yard and dumped them out.  The storage room under the Reception room held all the children’s old clothes that they intended to give to some villagers. The clothes had to all be pulled up as well and hung out on the fence to dry.  The dogs were the lucky ones - they got all dressed up in some of the baby clothes the kids had to dry (much to the dog’s dismay).

That was Monday.  On Tuesday we had a normal day until I left to go to check e-mails and update my blog.  Pema Dolma and Pasang Lhamo walked up the shop to get me.  Pema Dolma said the police had arrived at CED and I thought she was joking with me since it was dinner time.  I asked her if she was serious and she said yes, the children were all worried.  I paid for my time and we walked back to CED - sure enough, the police were here to see me! The same Police Chief that Lama Tenzin had argued with earlier last week was sitting here as well as a very important looking police woman. Turns out that Jyotika Fernandes’ friend Sammy had called his police contact in Delhi  to let him know I am here and the guy (who must be an official of some sort...) called his people here in DehraDun.  Mr Negi and Schweta Choubey came to visit to check on me, give me their numbers and make sure I have not had any trouble at all. WOW!!

Talk about VIP treatment.  Sammy had teased me before saying that he could give me his friend’s information but that I would be on the “Wanted Persons” list.  The children were SO worried - they thought it was an ambulance at first and then they thought it was because of the event at the police station - they could not imagine why the police had made their way all the way out to CED.

I still need to tell you all about the storm at Kempty Falls and where Lama tenzin is at the moment but the girls are ready to go to their tutoring sessions an I promised to walk with them so - Later!