School days

The days have been flying slowly by, to use a play on words, and we are realizing our time here is winding down to an end. We still have enough time to fill our lifetime quota(yah right!) of nose wiping, mess cleaning and random other baby tasks but to just be with the kids is coming to a close. It's something we knew would hit hard but even with a month left, its hard to face the inevitable end!
But to get to an exciting part, we used the last bit of the donation fund to allow 4 of the kids to attend school! The children start school at the tender age of 3 and are thrust into learning english, addition and subtraction, basic sentence structure, etc. It's amazing what they need to know even to get in! Ali and I went through the admission process with Ranjani, Subash, Bharthi and Sharda, which consisted of them sitting in front of an administrator and answering questions about objects, all in english. These children DO NOT speak english at all, except for the few phrases we were told to teach and numbers/months/alphabet. They were scared to death, barely opening their mouths to breathe a word, but the teacher saw potential and allowed them in. We were all so excited and relieved because failure to get in would mean another year of waiting before admissions open again. However, after all that, the school would not allow the students any monetary concessions and were charging each child Rps 25,000 to attend, roughly
$625. Obviously, money is a bit of an issue for so many children so Sumathy and Ranjith found another school that accepted their previous admission and charged only Rps 11,000 each ($275). The school has a great reputation and though it is a bit farther away, the education the children will receive is worth it.
Sumathy and Ranjith personally give a huge internet "THANK YOU" to all who donated before we left and after we got here. All the money has been put directly towards the children's benefit, Susan and I made sure of that, and the impact every dollar has made is tremendous. So thank you again from Susan and I for the support you have given us this entire time. The experience has been so extremely rewarding, even at the most trying of times! A special shout out to Natasha Latta for her amazing package filled with goodies for the kids, those puzzles and flashcards are perfect and will be well used. Another big thanks to Laurie Irwin for her package of baby wipes, coloring books and miscellaneous toys. These children receive the gifts like its Christmas and love hearing about people from home and seeing pictures on the internet.
There is so much happening every day and so many stories to share, it's almost impossible to record it all. One of our favorite things, though, is taking 11-yr-old Venkej (i'm impossible with spelling the kid's names right!) with us when we go to the store or wherever. The children rarely get time out so when they do, it is all new. We went shopping last night for some groceries and allowed him his very own pack of bubble gum and an ice cream. Oh man, his face was priceless! He couldn't stop smiling the whole way home. Becca took some of the children to the hospital for check-ups this morning and he accompanied her. The highlight? Riding the elevator up and down, up and down, up and down..... things we take for granted! His favorite American slang is "fo'shore" with a head nod and fist pound. We are teaching them well :)