Mary in India

Our 6th standard kids will probably do the best, they've been doing consistently well on their mock exams over the past weeks. Sanjay actually broke his wrist (playing in our cement yard) the day before his first exam. It's his writing hand too, in light of this accident his teacher decided to take an average score from all his previous exams and use it as his final score. Since it was so high, Sanjay is now officially bumped to 7th standard!!! He was so excited about this news until I told him that just because he doesn't have to take his exams doesn't mean he gets to sit around doing nothing.

Poonam, our latest addition is in dire need of some help with English. I spend as much time with her as I can lately and she's got a firm understanding of the ABCs and counting 1-20. However she needs to know more fruit/vegetable vocabulary and animals before she will be accepted into 1st standard (which is where we'd like her to go). Poonam is the hardest because she's only 6 and was basically abandoned by her parents at the Pune train station (where she'd been living when we found her). Her head is loaded with lice (which she's spread to all the other kids, hopefully not me!!! *scratches head*), she's a Waghri (same as Pooja but differen't from the other kids) which makes her slightly more of an outsider. She speaks NO English. Which is the most difficult in a house that (when Didi's and Dada's are around) speaks predominantly English. She's often feeling left out and as a result cries a lot and will be extremely naughty. We've already caught her asking neighbors for mangos, claiming we don't feed her. She's a sneaky little 6 year old.

We've paired her up with Sanjay (who really didn't like her) who will teach her more vocabulary so she'll be able to get into either kindergarten or 1st standard by next school year. A lot of work ahead of those two but it's cute seeing them study together. I've already seen Poonam's attitude improve. She finally treats study time like "school time" and she's excited to show me her book and all her knowledge after a good study session.

I've become quite fond of little Poonam, she's so skinny and her voice is so high. We call her our pixie, or fairy sometimes. This little girl is so adorable, she's going to be gorgeous when she's older. Great face and perfect white teeth (almost unheard of in the slums). She's got a bright future ahead of her and I feel so happy I get to be apart of these first vital moments in her life.

(The picture above is of our little sprite Poonam) :) Love that girl.