Dorm life in India...

An update from Brad:

It has officially been a full week (and some) here in India. The biggest change this week was that on Sunday night we moved from Prem & Rita's house to the hostel at the school. Basically, the school is in a building with a kitchen, cafeteria and art room in the basement, classrooms on the 1st and 2nd floor and the 3rd floor is a hostel (dorm) complete with showers and a "common room." There are four boys staying there right now (a 9 year old, a 14 year old and two 16 year olds); Prem and Rita have had trouble finding a warden to live there to watch after them so we are filling in the role. It was a tough change from the house, which for the most part is pretty nice, to the hostel just because of the general feeling of being back in a dorm with cement walls and bars on the windows. But it is nice, there is a TV in the common room for World Cup watching and the boys are very well behaved, it is also a lot calmer where the school is - Prem and Rita's street can get pretty noisy in the mornings. The school's chef, Albert, lives right next to the school so he comes over and cooks us meals, which have been quite good. The highlight of the experience has definitely been living with Nirup, the 9 year old boy. He is just learning English and can say that his name is Nirup and a few other phrases but for the most part he just parrots whatever you say, and of course none of this is at a normal talking level, it is all at a volume and range that could only be replicated by machine. He's a good kid though, whenever you play guitar he proclaims that you are a 'magician' (musician) and he also complains that there are 'eagles' (mosquitoes) biting him in his room. After a few days he has learned Howard and my name (which sounds like a mumbled version of 'bread') and he can remember Alynena's name for a day but it never sticks after sleep.

So we have spent the week at the school working during the day and playing with the boys and helping them study after school. We have been able to catch some great sunsets as well as some good shots of parrots from the school's roof. On Wednesday our team was hit with some sort of bug which put both Erin and Howard out of comission for the day. They are feeling better but still are not 100%. Today was my day to be out as I think my Malaria medication's "Avoid excessive sun exposure" has finally caught up with me. We rode the school bus back to Prem and Rita's for the weeked which should hopefully be a good chance for us all to relax, rest and recover. We are going to be playing a few worship songs at church this Sunday which should be an experience all by itself. As always, thanks for your concern and prayers for our team.

Brad / Team India