The last days of India

There is a reason that I have been blogging every night. Because I forget if I wait to write it down. I'm trying to remember everything that has happened the last few days but I have a feeling that I am going to forget things.

Here I am with Rohith on my last day of tutoring. This kid is so cute. The children's favorite books in the library are "10 Little Ladybugs" and "Green Eggs and Ham". Some of the kids love these books so much, they actually have them memorized. It is a little hard to assess their reading level when they are just reciting but still, having "Green Eggs and Ham" memorized is quite impressive.

Another picture of Jayamary because I just can't get enough of her. I signed up to be her sponsor, part of which includes exchanging letters. So I am happy that I will still get to be a small part of her life.

So we left Rising star this weekend. Most of the girls flew out right away but because I had gotten my plane ticket kind of late, my flight doesn't leave until early Monday morning. Luckily, another another volunteer is in the same boat (even on my same flights all the way back to Chicago) so we got to have a day in Chennai to sightsee. We went to Dakshinachitra, a little village of Indian crafts. There were basket weavers, puppet makers, pottery making and of course, henna. I guess my body will be an Indian temple for the next couple of weeks.

I may have gone a little crazy shopping. I have been so good this whole trip but the last couple of days, with my departure imminent, I have started wanting to buy everything. My biggest and probably most impractical purchase was a Saree. The women all look so beautiful in them and I just really wanted to look like them. I am going to have to think up reasons to wear it when I get back because I actually quite love it. The only problem is it is just so much fabric. It will be tricky to wrap it correctly.

We are leaving the hotel at 2 am to catch our flight. Nandri, India. It has been wonderful!