Waiting Days

We are now in a waiting phase as we get to know the girls and especially the Principal and the Wardens of the Hostel. There is not a lot to do except be with people as much as they allow and let the relationships grow.

It is easy to get frustrated as the Wardens’ (two ladies in charge of the Hostel) English does not appear to be as good as the girls and despite it being an English teaching school they continue to speak to the girls in Tamil.

We are not sure how much they understand or whether their shyness of the language causes them to withdraw. They seem to be very happy that we are participating in morning and evening prayer and interacting with the girls during this time.

It is also State exam time. This is common exams for all year 10 and 12 students. The whole school goes into lockdown with a policeman on the gate to stop people entering and big warning signs everywhere. During the exam time (generally 8:30 – 1:30) the girls in the hostel not involved, can’t leave the hostel.

Everything has to be quiet so it is hard to go to the hostel as when we are with the girls there seems to be a lot of noise and when you throw in the volume of Lynn’s laugh it is not worth getting arrested. One member of the family spending time in a foreign jail is enough.

We have been shopping picking up a few things to make us more comfortable. We have made some good friendships with some of the shop owners who are providing good information about where we can get things. There was a major breakthrough this afternoon when Lynn discovered where we can go to get a ‘good Western coffee’. It is a good walk away from where we are so we will catch an auto tomorrow to try it out and if it is suitable it might become part of a daily walking program for us.

We are hoping to arrange to have a few evening meals a week in the Hostel with the girls. There seems to be a little reluctance to us doing this as they think the food is not a high enough standard or could be too hot for us. The girls are looking forward to us eating with them.

Every evening we take one year level and take a group photo then individual ones so we can attempt to learn their names. The score so far is Lynn 52 Gary 5.

Thanks for all who are emailing us (aussiegnu@gmail.com). We will be more diligent with email in about a week when my set of rescue disks from the fantastic BCE Operations Team arrive and we can communicate from home. The email café we have found is good but a fair way away from where we live.

Please let others know about the email and blog address.