Humor in Lalitupar...

September 14, 2009
Today was a rather humorous day! It was “Children’s Day,” so the kids didn’t have to go to school! So, we played Uno for about 2 hours, and some of the boys wanted to play with the guitar, so we played guitar the rest of the morning (understand, everyone’s up for prayer at 6am, so, it was slightly odd to be playing Uno at 6:45 in the morning!). I don’t think if you added up all the times in my life that I’ve sung “Come Thou Fount” it would be more than it was today! The boys wanted me to teach them that song, so, that required me to sing it for 3 hours straight! And I had to define the entire thing, which isn’t an easy task with words like fetter and Ebenezer and melodious sonnet. But we got through it, and now every few minutes one runs up and says, “Sister! Sing Fount!” And then we sing together. It’s great! And some of the boys are really good on guitar! Surprisingly (at least to me), one of the only songs they know that’s in English as well is Days of Elijah, which totally rocks. I love that song, and so we played it with me singing English while they sing Nepali! They’re writing down the words for me in Nepali, and I’m giving them the words in English!

Then in the afternoon it was hardcore study time. The next 3 days are exams for them (the equivalent of our finals) and everyone was pacing around spouting Nepali words at 300 words/minute! Because I teach math, I’m the designated math helper, and wow, that has been a stretch for my shriveled brain! After teaching the last 2 years in the US, I knew we were behind the “Asian” world, but I never knew how far! I was working with 12 year olds on completing the square and factorization, without a calculator! Then there was simple and compound interest and systems of equations for our 13 year olds, plus a ton of geometry (also without a calculator or graphing paper... slightly challenging!). At one point I was helping 6 different kids with 6 different levels of math; I hope I got them all straight!!! I asked one of the boys, Laxman, a question about his math, and to my utter confusion he replied, “Because of gravity.” And I stopped, and did a double take, and said, “What are you talking about?!” And without the slightest break in his serious face, he looked at me and said, “The answer for everything is gravity. What color shirt is he wearing? It’s because of gravity! How do you do math? Use gravity!” And then we both burst out laughing! And for the rest of studying, someone would only have to say, “Gravity!” and we’d all start laughing! Laxman has a great sense of humor. When he got up to retrieve his workbook, I moved his stool behind another kid I was working with (so surprising, right?!). Well, the kids thought this was hilarious. So, he walked back, and stopped, and looked around confused. Then, he saw all the kids laughing and said, “SISTER! Where is my seat?!” So, I gave it back to him, and he said, “Americans.” and shook his head. It was great.

Then, this evening I had my first experience with no power. Apparently this happens at least 3 times a week for about 3 hours. Quite exciting! Maybe more so than showering with a bucket :). And then during dinner, Pastor Krishna asked me if I’ve eaten with my hands yet. I had not, so he said I should try. And so I ate my rice with this spiced water gravy on top and curray all with my hands! Little did I know that there’s an art form to eating with your hand. You scoop the food with your fingers, then use your thumb to push the food into your mouth. But only use your right hand; your left one is used for dirty things... Well, my elbow was too high, and I moved my arm too much. I think it’s easier if you’re shorter, because I had the strangest sensation that I was kin to a turtle trying to eat without moving my arm. Pastor Krishna told me that I am a very slow learner, and I just laughed :). It was quite the end to a rather “ordinary” day!