The kids are back in town...

The children are back!! Huzzah!! RSO is no longer a ghost town filled with vacant building but the bustling, busy school that it normally is. The children arrived all throughout the day today and never in my life have I seen cuter kids. I seriously want to take them all home with me. As the kids arrived with their families they all began to congregate in the Mango Grove that sits on RSO's campus. The kids either played and ran to see friends or stayed close to their families. It was really interesting to see the children's parents and hear about all the different situations that they come from. One little boys' father came up to Kristin and I on crutches and showed us that he had had to get his leg amputated from the knee down because of leprosy. It was sad to see such cute kids coming from families that are all in some way affected by leprosy. I will share a couple with pictures later. Once the kids got registered and their parents paid the fee for the child to attend school, the kids headed over to the children's hostel--that's where I come in. My job for today was to clean the lice out of the girls' hair using lice shampoo and lice combs. I prepared for this by using lice repelling shampoo and spray in my hair, pulling it back in a ponytail, braiding it, then wrapping it in a bun, and putting a thick headband in...I really don't want to get lice. I literally helped with the lice checks ALL DAY. Lice is a big problem for the Indian children because they all live in such close quarters and lice is very contagious. The RSO coordinators warned us beforehand that the kids would be really bad and they definitely weren't kidding. I would take one brush through a child's head with a lice comb and it would come away nearly completely filled with bugs, eggs, and lice excrement. It was not the prettiest job in the world. The hardest part of all this was the girls with the long beautiful THICK hair. I did a couple of girls with hair like this that were literally infested with lice eggs. The thing about lice eggs is that they are very small and stick to the hair unless you grab them and pull them out individually with your fingernails. You could sit for days picking lice eggs out of a few of these girls' heads they were so infested. So that was basically my whole day. Lice checks, though, did bring a smile to my face. When doing lice checks we first start by putting lice shampoo all through the girls' hair (especially around the crown of the head, around the ears, and around the neckline. After we put the lice shampoo in we went through the hair with a lice comb and tried our best to get out all the bugs and eggs. After we did that and the shampoo sat for at least ten minutes we went and rinsed the shampoo out of the girls' hair in the bathroom. To rinse the shampoo out we just had the kids bend over at the waist as we poured water over their heads and got all the shampoo out. One of the best parts of the day was seeing the little girls when I would finish rinsing their hair and they would look up at me with their crazy wet hair and drenched faces--THEY WERE SO CUTE!!! That moment alone made the lice checks worth it.

It was also nice to do lice checks cause it gave me a chance to meet all the kids. All the RSO volunteers are divided up into "families". Your family is the house that you help with every night getting the kids to sleep and reading to them. My house is on the girls side and has girls aged 4 to 13/14. They are all ridiculously cute and I had the best time getting to know them and learning all their names. I was really proud of myself that I almost memorized all of my family's names. After doing a bunch of lice checks I took a short break and went downstairs and to play with Tamil Selvi and Theerti who are two girls in my family. They are around 8 or 9 years old and they are so cute and fun. We sat and played with clay and had a lot of fun. The kids here seriously are the most amazing, sweet spirited kids in the world. After I had our traditional dinner on the roof of the hostel with all the volunteers ( we had beans, rice and shredded chicken and it was amazing) all the volunteers went back to their families and read/told them stories and help tuck them in for the night. Even though RSO provides a few beds, the kids prefer to sleep on the ground because that is what they are most comfortable with. They all lay out big straw mats on the cement floor and just pick a spot and fall asleep. There were probably 12 girls all sleeping on the floor in one room. At first I thought this was sad that they had to sleep on the floor but it is how they were raised and they all think it is really comfortable so now I have decided that it is really cute :).

Well that was basically my day: lice, cute kids, and even cuter wet faces. I will leave ya with some pictures from the day that hopefully help ya see the cuteness :).

Namaste!


K. Gracy and me at the beginning of the day. She is 5 years old and one of the smallest kids at RSO. SO CUTE!



LICE CHECKS!!!



Pulling an egg out of her hair.



ALL the Indian children LOVE Belle. Belle is the Hendershot's (RSO directors) 2 year old daughter. Belle is adored by all cause she is so stinkin cute.




Amudan and I after I finished brushing out her now clean hair. She was so small and ADORABLE! She had been crying most of the morning because she had to leave her parents but by the end of the day she was happy as a clam.