Random Upate :)

Hello all!!!
Sorry I haven't written in a while- I swear time flies here! Already I have only one week left at Daya Dan. I have no idea how I am going to bring myself to leave all those wonderful children. (If any of you have facebook you can see one of the children that I spend a lot of my time with- Pompa. A girl had her camera today so one precious photo has now been posted and is conveniently my new profile picture.)

Speaking of Daya Dan some AMAZING things have been going on! Just last week a new double railing has been set up so that the girls (Pompa and Puja and hopefully soon- Goon goon) can practice walking with two support on either side so they can practice walking properly and not just side to side. Pompa has been doing amazing!!! She has to work really hard to pick up her feet (especially with her awesome but huge special shoes) so she has this great swinging strut that she is oh-so proud of. Now we can walk her around a bit. I can't imagine it will be very long before she can transition to her crutches... yay!!!! Puja is also improving by leaps and bounds--- not as much physically but definitely behaviorally- which will make her improve faster. You may not remember but Puja is very new and was found alone in the train station. As a result she's pretty "scrappy." (She bit Allison last week.) So, she's been super hard to get to excersize aka stand. (At one point I was holding her hands to the railing, supporting her butt with my knee, and putting my toes on her feet to make sure she stays aligned, all while she's screaming in her mixed language so much that the new volunteers probably thought I was abusing her. It didn't really help when you have to tell them that she's just lazy. But it's true.) But this past week I can honestly say that I have seen a total transformation in her behavior. Rather than hitting, she smiles, and she's REALLY trying during her excersizes even though it's obvious how hard she has to work. Every time she goes down the railing the babe is just pouring sweat, but she's DOING IT!!! It's sooooo exciting. The other great success of result times has been Bhaskar! As of yesterday I saw him making a small shuffle-step while holding on to only ONE hand of a volunteer. OMG!!! This is amazing for a kid who has essentially no balance! I'm so excited for all of them!

Another quick thing just for clarification on my daily tasks. Recently a large portion of my volunteer day is taken up on excersizing the girls who are working on walking. It's a hard job because they really don't like it- it's amazingly hard for them because we are essentially forcing them to develop muscles that are very tense as well as frustrating because all three of these girls have learned how to move around VERY fast on their knees. Generally there is a lot of crying and yelling. You know you really love someone when you make them do what is best for them, not the easiest for either you or them. <3 But it's still really hard to not make what's making them sad go away when they cry, even being the cause of the crying in some cases.

Outside of Daya Dan things are still going well. The past few days have been a bit disheartening though, especially yesterday. We had to say goodbye to THREE of our amazing volunteer friends in the same day and that was ROUGH. Also when trying to buy cake for one of these friends we got caught in the worst monsoon yet- got totally drenched, could not proceed because the way forward was flooded, and had to return via the metro empty handed. It was frustrating. But then today we got a package from TWO AMAZING GIRLS (Omg Sophie and Lizzy we LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!) full of American candies and goodies that totally made our day! We also took a stroll through the Oberio Grand- the most amazing hotel I think I have ever seen. It's just around the corner from where we live but we haven't been in there yet. Walking in it you would have no idea you're in Kolkata- there are oil scents burning everywhere (it was delicious) and massive bouquets of flowers, and AC, and a pool..... and it was CLEAN and QUIET. Of course, one night there is about the same as our entire housing budget for six weeks. Going in it strangely lifted my spirits... it was a very surreal experience going in, and then coming out again. Located on one of the busiest streets for street vendors in the area I felt like I experienced the richest and (almost) the poorest of Kolkata within fifteen seconds of eachother. Very thought provoking...

Well, I suppose that's enough for now. More soon.

Love,
<3 Hannah