Each day about 40-50 children are coming for English class. I bought some mats and we started by doing the class on the roof after school. For some reason, the kids have a really hard time pronouncing the word “red.” On one of the first days of class, I was teaching colors. I pointed to the color red about 100 times in 10 different places and said, “R-E-D red.” About five minutes later I called a little boy up to the front of the class and pointed to the color red. “R-E-D GREEN!!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. We all started laughing hysterically, including the little boy.

The class is lots of fun and everyone seems to be enjoying it. Many of the neighbors have also come to watch. Yesterday I split up the class into two levels, beginner and intermediate which seems to work a bit better. The class is open to EVERYONE who wants to learn and there has been a really diverse group of kids coming. We have the wealthiest highest caste children, “the brahmans” sitting next to street children whose parents work as laborers and are living under plastic. Everyone’s laughing and getting to know each other by name. Yesterday I even saw two little girls skipping home together holding hands singing “head, shoulders, knees and toes,” one, the daughter of the wealthiest businessman in Surkhet, clean primped and proper, the other, the daughter of a widow who sleeps on the streets.

For those of you who read my blog entry about Hima, I found her, and she too is coming to class every day laughing and smiling as usual. Her mother has now married another man, assuming a position as his “second” wife. A very interesting situation, but also common among widows in Nepal.

I will continue to write and post as much as possible.

Lots and lots of love to you all from Nepal.