I'm not a Maharincess!

February 16th, Shanti Bhavan
Saturday night Amanda and I henna-ed our hair. We bought the powder at the market in Hosur and one of the teachers told us how to do it. We mixed the powder with water in one of the metal plate/bowls from the dining hall until it was a thick paste… and then we realized that we hadn’t bought gloves or anything to apply the henna with. (Ooh, ending a sentence with a preposition… very bad English teacher). Anyway, Amanda decided to use a plastic grocery bag to protect her hand as she smeared the baby-poop-like mixture all over my head. This mode worked for a few minutes, but then she decided to just use her hands and wash them immediately after. I did the same for her and we both escaped with an only slightly oompa-loompa orange tint to our skin. The henna then formed a thick crust on our hair as we let it dry and set for the next two hours, during which all of the volunteers watched French Kiss in celebration of Valentine’s Day. At around midnight, we proceeded to wash out the henna, which was not an easy or pleasant undertaking, as the sun had been down for hours and the solar-powered water heater was not working. Pouring freezing water on a headful of cow dung – oh I’m sorry, I’m in India – mutton dung, in the middle of the night was pretty gross, but when it was all washed out, we were left with beautiful deep auburn color that looks amazing in the sunlight. I think I’ll definitely do it again before I go. Mom – I’m the Hennarincess of Shanti Bhavan!
I also forgot to write that while I was in Hosur on Saturday, I got my eyebrows threaded for Rs 15 – about thirty cents. They did a better job than the place I go in New York that charges eight dollars, and it was less painful.
The sunset on Sunday was beautiful. It was a gorgeous night and I sat out on the rocks for about an hour, just watching the sky change and feeling the warm breeze. How delicious! There’s not really much more I can write about that, but I took some pictures, so hopefully I’ll be able to upload them and you can see.
Today was my first official day of teaching. I think it went pretty well for the most part, but I can already see where there are going to be some possibilities for problems. I’m sharing the English classes for the fifth grade with Miss Nirmila (one of the school’s most intense and discipline-oriented teachers) and I think I’m going to have to fight a bit to be the one in charge. She’s a good teacher and she’s been with them for the semester, but I’m a native English speaker and I have a lot to offer the class. Hopefully as she sees more of my work in class, she’ll relax and let me take the reins.
Amanda and I had the kindergarteners for musical theatre class today and they are so cute! I’m having them sing “Rubber Duckie” for the show and we started teaching it to them. I hope they remember it for next week, because if they can retain the song, we can put a little dancing with it too. Their house mother, Raji Mommy, will help them throughout the week and we will probably stop by their dorm sometime and go over it with them.
Today I also wore the kurta – that’s a long tunic made out of light, loose cotton – that I bought in Hosur. All of the chidren said I looked very beautiful… they love it when the volunteers wear Indian clothing. Amanda said that when she wore a saree to class for the first time, they treated her like a movie star.
We watched Raiders of the Lost Ark tonight in the dorm. I forgot how fun that movie is… Goodnight!