India
Jyothi Laxmi
Jvothi Laxmi has lived at Shunem for eleven years. She always gets the best grades out of all the kids at Shunem, and wins the girls’ Kabbaddi championship at school. She is really sweet, beautiful and kind, making all the other children love her. She is certainly the most popular girl at Shunem.
Read MoreThe Boys
One thing about Shunem boys is that they all seem to turn out to be pretty solid athletes. I suppose that comes from playing with boys older than you from the time that you are very young. A few of the boys here consistently win the different sports competitions in school.
Read MoreRadhika
My Best Shunem Friend D. Radhika is eight years old and loves English class in school; all other subjects are “not coming” as she would say. Her favorite color was pink, but became purple when she found out that purple is my favorite color. She is super goofy and is always making me laugh. She makes funny faces all the time, not necessarily on purpose, and loves changing her voice around in all kinds of silly ways. Every Sunday morning she comes and wakes us up. When I hear the creak of the outside door I’m always a little bit annoyed but once she calls out “Akka” in her cute little voice I have to roll out of bed and invite her in for a nice morning...
Read MoreThe Garden Snake
My India Trip Will be Complete When… I told Emily a few times that although we had seen so many great things, my trip would really only be complete when I saw a cobra. She always heartily disagreed, but I still wanted the thrill of seeing a killer in its natural habitat. The other day as we were walking back from lunch one of the other volunteers, Ellie, called me over. “There is a garden snake over here if you want to see it.” Emily doesn’t like snakes and headed up to the room, not too interested. I went over to get a look and didn’t recognize the particular genus of serpent. The general rule around Shunem is to kill any snake you see in case it is...
Read MoreGappy
When we arrived at Shunem he didn’t have his two front teeth, and hadn’t had them when he arrived here in June either. His gums were super thick and we saw no evidence that new teeth were ever going to come in.
Read MoreHoney Bees
About a month ago we noticed a huge swarm of bees buzzing near our room. When we went investigate we saw a big hive connected to the vines snaking their way up the wall. We weren’t sure what kind of bees they were, so we figured we should tell someone. If they were some dangerous sort we wouldn’t want them attacking any children or old people.
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