Where to begin? I think that we are just now finding something that resembles a rhythm, and the shyer kids are starting to respond to us as familiar people, which is an amazingly gratifying feeling.
I just have to tell this one boy's story because I can't help it, he's a favorite. His name is Surya and he is 3 years old, and he is incredibly smart. He was very shy at first, every time you would smile at him he would kind of bow his head and rub his right hand over his right eye and the right side of his face. It looks like he's rubbing the sleep out of his eye, but its more of a nervous habit. Once he got used to us, he has the funnest personality - really silly and animated but also a very hard worker and he listens really well to the older kids. The thing about Surya is that, when he was just a few days old, he was left in a gutter drain, where he survived for over a week by drinking the sewage water. When he was picked up, the entire right side of his face was rotted flesh, hence the nervous touch to his weak spot. They had to do a skin graft from another part of his body to help the skin grow back, and there is only a slightly different-looking area near his hairline. Unbelievable. And there are dozens of stories that are equally amazing.
The evenings have been characterized by lengthy discussions with Ranjith and Sumathy, some badminton (or shuttlecock) tournaments where we have gotten our asses handed to us pretty much every time, gin rummy and any other game that Ranjith wants us to teach him so that he can master it and beat us at it. They are super competitive and he has a crazy focus, so when he learns something he has to be the absolute best at it. But he is such a generous and fun person that it doesn't make you resentful.
I'd write more but Vengay, our 13 year old guardian on our internet outing, is looking a little bored and the autorickshaw is waiting.