A week full of changes

In the past week I have become a cat-owning, vegetarian math tutor. What? Anyone who knows me know how uncharacteristic that is of me, as I love dogs and would always choose canines over felines, I am a total meat-lover, and math is absolutely my worst subject. 

I'll back up a bit. 

Last Thursday a couple volunteers, including the program coordinator and myself saw a kitten outside our house. Naturally, our first instinct was to take the adorable creature inside and keep it forever, so that is exactly what we did. After clearing him with our landlord and providing Maximus Tiny with food, milk, a litter box, and roomy box filled with sheets, all of the volunteers became utterly charmed by our minuscule feline friend, and he became the object of everyone's affections. We made the very thought out decision (read: unspoken consensus) to not disclose Maximus Tiny's existence right away to our program manager (sweet, wonderful, yet rule-abiding Anita), lest we find out about a horrible rule that doesn't allow cats in our program. Surprise, surprise, Anita dropped in unexpectedly to visit us on Tuesday morning while Maximus was meandering (meowingdering?) through the house, and he was sadly evicted. All hope is not lost though! We set his box and bowl of milk outside the house, and he has been sticking around and staying in his box, always coming around to meet us when we come home for work. Fingers crossed that he stays!

I have always been a omnivore even with carnivorous tendencies, and I've have never attempted to go veg, until I got here. Here is my thought process: I eat about 21 meals a week, and approximately 16 of those are prepared in the house and are vegetarian. I have found that the meat I eat when I go out is never fantastic, and I wouldn't be missing much if I stopped eating it. Additionally, I want to see if I can do it! It's a nice goal to have, and although I don't have any intentions of avoiding meat when I'm in the States, I am planning on maintaining my vegetarian diet for the entirety of my time here!

Work is going very well, and I am getting to know my students better and I am seeing vast improvements with them, which is a wonderful feeling. The students are also getting more comfortable with me, which makes our time together much more successful. I am primarily teaching English, however occasionally I help them with other subjects that they are struggling with, including math, which I think is funny, given that I have always been the one to need a math tutor, rather than be one. A couple of other volunteers and I started spending an hour after school at another school, that is also an orphanage, which I love. I work with a group of 5 10 year old girls there, all of whom are quite the firecrackers. They have trouble keeping quiet and listening to each other, but it's obvious they love learning, and our afternoons are always filled with lots of laughs.

Last weekend was uneventful, due to a tuk tuk strike that left us only able to travel by foot. I explored te neighborhood a bit, relaxed, and we said goodbye to 2 volunteers and welcomed 2 more. This upcoming weekend I am planning on going to a place called Munnar in the mountains, which is supposed to be quite beautiful, and during the week I am seeing a play that students at another local school which some volunteers work at are putting on. The big event of the following weekend is a wedding! Yesterday we were invited to the wedding of a teacher's son, which everyone is looking forward to.

I'm nearly halfway through my time here, which is unbelievable. The first half has been wonderful, stay tuned to learn how the second half is!