I just gained 90 sisters!

Hello everyone! This entry is coming to you from a new place- a girls hostel at a local secondary school, where I am finishing up the first of five weeks. I am writing this entry in my room here, behind a locked door. I mention the locked door, because if it was left unlocked, this post would not be written due to the inevitable invasion of my room by squealing girls. 

In the last 5 days, I have been the center of attention. Whether it's bombarding me with questions (Favorite color? Favorite type of pen? Favorite god ("JESUS!! JESUS!! SAY JESUS!!")? Why am I so white? Why am I not married? Which student here is my favorite? (And their favorite) Have you eaten?), constantly primping me in various ways (hair styling, nail painting, henna tattooing, the list goes on...), or demanding that I eat 9 servings of every meal, the girls are fixated on my presence and making me feel 100% welcome and comfortable. Even though I have only been here for just under a week, the girls are extremely comfortable with me, and within the first day began feeding me by hand, kissing my cheek, calling me sister, and insisting that I call them sister.

The school is very large, with an enrollment of over 3,000 students, and the hostel serves as a home for a few of them during the school year. There are about 90 girls ages 10-16 in the hostel, though that number will be diminishing quickly, as the school year is winding down, and students are finishing exams and moving back home for the summer (though some students will be staying here through the summer). Most of the 12th standard girls left today, which was very sad to say goodbye. They had a farewell ceremony yesterday, which ended with every single girl sobbing. They were speaking in their local language which I don't understand, but it was easy to tell how hard it was for them to close this chapter of their lives, and say goodbye to the people they have lived with and studied with for the past 7 years. Seeing this after having graduated from high school and gone through a similar experience so recently, was definitely interesting.

I've taught one 6th standard class (completely impromptu! I thought I would be watching, the the teacher led me to the front and declared "Teach."), though most of my time here has been spent hanging out with the girls during this free time, and helping them study. Sometimes I fear I am doing more harm than good when helping them study, as they are often so fixated on asking me unrelated questions and quadruple checking to make sure I am comfortable (you need water? More food? Pretty hair, miss. This is a good chair? Take a photo!! Super earrings, sister. How is your mother?) to focus on the lesson. Despite that, these girls are very smart, and their drive, motivation, and goals of becoming engineers and lawyers always impress me. Their English levels vary, and with most of the older girls I can carry on a conversation, while the younger girls use lots of miming and only a few keys words when communicating with me. They love teaching me Tamil, the local language, and thanks to them my vocabulary is growing! Whenever I say a word in Tamil, they always burst into a fit of giggles and start clapping, and point it out to whoever is around. 

With constant touching and so many questions the days can be exhausting, and I often retreat to my room a couple times each day to rest recharge. Despite that, their energy can also be contagious, and their smiles and consistent good mood are so wonderful to always be around. Today I spent the day away from the hostel, and when I returned at 8 pm they all ran out to greet me with hugs and exclamations/scoldings over how long I was gone for and how sad they were. It was a girl's birthday today, so we had cake, and the night quickly turned into something along the lines of "Let's See How Many Pieces of Cake We Can Smash Into Rachel's Mouth". Despite my protests, I think it was about seven, and the night ended with lots of laughs and faces full of frosting.