A Finished Bear!

This morning after a breakfast of dosa and sambar, my host mother and I left to go to her office. On the way, she dropped me off at her friend Padma's office where I've been twice before to work on sewing a teddy bear. During the hour and a half that I was there, I finished sewing the arms onto the body, stuffed the body and head, added eyes and a nose, and then finally sewed the head on for a finished bear! (Above is a photo of both of my sleeping buddies!) :)
While at Padma's I have to use a lot of expression and sign language because there are always several women there and they all don't speak any English. Padma speaks English very well, but she has to run errands periodically and is gone for short spans of time. Today there were seven of us total in the small upstairs room of a blue building- for the first few minutes we listened to the radio, a few of them singing along, but when the power went out (every day the power goes out for a two hour period. What time this happens is dependent upon where you are in the city. It's all to conserve power too! I think it's great!) they all started a buzz of conversation, trying to include me in some of it. It was interesting for me to try and figure out what they were all saying. I've picked up a few words in Tamil since I've been here, so the combination of those words and the English that is mixed into the language, sometimes I'm able to put together sentences. When Padma came back, she explained to me that the three young looking girls in the corner were very curious about me- they were all three from a village outside the city and had never seen a foreigner before. At first they laughed at me when I picked up the needle and started sewing, but by the time I finished, they were all complimenting my work, saying "nalarkuh" ("good" in Tamil)!
When I finished, Padma and I went on her scooti for a short ride around the corner to a school that she knew of. I had told Padma at an earlier time that my own mother is a school psychologist, and that she works with kids in school that have learning disabilities. Padma had remembered this and thought I would enjoy seeing this school as it was a special school for children with not only learning disabilities, but mental disabilities as well. The two of us went in and met some of the staff. The school was in a small downstairs portion of a house, and every room was filled with all kinds of toys, books, mats, and other things for the kids to play with. When we arrived, all of the kids were in the back room learning a rhyme, and I got to go back and say hello to all of their smiling faces! The kids must have been between the ages of three and around nine, and all of them got very excited when they saw me. I smiled to all of them and waved, saying "hello" and they all smiled back and the few that could said "hello" back to me. The staff at the school then showed me around, telling me a bit about the school. It is the only school of it's type in the area with ONLY professional therapists working and they teach the kids in both English and Tamil to evaluate their IQ and their educational levels so that when the kids are judged ready, they can be put into a mainstream school. It was a neat place to go, and I'm going to keep it in mind as a possibility for volunteer work.
When I was dropped off at my host mother's office, we spent a few moments there before leaving to go to the bank in order to exchange the dollars I have with me from when I came. Unfortunately when we got there, the bank couldn't help me because they needed my passport. I had a copy with me, but they wouldn't accept it and so we left dissapointed. I guess there are other ways that are known to my host mother that we can try though.
Now I'm back at the apartment, watching Pretty Woman on TV- I was so excited when I saw that it was playing! Finally a good movie on TV!