Spiders are GROSS.

Who likes bugs? I mean I know I have a bearded dragon and all so I have to feed her crickets and worms but real bugs out in the open. Who really likes them? No one! They are gross, creepy crawly things that just like to get in the way. I even found TWO spiders on me throughout the day. Not okay. I don't like spiders. AT ALL.  Plus, spiders here are huge compared to the ones in America. The "huge" ones at home are the tiny ones here. That is probably the worst thing ever. But, I got over it and made it through the day even with that tragedy. Construction day today has been an adventure still. Basically, we are the new landscapers on campus! We have been using machetes to cut down the weeds like weed whackers and raking up all the leaves to make the mango groves pretty. However, the machetes are so dull that they don't do anything to the weeds!!! As Kaylee says, it would be just as useful to have a stick to whack things down with. Oh well! We are cleaning up the jungle...basically. Once we went around one of the wells we started raking up things and saw even more spiders! Dvendrin was mean and told us that on one side of the shed there were lots of poisonous snakes and to be careful. Snakes don't usually scare me, I would love to go pick one up,  but a poisonous one? NO WAY! 

Raking away. We kept raking piles, but if we had any bricks or rocks in them the worker man would come yell in Tamil and let us know that we had to take them ALL out. Uh...no thank you. Not fun. 

Dvendrin and Mark wanted a picture of us like this. They said that is what one of the goddesses poses like when she is going to kill the bad guys. Chenelle, Me, Kaylee, Alyssa. 

Picture at the end of the day with the machetes. They kept getting mad about us holding the machetes up and so right at the last second we would do it!! You can see he is looking at me with the-I told you no look! (He is the one on the end!) 

I just love playtime. It is such a fun part of the day. It is so easy sometimes to forget that these children have been exiled from the community because somewhere in their family they have leprosy, and might even have it themselves. They are so happy and loving and so excited to see you it is just not something that I remember daily. They don't care about your background, your past or your future. All they care is that you are there with them and showing love to them. 

Oh how I just adore this little guy Veeran. I love him! 

Sanjay made me promise I would put this picture on my blog! He posed specially just for it! 

Kaylee and Sanjay! So fun! 

The kids favorite spot is to be on our shoulders!

(left to right: Taylor with Anu, Amy with Sanjay, Me with Veran, Kaylee, and Benson-I don't know the names of the two boys they are holding!)

Benson is the man! Holding two boys on his shoulders. Anu just wanted to be in the picture with her jumprope. So sweet. 

Anu was so sad today because Viyisnva (sp) was being mean to her. We got her nails painted neon colors though so that made her happier. She still looks angry in the picture though! 

I LOVE ANU! 

Salani is the sweetest most adorable girl ever. She is so kind, and is a UKG student (kindergarten) so she doesn't really speak English but just is such a cuddly girl and always wants to be hugging you. Poor thing misses her mom so much. She is one of the new students here and is only 5 and at bedtime tonight she was just crying her little eyes out and told her house mother in Tamil that she just misses her mom and is so sad. It just breaks my heart to see her upset like that! 

Need I say anything about this picture? I love it. End of story.