WonderKids Playschool

One week down, many more to go. I am not yet homesick (although my stomach is a little) and feel I have adapted pretty well so far.

 My host mother runs a playschool in the city, which is like preschool but for kids aged one and a half to three. They are taught basic things like how to go to the bathroom, eat, shake hands, talk, etc. The older ones are also taught colors, numbers, letters and so on in order to get into a good school. From what I am told, to get into most preschools the children have to be able to talk to the principal confidently and be able to recognize basic objects, shapes and colors. I would say in most schools in the U.S. preschoolers would not have to qualify to be admitted, am I right? Anyway, we took the school of about 200 kids on a field trip to a park today. I am finally making friends! We played on the swingset and I caught them coming down the slide. It was great fun. There are two little people who always run over to shake my hand and say "Hello Auntie" when they see me. I love it, they are all so cute! (Auntie is a term of endearment used for women who are old enough that  they really could be your aunt and is a loose term everyone uses.) 

Maybe my host mom is just bad, but in India time doesn't seem to be of the essence. If she said we will be out of the house by nine in the morning for an important meeting we would leave at ten fifteen and the meeting would start when we got there without anyone being irritated or needing to go to their next activity. I will have been waiting for an hour and she calls "come Anna" and we run off. "Come Anna" is probably the most frequent phrase I have heard in the last week. Mostly used by my new mom and best friend, it is used before crossing the street, while in the middle of the street, after stopping to talk to one of her friends, and on the way into the building or apartment. All in three minutes. It is my summoning call.