The CA team is spending about five days a week with the kids at Villa Bella, and gradually over the weeks it has turned from exhaustion and stress into good hearted fun. Learning their names was probably one of the hardest parts, especially with two sets of twins in the group! Fortunately though we got that out of the way quickly, with the exception of the twins Ram and Laxeman, who most of the time we can only differentiate by the little scab on Ram's nose. We joke that we hope Ram's nose doesn't heal too soon so that we can keep telling them apart easily!
With so much interaction with the kids at Villa Bella all of us share the same thoughts and feelings that we're actually forming real friendships with them. They're so lively and full of energy, keeping up with them almost makes me feel like I'm pushing 85 instead of 21.
I thought going into this that these kids would want us to teach them so much, things about America and other things about this country that they would eventually call home. Instead I found that they hold strong to some aspects of their culture but are open to what we have to offer. The kids often speak, or rather screech, in their native Nepali language and we find ourselves constantly trying to remind them of the "rule" to speak English around us. Little Yubek or one of the twins will usually blurt out something along the lines of "Yes Nepali!" as a quick retort to our heinous demands. When given the option to watch a Bollywood movie or an American movie, they pick Bollywood, and when we want to play 'Hot Potato' they'd rather play Carom Board (which to my surprise, is a lot of fun!)
But as I sigh at their disinterest in some of our American games and ideas I find myself remembering that they are only trying to retain what little left of their culture they have here. I try to put myself in their shoes; perhaps if I had left my home in Texas to live somewhere across the world, foreign in every sense of the word, I most certainly would do the same.
I think I'd like to get inside these kids' heads and figure out what they really think of being here. After watching them try to "collage" I think I'd like to figure out if America to them really means a picture of the U.S flag with a cut-out of 50 cent's face glued on it. Which yes, one of them really made.
