Greetings!

This week has gone by pretty quickly. I have been busy helpling at the school and spending time with the kids. The pace here is much slower than at home, but it is nice in a way because I have some time to read and learn about the culture in a casual way.
One of the LKG (lower kindergarden) teachers retired this week after 26 years of service, which is something I cannot imagine after my one measley year as a teacher. There is a really cool tradition here when someone retires. There is a presentation where people speak and sing and give her lots of presents. Then all of the staff (and the volunteers) get on a school bus and go to the retiree's house or to a restuarant. In this case, we went to a little Indian (naturally) restaurant, where the food was simple but very good. And it was air conditioned! I had almost forgotten that AC existed.
Anyway, after dinner we went to her house (which is another part of the tradition) to deliver the gifts. There, her family gave us soda and little treats. THis seems like a lot of work for the person who is retiring, but I guess people are really proud to be able to do it, so it works for me. The house itself was really interesting. Since she is Hindu, there are chalk drawings outside the house, on the doorstep. All of the doorways were really small (I had to duck) and the bathroom and shower are on the back porch, which actually makes sense considering the climate. We drove around town letting all of the teachers off near thier houses, which made for a pretty long bus ride home. I love to ride around here and gawlk at everything, though, so I enjoyed the trip.
Sorry about any misspellings/ grammar errors...I'm trying to do this in a hurry. I hope everyone is doing well!