Snowmen and swimming

Two weeks ago when I did my Canada presentation, I had been planning on also doing a craft, but we ran out of time. So instead, this Friday, I had the leprosy patients making snowmen – out of marshmallows. They had some trouble understanding what I was getting at initially, but soon threw themselves into their creations enthusiastically.

There was much entertainment value building small people really. A couple got named after doctors. Some had clothing made for them. Two were to get married (on right below). One of the slightly deformed ones was even declared to have leprosy, to much laughter from everyone.

Today, Sita and I took two girls with CP swimming with us. Bishnu is 9 and Nirmala is 7, and they are adorable. They always have huge smiles on their faces, and walk around with two small wicker walkers. They were patients at one point, and have since been 'adopted' by the OT department staff. Christina at one point taught them to say in English 'I am cute', which makes us all laugh. It was the first time they'd ever had a chance to go swimming, and they loved it. They were able to kick themselves around in their inner tubes, and didn't want to come even when they were shivering and it was getting late.

They live near me, so I took them home in a taxi with me, and got invited in for dinner too by their pu-pu (aunt, but only if she is your father's sister, other types of aunts have different names). Bishnu and Nirmala entertained me by singing action songs from school. 'Left, right, straight ahead; above, below; open, closed'. By now I do know all these words, but clearly I should have been hanging out more with primary school children when I was learning them! I was also interested to discover they identified the right side by holding out their 'rice eating hand'. I know to eat with my right hand, but they know right based on the hand they eat with. It's all about perspective, really.