I love lice

It's Saturday, and I'm done with my first week of volunteering. I'm starting to feel sort of at home here: I have my room (with newly fixed shower head!), my internet cafe, my friends, and my routine. In the morning I wake up, eat jam and toast, try to write the day's lesson plan/spend all my money on the internet, and then catch the "bus" to Bouda with Steph and Sylvia. Then it's two hours of teaching, two hours of orphanage, and back to the Student Guest House for dal-bat and usually (because I am still on some wonky sleep schedule) bed.
Teaching is both easy and hard, mostly because I make up a lot as I go (oops) and it only sometimes works out! The little monks - who are about three feet tall and always tripping over their big red robes - knew pretty much nothing, so I'm starting with the alphabet and going from there. I taught them the alphabet song, which they loved even though they couldn't help laughing when they heard my singing voice. But the funniest is the Tibetan teacher, who comes to every class and sits cross-legged on the floor in the middle of all the tiny little kids. He tries really hard and always gets so embarrassed when he has to ask the others for help (which is most of the time).
The older class is learning about food, which was probably a bad idea; I just get hungry. I brought them in some mini Twix bars one day for them to "describe" as they ate, but ran out with about 8 kids left. I felt really bad and starting apologizing all over the place when one boy said "It's ok, don't worry, we share." They all started handing back their Twix or breaking them apart for the others. In what classroom in the US would kids ever voluntarily hand back Twix? I guess they really are monks!
It's such a weird contrast going straight to the orphanage from the monastery. It's not really an orphanage - most of the kids are there because their parents are in jail - but they are so starved for affection (or any attention at all) that they might as well be. The kids each wear one outfit, wash maybe once a week, and always have some combination of snot, lice, and rash. Mostly we just sit while they hug/kiss us (gross, as comes with snot). I've also been playing soccer with the older boys, even though the goal is a single brick and they puppy-guard like crazy, which I think has really earned me their respect. But Sylvia says they just like me because I'm blonde. So who knows.
Even though I'm settled in, I still can't quite believe I'm here. I miss you all so much, and wish you were with me instead of an entire day away! More soon...love.