republic day

january 26th, known internationally as Dani's birthday, also happens to be a national holiday here marking the transition of India from a British Dominion to a republic. India gained its independence on august 15, 1947, but it was on january 26, 1950 that India ratified its own constitution and swore in its first president.

there's a republic day celebration at our mobile creches tomorrow, so the older kids have spent the past couple of days making decorations and painting pictures of the flag in preparation. the seven and eight year olds of the bunch usually aren't included once the ten-twelve year olds take over, so we've been focusing our attention on them.

it took us most of last week to figure out how to pronounce all of their names, but now i finally feel like i can comfortably call on each one. they prefer to call me "boochi" or "boocha," neither of which are endearing. one means 'girl with boy's hair' and one means 'boy with girl's hair.' jr.high boys are mean.
the rest of the kids call rachel and i "didi" which means 'older sister' and they call phil "bhaiyya"(baya) which means 'older brother.'