Anemia Screenings and Delousing

All of us in our BYU College of Nursing uniforms and Professor Nuttal
in his brand new lungi. 

Today we did over 200 anemia screenings on the children at Rising Star between 9am and 4pm. We stayed on campus all day-- again a nice break from the bus. A lot of us were apprehensive about the blood draws on the little kids but it turned out that the big kids were the babies.

Me and Jackie

I had to talk this little one through the anemia screening and the
"poke". I was able to calm her down, and she braved through it!

There was one girl named Nisha who had to be poked four times before we could get a good enough stick for her anemia screening. She was so brave! We named her the bravest girl in the school and we gave her extra candy. She didn't seem to mind. What a tough cookie!

Nisha and Me

At play time, my favorite time of day, I played tickle monster with ValenKannie and her little friends. It may not seem like a work out, but when it's over 100 degrees, humid as heck, and you're chasing little children around a playground in long pants-- it's definitely a work out.

We had rice and gravy again for dinner. To be honest I think we're all a bit tired of the rice and curry lifestyle. But while in India, why not eat as much as we can!

This evening we did a massive delousing of the students. Can I just say I was so grateful to be assigned to the boys? Because some of the girls had some dangerously long hair! We put this kind of lotion in their hair, and then they wrapped their heads in towels and slept on them. They're supposed to wash it out tomorrow. It was fun being chased around by all the little ones while they called out, "Auntie! Auntie! Spike please!" They were so excited to have their hair spiked. It was so cute. At first no one wanted their heads lotioned, but once they saw it was more like a head massage and that we could give them Mohawks, they all begged to get in line a second time for the fun of it.

I love being "auntie" and "jeshi". I never want to leave.