Beautiful 5th Grade Girls

Time sure flies. We're in the middle of our fourth year at Karunya Mane, and the kids are sure growing like weeds! School starts again in just a week so we're scrambling (as usual) to get everything ready -- uniforms, books, shoes, school bags, pencils, notebooks, pens...

The girls who will be in fifth grade this year decided to try on their new uniforms. Since they've now graduated from primary school where they wore the red-and-blue shirts, they now get to wear the blue-and-white uniform.

Don't they look sweet? And for those who knew them "way back when," they've grown, huh?

Shanti, Divya, Vijayalakshmi, Pooja, Prema

Harish and the big boys

Three of our oldest boys, Sreenivas, Harish, and Manikanta, spent the school year at a residential school. They returned to KM in April for a short summer vacation, and during that time volunteered at our neighbors, People for Animals. PFA is a not-for-profit animal shelter that cares for homeless and handicapped animals, and currently houses over 200 dogs, a handful of cats, parrots, four beautiful eagles, a monkey, rabbits, horses and donkeys, and a couple of little piggies.

At PFA, the boys learned how to feed and clean the animals, and also helped the veterinarian with procedures in the operating room. The boys loved their summer internship and everyone at PFA enjoyed their efforts.

Manikanta with a white doggie cooling off on the wet sidewalk. 

Harish and Manikanta just returned to school this week, and Sreenivas will also head back in a month. Here's what Harish wrote about his time at PFA:

Although Harish still has a few English grammar rules to learn (!), we have to remember that he has basically been in school for only four years. He started in 1st grade (at the age of 9), skipped to third grade (at the age of 11), then skipped to fifth grade (at the age of 13), and just finished up 9th grade (age 15), in the Kannada language.

Sreenivas and Harish, getting ready to feed the dogs (rice, egg, milk).