When we arrived at the Ms’ building yesterday, we met Suk and Harka on their way to the library (Phul Maya told us that they go there to use the computer.) The adults were home, as were Niermal, Ajwal, and a friend of Gopal’s. They gave us Nepali tea, and we helped Niermal with his homework (writing and spelling the number nineteen.) Gopal’s friend has been in the country for three months, and had progressed further in his English studies. As such, we were able to work on the distinction between using the gerund and the present tense (for example, “I am drinking Nepali tea, as opposed to “I drink Nepali tea.”) For Phul Maya and Gopal, I brought along a photo album, so we could work on family words. Phul Maya’s speech is much more confident, and she enjoyed looking at the pictures. We were able to talk a little about basic activities. Her homework assignment for her ESL class focused on classroom words and places. She did well copying and pronouncing the words, but some of the illustrations were poor, so Armaan helped communicate words like “bank” and “supermarket.” We went over the alphabet with Niermal and Ajwal, who discovered a love of the alphabet song. Then the kids put on a karate video, which Phul Maya got into; this continued until Gopal promptly entered the room and turned off the TV. set. We worked with Gopal for a while on family words. He likes the words for “grandfather” and “grandmother”, but finds the words for “aunt” and “uncle” frustrating because they don’t convey a paternal or maternal distinction. Given his frustration, we decided not to go about explaining “cousin”. He copied down the words in Nepali and English. Armaan also gave him alphabet flashcards for the children. Gopal insisted on plying us with Sunny D before we left.