The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 107

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 107

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examined the girl’s eyes, which were very sore in-
deed. She had lost the sight of one eye altogether,
and now the other one was very inflamed, watery,
and pussy. She had a great fear of looking into
light. I decided to take her to the optical hospital
at Trivandrum, about five miles away. This girl’s
name is Liza. She is an orphan, having lost her
parents in the cholera epidemic in the fall of 1928,
in which Mrs. Hattendorf, formerly Miss Mahler,
did such valiant work injecting the natives against
cholera.

After the doctor had examined Liza’s eyes, he
told me she had a very badly infected eye and, in
order to save the sight of the good eye, she would
have to stay at the hospital for a week or two.
I remained with her until she was taken to her
room. Let me say right here that the Lord was
merciful and answered our prayers. Just before
I left the plains to come up to the hills for a little
period of rest, I went to see her, and she was all
smiles, the doctor having given orders for her to
leave the hospital in two days, with her eye very
much improved. As this was the last Saturday of
the school-year in which I could haye a meeting
with the girls, I had made arrangements with the
matron of the boarding-school to have the girls
march from the compound to my house for a little
“picnic.” We have a little health class with these
girls every Saturday morning. In these classes
I try to discuss hygienic conditions in every phase
of their lives in order to instil the desire of im-
proving their unsanitary living conditions and their
customs. This is almost as great a task as teaching
them our religion.
old way is wrong or, let us say, harmful; but then
comes the old excuse “Our parents, our parents’
parents, etc., did it. It was good enough for them;
80 it is good enough for us.” Or you get the in-
evitable “That is our custom.”

A little after four on this Saturday afternoon,
while sitting on the veranda waiting for the girls
to arrive, I heard them singing one of their songs.
They marched into the compound two by two,
ranging from the smallest and youngest girls to the
tallest and oldest. After finishing their song, one
of the older girls started out a high-pitched “Hip
hip!” (pronouncing it Heep! heep!) and all the
Test answered “Hooray!” As it was getting rather
late for a picture, I almost gave up the idea of
taking one. However, they love to have their pic-
ture taken, and so I consented. The following hour
and a half was spent in a little talk to them on
what they had learned during the year. I also

They will concede that their

encouraged them to come back to school the follow-
ing year. Then they sang some health songs, which
my language teacher and I had translated into the
Malayalam language, and we played a game which
the girls enjoy very much. It is a clapping and
cross clapping of hands while you sing or recite the
little verse: — Pea porridge hot,

Pea porridge cold,

Pea porridge in the pot

Nine days old.

This verse and another one we translated and
taught the girls how to play the game. Their choice
of game was always this one.

An interesting fact in connection with play in
a girl’s life out here in India is that after the age
of seven to nine years the girls are not seen to play
jointly at all. When we first started the girls
playing, they would not even try it. Of course

Girls’ Boarding-School Pupils, Trivandrum, apie,
1932-33.

I always played with them. No matter wha’
it was we were playing, I had to be the Tr,
When I asked them why the little girls
play together, they reluctantly admitted thatto:
reason was that they would be made fun of.
gradually I managed to get the girls to play w
others looked on or not.

A few remarks about some of the girls
be of interest. The girl standing in the Sy
on the right side of the picture has a flag ich
hand. This flag is our health banner. It is made ;
of white muslin, with a red double cross, andhaS) 6G
three words of blue letters. The words are “H
Cleanliness, Happiness,” in the Malayalam oO
guage. This girl was chosen by all the rest of-thé)
girls to carry the banner because she was one of the
best girls to carry out our rules dealing: 1)

a skin disease called scabies or itch, which is
prevalent among Indian children; 2) in regard to
head lice, which are also very common among all

EMI AY? 2

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7: LOUIS, MO.