Not sure if this is appropriate for a blog post but there have been requests so I will oblige J On Friday January 13 (Friday the 13^th no less), Chris asked me to marry him. I was completely shocked and overwhelmed but said yes none the less.

He asked Friday morning as we were trying to decide what to do that day. He had given me a little stuffed bunny when I got back to the States and I was playing with it when I noticed something shiny on one of its ear. I was so surprised! I remember saying what? Over and over again because I was so surprised.  But yeah that’s it. Simple and cute and the ring is gorgeous (though the pictures don’t do it justice). I’m so excited. I have to plan a wedding!

We ended up going into Cape Town on Friday to finish up some shopping. We went to the Waterfront and despite the rainy weather walked to Green Market Square. We ate at a 24 hour Indian restaurant on Long Street which if you ever get the chance is amazing. Cheap and good food and Indian food my favourite.

Saturday was an interesting day. We had to check out of our lovely guest house with its beautiful views so we spent most of the morning packing up. Then we went to Journey’s End to do some more packing because Chris needed to take some stuff back for me (I’m dreading having to pack up my life here).  We also met some of my new housemates before walking up to Mont Blanc to see Tilda. She was so excited to see me which was nice and even more excited when she found that I was engaged.

After that we had drive to Cape Town to drop off the car. I really wish I knew how to drive a stick shift then we would have had the car later but it was alright because we were able to take a bus from the airport into Cape Town. We dropped off Chris’ luggage at the airport. Then we went to Green Square Market again to get me some pants but they were closing down. L Then we went to the Royale Eatery which is this amazing burger place in Cape Town. I’ve been several times and I love it every single time. I also got a milkshake which was delicious.

We then made the foolish decision to climb up Table Mountain. Foolish because it was late around 5:30 and we didn’t start climbing the mountain until 6. Also it was supposed to take three hours to climb the mountain, mind you we did it in one and half but still it starts getting dark now around 8 which meant that by the time we got up the mountain it was getting dark. I was panicking because I have been stuck on Table Mountain before and I also knew that they shut the cable car down for wind and it was windy. At several points, I was afraid of being blown off the mountain. Luckily none of that happened and even though we were the last ones off the mountain, we at least got off the mountain and Chris made his flight no problem. So it all worked out. It was just scary at the time. Not something I would recommend. Hike Table Mountain in the morning/early afternoon. Give yourself plenty of time. You don’t want to be climbing down in the dark.

This past week has been a very long seven days. I feel like last Sunday was more like a month ago rather than just a week ago. Not only did I have a frustrating week at work and have to visit Jodhpur three times, twice for work and once for a personal excursion, but I also had a friends visit the village for two days, witness a funeral in the village, and I have been party to hearing a wedding for multiple nights.

At the beginning of the week, a friend from Jodhpur, Madison, decided to come back from the city on Sunday night and stay in the village for two days. She, like the other American interns in my organization, has no time to herself because she lives in an Indian household where “me time” is not common. Not only is home not a serene place, the city itself offers no refuge due to the noises and bustle: honking cars and buses, rickshaws who won’t take no for an answer, the impoverished street children and women who follow you down the streets, and not to mention the lack of peaceful sitting options inside or outside. Being that home is no refuge; she decided that coming to the village to relax would be the best option at that time. This worked out well, since she came on a Sunday night and we had dinner and drinks with my host brother and his friends whom were in town from college, and the next day she had the day to ponder on life’s questions and challenges that become clear and pressing after realizing that your time in India is almost over. Madison will be leaving in one month and her time has really flown by from the time she arrived to the time that she realized she would soon be leaving.
While Madison was here, I was planning on working during the day, my normal business hours, but a woman in the village passed on and we shut the center for the village to be in mourning. Because one of the women at the center was related to the deceased, she has not been attending work lately due to customs. I have witnessed many things in the village, but this was the first funeral that I have encountered during my time here in Chandelao. Being in a traditional Rajasthani village, rituals tend to be time-honored as well.

The women of Chandelao are not allowed to be a part of the funeral procession as the men walk throughout the village carrying the departed wrapped in linen cloth and covered with marigold flowers. The men carrying the body on their shoulders can surely feel the weight as wooden poles cut into their muscles. Once they reach the lake, they burn the body and spread the ashes while washing themselves in the lake. This is the traditional ritual all over India, but especially in Rajasthani villages. Madison and I happened to be walking around the village and saw from afar the funeral activities at the lake, and although we wanted to go and witness this custom, we thought it would be culturally disrespectful to venture too close. On the thirteenth day after the death, there will be a funeral feast that takes place to the honor the deceased and all family from the village and farther will come to celebrate. During this time, there will most likely be child pairing as is custom with large gatherings, and they will be betrothed for the marriage to take place later in life.

On a lighter side though, during the winter months in India is wedding season. I have observed, been invited to, and even attended multiple weddings at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. This is no exception in the village and there have been quite a few weddings this season. Indian weddings traditionally last three nights and have different practices each night with the third commencing in the actual wedding ceremony. The village weddings are on a much smaller scale then the city weddings I have attended due to the cost and attendance, though they are no less joyful. For the past three nights, I have listened to the loud Hindi music blaring from the rented equipment set up to entertain the guests while they all dance and sit to view the bride and groom. Weddings are a whole other blog to get into, but needless to say, they are a charade that seems to never end. The village only gets electricity for a certain number of hours, and this posed to be beneficial to my sleeping. Around 10 pm every night, the blaring music, heard over sparingly from my window at the hotel, was cut off when the power cut out suddenly. I was thinking what a relief that it was off, since I had been listening to it for over three hours already from different areas of the hotel grounds. Well, that was short lived and the electricity came back on to plague my sanity for another hour until the power cut happened for real and actually kept the electricity off all night.

Since this week has begun, I have a long list of “to-do’s” and I hope I can make a dent in them before the weekend. With the bank account being at the top of the list, I will have to rope in the help of Praduman, my host father, to help me sort the paperwork and open the account in Jodhpur. I have also been asked to start going on the projects that the past interns had left behind, so I need to start the greenhouse project and allocate the money for training the women into finding a different training source than originally budgeted for, which means I have to re-write the grant proposal as well. Needless to say, I have a long week ahead and am already looking forward to a relaxing Sunday…

So the other day, I was sitting at work in a frustrated mood, for many reasons, and I was thinking about how I have been here for 3 months and only have 5 more here. I know that sounds like a ways off still, but in reality, it will go by really fast. The thing that really started weighing on my mind was that I have gotten nothing productive done and what will happen if I don’t have anything to show for once I am gone. It’s not like I do nothing on a daily basis…

I mean, because the manager left right when I got here, I have been acting manager of the crafts center since my time has begun and most likely will be until I leave. This means that I work everyday and oversee while helping the women make the crafts. Being manager also means that I have to run all the errands outside of the village, because the women either don’t want to leave the village or would not know where to go to get the materials needed. This has proved itself as being one of the hardest things about the manager leaving right after my arrival. Finding the materials needed means I have to go to Jodhpur or other surrounding areas and search for the goods without the means of communication or physical features on my side.

Before leaving on vacation, that is almost three weeks ago, I left behind a bag with two items (key chains and zippers) and a short lists of things that needed to be completed for the center while I was gone. I gave them to my host father and he said that his mother would take care of them while I was away. Now, I don’t know whether she ever got that memo, or who may have ignored or forgotten about it, but nothing on the list was done or bought. This is where my frustrations begin. I have found that if there is something that needs to be done, then the only way it will get done is to hold someone by the hand and lead him or her to the finish. The idea of efficiency is completely lost here. This realization brought about my struggles with figuring out how to complete projects while I am still living here. I have been left with two grants that previous interns proposed and received but never followed through on, as well as figuring out the marketing and business proposals that I have commissioned myself to impose.

Since I have started to realize that things will not be completed unless I am there as a constant reminder, I used this week to compel my host father to work with me on the items I needed his help with. The past two days have been spent traveling to and from Jodhpur looking for items needed in the crafts center that the previous manager had bought from a city much farther away. I took my host father with me to find the products and drive me, because he had errands to run as well. The first day ended up being a never-ending day of tasks that needed to be completed by my host father. The only thing on the agenda for the crafts center that was tackled was getting to a bank in order to open a bank account for Sunder Rang. And I use the word “tackled” loosely because all we were able to accomplish was getting to the bank and having a discussion. Apparently, opening a bank account here in India is harder than going to a doctor and getting prescribed painkillers. They require more paperwork than an adoption as well as three responsible parties, one of which cannot be me because I am a foreigner. Needless to say, we did not open the bank account yet, even though I had papers from the previous manager, who I suppose just gave up on the work. This will require more help from my host father though because all the paperwork is in Hindi, and I cannot read a word of it.

As for the market, yesterday was spent in the market of the Old City in Jodhpur searching for particular items. This was actually a lot of fun, and being that one of my favorite parts of traveling the world is visiting markets, I found it enthralling. It was good that my host father was with me though because he was able to speak the language and receive a much lower discount to start than I would have. While I consider myself a cutthroat bargainer, because they always rip the white folk off, it is much easier to have an Indian when shopping the markets. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told by my Indian counterparts, “Stay here, if you come with me to start then the price will be much higher.” This doesn’t happen all the time, but it generally happens after another Indian is going to show them different shop with the goods we are searching for. Yesterday was a success and the shop owners will now recognize me as the gori angrez that will come back for products the next time.

The new goal is to start working more towards the bigger picture and less on the day-to-day where my time gets slowly vanishes. I now have to implement a grant for training the women, which was not going to happen because the trainers did not agree. I have to rewrite the budget and proposal in order to find new trainers for this grant in the immediate future while working on the greenhouse proposal that another intern left behind. While this time in Chandelao has not turned out the way I thought it would have, I feel if I work towards the big picture I will have made a difference and helped to change the lives of others for the better.

Ok time for the recap. I have been so exhausted the last couple days that I haven’t written. Wednesday we went sandboarding like I said. It was really nice because they picked us up from the hostel and took us to Atlantis, a part of South Africa that I had never been to. Our guide took us to a rest stop where we got food and water before continuing on to Atlantis.

The dunes were empty. We were the only ones there. We left in the morning so it wasn’t too hot, but it was definitely bad when we were heading back. I was afraid my feet were going to be burnt off from the hot sand!

The actual sandboarding was awesome. We started out small, on hills where you could go straight down without going too fast. Chris has been snowboarding before so he had no trouble picking it up and I have been sandboarding several times so it wasn’t too long before I got into the hang out things.

The most exhausting part of sandboarding is climbing back up the dunes. Climbing up sand is not an easy task and after doing it a couple of times you definitely working up a sweat.

The weather overall was pretty nice. There was a nice breeze which made it a lot more bearable. Our guide taught us how to cut, which is when your back faces the bottom of the hill and you lean back on your heels. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I personally found it a bit scary not facing where you were going, but it isn’t too bad.

We left the dunes exhausted and satisified, having conquered some of the biggest dunes they had. There were a couple of falls which is to be expected but nothing broke, just soreness.

Then we got ready to come to Gordon’s Bay where I stay as a volunteer. We packed up our stuff and were off. It was only on the drive here that I realized we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since breakfast. Not fun. But after much ado about nothing (including several stops at Journey’s End for direction), we found our guest house. It’s beautiful. Our room faces the mountains and it’s gorgeous.

Once we had settled in, we finally had dinner at Habour Island which was a very short walk from our place. I tried the chicken malay which is a kind of special sauce made specially here and it was amazing. It was sort of like Indian food but not quite the same. It was really good though.

Yesterday was awesome. I got to show Chris my school and the orphanage and the nursery. We first stopped at the orphanage. It was very strange to be at the orphanage so early. The kids were very surprised (and thankfully happy) to see me. It was chaos but I absolutely loved it. I love those kids so much. They’re so adorable. I can’t imagine right now how hard it is to say goodbye especially after being here this long. Ok not going to think about that yet. I still have two more months!

After the orphanage, we went to the school and I showed Chris our classroom and the library. The library is currently a mess but still very much intact which is good. Then I took him to the classrooms where I work. He met all my teachers. It was very strange walking the classroom and seeing a bunch of new faces. Almost all my kids are gone. I’m happy for them of course but I won’t see them as much since they moved on to Grade 7.

After that, we stopped quickly at the nursery. They were actually pretty quiet but that was probably because they were eating. Feeding time is usually much less chaotic especially since the volunteers weren’t there and the carers were in charge. The kids don’t mess around with them. It was nice to seem them, though I was sad not all the kids were there.

After our visit, we went back to our place and made the plan for the day: first Somerset Mall, then Stellenbosch, then Franschhoek. We went to Somerset Mall to find a GPS because it’s kind of hard getting around here with just directions. But actually our directions worked just fine yesterday unlike on Wednesday trying to find the guest house. We couldn’t find a GPS for a good price so we quickly moved on to Stellenbosch.

Ok time for the recap. I have been so exhausted the last couple days that I haven’t written. Wednesday we went sandboarding like I said. It was really nice because they picked us up from the hostel and took us to Atlantis, a part of South Africa that I had never been to. Our guide took us to a rest stop where we got food and water before continuing on to Atlantis.

The dunes were empty. We were the only ones there. We left in the morning so it wasn’t too hot, but it was definitely bad when we were heading back. I was afraid my feet were going to be burnt off from the hot sand!

The actual sandboarding was awesome. We started out small, on hills where you could go straight down without going too fast. Chris has been snowboarding before so he had no trouble picking it up and I have been sandboarding several times so it wasn’t too long before I got into the hang out things.

The most exhausting part of sandboarding is climbing back up the dunes. Climbing up sand is not an easy task and after doing it a couple of times you definitely working up a sweat.

The weather overall was pretty nice. There was a nice breeze which made it a lot more bearable. Our guide taught us how to cut, which is when your back faces the bottom of the hill and you lean back on your heels. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I personally found it a bit scary not facing where you were going, but it isn’t too bad.

We left the dunes exhausted and satisified, having conquered some of the biggest dunes they had. There were a couple of falls which is to be expected but nothing broke, just soreness.

Then we got ready to come to Gordon’s Bay where I stay as a volunteer. We packed up our stuff and were off. It was only on the drive here that I realized we hadn’t eaten anything substantial since breakfast. Not fun. But after much ado about nothing (including several stops at Journey’s End for direction), we found our guest house. It’s beautiful. Our room faces the mountains and it’s gorgeous.

Once we had settled in, we finally had dinner at Habour Island which was a very short walk from our place. I tried the chicken malay which is a kind of special sauce made specially here and it was amazing. It was sort of like Indian food but not quite the same. It was really good though.

Yesterday was awesome. I got to show Chris my school and the orphanage and the nursery. We first stopped at the orphanage. It was very strange to be at the orphanage so early. The kids were very surprised (and thankfully happy) to see me. It was chaos but I absolutely loved it. I love those kids so much. They’re so adorable. I can’t imagine right now how hard it is to say goodbye especially after being here this long. Ok not going to think about that yet. I still have two more months!

After the orphanage, we went to the school and I showed Chris our classroom and the library. The library is currently a mess but still very much intact which is good. Then I took him to the classrooms where I work. He met all my teachers. It was very strange walking the classroom and seeing a bunch of new faces. Almost all my kids are gone. I’m happy for them of course but I won’t see them as much since they moved on to Grade 7.

After that, we stopped quickly at the nursery. They were actually pretty quiet but that was probably because they were eating. Feeding time is usually much less chaotic especially since the volunteers weren’t there and the carers were in charge. The kids don’t mess around with them. It was nice to seem them, though I was sad not all the kids were there.

After our visit, we went back to our place and made the plan for the day: first Somerset Mall, then Stellenbosch, then Franschhoek. We went to Somerset Mall to find a GPS because it’s kind of hard getting around here with just directions. But actually our directions worked just fine yesterday unlike on Wednesday trying to find the guest house. We couldn’t find a GPS for a good price so we quickly moved on to Stellenbosch.

Today was my first day back in Cape Town. The weather is amazing and I’m so happy to be back. Chris, my boyfriend, is here with me for a week so it makes coming back even more special.

Our trip here was really long. We first flew from St. Louis to Detroit, where we had a four hour layover. Then we flew Detroit to Amsterdam, a seven hour flight. It was alright though because they feed us (not the greatest food but it is better than nothing) and they have movies. We watched “Friends With Benefits” and “Debt”. They were pretty good. Then in Amsterdam we had another long layover.  It went by pretty quickly though. Then we had 11 hours to Cape Town. It wasn’t bad though, except Chris and I didn’t get to sit next to each other. L Finally after 24+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Cape Town late. I was nervous because we weren’t certain that we would have a ride. We ordered a cab but via email and we weren’t sure that it was confirmed but sure enough our driver was there and we were dropped off at our hostel. Unforunately there was some mix up with our room, but we were able to get a room even if it wasn’t the one we ordered.

Tuesday came bright and hot. The weather here is so hot but I love it especially after the cold of the States. We sorted out our room and had breakfast at the hotel before embarking into the city. It was a beautiful hot and sunny. We found our way to Green Market Square, looking around for souvernirs. Then we went down to the Waterfront and walked around more shops. We found the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island and got tickets for the 5pm boat ride to the Island. Then we wandered around some more before taking a ride on the ferris wheel which wasn’t there the last time I was here. It gave us beautiful views of the city and the Waterfront. Then we decided to see a movie. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It is a very dark movie and I recommend preparing mentally for it.

After the movie it was time for Robben Island. I was very excited because I was supposed to go over two years ago when I was here before but because of various reasons I didn’t get to go. It was so worth the wait. The ferry ride was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. The prison tour was interesting and informative and I loved the bus ride around the Island. We even saw some penguins which I didn’t realized lived on the Island.

After our Robben Island tour, we had dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market which I highly recommend. I made Chris try the malva pudding which I also recommend. It’s unique to South Africa and I absolutely love it. Well that’s all for today. Tomorrow we’re going sandboarding, like snowboarding without the snow. It should be fun. More updates later!

Today was my first day back in Cape Town. The weather is amazing and I’m so happy to be back. Chris, my boyfriend, is here with me for a week so it makes coming back even more special.

Our trip here was really long. We first flew from St. Louis to Detroit, where we had a four hour layover. Then we flew Detroit to Amsterdam, a seven hour flight. It was alright though because they feed us (not the greatest food but it is better than nothing) and they have movies. We watched “Friends With Benefits” and “Debt”. They were pretty good. Then in Amsterdam we had another long layover.  It went by pretty quickly though. Then we had 11 hours to Cape Town. It wasn’t bad though, except Chris and I didn’t get to sit next to each other. L Finally after 24+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Cape Town late. I was nervous because we weren’t certain that we would have a ride. We ordered a cab but via email and we weren’t sure that it was confirmed but sure enough our driver was there and we were dropped off at our hostel. Unforunately there was some mix up with our room, but we were able to get a room even if it wasn’t the one we ordered.

Tuesday came bright and hot. The weather here is so hot but I love it especially after the cold of the States. We sorted out our room and had breakfast at the hotel before embarking into the city. It was a beautiful hot and sunny. We found our way to Green Market Square, looking around for souvernirs. Then we went down to the Waterfront and walked around more shops. We found the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island and got tickets for the 5pm boat ride to the Island. Then we wandered around some more before taking a ride on the ferris wheel which wasn’t there the last time I was here. It gave us beautiful views of the city and the Waterfront. Then we decided to see a movie. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It is a very dark movie and I recommend preparing mentally for it.

After the movie it was time for Robben Island. I was very excited because I was supposed to go over two years ago when I was here before but because of various reasons I didn’t get to go. It was so worth the wait. The ferry ride was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. The prison tour was interesting and informative and I loved the bus ride around the Island. We even saw some penguins which I didn’t realized lived on the Island.

After our Robben Island tour, we had dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market which I highly recommend. I made Chris try the malva pudding which I also recommend. It’s unique to South Africa and I absolutely love it. Well that’s all for today. Tomorrow we’re going sandboarding, like snowboarding without the snow. It should be fun. More updates later!

The past two weeks I have been traveling in the south of India during the Christmas and New Years holiday. While the general plan was somewhat mapped out, we were in for a surprise when our plane leaving Jaipur was delayed. After traveling to Jaipur from Jodhpur at 5 a.m. in order to get a flight in the afternoon, the airline delayed out flight, for no reason that they could explain to us. This put a damper on our first leg of the trip since we were supposed to get into Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and go to our night train that would take us to the hill stations. Well, needless to say, we missed our train due to the 5-hour delay that was so unconfidently placed on our flight plans. And so the adventure begins…

We arrived in Chennai and knew that we would we would be stranded there for the night with no idea of what to do for travel on the following day. I had called ahead while waiting in Jaipur for a hotel, but once we arrived in Chennai they informed me they had given our room away earlier that evening… Thank you so much! Now we were starting to scramble. After an early morning train, laying around an airport for 5 hours, then an plane ride with a stop on the way in Hyderabad, we just wanted to sleep for a while, especially since it was almost midnight. Well, one of my companions decided in frustration that she would just ask the pre-paid taxi gentleman (if you can call him that) to take us somewhere with openings since everywhere I was calling was full. Bad Idea! After driving about two miles from the airport the taxi pulls off on the side and starts going down dark alleyways where all we see are groups of men and trash, which is not a good start. Once we pulled in front of the so called “hotel” we already had a Hell NO attitude… There were two 20-something year old guys with us going there who were also skeptical. The place was amiably named Shiv Transit Accommodation so it really wasn’t a hotel and we felt we were coming straight into the movie “Taken.” Need I even say that we made them take us back to the airport for us to find out own accommodation?

The place we found was too much better but we felt a bit better about it. After waking up in the morning, and feeling like we had been beaten with sticks from the stiff travels, we ventured out into the unknown. We decided on going to the Theosophical Society, but once we arrived we noticed the sign on the gate saying they had closed that day for the Christmas and New Years break. So the next stop ended up being the government museum of Chennai. Well, once there they were also closed, and we found out they were closed on all Fridays. After our first two failures, our rickshaw driver, who I haggled with for a good 10 minutes before our first ride, told us he would take us to the main spots of Chennai then drop us at our night bus later in the evening. So Madison, Emily, and myself rented the rickshaw driver for the day and explored Chennai that ended up being a hidden gem.
Our first stop and most surprising was the St. Thomas Basilica. In case you don’t know (because we didn’t) there are only three Basilicas in the world that were built for Apostles of Jesus. Who would have known that one would be in Chennai, India?

Apparently, Thomas migrated over to India and ended up in Chennai in 52 A.D. and started preaching the gospel to the Indian population in Tamil Nadu. He stayed and spread the news of Jesus while performing unfathomable acts in front of the Indians, also known as miracles. St. Thomas taught until his death in 72 A.D. when he was martyred in Chennai.

All three of us had been to private school growing up and attended Christian colleges in the U.S. and none of us had ever heard of St. Thomas going to and be martyred in Chennai! This was one of the highlights of our trip, along with our wonderful driver who sat with our bags all day, which was worth the fair in itself. After leaving the Basilica, and paying our homage to the tomb of St. Thomas, we headed to the beach and dipped our feet in the Indian Ocean while avoiding the glass scattering the Chennai beaches threatening to cut of a toe or cause some serious damage to a fallen hand… The driver also took us to the see the main temple of Chennai and for a cheap south Indian dinner.

So I have been meaning to write a few blogs in the past two weeks and have been sidetracked or detained for different reasons. I feel in India, when you want to be productive, you should always account for problems to arise in your success. These are just things that you must get over and accept as part of life.

For me the biggest problem outside of work is the constant sickness that envelops my previously healthy body. In the U.S I rarely ever got sick, whether it was a simple cold or something larger to require a doctor. In India, however, I feel I am always contracting some small bug or other problem to makes me feel awful and all I want to do is sleep. Right now it happens to be a sinus infection doubling with a broken toe… Don’t ask. Random things happen. This makes it extremely hard to do anything outside of the work that I perform on a daily basis at the crafts center.

Besides being sick of course, there are plenty of other problems that arise to divert my attention from the tasks I set forth at work. Communication is always a hindrance, and even today, while paying the wages, the women and I had to take extra time to go through the literal hand motions and few common words to explain the necessary items in the pay system. The biggest problem I have encountered as of late though is the fact that the partnership with the Indian non-profit, that I had been set on working out, will no longer be an option. So I am back to square one in trying to figure out the best option of training, marketing, selling, and completing my overall tasks while being here in Chandelao. I am already searching and speaking with other Indian groups about the possibilities, but I wish I had not spent as much time thinking it may work out with the last one.

Time is another problem that I encounter here in India. Not that I don’t have plenty of time to get things done, because I do, but the problem lies in the sense of time that Indians possess. Relying on my Indian counterparts to help me with specific tasks takes allocating at least three times longer than expected and constantly reminding them of the mission at hand. The needs I have right now, and that I have had for a minimum of a month, are things like opening a bank account and getting specific items for the center that I cannot get myself. Being a foreigner, I am not allowed to hold an Indian bank account, which means I cannot open the Sunder Rang account and must wait on my supervisor/host father to go to the city and do this himself. This is easier said than done, since the sense of urgency is not there, it is always forgotten about. The same thing happens with items in Jodhpur that I cannot find for the center and need help buying. Sometimes, being unfamiliar and being foreign gets very frustrating.

I just got back from a vacation of 9 days in the south of India and will blog about that soon as well. I had meant to write while I was gone, but the time budgeted for travel was simply not enough time for leisure and unfortunately that was what my companions and myself needed most.

I have to admit that life has not been as exciting as it was during the Charity Challenge. My first day after the Challenge was boring because my kids were testing so the teachers didn’t need me and I ended up typing up a test for one of the teachers and then planning for Friday.

Friday was good though. I worked with three different Grade 3 groups. It was hectic because there was no teacher in that day so I had to go find another teacher and ask for help. I also discovered although I sorta knew that the kids have to pay R1 to not wear their uniforms on Friday. We read “Fat Cat” which is this hilarious story about this huge cat that eats lots of mice and then ends up pregnant. Not the best summary but you get the idea. Since last week went so well I decided to make the comprehension harder which proved difficult. They seem to not understand the story very well so I’m not sure if it was the story or how I phrased the questions. They enjoyed the colouring part though and once I got the hang of it, they were able to identify the main characters like I wanted. After school, we went to the orphanage and I played with Aseza. She’s amazing. She was pushing my hair out of my face and it was seriously the cutest thing. I love it there. The kids are so much fun. I even took some pictures with my film. Only a couple though because I forgot to grab another roll of film. But I had my digital as well so I took some pictures with that as well. I got to know about girl Athula. She’s adorable and has the most beautiful dark skin. 

The rest of the term has been chaotic as usual. I did a lot of grading since the week of testing gave us lots and lots of papers to grade. When I wasn’t grading, I was outside helping with sports which helped break up the monotony of grading. Sometimes I would also help Sofia with her reading focus groups. One day we read Barry the Fish with Fingers which is this awesome story about Barry the fish obviously. The kids loved it. My favourite part of the story is when Barry is telling all the other fish about what he can do with fingers and then he starts tickling the other fish. So Sofia and I start tickling the kids and they absolutely loved it. It’s kinds crazy here but it’s awesome when we get to read to the kids and they really seem to enjoy it! I’ll talk about some of the other highlights of this term later.