Gasp!

I only have nine days left in India? Inconceivable! No really, I am having serious trouble comprehending the fact that I'm leaving here and going back home in less than two weeks. I will never forget the first day I spent here, and my family will probably never forget the first time I called home and couldn't stop crying long enough to form coherent sentence. For those first couple of days it felt like four months was forever, but then somehow I got caught up and lost in all of my work and in the joy of the people I was meeting and interacting with and the beauty that wasn't hard to find once I stopped crying long enough for my tears to dry. I never would have thought that living in a country on the other side of the world could teach me so much about myself. I knew that I would have the opportunity to learn many things about India's history and culture, as well as learning more about the rest of the world of which I now feel I belong. As my dad keeps telling me, now that I've made through this I know that can make it through anything! Not that its all been fun trips to the beach and sari shopping . . .

Things I Will Not Miss

• Squatter toilets
• Over-sized crows
• Squeaky Chipmunk/Squirrel things
• Boiled ochre twice a day
• Open sewage systems

Things I Will Definitely Miss

• All of my new Indian friends
• Streets lined with bushes that blossom every day
• Spending nights under the stars on the rooftop
• Swimming in the Indian Ocean
• Play cards on the second floor balcony and enjoying the night breezes

So a few weeks ago my camera battery died, and then my camera charger disappeared, and then my camera was either lost or stolen. So I went a bought a replacement and got a little picture happy and took tons of photos, some of which I'll post here. Some of my favorites are pictures of all of the cool houses in between the house where I sleep and the Program House, were I have Telugu class and where the cooks live and prepare and serve all of our meals.

Field Work

So here are some pictures from my most recent group meeting. My translator and I went and met with the women right outside their homes, so I got to meet and play with all of the children while the women were filling out the surveys. It was the Indian version of a cul-de-sac, with two and three story buildings on three sides, making a U-shaped area facing onto the street. All of the children and the women and the old people and the animals all sit outside in the little common area in between the houses, and there was really a great community, neighborhood feel to the whole place. Anyways, nearly all of them begged to have their pictures taken, and I was more than happy to oblige. Also included is a picture of all of the women in the group whose meeting I observed.