Time to play catch up...

It seems like there is never enough time in the day to catch up over here!!!! I am going to do my best now to see how far I can get before we head out to a dinner.

Ok... so back to the teasers from Friday...

Thursday was Amy's birthday so we took her out for the evening. We went to Connaught place which is the direct center of Delhi. It is just a big shopping center and has high end shops. We took taxi cabs for the first time and it was CRAZY!!! Nothing like being right at eye level with the bazillion cars, motorcycles, tuk tuk's etc! Chinmoi was in our cab and he convinced the driver to turn on some Hindi music... nothing like zooming through the crowded streets of Delhi with Hindi techno music blasting! We first went to the Rodeo bar for a drink... it is cowboy themed and there is nothing more strange than seeing Indian waiters wearing traditional "old west" clothes. The seats at the bar are actual saddles!!!! I decided to be brave and had a Kiwi Margarita. on Thursday, all I had eaten was three bananas and some rice but I was feeling much better. It was alot of fun and Amy was really pleased to be showered with such attention for her special day. After the rodeo bar we walked over to a REALLY cool restaurant called "Bonsai." We sat outside next to this beautiful fountain. It was FREEZING outside and JErry was really sweet and took off his coat to give to me! Chivalry is still alive! :) I ordered simply and got a grilled paneer tikka sandwish (grilled cheese for all you non-Indian peeps). I ate about half of it and then gave up... my stomach started to hurt again. Suddenly Amy got up and ran to the bathroom... looks like Delhi belly has claimed another :( Even Jerry was saying that his stomach hurt... we've all been popping pepto like it was candy! When we went to leave the bar, we were walking to get cabs when all of the sudden.... gurgle, gurle! :( Luckily Natasha was there and she called out to Ray that I needed a restroom and QUICK and luckily there was a McDonalds there! It was a close call :( Afterwards I felt fine though :) back at the hotel, there was a knock at the door. Jerry and Dan were standing there with little grins on their faces... they held out a card and a beautiful shawl. They gave me an early birthday card and gift!!! Funny how my work can't even remember my birthday and yet these two strangers did! :) It was really sweet and the card is awesome! I was really flattered!!!!



On Friday we were one man down... Amy didn't come down in the morning and had opted to stay back at the hotel. :( poor thing. Natasha ended up coming to our site to help out and it was great having her there! Jerry had bought a shirt the day before and it phonetically spelled out "superstar." (soo-per-star). At one point on the build he covered up the "p" and I read it aloud... SEWER STAR!!!! Hahahahahaha! Nice... gotta love the fact that we are practically hanging out in the sewer all day! :) Today on the site, there were a lot more guys around and they would just stand there and stare at me. Jerry even started calling me "Ms. Bawana." They have the most intense stare here and even when I would look at them they would not glance away. i spent the entire day moving bricks! From 9-3:30 I carried bricks non-stop (well, except for breaks:)). Dan was working on digging out the septic tank and it was too tight in there to help out. The sewer is continuing to slowly sleep into our trench in the front and we have now labeled it "Bawana black gold... the finest materials in Bawana!" YUCK! At lunch, some of the women from Chetnalaya came and sold jewelry that they had made. All of the proceeds go back into helping the womens programs in Chetnalaya. Sujata came over and grabbed my arm and pulled me into the office. she brought over one of the other women who speaks better english and she said "amy is sick but you must buy her some jewelry, she will be so sad if she learns that you all were able to buy great things but she was home sick." It was really sweet. I bought a few things and went back to Sujata to let her pick out which one she thought woule be best for Amy. In the afternoon, some people on my team were talking about how they feel frustrated that the adults in the neighborhood just come around and watch us work. I think I even heard the word lazy. Me, being the eternal social worker began to bust out my speech on why people are apathetic and disempowered :) About an hour before we finished, I had climbed up on the brick pile in the alley to hand some bricks from the back. There was a group of about 6 children standing there watching. They all have snotty noses, no shoes and a few didn't have pants. One of them reached down and handed me a brick. He must have been about 5 years old. I looked up at his snot covered face and said "thanks" with a big smile and he broke into the biggest smile I'd ever seen. Next thing you know, all 6 children have scrambled up on the pile and are handing me bricks. they would hand me one and when I would look up at there eyes and smile, they would be SO excited! PRetty quickly they learned how many bricks we each carried (5 for me, 6 for Natasha and 7 for Jerry) and would stack them up for us while we were carrying them down the street to the site. All that work just to receive a smile from one of us. In that moment, I remembered why I work with children at home... they are the future... the hope, the eagerness and they keep it simple... working for a smile :) My heart was very touched.

At dinner I told Amy the story about Sujata and the bracelet and she was really grateful. I gave her the bracelet and she just kept smiling and said "I can't believe how special everyone here is making me feel." After dinner, a few of us walked up to the main street. Before even going 10 feet poor Liam had almost been hit by 2 different motorcycles. He said "that's it, I am turning around and going home!" We ended up at a cafe overlooking the street. After that we walked to this stall that sold Puma T-shirts for $3. I wanted to get a long sleeve t-shirt because my arms were COMPLETELY torn up from carrying the bricks. We went to bed at about 10 because we had to be up SUPER early to leave for the Taj Mahal.


Ok, so let me take a moment to vent about our terrible Habitat host here in India. I thought Josh would be super cool because he is a social worker... not the case! He is the laziest host I have ever seen! He has never come to the site with us. He has never come to the hotel, he has never been with us on an outing... nothing! Well, on Friday he did actually come out with us to the site. At lunchtime, my camera freaked out and the lens wouldn't close. There is so much dirt and grime in there that it kept getting stuck. Jerry fixed it the first time and Ray fixed it the 2nd. I spoke to Josh about it and he said we would find a place to fix it on the way back to the hotel. For a moment, I thought "hmmm... maybe I've misjudged him and he's really ok." i was really freaked out about getting it fixed because we are supposed to go to the Taj tomorrow and I can't have a broken camera!!!!!!! When the bus let us off on the street and we began our walk to the hotel, I reminded him and he said "yep, on the way." I walked with him and we talked about child development. We get to the hotel and I bring it up again. He starts talking to the bellhop about it and then Josh turns to me and says "well, you have a team member on your team that speaks Hindi so he can take you later to the place up the street." I was SUPER pissed! First of all, Chinmoi paid to come on this trip, it is not his responsibility to have to help me with this... that is the job of the host. Second of all, Josh has not done a single thing this entire week and that is UBER uncool! So there I was with a broken camera and I said "Josh, that is unacceptable, Chinmoi has a cold and does not need to be taking me out at night to help me find a camera repairshop." Josh said "ok, go upstairs for 10 minutes to freshen up and then we will go." I knew he was blowing me off. I came upstairs, vented to Natasha and then went back downstairs in my work clothes, full expecting to see Josh gone. He was there with Ray arguing about the hotel bill. Josh had negotiated a pretty good deal here but had forgotten some important details. I sat down, knowing full well that Josh had seen me and not acknowledged me. 20 minutes later Chinmoi came in from outside and asked why I was sitting there. I explained it to him and bless his heart he said "ok, let's go, I will take you." I owe him a huge debt! We walked to this black market where they sold EVERYTHING! Phones, computers, you name it. We asked a bunch of people but no camera repairmen. :( Looks like I will have to rely on prayers alone!

Ok, gotta go get some dinner but I will try to catch up with you all later and I can't wait to tell you about the Taj!!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words!!!!

WOW!!!!! Yesterday went NOTHING like was planned and we didn't end up getting home until almost 2am... but we had a great time and the Taj was completely worth it! We just woke up and we have to be downstairs this morning for our tour of Old Delhi but I will try to etch out some time later to talk with you guys! I haven't really had much time, and I know that some of you have sent me emails... I have read them but haven't had a spare moment to respond. I appreciate all of your thoughts and please know that your emails and comments mean SO much to me!!!

Delhi Candy

Ok, so it is late and we have to be up at 5:45 tomorrow morning to see the Taj Mahal but I wanted to let you all know that I am feeling ten thousand times better!!! I think that it was food poisoning because all four people on my team ended up feeling sick. Amy was really sick and didn't get to the site today... Daniel and Jerry just had upset stomachs. It must have been the burfi we ate. In fact, most people on the team have been popping pepto... thus earning it the name "delhi candy." Remind me tomorrow you tell you all about 1. Amy's bday dinner, 2. My birthday gift, 3. children teaching adults, 4. Brick-mania, 5. Bawana black gold, 6. Chetnalaya jewelry, 7. my poor sad broken camera and the adventure to try to get it fixed!

We might get back really late tomorrow(it's a 6 hour bus ride EACH WAY! So if you don't hear from me tomorrow, it means we got back really late (they are hoping we will get back around 10pm

I'm alive!!!

Hello to all my faithful readers!! I have survived the last 24 hours... barely! Last night was terrible!!!! The fever was the worst part... I laid in bed shivering and finally fell asleep around 8:30. Natasha came home and woke me up to ask how I was feeling. I got up to go to the bathroom... I felt terrible because the rooms are not exactly soundproof and the poor girl could hear everything! Nothing like getting to know your roommate real quick! She's been really great and every time I would wake up in the middle of the night to go (about every hour), she would ask how I was feeling. Natasha had told me about the drama that happened last night... Fleda has everyone on edge and she does not stop talking EVER!!! Some people (and even Ray) have hinted at the fact that they are having difficulty tolerating her I awoke @ 7 and although the fever symptoms were gone, I had developed a heat rash all over my torso. i doped up on benadryl (the rash), advil (which I found BTW) for the headache and fever, inhaler (for the asthma which has been MUCH better today), malarone (anti-malarial) pepto for my stomach and tyelenol for the body aches! For those of you who know me, I hate taking meds!!. At breakfast this morning everyone was asking how I was doing and I tried to eat a piece of toast but only made it about halfway before having to run back downstairs. Ray was great and told me I could stay at the hotel but I really wanted to go with the team. He thinks it was food poisoning but told me we could always go get it checked if I wanted. I remembered how yesterday, my naan (bread) at lunch had some raw dough on it, I tore that part off and set it aside but am wondering if maybe there was something nasty in there. As I was using the restroom every 20 minutes this morning, I was really nervous about the hour busride. Everyone was really supportive and I was able to make it through the busride by just closing my eyes. We have a 10 minute walk to the community center and I was able to make it! YEA! My team took it easy on me and gave me the easy jobs and asked me to carry less. It was really helpful as I was still feeling terrible. Imagine doing heavy labor while having food poisoning. YUCK! Natasha gave me a rehydration packet and that seemed to help. For snack I ate a banana and drank some tea. About a half hour before lunch, I had to go really bad and the site is a 10 minute walk from our bathroom! Sujata was kind enough to walk (more like run!) to take me back. Along the way she was telling me about how Bawana is dangerous and that people here are always angry and often fight. She said that they sometimes use knives to stab each other. Interesting! For lunch, I skipped the meal and had a banana and rice. Jerry was very sweet and offered me his power bar (poor guy doesn't like Indian food and keeps a token power bar with him at all times). I laid down on a bed they have there for the rest of lunch. Getting back to work was hard as mmy stomach was still pretty upset. In the afternoon we finished laying the bricks up to ground height, starting digging out the septic tank, moved more bricks from the street to our house and mixed concrete. We are learning more about the engineer and he has started saying "ok, ok, ok" (his only english words!. It is hilarious... at times he looks very annoyed with us but at other times he is teasing us and joking around). The bus ride back was not so bad as I was starting to feel better. Jerry and Dan both had upset stomachs as well but nothing like mine... I don't know what it could have been... I've been eating what everyone else has been eating. I dunno. Long story short, I am feeling better and am on my way to being back-to-normal. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tonight we are heading out for Amy's birthday... Ray had this amazing birthday card MADE for her with pictures of India on it and we all signed it. Tonight we are going to a bar called the rodeo and then out to a fancy dinner. Seeing as all I've eaten is a half piece of toast, 2 bananas and a handful of rice... I am beginning to feel hungry! YEA!!!! I hope you all are well... aren't you jealous of my fabulous day?

I hurt... everywhere! :)

Today was completely exhausting!!! I was already a bit tired starting the day but it really added up throughout the day. It's a really nice temperature here but the work is never ending. Unlike my other Habitat builds, there is absolutely NO downtime except for the breaks. By the time we get on the site, they already know what we will be doing and we jump right into work. Being a team of four, I also feel like if someone slacks off... it is really noticeable. Plus Dan and Jerry and much stronger and although I try to keep up with them, I simply can't. Sujata brought her 3 1/2 year old daughter to work today and she is the most adorable thing ever! I had completely won her over by lunchtime and spent my entire lunch chasing her around the building and tickling her. She has the most adorable bowl haircut and the absolute most infectious laugh. I couldn't get enough of her!!!! On the way in to Bawana this morning Ray sat with me and we talked quite a bit about leading teams. He has SO much experience leading teams and has been through every imagineable situation. A great mentor to look up to. In the morning, we broke up bricks by using hammers... nothing like getting out a little aggression. We then threw the pieces down into the ditch to create a 1 1/2 inch level. After that we moved the entire pile of bricks that we had moved on the first day back into the house to help when we start laying the walls. I picked up the bricks, swung them over to Jerry who then threw them across the sewer to Amy who caught it and thenhanded it to Dan who stacked them. Imagine bending forward at the waist and swinging your arm up holding a 5lb brick and then when he was behind, it would start to swing back down. My shoulders (and lower back are killing me!!!!). Imagine grabbing a 5 pound weight in each hand and raising them out to the sides (shoulder height) while bent over at the waist... now do that about 500 times. UG!!!! We finished that about 30 minutes before lunch and went to go help the other two teams. They are building side by side and are working on digging out the septic tank. Although I complain about our site being practically IN the sewer... it does make the dirt moist and easier to break up. Their dirt it dry and clumpy. And their site is in the sun. Our site never sees the sun. After lunch, we walked back to our site and on the way there is this deaf girl (about 15years) who Amy noticed on the first day (amy is a sign language interpreter.) and she reached out to me, grabbed my hand and then pushed a paper into my palm. I opened it and something was written on it in Hindi. I handed it to Sujata and she said "she wants to know how you keep your complexion so beautiful and fair. She is asking for your to recommend to her a cream to keep her face like yours." So sweet, I wish I had gotten it back from Sujata to keep! After lunch I had a pretty big headache... the guys went to go help the other site for a bit and when Amy went to go get them, I was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of people. With no other team members and no translator... I winged it :) They were all super friendly and they started to teach me how to count in Hindi (I can't remember most of them but two is Du, and nine is no.) When they all came back, the dump truck had dumped off sand, rocks and more bricks. The pile of bricks was about 6 feet tall and about 9 feet long!!!! and about a llock away! We didn't get very far before Lau Sing called us over and said they were ready for the blessing before pouring the concrete. WE stood with the homeowner and Lau Sing said a prayer in hindi. We then poured in the first bucket of conrete (which is hand mixed... just like Ghana... so tiring!). After that, he called us back over and a woman came and lit about 6 sticks of incense. She walked around and put it down in the troughs speaking under her breath. After that Lau Sing said another prayer and then they passed around burfi (a sweet... like an indian cookie). It was AMAZING!!!!!! On the way back from the site, there was more traffic than usual and took us almost 2 hours. Imagine sitting in a small bus for two hours after using your muscles all day! Our only entertainment was when our bus driver cut off a guy on a motorcycle with his girlfriend. The motorcyle then pulled in front of us stopped and walked up to the drivers window shouting. Jerry leaned over and said "wow, I didn't think you could really do anything to piss anyone off here... seems like they are always cutting each ohter off. They debated for about 10 minutes and we were on our way. I was sitting in the back with Ava and we had a great conversation about Politics (Obama yes or no), socialized medicine, psychotherapy, chopping off the tops of mountains, etc! For being so young (barely 18) she is not only brilliant but really socially aware. Both of her parents are psychologists and she wants to be a journalist. She grew up just outside of D.C. in a place called Bethesda. It was a great conversation!! Unfortunately, I was feeling car sick for the last 40 minutes :( When we got to the hotel, I realized that it isn't being carsick :( I've caught something :( The rest of the team has gone out to a bar but I am sitting under the covers shivering:( Hopefully it goes away tomorrow. If not, I will consider taking the antibiotic (yes mom, you heard that correctly :) ). My roommate has been really great and offered me meds. I looked for my IB Profen but I don't see it anywhere... I really hope I didn't leave it in CA! I'll take some tyelenol PM and see how it goes :) I hope you all are well... I absolutely love your comments!!!

Why would anyone put a toilet on a roof?!?!

Hello everyone!!!! What an amazing two days it has been... let's see if I can put it all into words for you. Yesterday morning we awoke and left @ 7:45 to get to the site. Bawana is only 30k (about 23 miles) but it takes 1hour to get there and 1.5 hours to return because of the traffic. On the drive there, since it was chilly, there were people who had built small fires on the side of the road from Cow patties. All the little kids were heading to school and looked very smart in their outfits. On the way, Ray explained a bit more about Bawana. Bawana is a city within Delhi but it was never really intended to be permanent living. It used to be the old city dump and the city realized that it needed to provide a space for homeless people to live. Since many of the homeless were already living in the dump, they city just threw some dirt on it and allowed people to move in. In fact, when they recently had the games here in Delhi, they went through the city and rounded up as many beggars/homeless people they could and dumped them out in Bawana. Needless to say it's not the best place to live. Upon arriving we passed a large tent city (new arrivals) and then stopped the bus on a side street. Immediately the stench was upon us. Since there is no sewers, there are two ditches on either side of the small alley. They are both filled with standing water and you can guess what they are filled with. Toilet waste, bath waste, food scraps, trash, and I am sure lots of other things I do not want to think about! Children under the age of two simply do not wear any pants (or underwear) and just squat anywhere they like. Our hub at Bawana is a place called Chetnalaya. It is an amazing place!!! It is the community center and is run by Lau Sing. He is one of 18 people on staff and their purpose is to provide for and educate the women of Bawana. they provide sewing classes where the women learn how to mend, sew petticoats and blazers and are therefore able to bring in an income to their family (thus making them more valuable to their husbands and less likely to be beaten or mistreated). There are also groups to help them learn english, learn how to use a computer or learn another type of trade. It is a great center and 15 of the 18 on staff are women as they want the women of Bawana to feel comfortable and empowered. It is an absolute AMAZING center! To get there we have to walk down one alley and across this one area where the sewer has overflown. Someone has placed bricks the size of your fist through the disgusting water but be careful not to misstep!!!! Once at the center, we met the kids from Saudi Arabia. They are 9th graders that attend an international school in Saudi and they are doing this as community service. We met the homeowners (all women) and were divided into 3 teams. I am on a team with Amy, Dan and Jerry. Our homeowners name is Shairya (like Sarah but with a "shy" as the first syllable.). Our helper is named Sujata and she walks us to the site and back everyday. We are not allowed to walk through Bawana without her present, even if it is to run to the bathroom. We walk aways to the house and on the way the children all come up running and yelling "hi" and "bye" (I don't think they know the difference). They are adorable in their little outfits. Since it is winter here, most of them have colds and are a bit snotty nosed. They alleys are maybe 6 feet wide and packed with houses or shacks. We get to our "house" and it is a small shack, 10feet by 15 feet. It turns out that Shairya was not informed until this morning that she is getting a house so she has not had time to unpack. We offered to help but she and her daughter would not let us into the house. Her daughter is about 15 years old and was seriously annoyed with her mom and looking perturbed as they were trying to pack and her mother was going slowly. Hahahaha... looks like mother daughter teenage tension is present in every culture! I don't have to speak Hindi to understand the subtext of their text :) Finally Sujata was able to get them to allow us to help. The house had two rooms, both entered from the front. To enter the home, you have to step over the sewer and into the house. The front room was maybe 5 feet by 4 feet and had a wooden thing that looked like a table/bed. The back room was slightly larger but was taken up by another large table/bed. Under this bed were pots and pans filled with still water. They were a bit putrid but I think the family has been saving them to drink because the water spigot is far from their house. The shack was literally a few tree branches holding up a thatch (very thin) wall and roof. In the large room was also the "kitchen." We finally got the moving done and began to dismantle the "shack." It only took us about 1 hour to pack and move her meager belongings and only about 20 minutes to take apart the house.
WE had to be very careful though because the community will reuse all the materials and build another shack with the same materials.I was helping remove some wire and Amy was on the other side of the wall pulling, I said "ok Amy, can you pull this one." And she said "Ican't, there is a tire attached." HAHAHAHA... and there really was a random tire attached to the electrical cable!!! As we took down the walls, on one side there was a neighbor's shack. We took down that wall and found the most disgusting thing (well for me anyway)... there were clumps of black hair tucked in the wall and laying all around the floor.
(sujata in the house after we took the roof down but still had the wall up)
We asked Sujata and in her little english she said it was human hair. I dont know where it came from but YUCK!!!!!!!! The entire plot is 10X15. We also had to move the pile of bricks that the family had been storing inside the house. I have never seen so many cochroaches in my life. I was the one picking them up off the ground and each one would have 4 or cochroachs attached that I would try to shake off before handing it up to Jerry. After the house was down, we began to start digging. We have to dig a trench around the side two walls and the back wall in order to put the bricks up. Each side has to be 3 feet deep by 1 1/2 feet wide. The soil is like clay and difficult to dig up. Daniel is a complete work hourse. We;ve also nicknamed him Mr. Bawana because he is super friendly and talks to EVERYONE we encounter! He takes lots of pictures of the kids and they love him. For every moment he is taking pictures, he works the hardest out of all of us. After we dig the trenches we will work on the walls. We hope to get up to the roofline. It will end up being one floor and then later they will put a toilet up on the roof. Habitat wanted it in the homes but the families protested and said their relgiious shrines are in the home and it would be a disgrace for a toilet to be facing their Gods... so abitat agreed to put it on the roof! :) For lunch we walked back to Chetnalaya and they had the most delicious lunch prepared for us. I was sitting outside and there was a teen boy just standing there blatantly staring at me. I was trying to ignore it until Jerry said "I think you have an admirer." Ray overheard and said "being the token blonde on the trip, I am sure that Sheri will get that a lot." I looked directly at the boy and kind of gave him a dirty look... in return I got a head bobble. The people from Saudi all wear jumpsuits and they brought one for Josh (our host). At lunch, Amy said "I think Josh's dimples are cte." And I said "yeah, there's nothing like a man in a onesie." WE laughed hysterically!!!

Let me take a moment to explain the bobble :) I have no idea what it means. Earlier today I said "sujata, can I borrown the pick" and she bobbled... I couldn't tell if that meant yes or no. Later in the day, I asked Samim (one of the fmaily members) to pass me the shovel, he bobbled and then didnt give me the shovel but went back to work. It is pretty funny but a bit confusing. We've all begun to practice the bobble on the bus... MAtt has the best bobble going on :)

(Amy and I flexing our muscles)
Back to the site... we continued to dig throughout the afternoon and found all sorts of things (toothbrush, comb, shorts just to name a few). I got my first injury... there was a rusty nail sticking out of the neighbors brick wayy and I walked right into it with my upper arm. Thank God it didn't break the skin but I have quite the AWESOME bruise where the nail head hit my arm. We quit @ 3pm and headed back to the center. I was talking with Carrie (another team leader with the Saudi team, she is from New Zealand) and she nodded to the side and said "I think you have an admirer." My teenage friend was back and standing about 5 feet away just intently staring. He didn't look away or make any acknowledgement that I looked. While standing there a fight broke out on the steps between a bunch of boys. This woman came running out with a stick and started hitting and yelling and the boys. They divided into two groups (the jets and (ok musical buffs, can you come up with the other gang?)) and one person even picked up a shovel! Luckily all calmed down. We walked to the bus and as we were waiting, we were standing next to the market and were just covered in flies. Matt and I were talking and I saw Carrie and she nodded to my right. I turned around and Senor Stares-a-lot had followed us and was there continuing to stare at me... awesome :)

(Hanuman... the monkey king... on the road to/from Bawana)
On the way back to the hotel we saw an elephant pulling a cart, a camel train on the streets and some hijrah's (eunichs & cross dressers that are said to be good luck in India). We were all exhausted last night and had dinner and 6 of us then went out to a bar nearby. I had a mango lassi (YUMMY!!!!) and Jerry, Natasha, Chinmoi, Liam, Matt and I had some great conversations! Even with that, we were in bed by 9:30. Natasha is also a bit... um... annoyed by our one teammate and she complained when we got back to the room. I am trying not to talk much about my feelings towards her (especially since the walls are so thin) but I am challenged by it... I'm not proud of it but am trying to be mindful of it. I decided to try the Tyelenol Pm... wow!!! I only woke up last night but I had the weirdest dreams! I think it was the comination of the anti-malarials, the tyelenol pm, the asthma inhaler and who know what else. The last dream I remember I was at my mom's house and all our animals were outside. I let them in but thought "hmmm... are these really our animals or are they decoys?" I looked in our backyard and there was another set of our animals. I was then trying to figure out which ones were the real ones. I would hold up each one separately and compare it to the other "hmmm... is this one treble or is this one treble?" Next thing you know, my mom and I are at the beach... I have to run back to the car and left her on the beach. When I get back to the car, she is sitting in the front seat. So I think "hmmmm.... is this my real mom or is the mom on the beach my real mom?" I try testing her but they both know all the answers. I then realized that I couldn't let them see each other or the would self-destruct!!! (I am seeing a bit of Harry potter in here for you film buffs). I then realized that I had forgotten my mom's birthday (which mom I don't know) so I called my brother and asked him to buy a toolbox for her and deliver it to the hotel by the beach but he can't let her see it. And then I woke up. WHAT THE HECK!!!!????? :)

This morning while getting ready, I put some barrettes in my hair. They are the old clips that kids wear (they were mine from many years ago and I brought them with me... I plan on wearing them each day to add some playful flavor and then I will leave them for the kids). Today were yellow ducks and they were a huge hit at breakfast!! My teammates love them :) On the drive this morning I rode in with MAtt (who by the way is a serious hottie!!!). we got to Chetnalaya and walked out to the site. We continued to dig the trenches and got a really good rhythm going between us. It is a GREAT team!!!! We started digging the front trench but the the lining for the sewer kept busting holes and the sewer water would trickle into the trench and make it muddy and extra stinky. Needless to say, these shoes and pants will DEFiniteLY be staying in INDIA!!! Since we plugged up the sewer with dirt, it has now started to overflow into the shack next to us. The stinky water mixing with the clumps of black hair makes me want to gag every time I see it!!! YUCK!!! We also started digging out the corners (5 feet down) where the rebar posts will go. The front right one we began to call "sewer 101" because it is a completely different color of dirt and every shovelful brings about a new smell of awesomeness :) We all took turns up there! Sujata was a bit more talkative and through a lot of pantomiming we found out that she is married with a 3 year old daughter. Her husband cares for their daughter in the day and then works at night.


After working today we were waiting back at the center and Sujata called me over. She grabbed my hand and brought me into another room and said "sister, this is my office. She as so proud of the room with the 6 chairs that she shares with 5 other people. I asked her which chair was hers and she beamed as she pointed to one chair. She also explained to me about the paintings on the walls. On one wall is a house diagram. It is meant to represent the housing collaboration between Chetnalaya and Habitat. On the other side is a beautiful tree with names painted into the leaves. She came up behind me and put her head on my shoulder and said "sister, this tree strong, is like Chetnalaya and all women, is for all women who need branches." It was a beautiful moment. Eventhough you often see women her hugging, holding hands and such, it was such a sweet unexpected affection that I was very touched that she picked me to show her accomplishments to. I was very moved. I waited outside after and senor-stares-a-lot was nowhere to be found today.. yea!

On the bus ride back, Amy sat next to me and were talking about the day. We said something to Ava and she jumped across the aisle and sat on our laps. It was hilarious!!!!! I've also decided to become trilingual and learn to speak horn. The cars here use their horn constantly! Each one has a different message. Two short beeps= "hey, just wanted to let you know I am over here, don't veer to your side.". One short beep= "Good morning, how are you today." One long horn= "&@%$^#* you!". One long beep followed by another long beap= "you do that again and I am going to come find your sister and chop off all of her hair." A succession of short beeps= "wow, I like the paint on your car, who is your collision repairman." :

I know that two or three of the people have mentioned that their site is really serious and they wish to change. My site is amazing! WE are constantly laughing, joking, listening to music and having a great time. I think we had to start like that because from the very start, on our site, we needed to laugh things off... the other sites were all prepared and ready to go. And eventhough we started WAY behind the others, we are completely caught up and will be the first team to begin laying bricks tomorros. Although I don't want to change teams, I know how it feels when you want to change teams and no one listens. If no one else mentions it, I might say something to Ray just to give those other people the opportunity to change.

I know that was a long post but I wanted to get you all caught up. I hope you are enjoying. I love reading your comments! Love and miss all of you!

Just for you Christina! :)

My roommate calls him Mr. Rogers. Today we saw one wearing an Armani blazer.... HAHAHAHAHA!!! Will write more later!