2/21

I slept in until 7:30am this morning; it felt wonderful, luxurious even. I never thought that 7:30am would feel like sleeping in, but this morning I got the same consuming calm that usually accompanies staying in bed until noon, I got out of bed at around 7:45am, knowing full well that I had to get dressed, post my blog and eat breakfast all before class at 8:00am. The best part is, I was in class at 8:06am and I still beat half of my students to class. There are days when I love Indian time.
During breakfast we watched TV (which is out of the ordinary). A terrorist group (which functions more as a violent government that is unrecognized) in Sri Lanka (and parts of Southern India), used some of their planes to drop bombs last night. From what I could tell the targets were mostly Sri Lankan government or military buildings and 2 people were killed. There has also been conflict in Southern India. In Tamil Nadu (a state) the government has issued a shoot on sight order for all policemen. The police are supposed to shoot anyone seen to be damaging public property. There is conflict between the lawyers and the police that has caused this shoot on sight order. The lawyers are upset because a political leader they support is in jail. It is very interesting to see the law and order tactics and situations that are common in India. There is corruption in every county, rich or poor. But in India some of the police corruption is blatant. The police take bribes from the goods carriers by stopping them on the side of the road and reaching up to the window to take the money. I have witnessed this, as Puthumai is always quick to point it out. The part that gets me, is how can a country maintain any sort of order and stability if the law enforcement officers don’t obey the laws. I guess that in the US there is corruption and bribery that takes place, but at least the criminals hide it from the public. Does it make it better or worse that they hide it? What does a society that values law and order look like, and who monitors the law enforcement agents? Where is the system of checks and balances?
Puthumai and I finalized the CBDP budget and sent it into the regional office. We spent the morning rereading every single detail and triple checking for mistakes. It was eye-bleeding tedious, but the feeling of accomplishment when it was finished was more than worth it. For lunch we had pork and green grapes, two special treats. The pork was in a sauce that was really tasty and the grapes were fresh and crispy. After lunch I helped Hannah with the assignment that Puthumai gave her earlier this week. He had asked her to read an article on Voluntary Organizations in India and the government’s new policies regarding the non-profit sector. She wrote a summary of the article and an opinion piece about the positives and negatives of the new policies. I helped her edit her English grammar, it was difficult for her to understand some of what the article was saying, because English isn’t her first language. But overall her article was well-written and interesting for me to read (I got an idea of the upcoming government policy regulating voluntary organizations).
In the afternoon I read in the sunshine for a while and then we went to Chonditola. The kids were good, although since there was a light breeze outside we had to play inside. Regina and Johannes leave tomorrow, so they brought all of their donations for the kids. There were lots of toys and games. The kids had a lot of fun playing with the new toys and seemed even more energetic then usual (especially for being inside). I spent most of my time there holding Rajes, or Sleepy (we can’t understand all of their names, so we give them names based on personality traits, its all done very lovingly). He is the cuddliest child I have ever met. When you pick him up he squeezes his body into the crevices of yours. The only problem is that when you put him down he cries. It is really sad, so I try not to hold him the whole time. Today I held him the first half, and then sat down on the bed next to him while we played with the new toys. He didn’t cry and I we had a lot of fun playing together. After Chonditola we went to St. Xavier and played with the KGer’s. We played memory and ‘spin me around’. The kids are really sweet and I am going to try and make an effort to go and play with them during their play hours for the next few weeks.
In the evening I spent a few hours posting pictures and doing Sudokus. The Fathers were late for dinner and I sat in the dining hall from 8 till 8:40pm waiting for them to show up. Finally Fr. Herman and Markus arrived, but Fr. Puthumai was a no show. The television was broken so the English channels weren’t working. And the man on the English news channel was speaking in Hindi. I went to bed early and am hoping for another good nights sleep.
Sending love.

So I'm still in India, even though the Post Office doesn't belive it, here are the pictures to prove it

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055121&id=32404648&l=3d306

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055118&id=32404648&l=7f680

2/20

Father woke me up this morning with a phone call telling me the Internet was working. You see the past three days the Internet has been on and off. The early morning and late night seem to be the most reliable times for working Internet. I had a good chat with my parents this morning. We did quite a bit of laughing, and that is one of my favorite ways to start the day. I did find out though (from Puthumai) that I have eaten pigeon. I was telling my parents about eating the duck last night and Puthumai started laughing and said that I have eaten pigeon too. At the time I was under the impression that I was eating chicken, and no one decided to correct me. So it isn’t as though they lied to me directly, but it was definitely a lie by omission.
Class went well, I am beginning to transition away from playing games and simple confidence building activities and to testing the students listening comprehension and ability to edit for correct grammar, spelling, etc. Mostly it has been good, although there is one student who occasionally makes me want to tear my hair out. This morning we were reviewing the homework and she read a partial definition for a word, when I told her that her definition was incomplete she then read the full definition listed in her notebook. I was confused as to why she didn’t read the full definition the first time. When I asked her she started reading the definition again. I asked again only to receive blank stares. One of the other students tried to explain it to her in English, and then another student explained it to her in Bengali. Even after all of that, she still didn’t answer and just went on with reading the sentence! If Indian time wasn’t increasing my patience, then teaching certainly is.
I spent the morning finalizing the budget reports from the previous day. Once everything was finalized I gave it to Puthumai, and I am very proud of the job I did. I was very thorough and hopefully everything is correct.
For breakfast and lunch I got a fried egg, one of my favorite non-Indian Indian dishes. After lunch Hannah and I ran some errands. We went and got passport size pictures taken for our applications for a permit into Sikkim. Then we went to the clothing shop. Hannah wanted to buy some material for a dress, but they didn’t really have anything that she liked. She also wanted to buy some lungi’s which are large pieces of fabric stitched into a circle. You tie then around their waste and they act as pants and a skirt. They are only men’s clothes though. She wanted to buy some to bring home for male friends. She bought 7 of them, because she decided that she could use the lungi fabric to make her dress. I can’t wait to see what the dress looks like ☺. Although she originally wanted to make it out of fabric that I am pretty sure was meant for curtains, which made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt ☺
Then we went to the tailor to have the lungi’s sewn. We stumbled upon a men’s tailor, and understood about as much of his Bengali and he understood of our English. But after some intense gesturing we got the point across and he immediately started sewing the lungis which were done within an hour.
The kids at Chonditola were good today, some of the older girls and I were having fun playing a grown up version of patty cake. Hannah and Regina taught them how to play and when they do it with the kids they sing a song in German. The kids expect me to sing the same song in German, but unfortunately I don’t speak German. So I just make up German sounding words and say them to the correct tune. It was funny today because some of the kids were trying to copy my fake German singing. They singing my made up words ☺ I have also taught them how to play thumb wars and the game where you try to slap the other persons hand. Those are all good games to play with the older ones, and the little ones are usually happy enough being held or spun around. The older kids taught me a game the other day that involves two teams and a line in the middle. A team member from team 1 crosses the line into team 2 territory and says ‘cub-a-dee, cub-a-dee, cub-a-dee” over and over and over again. You say the words because you are only supposed to stay on the other side as long as you can hold you breath and if you are saying the words then you can’t breath. You try to touch a person from team 2 and then run back on your side. But if the members on team 2 hold you on their side until you run out of breath then you loose. Those are the rules as far as I understand them, and it is a pretty fun game, especially when you are 4 times the size of the largest kid and you can pretty much always win ☺
I took the auto home with Hannah to DDC. We got our laptops out and exchanged pictures, which we have been meaning to do for a while. We sat on the roof and watched the sunset while we took the pictures. I am really enjoying her company, especially the honesty that is common between the two of us. Then Puthumai came and we had mass. I like mass at DDC, because its just the 5 of us (Puthumai, the two DDC Sisters, Hannah and me). We all sit on the floor, its all in English, and the hymns are really pretty. I did the reading today and was really enjoying the service, until I got up to put my mat away and I got a stinging pain on my right ankle. I swatted at it a little and continued to put my mat away. Then the pain got worse, I started making a fuss and something yellow and large fell from my pants onto the floor. By that time my ankle was really hurting and I was yelling and pointing at what had just fallen out of my pants. It turned out it was a wasp (a giant 3 inch mutant Indian wasp). I got stung on the back of my ankle. The Sisters were trying to get the stinger out and I was standing in the chapel grasping my scarf and crying because it hurt and because I was still in shock. It hurt pretty bad, but after a minute I calmed down and we went downstairs and Puthumai put some ice one it. My ankle is pretty swollen, but I have been assured that I will go down by tomorrow and that as long as I don’t get a fever everything will be fine. I am kind of embarrassed for the scene that I made, but if I am being honest, I have to admit that I thought it was a scorpion (don’t ask why, I don’t know).
For dinner we had fish and I didn’t get any bones stuck in my throat. We took Father motorbike home and Hannah came too. She is spending the night at SWI tonight, we are going to watch a movie and we bought some late night snacks.
Sending love.

2/19

I got a good night’s sleep last night and woke up feeling refreshed. It really is amazing how much being well rested can change your outlook on the day. Everything seems a bit more positive after a peaceful rest, even if things aren’t actually better; it is easier to see the good. Both Hannah and Puthumai didn’t sleep well last night; I hope that tonight they are able to catch up on their sleep tonight.
After class (which went well) Puthumai called Hannah, two other staff members and me into the refectory. We all got out our laptops and crowded around a budget that consisted of papers taped together that was as long as our dining table (for those of you who don’t know how long our dining table is, I would say its about the 20 ft longs, but that could very well be a gross under or over estimation). The budget was for 11 different organizations and their Community Based Development Program (CBDP). The CBDP is funded from one large organization and each of the partner organizations works within the program and funding guidelines of that organization. The 5 of us were to look over the submitted budgets and make changes when necessary. It turned out that ‘when necessary’ meant ‘more often than not’. We sat around the table, each with different organizations to work on and we typed in proper numbers for the 108 columns in the excel spreadsheet. We began and 10:30am and worked until lunch at 12:30pm. After taking an hour for lunch, and the completion of other errands or meetings we gathered together and began typing again. It was a really community effort and felt good to participate in something so important for the 11 partner organizations. We took a tiffin and coffee break around 4 and worked until it was time for the staff to leave at 5pm. Then Puthumai and I took everyone’s finalized sheets and doubled checked them. Finally we began the process of combining all of the sheets into one final budget on Puthumai’s computer. We aren’t quite done, it is quite a daunting task and its important that there aren’t mistakes. And even after everything is entered correctly Puthumai has to compare the total grant requested to what was requested previously, and see if the numbers are close or not. Hopefully they are close, because it wouldn’t be good to present an inflated budget. Puthumai and I worked until dinner, when the three Fathers and I loaded into the Jeep and went to DDC for dinner.
I really enjoyed helping out today, and I think it has less to do with being helpful and productive (although those are both feel good activities). I think it is because I am knowledgeable about data entry in excel, and I enjoy doing things that I am knowledgeable about. It feels good to know how to do something, to be good at something. It is something that I definitely take for granted in the US, and being bad at everything in India has been extremely humbling. Today was quite the confidence booster ☺
Ok, now some news about dinner. I ate duck. This is my first time eating duck. DDC has all kinds of animals, and Hannah said that they killed two of their ducks today (she saw the heads). They were cooked in a sauce and served for dinner. It seemed as though everyone thought this was quite a treat. And there were many jokes that we were feasting before the beginning of Lent next week. When I was informed that the meat in the dish was duck, I was a little taken aback, but I haven’t yet refused to try anything in India that has been offered to me so I took four pieces and some sauce. Now for those of you who are familiar with my eating habits, you know that even in the US, my county of origin I am a particularly picky eater. I have often been known to pick certain ingredients out of my food and turn my nose up at many a dish. So my adventuresome food habits in India should come as quite a surprise to those of you at home. Now I am not saying that I am going to be able to keep up my food tasting, but so far I am very proud of this accomplishment. The duck meat was actually very good, it was darker and very tender (which Indian meat usually isn’t). There were a lot of bones, but they were easy enough to eat around (that is one benefit of eating with your fingers, you can eat around the bones, because there is no way you could do that with a fork). The only slightly unfortunate this was that one of my four pieces was a body part. Now I realize that everything that I ate was at one time a body part of the duck, but I mean this was in internal body part, a liver or kidney or something of that sort. I took a bite of it, and then set it down on my plate, not wanting to waste it, but not really wanted to finish it. Thank God for Hannah, who noticed and offered to finish it for me ☺. But I tried it, and for me, that is what counts.
I also spoke with Ajla for about 15 minutes today, which was so wonderful. It was just great to hear her voice. It will be strange if we don’t end up living together, but the longer I spend in India the more I learn that people come and go from you life. And that when someone leaves God is pretty mindful of making sure that someone enters. Also, just because someone leaves and things change, change isn’t inherently negative. It is important to be grateful for the time that people are present in our lives, and to cherish the time we have with those we are close to. My Grandma Hewitt, as my mother reminded me today, says that her life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. I think she is a pretty insightful woman, and that this comment pretty much sums it up. But I do think its important to remember that between each of those hellos and goodbyes there are some pretty damn good times.
Sending my love.

2/18

I am really beginning to notice a difference in the practical speaking skills of my students. It is very rewarding to see them speaking confidently, and I can tell that they understand the majority of what I say now. Teaching has been a (perhaps the only) consistent and predicable part of my experience in India. Along the way I have really enjoyed getting to know my students and helping them struggle (and persist) their way through English grammar and vocabulary. I have appreciated their dedication and their patience with my developing teaching skills. I have felt like a very inadequate teacher some days, but more often than not, I feel appreciated (and what more can a teacher ask for).
I finally finished my project today. I have had 3 or 4 cells in my logical framework to complete for the past two weeks, and it always seemed that when I sat down to do them something came up. I know that isn’t a very good excuse, but life here isn’t about planning, its about the moment. And there just weren’t that many moments available to finish that last little bit. I have also been asking the staff and Puthumai for some clarification and more details about a few of the terms and issues I was less familiar with. In the afternoon Puthumai gave me another assignment, to read the current government schemes available in W. Bengal. The document was intimidating at first, but eventually very interesting. The schemes helped me get a better sense of what problems the area faces and what the government is doing to combat these problems. I them wrote a few page summary of what I judged to be the most impactful programs and what suggestions I offered. It was good to do some intellectual work.
In the afternoon I visited Ruchi one last time before they boarded the train this evening. It was good to see Trisha and chat with Ruchi, and I know that I am going to miss having them around Raiganj. Then I met up with Regina and Hannah at Chonditola for an afternoon of arts and crafts. In my package their was some pencils for the kids, and Regina had some water colors and crayons. Hannah had purchased some notebooks for the kids early that day. We all brought the supplies and it was the first time that I have seen all of the kids sitting quietly for more than 15 minutes. It was great because the younger and older ones were all entertained and there was plenty to go around.
We all headed to St. Xavier afterwards to play with the hostel kids. We took tea and sweets before playing, to stock up on energy, and because as Hannah noted, it was tea time. There are four groups of kids out playing, they are all boys and they range in age from kindergarten (KG) to high school. I played a game that was similar to UNO with the KG’s for a while. The game was German (I think), and although I am pretty sure the rules are exactly the same as American UNO the kids had rules of their own (that changed quite often). It was definitely a good laugh. After I tossed the kids around for a while, chasing them and spinning them around while holding their hands. When that tired me out, I ran off to join some of the older ones in a game of volleyball. There is usually always a volleyball, soccer and basketball game going on. The volleyball teams consist of as many people as want to play and usually the oldest boy serves the whole game (I think this is because the old ones are the only ones who can hit the ball over the net). After a while Hannah and I left, because she didn’t want to walk home in the dark, and because I had broken quite a sweat by that time.
When I arrived at SWI Puthumai and I rushed to grab a rickshaw. He informed me on the way that we were going to Ruchi and Jonathon off at the train station. I was so glad he thought of that, it was such a considerate thing to do. We surprised them, and chatted for a few minutes before they had to board the train. After a slightly sad good-bye we waved as their train sped away. It was really sad to see them go, but it is a blessing that I have had people to care about in Raiganj. During dinner we watched the news, per usual, and discussed the relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban. It was a very interesting conversation, and I enjoy hearing the Fathers varying political positions and theories.
I have a large swollen bug bite on my left ankle, I showed Fr. Herman, because he was the only one up when I discovered it, and he thinks it looks like a wasp or ant bite. The only thing is, it doesn’t hurt or itch, which rules out the majority of bug bites. And it is decently swollen. I put some bug bite cream on it and will see what comes of it in the morning. Seeing the bite and realizing I had no idea what it could be from made me remember that I am in a foreign country, with different bugs and different sicknesses. It is surprising how easy it has become to forget that I am in some place that isn’t normal for me to be.
Sending love.

2/17

I began my morning outing at the Post Office, because believe it or not my package arrived! We (Hannah and I) took at 20 minute rickshaw ride to the Post Office. I went further down Raiganj road to the West than ever before. Upon arrival we observed a front desk and a crowd of people standing parallel to it. We assumed their was some sort of system, of which we were ignorant of, so we sat down on some chairs in the back and waited for someone to tell us it was our turn. I now see that this was a very Western way to approach the situation. After 4 or 5 minutes of sitting we decided to approach the desk. Their was more of a crowd then a line so I stood in the crowd and tried to make eye contact with the man behind the counter. Just as he looked up at me a women squeezed in front of me on the right and he began helping her. I was now more determined then before. I stood my ground forcefully and upped by attempts at making eye contact. Luckily, the man looked at me next and I told him I needed to pick up a parcel. Blank stare. A package. Blank stare. I decided to mime a package. Blank stare. I then remember the slip in my pocket which the office staff gave me this morning indicated my package had arrived. I handed the man the slip. He looked at it and pointed to his far right. We headed to the right, and then he motioned no with his head, and pointed out the door. We went out the front door, and turned right, then into a very skeptical looking back door. Inside the door there were some men behind a door made of bars on our left, and what appeared to be a storage space for bicycles on our right. We made some noise and attracted the attention of the men behind the bars. Package, package. They pointed us towards the bicycles. So after careening our way through the bikes, past a vacated staircase, and around the corner in a hallway of doors we found ourselves behind the counter we had just stood in front of. We looked around. Then Hannah spotted it. Sitting in the corner in an office was my package! It was completely intact with no holes, tears or indications of rummaging or damage. I pointed and say that is for me! The women whose office my package was located in seemed a little taken aback. I looked at the package, pointed, and said that’s me, my name is Chelsea Krema. She seemed decently convinced, had me sign a few places and then let me (and my package) leave. After our first exit, she called me back for one more signature, but after that we were home free. I was so excited for the package I wanted to open it the whole rickshaw ride home, but instead I waited patiently until we reached SWI before I attacked it with a key and took everything out one by one exclaiming at each of the items and at how thoughtful my parents are. I would now like to send my apologizes to the Indian Postal Service, I appreciated your self-restraint in not opening my package, and I also appreciate that you delievered (of sorts) my package to me safely (and decently promptly, a 1 month turnaround time).
Then the shopping for the pizza began. We had bought yeast and wheat flour last week, but still needed ingredients for the sauce, and the cheese. The vegetable market is one of my favorites, as it is a larger area and all of the vegetables are sprawled on the ground in a rather artistic fashion. It feels like what a market should be, communal, on the ground, with tarps above for shade, it conveys the essence of marketing. We quickly spotted the reddest tomatoes and b-lined for them. We ended up asking the wrong man for the tomatoes, and he tried to communicate that we were asking about another mans stall, but of course we didn’t understand. Then the man (who belonged to the tomatoes, or the man to whom the tomatoes belonged) arrived and was more than happy to sell us his tomatoes. We also bought some red onions and garlic. Back at SWI we got plenty of looks and questions when we headed into the kitchen to make our sauce. More than one person came in, and inquired as to what we were making, why we were making it and how we knew how to make it. It was entertaining answering everyone’s questions, and I rather enjoyed being in the kitchen (even though cooking in an Indian kitchen is very different from cooking in an American kitchen). We made the sauce and it was actually quite tasty, although some basil would have made it tremendous! We packed it up, with the flour and yeast and headed out to find cheese. The Fathers were all out today (which is why we were playing hookey, no one to notice☺), so we asked varying staff members where they thought we could by cheese. Sr. T gave us some directions we were not quite clear about, so we asked Gabriel, the accountant, who had been helpful with the package and post office adventure of the morning. Gabriel asked the servant, (I temporarily forgot his name, I know it starts with a J, shoot) who does all of the shopping where we could find cheese. He was very helpful and even said he would go out and get it for us. But we were insistent that this was our pizza and we would be fine going on our own. We were directed to what I have dubbed, the Wal-Mart of Raiganj. I don’t mean Wal-Mart and all of its horrible connotations; I mean that you can find anything there. It doesn’t look too much larger than the other shops, but I am convinced that behind the front counter there are miles of storage space containing everything you could ever imagine. They had cheese in suspicious square packages wrapped in foil about the size of four domino squares stacked in a pile of two by two. We bought 10 packages and I took particular notice of the larger package which read: Processed Cheese. Yum.
We took all of the ingredients and some of the toys and socks that came in the package to Chonditola. We played with the kids and the bouncy balls that arrived today. They had a blast with them, although there was some conflict being that there were 6 balls and more than 6 kids. But that has to be a normal conflict at a place like Chonditola, there are never enough for one for each kid, so sharing becomes something learned early on. I had a lot of fun playing around with the kids, and actually broke quite a sweat (although with the increasing temperatures that is not too difficult). After Chonditola we went to St. Xavier with Regina because they are the only place in town with a oven. We had no proper measuring utensils and so we guesstimated on everything. The dough was made first and then we put the sauce and the cheese on before putting into the oven. The oven had to be scooted across the floor and plugged in, but it got quite hot (although there was no way to control the temperature of the oven). We played with the kids from the hostel while the pizza cooked, and had a lot of fun played volleyball with a group of around 20 middle schoolers. We made one pizza for SWI, one for DDC and two for St. Xaviers. Although we ran out of cheese early, the dough with sauce was an acceptable alternate.
In the evening Puthumai arrived back from Kumarganj, and took me to Jonathon and Ruchicka’s house for dinner. I thought it would just be the five of us, but when we arrived we quickly learned that the evening was a going away celebration as Jonathon has a new job in Quatar and the family is leaving for Calcutta tomorrow. I was shocked, and I have to admit a little selfishly sad. I know that they are very excited for the move to a metropolitan city, but it is sad that I won’t be able to go and hang out at their house anymore. They have been very good friends to me while I have been in Raiganj. Since the package came today I was able to give Trisha her birthday present, a pink stuffed bunny in a tutu. (Although I unfortunately learned the other day that bunnies are commonly eaten in India and Germany. To make matters worse, in Germany they eat them on Easter) She really enjoyed the present and we had a very nice time chatting and eating a good dinner. Puthumai and I walked home and had a nice chat along the way.
Hopefully tomorrow I will do some work, because I am starting to feel as though I am experiencing life more than I am working. I am in India to learn, but I am most importantly in Indian to learn about development practices.
Sending love.

2/15

I slept through mass today, which is surprising. My alarm didn’t even wake me. I woke up just in time for breakfast and was pleasantly surprised to find egg and carrots mixed in with the noodles. After breakfast Puthumai told me to get into the jeep. Usually I am not one to respond to commands, or if I do respond it is with questions. But I was feeling antsy so I hoped into the jeep. We first drove the MC Srs home and then went to DDC. A few weeks back DDC was swarming with newly born critters – from piglets to puppies (pictures to come soon). I especially enjoyed playing with one of the puppies (the only one of the liter to survive) and asked a few weeks ago what its name was. No one had named the puppy yet, so I took the responsibility upon myself. After much consideration I decided upon Sugar. I was initially teased about this name, the boys said that I was calling the puppy Stupid instead of Sugar. But I persisted with my name. I was pleasantly surprised today when we visited DDC and Puthumai called the puppy Sugar! The name has stuck, and if I do say so myself I think it is very fitting. Sugar is very friendly, she likes to nibble at fingers and toes and since she was the only surviving puppy she is getting quite chubby from drinking all of her mothers milk. She now comes when you call her name and when I whistle for her. I am extremely pleased with this development 
After a few more errands with Puthumai we arrived back at SWI to find Hannah waiting for us. Hannah and I spent the morning running around Raiganj. We went to the bank, the fruit stand, and a few other shops. We bought yeast to make pizza/bread with, some bread flour and Special K cereal which we were both thrilled to find. From the fruit stands we purchased pomegranates and oranges. I also bought more minutes since Mom and I used up all but 1 rupee of my minutes yesterday.  My favorite story of our morning was trying to get the rickshaw driver to pull over. We were running short on time and didn’t want to be late for lunch, so we took a rickshaw home. When we reached we were trying to get the driver to stop. I was gesturing with my hand and making noises while Hannah was yelling stop! It must have been quite a scene to witness. The driver heard us after an embarrassing 30 seconds and we exited the rickshaw. Hannah made fun of me for making so many noises, but I still stand that if someone doesn’t understand my English, then I have a better chance they will understand my noises.
After lunch we went the to cinema next door to SWI. The cinema changes movies every Friday and has an annoyingly loud generator that goes on whenever the power is out. We saw a movie called…oh I forgot the name. Well either way the movie was in Hindi and quite an experience if I do say so myself. First of all in India you buy a movie ticket for a specific seat and it costs different prices to sit in different areas. We sat in the balcony and it was pitch black. The screen was large and the building was nice, but Indian movie etiquette is extremely different, as are Hindi movies. The movie was progressing normally (with quite a lot of chatter from the surrounding crowd), it was about a barber and his family. Then all of a sudden their was a rocket ship flying through outerspace. Hannah and I book looked at each other! Had the reel broken and this was another movie? What was happening? The space ship landed in a strange larger space ship and a man got out. He started singing and dancing with women who were (by Indian standards) naked (they had on skin tight fake shiny leather looking outfits that consisted of boots, shorts, and bikini tops). The men in the back (and the theater was 80% men) started hooting and hollering. They were clapping and yelling and Hannah and I were still desperately confused. The scene ended up being music video, and the man in the rocket was a movie star whose character had an important role in the film. But the singing and dancing happened at least 5 times throughout the show, usually with very little reference to the plot. There was also an intermission to the movie which was 3 hours long (a common movie length in India) and people answered their cell phones very casually during the movie. It was quite an interesting cultural experience, although I can’t say I completely understood the plot of the film.
In the evening Hannah and I went to Chonditola, and were thrilled to find that Sleepy and Bird (two of my favorites) were smiling and playful. Bird also uttered the first noise that we have ever heard him say, he said num, it was very cute. Other good news, the little girl who has some physical and mental disabilities who has difficulty walking was walking today with very little assistance and was very playful and smiley. Smiley got a haircut and now looks like a boy and Hannah was peed on once. We played around with the particularly rambunctious kiddos and left without anyone shedding a single tear!
We went to the second night of the St. Xavier fair to eat more food and play more games. I say Pee-a-lee there, the little girl who helped translate at my first field visit my first week here. I chatted with her for a while, and discovered that her birthday is tomorrow. It was really great to see her and reminded me of how far I have come from that first week. After the lottery drawing at the fair (no one I know won anything) we all headed home. Dinner was uneventful, although I got an omelet without onions, so that was exciting.
Today Hannah and I rode the auto from Chonditola to St. Xavier while hanging on the back and Puthumai took me home on the back of his motorbike. Both times I though to myself how much I am going to miss India (because those two experiences are things that for me ‘only happen in India). There are a million things that I will miss (and knowing that Regina and Johannes will leave in a week makes the reality of leaving seem a lot closer). As my days in India continue to pass I hope that I am able to listen, learn and love with increasing commitment. And that I am never distracted again by counting days, because each one is such a blessing and the first, third, eighteenth or last are all of equal importance.
Sending love.

2/14

We reached Raiganj late on Friday night, so Saturday morning I decided to sleep in. I woke up around 7:30am because Hannah was calling from the village. She was staying there for a few days and was calling to chat. After eating a lazy breakfast with Puthumai I discovered that the wireless Internet isn’t working anymore. I can still access the Internet from the office computer, but my laptop won’t connect until the connection is fixed (last time the ‘fixing process’ took 3 weeks). I ran to the phone store, bought some minutes, and spent the morning on the phone with Mom. I am excited to see what she thinks of the fabric I bought in Calcutta. I had an assignment due for my IDIP class (I wrote about the differences in dress and traffic), and so after speaking with Mom I finalized my assignment and posted it on the Internet. I also used the empty office to reply to quite a few emails, something that I will have much less time to do now that the wireless isn’t working. In the afternoon Hannah arrived back from the village and together we went to St. Xavier’s for their annual fair. The annual fair is a circle of booths set up around a large field, where students host fair type games. The money from ticket sales goes to support the social entrepreneurship of the school. There is also food available and music playing in the background. Quite a few people attend the fair, the students, their families and other community members looking for a night out. Puthumai shared some of his tickets with us, so Hannah and I played a few of the games. We had a good time and I was surprised at how many students I recognized from previous meetings. All of the students were very friendly and excited that we came to support their fair. Hannah and I spent some time chatting with Regina , Johannes and their friends. We attracted a lot of attention being 6 white people all standing together. Although Hannah and I saw an old white man walking down the road the other day, so we are unfortunately not the only 6 white people in Raiganj. Hannah and I snaked on some ice cold Sprite (the cold temperature being a luxury here) and some Lays potato chips called Spanish Tomato Tango, which are actually really good. We also had some of the local food, but I don’t know the name for any of it. Everything was really tasty. Puthumai took Hannah home on his motor bike and I took an auto home (DDC is down a long dark dirt road, and she didn’t want to walk down that alone). The auto ride home was fun. There were two families consisting of mothers and their small male children. They were leaving the fair as well, and I could tell that the boys were St. Xavier students. They were speaking in Bengali, and even though I don’t understand the language I knew that the mothers were trying to convince the sons to ask me what my time is and where I am from. The kids were being really shy and didn’t want to. Eventually one of the mothers asked if I spoke Bengali, I said no, only English. Then I looked at the boys, I asked if they were St. Xavier students, they nodded. I asked if they spoke English, they nodded. By this point the mothers were laughing. After a few minutes of conversation we had covered the basics, name, county, duration of travel, where I am staying and what I am doing. My favorite part was instead of waiting for the kids to ask me where I was from I asked them if they could guess what country I am from. They looked at me as though I was an alien. The youngest one said, you’re not from India? I don’t know how the mothers understood but they were laughing at the little boy. I explained to the little ones that I am from America, and they looked at me as though I was talking about another planet. They were only in class 2, so I understand their lack of understanding or world geography, but it made me think. When I say I am from America, what do most people think? What do the villagers think? What does an Indian think American society is like, and in what ways has politics influenced that conception. All very interesting questions that I will probably always have insufficient answers for, but the questions themselves are intriguing.
For dinner Puthumai and I had pork for the first time since I arrived in India. It was very good, although my lips were pink afterwards from the spiciness. The highlight of the evening was killing large amounts of mosquitoes with an electrical flyswatter. As the weather warms (oh yea, did I mention, the weather is getting much warmer as each day passes) the mosquitoes are multiplying like crazy! So zapping them with the swatter was very entertaining and a great way to laugh at the dance like motions required of large-scale mosquito massacring.
And on that note, Happy Valentines Day.