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This morning I woke up feeling not so grand. My throat hurt less, but the pain had moved into my sinuses. Even my teeth hurt from sinus pressure. I took some pills and put on an upbeat face. Chatting with Mom and Dad was great on Skype. And the breakfast noodles were red (they are usually yellow) and they had egg in them. Class was okay, because I went so quickly to bed the previous night I did not have time to plan my lesson. The first half of class was good, except that my crossword was too easy for them. Then halfway through I admitted that I was ill the night before and did not prepare a lesson. They were extremely sympathetic and helped me impromptu plan the rest of the class. We talked (one sentence one person at a time) about the Indian family structure. That was interesting for me, and then we played a few of our usual games plus a word jumble.
After class I spent a few hours working on my project. I was able to complete the Project write-up and will start on the Concept Note early next week. I hope to have the project completed by the end of next week. I had a quick early lunch and then Susmita, Shahnawaz (previously Sha-na-watch) and I left for Bindol. Today was the last day of the training, and we went to award the certificates. We took the Jeep, so travel was comfortable and quick. When we arrived we did the usual, sit around, chat in Bengali, look at the leaf plates, take pictures and smile. That is enticing enough for me, but today the village women showed Susmita and I how to work the sewing machines to sew the leaf plates. Let me just say, it is harder than it looks. The old machines really have a way about them, and it is difficult to convince them to work with you, not against you. Oh! And Mom- I saw them threading a bobbin, it was so cool. They put the bobbin on a stick and then after the top wheel was spinning then put the end of the stick against the spinning top wheel. I know my explanation makes very little sense-so you will have to trust me, it was neat. After awarding the certificates and enjoying a little tiffin (means snacks and coffee/tea) we left the village and headed to the Sisters of the Divine Saviour’s convent. Sr. Anisha, Sr. T, Sr. Elizabeth and Sr. Mini are all Sisters of the Divine Saviour. They run a hostel and a school and work at various posts in the community. The Sisters were very nice and we had a nice time chatting with them and having coffee.
Back at SWI, Fr. Herman and Shahnawaz were leaving to go marketing. I decided to tage along. We walked down Raiganj Street and they picked up a few toiletries at an all in one shop ( a shope with a little bit of everything). They asked if I needed to pick up anything. I have been wanted to go out shopping for shoes for my sari (because I can’t wear tennis shoes with my saree) and asked if we could look at a few shoe shops. They were both fine with that, and we ended up visiting 6 different shops, trying on shoes at all of them, and having them go around and help me pick out different styles. It was a lot of fun and I finally found a cute pair of brown sandals for Rs. 195 (about 4 dollars). Dinner was good and after dinner I helped Fr. Herman prepare for the picnic tomorrow.
I didn’t see much of Hannah today, but she seemed as though she had a nice night at DDC and like Fr. had given her some work to do today. I will go to the picnic tomorrow, the puja on Saturday and then we will take a short trip on Sunday and Monday. I hope that I feel better quickly and that this annoying little cankersore on the corner of my lip goes away. That is all for now, sending love and hugs.
PS. Ajla the moon tonight was wonderful. It was a little little little fingernail like slit that was really bright. I hope we can skype soon, love you dear.