2/24

This morning Hannah woke up sick again. Which is the 5th time she has been sick in her 5 weeks here. I hope that she feels better soon! We had a quick breakfast of Special K at DDC, (we found Special K at the Wal-Mart last week). Then we took a trekker with 28 people in it to SWI. There were only two students in class again today, because the puja included staying awake all night to worship the god. So the students who were celebrating the puja yesterday and missed class, were sleeping and eating this morning. I hope that next week my students show up, because class is really more enjoyable when the students show up.
Sr. Anisha arrived back today after being gone in the south for the entire month of February. It is good to have her back, and Hannah and I went to Bolegon today to have tea and sit with her for a while. Bolegon is the Sisters of the Divine Saviour’s concent, and it is located about 45 minutes drive away near quite a few villages. It was market day in the village near Bolegon and we got the see the market as we drove by. Village markets are really cool, they are a large field with hundreds of people standing around selling just about anything that a village family could need. Once we reached Bolegon we had tea, biscuits and sweets. Hannah and I sat with Sr. Anisha and Sr. Minnie for an hour and just chatted. We had a lot of fun.
We were back at SWI for lunch, and then we did some work around the office until we left for Chonditola. I also got to chat with Ajla for a few minutes, which was wonderful, I miss her so much! We ran a few errands on the way to Chonditola and then we played with the kids for a couple hours. Today we learned a few of the kids names, which is really exciting. I now know 8 of the kids names. We were running around chasing them today, and Hannah and I were both covered in sweat. Today was the hottest day yet in Raiganj, especially because modestly standards require that women wear long pants and short sleeves. Both Hannah and I were really hot, but the kids were pretty understanding a sat around resting with us for a while. Then we were off to St. Xavier to play with the KGers. Today we played ‘Go Fish’, very similar rules to the previous day. Then we ran around in bare feet and kicked the soccer ball around. The kids were jumping all over me and throwing grass into my hair. We were laughing and running, and it was hot, but it was so much fun.
Hannah and I went to DDC to pack her things for our Darjeeling trip. She started feeling even worse, which sucks. I hope she feels better for our trip. We couldn’t find a trekker or auto to take home, because it was dark out. Which also meant that we had to walk down the DDC path in the dark. It was really creepy, but we made it without tripping or running into any scary nighttime creatures. We ended up getting onto a bus that we thought was going to Raiganj. We lucked out and the bus ended up going exactly where we needed.
After packing my things, sending a few emails and sitting for dinner, Hannah and I are now sitting in my room both freshly showered and watching a movie. We will leave for Darjeeling tomorrow morning after Ash Wednesday service. We will travel all day tomorrow and then spend the next two days alone in Darjeeling. Then we will travel to Gangtok and meet Puthumai for a trip to the China/India border. The area is hilly country and supposed to be really beautiful. I will make sure to take lots of pictures and I will update my blog when we return on Monday.
Sending love.