Hey y’all. So this week has been class as usual, no exciting trips or anything to report on, except tomorrows trip to Udaipur, apparently the most romantic city in Rajasthan, for Valentine’s Day. Cute, right? Unfortunately the significant other is a good deal of miles away, so I’ll be spending it with my new loves, the girls of the Bapna complex. We’re planning some cooking lessons and bike rides for this trip, I’m hugely excited. This week school has gotten slightly more serious, as tests and book reports and focus papers needed to be started and finished. But as usual, free time is abundant and well used. I went on my first run here in India, and the 4 km made me realize how out of shape I had fallen. But I’m determined to put some muscle back on these bones, and with easy access to central park I have no excuses. Last night Betsy and I went on our first temple trip with our host family. Religions of all kinds baffle me. But I’ve decided Hinduism may be somewhere near top baffler. We took off our shoes and left them in the car, walked carefully down the street into the temple, avoiding spit, broken glass, and other street unmentionables. We walked in to the bright, warmly colored temples with garlands of marigolds hanging from every crevice, up to the priest that handed us an Indian sweet. Then we walked clockwise around the shrine and that was that. No endless sermons (or as anna will surely remember endless games of hangman), wafer chips, or wooden pews here. Just a personal moment of reflection in front of a human size idol of an orange god with 5 faces.
Yesterday was a good day. I had a quick and successful trip to the train station, post office, and the cell phone shop. These may seem like small things, but getting my bearings here has given me a lot of confidence. I had a nice chat with the book store owner and he’s ordering some books for me, and he even e-mailed me today to say that he put it all in and to keep in touch, isn’t that nice? Plus I got to talk to Ian and Anna. Things are really great. I also got some recommendations for internships, and as of now it looks like I may be working with CECOEDECON – the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society, a civil society organization that undertakes development projects leading to community self reliance and empowerment. I would probably be shadowing and doing research based around women’s self help groups in villages around Rajasthan. I’m pumped to the max about this.
And I have located a wireless internet coffee house. Yes.
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