Chittor, Prayas and New Friends

I am back in Chittor now. The last few days here have been really fun for me, which is quite unusual.

On my last day in Delhi I hung out with Anjali and her sister. We had lunch and then, at my insistence, went to see an English movie. I miss movies SOO much! Just standing in the theater, looking at the movie posters and smelling the popcorn made me look forward to going home so much. Anyway, we say The Princess Diaries 2. Not exactly groundbreaking cinema, but it was fun. It is so much fun to watch movies with Anjali. She laughs freely at everything she thinks is funny and its fun to join in with her. It also makes me realize how little I laugh here. There just aren't a lot of occasions to merit laughing when you work in an environment where you see poverty and heartache everyday. Plus, there aren't tons of English speakers around. And even if there were, it's not the same as getting together with other girls your age and laughing about random stuff.

So, Anjali ensured that I caught my bus to Chittor ok, and the next morning when I arrived I was sick. My throat hurt so bad I thought I might have strep or something. When I went home, I crashed and spent the whole day sleeping and resting. I felt much better afterwards, but the past few days my voice has been bad so who knows what's really wrong with me.

The day after I got back I had a surprise. The new MSID students who were working with Prayas had shown up in Chittor, so I went down to the guesthouse to see who they were and how they were. There were three girls, Samantha from U of MN (who was in my Hindi class at home), Lisa from Madison and Roberta from Penn State, and they were all getting sent to the field offices to work in the villages. We chatted about this and that, and traded MSID stories. Tim and Sushmita also happened to be coming through town at this same time, so the whole group of us hung out for two days. We went out to eat and I finally saw the Chittor fort with them. It was so nice to have people to talk to and laugh with. I can't wait to see my friends at home! I have so much to catch up on, so I hope I laugh with them just as much as I did with these girls.

Anyway, I insisted that everyone come and meet my family, and then all wanted to so I didn't have to press too hard. It was so funny, because I didn't give anyone in my family prior notice that some Americans might be coming, and in the small house the group of us took up a lot of space. First I came home with Samantha and Roberta, then Lisa found her way to the house and Tim and Sushmita came last. When the last two finally showed up I was leading them into the house when I saw Kavita lean against Piyush and whisper excitedly, "More Americans!". It was also particularly funny because the group of us were probably the only foreigners in the whole city, and we were all gathered in one home.

So, things have settled down a bit today. It's back to normal at the office for me. It is really starting to get hot here, and so I am becoming extremely tired from just getting around. Usually the most productive part of the day is the afternoon for me, but that is when it's the hottest, so I am getting more and more lazy as time goes by. I really have to create a big push this week though to get all my stuff done. I may just try to work from home for a while too, to see if that helps.

I am counting down the days till I come home! It is pretty close now. I came on September 7th, and I am leaving on May 8th, so I have just about 4 ½ weeks left! I have to tell you, I am really starting to enjoy the shock I see on other foreigner's faces when I tell them how long I have been here. It isn't uncommon (especially when you are traveling by yourself) to strike up conversations with the other travelers. It's usually the where are you going, how long are you here, do you like it type stuff. When they find out I have been here since September and I have a while to go before I leave, they always are shocked. It's just one of the few perks from being here for so long. Anyways, until next time!