On a quick note about yesterday: it was like walking in an interactive zoo. On the way to dinner we first ran into a big big beetle (which is good luck in Egyptian cultures), the size of a sand dollar. We then got halted by some workers then because there was a small (yet probably very lethal) snake slithering across the road. After dinner I was chit chatting with Maulin, only to have him give a mannish "shriek", grab my arm and pull me right before I stepped onto a scorpion. The workers warned us about these things, but yesterday it was real. We were all jumpy afterwards.
And I finally understand why it's called a rainforest! Because after it rains, the forest pops out of the ground in hours!
At last! After being cooped up in buildings nonstop while it rains and pours outside, and while out electricity frequently fails, it is sunny out today!
For the last few days we have done little else but read, write, wand work on this project. I wouldn't necessarily go so far as to say that we're making any headway (what, with knowing practically nothing on our project still, and having limited resources to use), but we have been working about 8 hours a day (at least) on our findings. We haven't left the campus in days, almost an entire week now. Though utopian, it can be a bit smothering at times. For the last days I have been felt a little imprisoned, and a bit claustrophobic. I long to see what's beyond these walls...
But not today!
Today it is beautiful and hot and sunny out! It's been so nice out that I have been singing since waking up.
Despite the electricity being off completely for about 5 hours or so (in the middle of the night I noticed that I was unable to feel cool air from the fan), things have been going well!
We girls went on a run this morning before it got too hot out. Molly and I went across our side of the compound and talked while running, and it was wonderful!
And the breakfast we had today was different! We had upma, which uses Indian semolina instead of rice. It was really good.
And we got to work to find the electricty back on.
So I went back home to go to the bathroom (we have western toilets there) and to pick up some things for the rest of the team. I brought my camera with me to take some scenic pictures. After I took a picture, though, Sir Jacob came from behind on his bike and stopped to ask me (a bit urgently) if I could take passport photos. Having seen the quality of passport photos from our cellphone experience, I replied, "Oh, probably." So he pulls over one of the schoolboys on the campus and asks me to take a picture of him. Then he asks me to take a picture of both of them. He then gives me his USB key and asked for the photos. And leaves.
I keep walking home, to find Ilias walking my way.
If I haven't talked about Ilias before, he's a really sweet reporter guy on campus working on writing about development for Gram Vikas. His english isn't great, but he's got a really sweet nature, is a bit fliracious, and has wonderful energy in his eyes. We see him usually during every meal, and we all walk home with each other at night; he usually asks really deep questions like "What is love" or "What is education".
Anyways, he walks over and asks me how our work is going, where I reply, "I don't know yet." And then he stumbles on a metal cross on the ground. Mind you, this is a predominantly Hindu area of India, so the idea of seeing a Christian cross on the dirt road was very peculiar to me. He picks it up and walks with it, and I ask him if he's Christian (though I could tell fully well that he was Muslim). So we start talking about religion, right before I get bak to the house.
I wonder why I ever believe that strange happenings (small and large) don't really happen to me; they follow me across the world.
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