I'm not sure what happened to my last post, but I had written a short paragraph explaining that the internet had been down from Sunday night until Thursday evening, so that's why you didn't hear from me! Internet is back up and running, and we have just returned to Jamkhed from Aurangabad. This post, I'll explain briefly what we've been up to this week, then I'll write another one about Aurangabad. Enjoy! :)
So, the normal routine at Jamkhed has been pretty much consistant every day this second week - I guess that makes it a routine! In the morning, Beth, Michelle, and I wake up, turn the water heater on for the shower, take quick showers, then head to breakfast. Breakfast is always a great meal. It usually consists of small bananas (which are much sweeter and tastier than our bananas at home), toast (to which we add PB), and a kind of spicy Indian rice. We also have tea, of course :) Here we are bright and early at breakfast:
After breakfast we head back to our rooms, brush our teeth with bottled water, and take our malaria pills. Next, we go to morning devotions, where scripture is read in both Marati and English, and we sing songs in both languages as well. Well, we ATTEMPT to prounoune the Marati songs, I should say. Here is a picutre of the songbooks that we use, and also a picture of a pile of shoes before devos (we take our shoes off before we enter any room):
After devos, the dog that lives at CRHP, named Pintu, usually comes to greet us. He's the cutest little puppy! He usually hides behind the bushes and runs out at us, scaring us 95% of the time.
We usually get a bit of a break between devos and class. Class is often between 10:30-1pm every day. But at 11am every day, we get TEA! It's delicious. We literally get to have class interrupted to have tea brought to us along with a sweet wafer of some kind. It's black tea with cream, sugar, and spices to make it like chai. We love love love tea time! Here we are in the classroom during our tea break: :)
After our morning class, we have lunch, then have some time until our next 3:30pm class. During this time we journal, relax in the sun in the courtyard by our rooms, or.... go into town! Here we are at the bangle shop in downtown Jamkhed:
Shopping is QUITE an expereince, let me tell you. Besides trying to cross a language barrier, these storeowners and vendors are persistant! The culture of shopping here is not that you look through things on your own.... no....they bring it to you, and pile the merchandise in front of you. That day at the bangle shop, I also forgot that my "i'm thinking about it, I like it so-so" head bob is the SAME as their "yes" bob. Big mistake. haha But they were very nice to us, and both we and the Indian women were laughing the whole time. One of these women's daughers was also helping us shop, and she brought some red dust and blessed us (put a dot on our forehead). It was a very cool experience, and it was really awesome to feel a connection to these people.
After our afternoon break, we head back to class once more. There's too much to explain about all that we learn in class in this blog post - more to come! After class, we have about an hour before we have a meeting with our interim group. We have been using this time to go to the roof of the building where our classroom is, to journal, read, laugh, and watch the sunset. It's gorgeous. And wierd to wonder if y'all in Michigan are looking at the same sun as it's rising that we're looking at in Inida as it's setting.
More to come about our trip to Aurangabad! I wish I could put all my pics online, but here are some of the highlights. Lots of love headed home to Michigan!
-Car
