Oh my life.

Today was just another day in India -

I woke up this morning turned on the hot water,

and as I prepared to start filling my bucket, the phone rang.

It was Nazar, which for some reason didn't worry me.

We had a program this morning, but never did I think that he was calling with bad news.

"Jen, the children are coming today at 9:00. I will not be there. I have a proposal that is due by noon and I have to work on it...I will be there to do pottery, but I need you to run the program."

Awesome. Typical, and I shouldn't be surprised, but neither was I looking forward to this.

There were 52 2nd-graders coming in an hour, and I had to run their program. So I showered, had breakfast [it was a dosa day, which always makes things better], and as I was walking back to my room at 8:30 Nazar called again to tell me we needed to use a different space than usual. As I was talking to him to figure out where we could host 52 students, Rathi came running up to me: "Jen! The children are here!"

Awesome. I was still in my pajamas. And nobody else was here - not Nazar, not Vinoj [who I had recruited to help me with the nature walks since Debbie is busy facilitating another program], not even Siddo, who was coming to film the program. Just me.

So I herded the kids together, brought them to the ampitheatre, did a welcome, played a game, learned their names, explained Visthar. But they are not only 2nd standard. There were kids from 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 12th. Ha. Finally everybody showed up, we got the kids situated, but nothing really settled down until they left at 1:00. The kids were naughty, Nazar was in and out, Vinoj left, and at one time I had two groups [like 30 people] with me on a nature walk...a nature walk during which they didn't listen or even follow my directions. At one time they started stroking my arms and pulling my hair, at which I wanted to say, "Don't pet me, pet the cows!"

As I sit here recovering, I feel like I should feel a sense of accomplishment. But I don't. What I do feel is wonder - wonder that, even after 6 months of working in this crazy and inefficient Indian culture, and after days like today, I still don't want to leave. After the program, I was chatting with Nazar and found out that he didn't know that I am leaving on Monday. I think he almost cried. That's ok though, because I did too. Even though I shake my head at all this nonsense now, I'm going to miss it.