As I thought might happen, this post will be a scattering of observations and experiences; so as usual, if you want more in-depth stories of what we are doing here, please visit the other section of our website.

I’ve learned 4 phrases in Hindi! I can say Thank you, My name is…, I am from…, and What is your name? All of these phrases are met with giggles (perhaps due to horrific mispronunciation?), but it worked once on our neighbor- his name is Amos.  I often sit outside during quiet times and he comes over and sometimes we play together.  Yesterday during my quiet time, I was braiding my hair.  A group of girls approached me (I have NO idea where they came from), and said “Beautiful!”  As they stared, I finished braiding my hair.  Once it was done, they promptly took 2 photos with their phone.  They said “beautiful” and “goodbye,” before walking just 10 meters away from me and then gathering around the phone to look at the photo.

Usually on arrival, we are welcomed with a flower, lei or bouquet of some sort!

I’ve said this a few times before, but I really need to make a bucket list.  Not because I want the list, but because when something happens that surely would have been on the list, I can cross it off.  The other day, one of those things happened!  We were walking through a small village and we spotted monkeys!!  Tons of them- parents, babies, monkeys of all ages.  It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.  They were jumping on top of a couple of rooftops and into a tree.  I was so close to them- definitely less than one meter.

Monkeys

Only a few days later, we saw an elephant on the side of the road!  He wasn’t wild; it may have been for a wedding, but he was just hanging out there in all of his hugeness!  And just yesterday we saw CAMELS!  They were so majestic and bigger than the ones I remember from Jordan.

One of my favorite things to sneak in during he day is visiting the dogs on the property.  I’ve been heavily warned against pursuing wild dogs, but the dogs of the house are okay to befriend.  So that’s what I’ve been doing.  The first group I’m still working on winning over, one of the dogs is downright vicious and isn’t chained up so it’s a little daunting (update: totally my friend now!), but the other dogs are amazing!  One just had a set of five puppies and they don’t even have their eyes open yet!  I visit them about as often as I can.

Burke & Janko sporting their stylish Indian outfits!

Last thing, quick story- Toilets here are just crazy. (I still plan to have an entire post about daily living here, but I ran into a camera battery roadblock so it wasn’t possible for this week.)  So toilets.  If there is a toilet, you are lucky.  If it flushes, you are incredibly lucky.  When we first arrived, I had heard that flushing is usually to be done with the pressure from a giant bucket of water.  Fortunately, the first night, Burke discovered that our toilet flushes!  A few days later, I was talking with one of the girls here and I mentioned something about the flush.  She was shocked!  She didn’t realize that her toilet could flush too, but it does!  It was a little humorous that she was doing something the old way when she didn’t have to.  What’s funnier though is that I mentioned it to another girl yesterday and didn’t know either! The kicker is that the two are roommates and the first roommate just didn’t tell the other!