Meeting with partners!

The past two days have been really busy. We've been meeting with partners and finding out about their organizations.

On monday we went to the Nireekshana HIV/AIDS Clinic. It was interesting because they have a prayer service every day from 9:30-10:30 and we got there around 10:00. So we sat in for the service and they read things in English and Telegu. The man who was doing the english portion was a doctor who is living here with his wife and two girls. That's something interesting I've noticed here is that the few educated people/people I've met have two girls. Either way, I've been surrounded by cute baby girls for the past week. It was also interesting to hear about the AIDS problem in India. It's still common for people to get HIV/AIDS from transfusions. That's sad given the stigma against it here. It will be good to work with them. They're small but they do a great work. It was also neat to see that they had these beautiful embroidered silk bags. I got one for my camera as a bag. It's a pretty little purple one with a henna-esque flower.

It was also fun because we got to take a rickshaw there and back. It was so CRAZY. Oi, I remember almost hitting them in a car but then almost being hit while in one of them was intense. It was so much fun though! And now I've ridden a rickshaw! :D They're kinda funny though because they start up like a lever lawnmower (like one of the seated lawn mowers). A big disadvantage though is that it's so low to the ground that you're getting all of the exhaust fumes and that's a little suffocating at times. Either way, still fun.


Brandon, Angela and Melanie in the Rickshaw


Our Driver


This is pretty common

Oh, and we finally got Air Conditioning!!!!! AAAAAH. I'm so happy. I'm literally sitting here on my bed with the computer on my stomach and i'm not hot because i have air conditioning. Thank goodness! I'm so happy that it's pathetic. :P

I also went to the store today to get things for breakfast. I already had nutella and I got some bread and bananas to go with it to make sandwiches for the mornings. I realized that it only cost about $3 and it'll probably last me a week. Awesome. :D Bread here is 33 cents a loaf. Bananas were 66 cents. The other two dollars went towards nutella which is still cheaper than in the states. It was funny though because I went with Melanie and Ale and Melanie is afraid of crossing the street. We had to cross to get the bread and then i saw the banana vendor after i had already crossed back. So i just went ahead and crossed, grabbed the bananas and went back. It took all of two minutes but it was funny watching her face. I really lost my fear of crazy drivers in Jerusalem. I still don't trust Utah drivers though. :P

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went to one of the MBF Bridge Schools which helps children who have been in labor situations or who have never been to school catch up so that they can attend public school. It's a really interesting concept that could be applied to various places. We went to a girl's school. It was so much fun seeing the girls. We got to play with them in the rain. Brandon caught a gecko and they started screaming whenever he came to them. It was funny.


The School courtyard


The awesome lunch they gave us


such cuties!


Sirita on the left helped us with translation


escaping the rain


Waiting for lunch


I thought this was funny, the school randomly has these posters... Mao?

Later that night we had our meeting with CARPED. It was interesting to hear about the organization and what he's interested in. It's a lot of different things and incorporates culture, education and public health. It'll be neat to see how things work out.

It was a fun but exhausting day.