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I bought a beautiful shisha… sooo nice. I bought a guitar… sooo nice. I don’t even know how to play a guitar, and it was an impulsive but perfect purchase. That night (last week) us whities went to my girls’ Rency and Anamika!!!’s house and cooked dinner. It was wonderful. After eating we broke out the guitar and pretended that we could play, then the power went out and for a good chunk of time we ate dessert and sang in the dark. On the way home we were warned by street dogs that we should have taken a tuktuk.

This past weekend was my first Indian binge weekend and was it fun!
Friday: dancing all night to my MAN Mr. Michael Jackson with Karthik!! and his hospitable friends. Saturday: little sleep and two masala dosas, 15 of us went to ThejU!’s house as a going away party for the 5 members of the team who are leaving to pursue their dreams. We had delicious home cooked food and stayed up alllll night laughing and laughing and laughing, followed by sophisticated and stimulating conversation about differences in western and Indian culture, specifically my favourite topic, Love. We confronted the merits of the caste system, arranged marriage, Indian/western concepts of love and its manufacture and growth. When dawn came some left us and we who remained played mini soccer (I lost), then took a road trip to Hogenakkal Falls in the Southeastern state of Tamil Nadu. 3 hours later we trekked into these plains, took a mushroom-cap boat through the river, got soaked in our jeans, burned my feet in the sand and laughed. No words can express my 3 hour bike ride (with no helmet :)) back through rural Indian villages and palm trees into the sunset. We stopped for chai at a man’s home who had no eye and spoke three languages. I felt like he has seen more than I have. That night we continued into the night by watching the World Cup while I worked on a project presentation scheduled for the next day. So perfect. So exhausted but never so wide awake.

Three weeks ago… Mumbai. Wow. 20 million people but not crowded at all. Clean, the coast beautiful. The heat… the heat… We went to the largest slum in Asia – Dharavi Slum. 1 million people in 1.75 square km in the centre of the city. The completely environmentally friendly and self-sufficient industries within the slum export US$665 million per year. Government land on which people have squatted because they have little alternative, now a permanent community.

I’ve just been put onto another project, creating a Citizenship Index… what does it mean to be a citizen in urban India? How is this defined? How is it measured? Gooooood solid stuff. My landlady’s daughter is the editor of a local newspaper and has asked me to write for her… the details of being a student here in India and at an NGO. I have a meeting with her tonight. So Pumped.

It hasn’t rained in a while… and it’s hot again. My tummy is fantastic. My cockroach is alive and kicking.