I can show you the world....

Shining, shimmering......SMELLY! This country has so much garbage that you can not only see it on the streets constantly, but smell it also. Each block has its own scent. The block we live on is more of a classic garbage smell (smell your own to get the drift), where we work is more of a rotten eggish aroma. Finally, the slums just smell like human excriment at all hours, probably because it in right there on the street (just for you!).

Work is difficult with all of these children, they are insane. We have decided to split them up further and I have some really sweet 7th grade boys in my group. Today, one boy handed me a picture of Edgar Allen Poe that he had found in one of the several Mumbai newspapers (we are reading The Tell-Tale Heart). Today, also, a disgusting little snot threw a beet at Anna's head. It is interesting how large of a spectrum of behaivor children have.

I also feel that I have become a bit obsessed with Indian suits (salwar, kurta, aur dupattas). I counted them last night, and the official count is up to twelve. TWELVE! I hadn't even noticed since I mainly buy them just to have new clothes free from the stench of India's air and rain. When I come back to the states I think that I will look so out of place..."Maria and the technicolor outerwear!"

Before coming to India, I never knew how tough I was. I didn't think that I would have to handle so much and I am actually amazed at my own ability to cope. I can pour cold puckets of water over my head every morning at 6, deal with no airconditioning is a climate that all but requires it, and I have had a nasty skin infection that is not only painful but warrented a visit to the Muslim hospital (do NOT recommend). Even so, all these minor accomplishments I seem to rack up I cannot really feel too proud of since I am living the life of a middle-class Indian. I cannot even comprehend the life people live in the lower and lowest classes here. Watching them as we travel through the slums is like seeing devolution, people reverting to a more animalistic form of life. Even though this may sound bad, seeing them gives me some sort of comfort. These people are surviving through sheer will and making jobs/shelters/lives for themselves apart from any type of guiding force. Seeing homes made out of spare metal and tarps, and even a slum near my apartment that has created it's own plumbing system makes me think that if we ever do endure a nuclear holocaust that roaches will not be the only ones to survive.

I am going today to pick up my twelth suit in Breech Candy...