Today, Mickey really delved into some technical O&M skills with the students, so it was nice to be a part of that. This weekend, Mickey's holding a parent's meeting, and Lauren and I get to tend the kids. I'm super excited. We're going to do a cooking activity and make American food (grilled cheese, I think), so I think it will be awesome! I might have to use some camp skills to entertain them. Sweet.
Lauren and I had our first little adventure alone. We walked back from Enable India without Mickey along our regular route. I was a little nervous that we'd be bothered without a man walking with us, but we had no problem at all. (This is also for my mom, btw.) We can really walk like locals now, in the street, and crossing in the middle of the street, so I guess we looked like we knew what we were doing. So, mama, I'm safe. Promise.
This afternoon, we went to a big department store just down the road. The first few floors look just like an American mall, with cosmetics, clothes, shoes, and housewares. We saw plenty of Western clothes, but there were TONS of beautiful kutras (the long tunic tops) in beautiful colors and prints. They were pretty reasonable at $5-10 dollars, so Lauren and I plan to go back for a few. Since there is no shower curtain in the bathroom, we headed to housewares to find bathroom rugs. We debated buying a shower curtain, but the tension rod itself was about 12 dollars, so we passed on that. We noticed that some Indians think of lines differently than we do. There seemed to be a main line for the checkout in the department store like in the US. Everyone stands in one line, and then you go to the next available cashier, but then several people passed us to make a new line at each cashier. Some nice folks called us up so we could have our turn, so we were grateful.
Upstairs from the department store, there is a grocery store. We bought water and some snacks. We might have bought more, but we couldn't find a basket. We made our big ticket purchase - toilet paper - for 5 dollars for 4 tiny little rolls. :( Food is pretty cheap. I bought a loaf of bread for $1, a bag of vanilla wafer like cookies for 75 cents, and a big jar of nutella for about $3.50. It seems like things you would have to buy in the states cost about what they would cost at home, but other things seem to be a lot cheaper. American things like toilet paper and shower curtains are much more. Oh, and Lauren bought Cheetos at $7. Surprise at the checkout!
I know most of you don't, but my mama cares about whether I'm getting enough to eat, so I'm afraid that there will be daily meal summaries. Sorry. I slept through breakfast, and lunch was the same old stuff, but dinner was really yummy. We went to a Punjabi restaurant, and I had butter chicken and naan, so it was nice and familiar. Lauren and Mickey tried "Thums Up" soda (yes, thums, not thumbs), which is made by Coke. It was a little gross, but not so bad, I guess. I'll have to look for it at the world of Coke. After dinner, we stopped for gellato, and at 74 rupees (about $1.50), it was a really nice deal.
So, sobering moment of the day... It's really done a number on my head, trying to wrap my brain around (that's for you, KP) this water thing. So, the tap water isn't something we need to drink, and it's kind of a hassle to buy bottled water. So, Lauren and I are using UV light pens to treat water, but we don't quite trust it yet. For the first time, in a small way, I have felt a little anxious about my water needs. I've never in my life not had easy access to all my needs. It's not even a big deal, really. There is bottled water everywhere, and we've got access to water treatment, but I got a small taste of what it might be like to do without.
That's enough for tonight. I hereby resolve to take pictures tomorrow. There, it has been blogged. It shall be done!
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