Harry P'capote and Janpur

Sunday I took a 2 hour trip on the back of a motorcycle up to Janpur which was absolutely beautiful. I visited the small Alice branch their because in October I'm going back to do some decorative painting around the school and to run a small art program with the children. We are also going to bring the projector up from the main branch and watch a movie at the school and invite the villagers from 2 nearby villages. I think it will be really wonderful if everything works out. I also decided that the ONLY good way to travel is by motorcycle, it's the best! Go Jack Wiley, he knows what's up. Someday I want to travel by motorcyle with my husband through Europe and South America. Don't worry mom there is nothing to crash into here except ladies carrying baskets of grass or a fruit cart, or maybe a pack of goats or a water buffalo. I think in any case we would do more harm to them than they would do to us.

I felt like I was in a movie as I listened to Sufjan's Seven Swans, A Fine Frenzy, Bon Iver and Nickel Creek while whipping past large groves of mango trees or tunneling under even larger groves on Banyan trees. One second I would be making eye contact with a small shepard boy hurding the goats in from the fields then looking at vast expanses of numerous crops. Everything was pretty shades of green because it has rained a lot since the puja. I honestly felt like I was in a Wes Anderson film, maybe like a cross between The Darjeeling Limited and The Motorcycle Diaries. I can't explain or even remember all the beautiful things I saw, wait okay I just remembered something hilarious! There were, of course, lots of Hindu and Jain temples dotted across the landscape. This one in particular was amazing! It had a giant statue of a big FAT man he looked like an exact cross between Harry Potter and Capote! What the?! Was that all about...It was amazing. Of course, only I, think that stuff is funny, so I just smiled to myself and turned up Whisper by A Fine Frenzy (which always makes me think of Liz Noser.-not the song the band-)

Another funny thing was that these people have honestly and quite obviously never seen a white person. Everyone: small school children, old men on bikes, ladies selling pomegranates, girls buying bangles, women in the field...whoever, they all looked like they had seen a ghost when they saw me. There mouths would drop and they looked amazed/astonished/confused all in one. It was fun for me to guess who would wave back when I waved. Most people especially young children would wave back and get excited some kids went crazy and started chasing the motorcycle! HAHAHA so funny.

So when I got there I put my backpack in my room (the only room in the hut) and sat kind of awkwardly and stared at Vipins wife because she didn't really speak English. She is really nice though from what I can tell and I know she will do great with the sewing project. He has a 7 month year old baby too so I had fun with her. The next day was a rainy day and since all the children have to walk a long way to get to the school only 6 out of 15 arrived. They were all 5 years old but looked 3 or 4 because of malnutrition and genetics Indian children always look younger than they are. They practiced english which was adorable and we played games for hours, like duck duck goose (which only 2 of them understood.) And we did the hokey pokey, which was a real crowd pleaser. I'll put up pictures later of the little preshes.

Remember how I mentioned how it was a little awkward with his family, they are so nice but it's a lot of silence and me trying to find new things to look at so I don't have to stare at them staring at me. At night I had to go to the bathroom, which means getting a "torch" and finding a nice spot in a field. SO, I've been camping before several times so I'm pretty well versed in going outdoors. That wasn't the problem, it was that the grandma kept freaking following me! What the heck! I couldn't get her to leave me alone...was she going to try and "help" me or something? I don't know but she was freaking me out. So after THAT sufficiently awkward encounter with his grandma I went inside and Vipin insisted on asking me "Did you make a pee pee?"OH. MY. GOSH. Seriously?

At night to try and forget the awkward and the rats I listened to some FNP songs and watched two lighting bugs danced on the ceiling. It was quite wonderful, their small green lights flicked really fast created a small strobe light effect in the darkness. Mmm it was good. The next days trip "home" to Sarnath was ahhhhhhhhmazing because it was pouring down monsoon all over us. I was soaked head to toe but it was a warm rain and everything was perfect.

I moved my trip to Calcutta to the 23rd of September and I will be there until the 30th. I'm planning on working at Mother Teresa's dying rooms and orphanage. I'm also going to be spending a day looking for a harmonium to buy because I have recently been loving learning harmonium. Okay...I'm going to go drink some Chia and read the Jungle Book NAMASTE!