Green and Gold

Excuse the awful quality of this picture (and the leathery look of my hand). I'm fairly happy with how this manicure turned out. It's really easy to do. I used a gold NailArt pen ($5 CVS, I think), which required two coats in some places, but turned out pretty well. In other news, I spilled coffee on my laptop today, like an idiot, and now whenever I press "zero," it types "zero backslash." I should probably figure out how to make it stop doing that.

Tuesday Tunes!

I realized I haven't done one of these in a long time! Months! Which means I am positively full to brimming with new favorites to share! I've been trying to listen to music that isn't depressing or about moving, leaving or loneliness (which, surprisingly, has cut out a giant chunk of my music) while I settle in here, so here's what's been left!

1. "Big Spender" - Theophilus London ft. ASAP Rocky
2. "Smile For The Blade" - Grieves
3. "Lights" - Ellie Goulding
4. "Monster" - Kanye West ft. Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, & Bon Iver
5. "DoYaThing" - Gorillaz ft. Andre 3000 & James Murphy

Hello, NC!

I've just moved to North Carolina today, which will be my...new home for the next two years. I am still incredibly jetlagged from India and the coast-to-coast time difference hasn't really helped that at all. Between buying and assembling new furniture, attending multiple orientations, and missing the crap out of the west coast, I've kind of got my hands full! I'm so so excited to start exploring this new (and oh-so-green!!) place, though! Wish me luck!

Tell The World

I'm coming home today!
Well, I get home Tuesday night, but I'm leaving Pune in a few hours for the airport. And let's be honest, I cannot wait to be back in America. I've got a whole list of things I'm going to eat and do when I get back (but mostly things I'm going to eat) while I maybe-pack for North Carolina in two days. Clearly, my priorities are in order. But when the prospects look like this:





Who could blame me?

A Bit More Anandwan

Though I'm in Pune now, and leaving back for America in 3 days, I thought I'd share a little more of Anandwan playtime, since I'm still lacking the large majority of the pictures from worktime.
All the leprosy patients are rehabilitated by learning a vocation to help restore their dignity and self-worth. One such vocation is crafting. A patient had made this model of a dog out of cigarette cartons.
We spent a day at Somnath, a satellite project of Anandwan, which is even more remote and has a lot of monkeys nearby! This one had a little baby with it!
Somnath houses two leopards. One was born there, is a sweetheart, and lets the village kids ride it. This is the other one....that ate two people.
Ending with a little picture of our Project RISHI shirts. Eventually...eventually...the rest of the pictures and stories and stuff will come. Promise!

Anandwan

The reason I haven't been posting as much from here is because we've actually been doing different projects and volunteering at the leprosy colony we visit with Project RISHI, called Anandwan. They're a completely self-sustained community, at the forefront of environmental sustainability (for such a rural and underfunded location), and probably have some of the nicest people you will ever meet living here.


Pictures when I get a chance to transfer them ALL, but we just completed a series of health education camps (focused on nutrition, first aid, and personal hygiene) for all the kids at the deaf and blind schools. The kids were brilliant! And sooo cute! Now, our second project is to get some high-quality footage and photos of the performance group of the able and disabled here, Swaranandwan. Hopefully, we'll be able to produce some decent marketing materials and a YouTube channel and get their name and their message of acceptance out to a larger audience.

Adventure Sunday

It's my second to last day at SEARCH today, and I feel like I have so much to say and reflect upon and stuff, but I really wanted this to be a whole post about our trip to an 8th century temple last Sunday, so the rest will have to wait.



Some of the carvings in this temple. Old Indian temples...are rife with these. Impressive for people who still can't figure out how to electrify the country regularly, you know?



I guess the place was supposed to be built in another town, but was moved here when that didn't work out. Now, it's right on a river. One of the few that flows south to north in India, to which I would say, A+ location change. The river wasn't all the way full because rainy season is just starting but that led to some even more fun times.



We decided to take these teeeny tiny, sketchy little boats to the other bank (we're talking there was water pouring into the bottom sketchy), where we proceeded to frolick and play tag and just be generally childish because it was sandy and empty...



...And then it poured in true Indian monsoon fashion where we saw it coming from down the river. We'd been planning to only stay for like half an hour, but instead we ended up stranded on the other side for two-and-a-half in the pouring rain. My shoes got wet so I just...took them off and barefooted it for the next four hours....which was interesting.



And then on the way back we stopped in town for some food (my first meat in FOUR weeks!), bottle coke, ice cream, and candy, and headed back to our quiet little Shodhgram in the woods for a much-needed, long, hot bath, some dinner, and a good night's sleep.

My internet will be...worse...starting Friday, so maybe if I get a chance to post in the next two weeks, I'll post something short about that leg of the trip, but chances aren't looking good.