namaste

Hello... did you think I'd forgotten you? :) I'm still here... and my mother India is wrapping her arms around me tightly and sinking her roots into my skin more and more deeply every day. I may never leave ;) Instead of a giant long diatribe... I'm going to break this into little snippets to cover my mind's ramblings.... nothing is very well constructed anyway... so you're getting it as it pours out of my brain, take it or leave it...hahaha!

Whahooo.. we finally got water back in the apartment! It did take about 10 days or something... might have been more. It's all about perspective though. I mean... how can I really complain as I watch the men constructing the high rise apartment next door... I look out from my luxurious 17th floor 'crib' onto a dirtball that is their 24-hour a day existance. They have makeshift tin shacks on site where they live with their children... who play right on the work site. In the mornings I see the men meticulously bathing at the building that has running water (only cold)... while cooking fires are going beside their shacks. Already... at 7am there is a man in the giant crane moving building materials around... he has climbed all the way up and will stay in there, baking in the heat, all day. They will work on these structures all day, with no safety harness and no fear of the heights that they clamber around on with a marvelous ease that takes my breath away. It is all hand labour with no machines that we are used to seeing for building construction in the west...and the high rises will take many many months to go up. All the while they live in the dirt on site a few feet away. So.... I had no shower or toilet for a few days. BIG DEAL! I am the luckiest person in the world and may I remember this every minute of every day. The feel of pouring a jug of water over your shoulders is pleasant and refreshing and we should all try it. :)