Some Questions Answered!!!

I am off to a village for a field visit that will last several days and am sure I will have a lot to write about once I get back. Until then, a friend emailed me and asked me some interesting questions and after I wrote back I realized that my answers really capture a lot of how I am feeling here and decided to post them. I will post again soon. THANK YOU all for your kind thoughts, emails and support. I really can't say how much it is appreciated!

What are you most appreciative for?
Most appreciative for the friends I have met here that give me so much joy, support and keep me from getting extremely homesick as well as give me an insight into the culture and the country of India that I could have experienced in any other way other then being in relation with the people here!

Is it less = more?
In some ways YES...I have come to see the excesses that we have in the U.S. and how very simple things like sitting in a circle singing songs or having a cup of chai at the corner vendor stand can be just as fun and fulfilling, if not more, as happy hours or shopping at the mall!

What emotion does the smell of the air evoke?
COMPLEXITY. That is the absolute best way I can describe it. With each step a different conflicting emotion is brought up. A sort of uneasy comfort. It feels so different yet at the same time very familiar. Some smells: Manure, rain, concrete, cows, pigs, incense, flowers, fresh fruits, cool breeze, garbage, urine, mildew, henna, Chai, gasoline exhaust-pleasant and disgusting at the same time!

How long can you go? how long can they go without....?
You realize that you can go without many things for long. Not to compare my discomfort to the suffering that many people here endure but I have realized the human spirit is so adaptable and all the things we think we NEED we can actually do without. But food...people cannot go without even here. People eat eat eat here...

How rough/smooth is the terrain?
The terrain varies vastly even within a 10-20 mile radius. The village I am in is very hilly and green now and has a river/damn. It is not very hot which is nice but I miss the sun sometimes.

Does it ever rain?
It rains A LOT and very hard. Sometimes drizzles sometimes downpours.They love the rains here because they know that without it, there would be a famine and then they would really go without! And they only have to deal with it 3 months out of the year. My view on rain has really changed since coming here because of how much it is celebrated!