We will walk on an empty road..

Apart from my skin peeling off my foot for having to spend so much time barefoot, I'm having a great time here. Friday, the monsoon continued on and I felt as if I was probably not going to make it to work. I called Yogen, and he said it should be okay. Tackling the area alone for the second time, I felt 300% more confident and real;ized that the area wasn't actually too bad at all. Yes, people stare and make motions at you and folow you, there is feces and urine ion the streets and the smell is thick and the flies, thicker, and the cattle and goats and horses feed on plastic trash, but it isn't quite the slums and it's pretty standard India.

We made Butterflies, "Teetoolees" on paper and with new markers and cut them out and tapesd them all over the window. So far, certain children stand out. Alisha is a tiny little girl who never smiles, talks or writes/draws a thing. Sadam is a tiny little boy with the sweetest smile. Dubada is a very smart girl with an additude. Vishvash, when asked for his name gives his full name which is about 10 seconds long and the staff always cracks up about it. I'm going to have a field day when I bring in my manual camera. Yogen told me after work that he felt me to be much more entusiastic than the last volunteers (awesome) and that he could tel the kids really took to me. I LOVE the staff. Karan is maybe my faavorite. he is 24 and married to Laxmi, who is 22 and 8-mths pregnant. He knows a total of 5 or 6 words in English and somehow his amazing humor stil seems to peak through. For ex, I often ask him, after practicing with the kids, to tell me words in English. "Hara (green), in english?" i said, and he refused to answer. Shoving his finger in his chest he said, "Me Indian! Hindi only!" to which I said, while shoving my finger in my chest, "Me American! English only!" and we all had a good laugh about it.

After work, Yogen and I headed to the "Habitat Cultural Centre" to hang out. I was escastic as he let me ride on his motorbike on the roads of Delhi, in the rain. It was absolutely exhilirating and absolutely terrifying. Most the women in india ride on the back of the motorbike sideways, because of their Saris, but I straddled because I had pants and sideways felt like suicide. We defintely got a lot of stares. Habitat is really beautiful: natural outdoor places to sit and rest, auditoriums, theatres, art galleries. Yogen and I talked for a couple of hours- I helped him with his English grammar (he is actually quite amazing for starting English in 6th grade!), he imitated some famous bollywood actors, we talked about Indian customs such as slapping children for making mistakes. Yogen said he was slapped so hard he often fell out of his desk as a child. It happens at my projct by the staff and doesn't phase the kids at all. i feel very comfortable around Yogen, and it is great to have a local friend. We checked out a docuentary at a film festival that was going on, and becuase of the rain, it took me 55 minutes in an auto to return home (monsoon traffic).

That night, I headed to an awfully posh bar with some other volunteers that had a live fashion show. The drinks were $20! It was disgusting. But interesting, I suppose. India really is one of the only places where such extreme weath and extreme poverty exist side by side. We went to this other bar, Urban, that was a lot more chill- but still blegh. I did meet a guy from Wash DC who jut spent 7 mths in Israel though. Awesome.

2 hours of sleep later, I boarded a train to Agra with Naomi. We booked 1st class, but, in retrospect, really didn't need to. We sat across from 2 Americans- the husband wrked at the A. Embasy in Delhi. We got corn flakes with boiling milk, french fries ("finger chips") an omelette, black tea, mango juice, cookies and a RED ROSE! It was comfortably disgusting. :)

Agra was beautiful!! We got bombarded by auto drivers at the station, but found Talik, and asked him if he would drive us around all day, to which he agreed, for Rs. 400 ($8)! Our hotel had a rooftop view of the taj mahal ($10 a night!) The TAJ was AMAZING!!!! I took loads of portraits of people there, after asking them, of course. Twice, a group of 10-20 INdian male teenagers surrounded N and I to get a picture. It was crazy.We also saw the baby Taj and Agra fort (where I dropped one of my shoes and didnt find it for 10 minutes). We hit an AMAZING restaraunt named Maya :) and it was the best meal of my life. WE had dinner and some beer on the roof and "proper crashed" (as Naomi, U.K., would say) at 8pm! WE accidently boarded the wrong train back to Delhi and it was defintely a "real" India experience. I spent the 1st 30 minutes with an adorable baby girl on my lap (N got pics!) and after they got off, just avoided eye contact with a lot of older men.

I bought my most precious/expensive item yesterday. I sw this muscian and his younger brother playing drums at this restaurant, and he had made both of their outfits and they had UPSIDE-DOWN HEARTTS SEWN ONTO THEM!!! I half-jokingly asked if I could buy the shirt off his back and he insisted I do (as he had more at home)! It was hilarious. I actually did. For a lot of money, atleast a lot in India ($21). It was amazing. It's more like a dress. Can't wait to show everyone back home.

Love Namaste.

I start Yoga tomorrow morning at 530am.

Erin Didi