End of Week 1- Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday was a WEE bit tiring, mainly because I was up for at least 40 hours straight. Rachel and I accompanied the Dabaks to their home in Pawana where they conduct free clinics and run their NGO Ummda. We arrived and did the normal business, settin up camp, havin lunch, what have you. There was this wonderful group of women that came to Dr. Dabak's health lecture on sexual education in teens. Anyway, later we found out that these women were apart of a "laughing club" in Pune. I'll try and put my video up of it, but it was great. It's a form of exercise through laughing. It's so hard to explain on paper, but it was so fun to be apart of it. Later on we went to the temple with the women and walked to a restaurant for dinner.

After dinner we played rummy (later to find out it was Gin rummy and I was playing the wrong game!!). Things definitely got lost in translation. But what can you do?

So here's the fun part. I can only laugh about it now because it's long past and it seems so ridiculous. The Dabak's home in Pawana consists of one room with a wall in the center that goes about six feet up. Each side has it's own bathroom, and each side has it's own lock to the one door between the two rooms. There are two entrances, one from each half, both of which can be locked from the inside and outside. Mind you, India doesn't really use key locks. It's more like a bathroom stall lock where it slides into a hole and someone could use a Master lock to secure it. Anyway, night came and we went to bed, well sort of. Since the wall didn't go up the whole way all noise was heard, regardless if it was US or THEM. Politely as I can put it, one of the Dabaks snore like a they're trying to break the sound barrier. It was so loud, so constant, that neither of us could fall asleep.

At about 4:30 in the morning we realized that each other were still awake. At around 6:30 we decide that we should go outside because we can hear the fire that the driver built. So here I am, all excited to go sit around a warm fire.. oh, did I forget to mention that this place has no electricity and sometimes running water?...Anyway, I go to open the door, but it's LOCKED FROM THE OUTSIDE. Being slightly annoyed I had completely forgotten that the Dabak's locked the center door (connecting the two half rooms) from THEIR SIDE! So here we are, unable to sleep, restless, yearning for an environment where we can talk, and BOOM- we're locked in on all sides.

THANKFULLY, I got really annoyed and instead of pulling the outside door- I pushed it. It made a huge bang against the frame (partially because all the doors are metal here and because I pushed it pretty hard!) and the driver (Dada) heard it. He undid the lock and let us out. I have never been so happy in my life having been so sleep deprived. It was ridiculous. Like I said, I can only laugh about it now because at the time we were SOOOoooo pissed off. Seriously? Locking us in the room? We already know they have some issues about letting us out of their sight, but SERIOUSLY?

Wednesday we went on a trip to a rural school and did the Ummda thing. By that, I mean we taught some sex ed. It's always funny encountering children in India. I don't know if it's because they've never seen a white person (aka Americans) or because we're not dressed the same or just out of the pure fascination that new people are around… but they stare. They're worse than the adults, maybe because the adults are just too proud to stare.

Anyway, the lecture was well received and we returned to the house later that day. One thing about the lecture is that I'm not so comfortable with what they teach. They teach that girls are better than boys, not equal. Most likely in an attempt to over compensate for society's over education that boys are better. It bothers me though that it needs to be taught in the first place.