Today was insane. I was on the construction crew and am now SUPER tired. There are 6 in my group and today we had to carry nearly 300 cinder blocks (one at a time) over two regular city blocks to be used for bathrooms in the back of 2 houses belonging to ladies. One of the ladies has lost both her feet and most of her fingers. She scooched outside of her small hut to say Vanicum (hello in Tamil) and offer us all food. I ended up talking with her while the others got directions to the next house. Tears filled her eyes as she pointed inside to a picture of a man, then toward the sky. We struggled to understand each other but it was obvious to me that she had lost her husband and was feeling quite lonely. What a hard thing to go through. The only person these people have is their spouse. They are the ones who stick with each other through everything, including severe deformities and even losing parts of their body. I didn't have any words to make her feel better so I simply hugged her, but graciously declined her offer of food. When Hannah, a sweet girl in my group, took a picture of us she looked at it and it put a smile on her face to see herself in a photo. They all seem to love photos.

We came home and after a cold shower I took a nap. I woke up to chaos and excitement all through the elephant house. The security men had killed a cobra. Yes a real live cobra! eewwwwwe, and I even like snakes. Then we had a meeting with Dr. Kumar about our adventure for the next 2 days coming up. We are traveling 6 hours in the morning to a colony that has not received ANY medical treatment from the outside. It is in the next state so they don't even speak the same language. Dr. Kumar is excited because not even he will know the language and he seems to be a man who thrives off of challenges. We are staying over night and working there all day Wednesday too. I will do my best to nit get thrown in jail for some stupid reason. apparently there are a lot of "American hating Communists" in that state. It is truly going to be an adventure. This is the first colony in another state that Dr. Kumar is going to attempt to help. I am so excited.

Play time and homework time were both wonderful again. It started pouring rain, which felt nice after such a hot day of sweaty heat and humidity. But we all ran in with the children for prayer so they wouldn't get sick. prayer inside was nice because the kids were less distracted. Prayer is just a bunch of songs that they all sing, and then a prayer in Tamil and a Christian prayer in English before dinner.

By the way the dinners have been absolutely out of control. Padmina cooks for all the volunteers and coordinators as well as the 150 children every night, and the meal blows me away every time. She truly is a goddess!

I'm off to bed since we leave at 5 in the morning. I will not have Internet until Wednesday night, when we return, but I'm sure there will be plenty to blog about.