Trying to understand the Indian ways!

Above is a picture of my first day in Bangalore. Indian students welcomed us with flowers and a red bindi on our forehead.

The Indian kids at the village loved getting their pictures taken and then getting to see themselves on the digital camera's! (read more about the village below)

Me and some cute Indian girls who live in the rural village we visited. ^^ They were a little afraid of me at first.

A Monkey at the Village ^^^


So. There are some pictures for you all to get a better idea of what's going on here in India!
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Wow, I went to the Indian Post Office this morning & that was an adventure in itself! I had about 20 postcards to send and so I went to buy stamps. I got to the counter and was redirected to another counter where it said, "stamps" above the mans head... i guess i should have read the signs. I was buying a bunch of stamps while another customer was standing next to me buying stamps, from the same man at the same counter... this lack of queue's is very weird to me, can't everyone just wait their turn? Once I was handed the stamps I began licking them and sticking them on the postcards. The man behind the counter stopped me, pointed to a table behind me and said, "paste." I turned around and saw a little blue "paste" jar with a stick coming out of the top. I thought, I'm supposed to use a STICK to put glue on my stamps? I'd rather use my tongue. But, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I sat down at the table and began using that little stick to put paste on each little stamp. I don't even know how well they are going to stick to the postcards, so if you asked for a postcard I really hope you get it! If not, my apologies ahead of time! I really tried my best!

This past weekend I went to a rural village to observe the lifestyle for a night. I felt bad because we don't really have time to help them out in any big way, but it was beneficial to get to see what a 3rd world country can really look like. When we first pulled up in our huge bus the kids were jumping up and down with grins on their face. They were very excited to see us, but as we got out of the bus and tried to talk to them they were intimidated and scared. It took them a while before they actually got close to us. The kids were darling, they were so happy all the time and probably had no idea what kind of life they had to live. This village only has electricity for 1 hour each day and there is one main water pump where they all have to collect their water each morning. There were cows and goats walking around and we saw tons of wild monkeys! We took a ride to another nearby village also. We had to pile into the back of a truck that had this canopy type thing covering it. We all stood inside and one guy from our group said, "Tell me when we get to the border!" We felt like hostages of some sort. That night we had to sleep on a cement floor in one big room, smooshed together. We didn't get much sleep, but we made it fun. It was a very humbling experience.