thoughts from underneath the mosquito net

the thing...that makes it so hard...to blog...while I'm in India...is that I'm so...tired.

I realize that it's only 7:30pm, but whew. I could fall asleep right now. In fact, I WOULD fall asleep right now, but we haven't had dinner yet, and even though I'm never quite hungry when I'm here, it's a part of the traveling-together-and-being-congenial-with-our-hosts deal. (which certainly is not bad. I have fantastic traveling companions and hosts, the best in fact.)

While I am roughly sleeping while it's dark and staying awake when it's light, my sleeping schedule is pretty wack, what with the jet lag and doses of benadryl that I've been taking to make my legs not turn into huge mosquito-bite-lumps. Last night I fell into a drug-induced sleep at about 9pm, but woke up at about 2:30am and had to listen to my sisterhood of the traveling pants in little bursts until I got up at about 5:45am.

Anyway, none of this is interesting. I'm in India. Things that ARE interesting:

• I went to mass this morning. It was all in Hindi, but it was a seriously soul-refreshing time for me (particularly after the fitful pseudo-sleep that had preceded it). According to my rough calculations the congregation was 77.777777% women. Interesting. They WERE celebrating International Women's Day (hurrah!), but still...?

• We got to meet with sponsored families today. This is always nice, particularly when we get to visit people's homes. It is just good to BE in the community...this is why we do what we do. Certainly, we have to spend some time in offices and in meetings and coordinating things to make sure our programs work the right way. But being in the community is always the best.
  

• I've been pretty discouraged over the past few days because there has been so much talk (and evidence...you can see it) about corruption in India. It's so ingrained in the culture, and it's so toxic. But today, I saw mothers getting excited about meeting together, taking loans to start livelihood projects, and making changes in their community...and it got me excited. It was really inspiring.
  

• (I also have the privilege of working with some inspiring people.)
  

Okay, I think that's all. I'm sorry that my India blogs are so stream-of-consciousness...someday I really will get better about thinking things over and planning and crafting blog posts, but today is not that day.

peace...