so sleepy.

I wrote this earlier today when I had a few minutes...
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I have been terrible at updating during this trip, which is too bad, because we’ve pretty much had an internet connection the whole time. Why have I been such a bad updater? Well…

…This has been a very different trip for us. Usually, if we are doing an organizational audit or normal project visit, we have a lot of activities: visiting multiple “subprojects” in one day, going out to villages, visiting sponsored families, etc…lots of moving.

For THIS trip, we have just been in cities, working primarily at our “project” (main) offices, training our new staff members and working through issues. Lots of inside time. We had thought that it would make this trip somewhat easier: not having to stay in a new place each night, being “in touch” (our cell phones and internet cards always work in the cities) most of the time, not as much traveling around…

…but it seems like it’s harder. Doing all of this training and office work has been EXHAUSTING. The other night, we got back to our room and slept from 6:30 to 11:30pm…I woke up and worked for a couple of hours because I had things to do, but slept again from 2 to 7:30 am with no problems. Yawn.

Anway…today we’re in Bangalore. The weather here is BEAUTIFUL. After many days of hot hot in Delhi and Chennai, we arrived here on the train this morning (early, about 4:30am), and it was kind of chilly! But now that the sun has come up, it is beautiful. We had a great and productive meeting this morning, and now we’re preparing to drive to the airport to head to Palay. We also had a couple of nice days in Chennai…some really productive work with our new staff, and a visit with some old friends. I like Chennai.

This trip has also seemed long. Fortunately, I feel like I have settled in so the length doesn’t feel as emotionally oppressive anymore J, but it feels like we have been traveling for much longer than 10 days. Whew. We’re on the downhill slope now, though. It’s funny…by the end of a trip, I feel both eager to get home AND frustrated that I can’t stay longer. Oh well.