July 30

Two days in a row! Today we went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun, especially since I haven't been to a zoo in a long time, but it was also a little uncomfortable. I saw two other white people in the park and the group and I felt like another attraction. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stared at us as we passed and several took pictures. Here are just three pictures of people taking pictures of us.

For me, it started out being uncomfortable, but by the end, it was just kind of funny and we started posing for them.

Yesterday during playtime with the school kids, one of the sweetest girls, Meriam,  wanted me to come to the movie that night. (Sometimes they have movies for the kids in the dining hall.) I was walking with Meriam and Suda and I told Meriam that it sounded fun and I would try to go. Suda started laughing and so I asked her what was so funny and she told me that the movie was in Tamil, which is the language spoken in the area I'm currently in. I didn't end up going to the movie because I was really tired, but some of the other volunteers went and they came back having not understood a spoken or written word of the movie. It is very strange to be in a place where I can't understand anything anyone is saying. It is kind of unnerving. 

After we went to construction yesterday, we stopped in The Junction, which is a small town about a 5-8 minute bus ride away from the Rising Star Campus. I was going into one of the stores to get ice cream and so I was crossing the "parking lot". (Which isn't really a parking lot. It's the sidewalk.) As I was crossing the sidewalk a motorcycle roared around the corner, head right for me. I jumped out of the way, but they also swerved... the same way I jumped.... The guy who was driving jerked the handlebars the opposite way and so they missed hitting me by about three inches. It was four young men on the motorcycle and as they passed they all yelled apologies as I did the same back to them. I ended up skipping ice cream but they stopped to buy some. So as we pulled out to continue to the campus, I saw the four of them and they saw me so they all started grinning and waving at me and I waved back. One of the other volunteers looked at me and asked who they were. I replied with "Oh, they just almost ran me over with their motorcycle."

The driving in India is terrifying. They have the lane lines drawn on the road, but they never use them. Like, ever. They don't really use there turn signals, instead, they honk their horn to let people know they're coming. It is so loud and annoying. Although, it's better than people getting in accidents all the time. They're all excellent drivers (they have to be) but just sitting in the back of a car driving through a city gives me anxiety.