The Gateway Hotel Vijayawada

... day of traveling. (Literally, we are traveling along with the sun, so we'll have a few extra hours of Wednesday to deal with. I can post from my blackberry, and I can send pictures as well, and they would be posted at the end of this. Okay breakfast is ready, and we have a lot of work to try and do in the next two or three hours, so... thanks for checking this thing, and goodbye for now.

... couple of days, as we've been getting home late from whirlwind experiences visiting local kids' clubs in very poor communities. I hope to write a little more about that later. If I don't you could ask me about it sometime. Anyways, this evening, our friend and guide, Anil Kumar (See photo) took us for a walk through the village. He had been offering for a while, and we figured we would oblige him as he has been a great help, and a great friend to us since we arrived in Hyderabad ...

Not much new happened today. More assemblies, training sessions. This time we were able to spend an hour with about 12 of the schoolchildren. They caught on very quickly and had a lot of fun playing with their pictures. The staff learned a little more and they have an assignment to do now. They must use the skills we've taught them to create a biographical page about themselves and share it with the chairman using Google. This evening, a couple of ...

Monday was our first day of our routine schedule for this week. For those of you that are unclear whether we're at an orphanage, hospital or school, I will clear it up for you. It's all three. The facilities here are really nice. The walls and floors are beautifully constructed, and the school building is four stories high. The campus is one of the nicest places in this remote area of Eastern India. There are three main facilities here: The Riverside School holds classes for about 370 ...

Hop off the bus and get to work! We had breakfast, a quick tour of the campus, then we went to a house dedication in the village. This was a very interesting experience. After racing through the village in the school bus, we hopped off and wandered into the neighborhood until we arrived at a brand new, four-room house wedged between a few brick huts with thatch roofs. It was just built for one of the teachers at the school ...

... het hier absoluut niet kan om zonder bedekte schouders rond te lopen maar dat het geen probleem is om met je bloot gat langs de kant van de weg gehurkt je behoefte te doen... - je hier wekenlang in volle zon kan rondlopen zonder te verkleuren en je na een regendag verbrand thuiskomt (idd.. 'huh' is de juiste reactie..) - ook de muggen in ons dorpje een beetje onderontwikkeld zijn... ze weten niet dat ze eigenlijk alleen savonds en snachts ...

... als werkverhalen dus zal ik ze even op een rijtje zetten: ok mijn favoriet van vorige week was ongetwijfeld de vrijdag (01/08). We hadden een dagje vrij en zijn dan maar in de namiddag naar het strand gegaan. Bleek dat er die namiddag juist een gedeeltelijke zonne-eclips zou plaatsvinden! rond 2u begonnen er een paar tientallen riksjas volgepropt met hindus aan te komen op het strand om daar een of andere ceremonie te houden in teken van de eclips. Wij hadden gelukkig ...

... enthousiast zijn als ze eens met een westerling kunnen praten. je merkt het aan de stralende oogjes en de spontane high five in het midden van het gesprek - ik de reuzenmieren al lang niet neer eng vind - gecko's ongelofelijk intrigerende beesten zijn... vooral als ze ledematen missen - de vervelende beestjes steeds grotere dimensies beginnen aan te nemen... op onze huidige verblijfplaats waren het vooral de ratten die ons parten speelden... - bij het ...