Details

Well, I’m pretty much settled in now, so I guess it’s time for a few more details...

Noida
Just prior to my arrival here in India, the boys’ home where i was to be working was flooded. The monsoon rains came 2 weeks early this year, and the location of the home is apparently not on the highest ground. The boys are all currently living eith with volunteer families or at another temporary facility, so I have been rerouted to Noida, India which is a South East suburb just across the Yamuna River. The name of the home is Yaakov’s Light and is still part of the Udayan Care Homes. I’ll talk about Udayan Care more in a later post. I am no longer living with a host family, but am living in the home for my stay. We have internet access here, so I should be pretty consistent with updates and emails :).

Steve
I have a roommate. Steve is from Philadelphia and has been here for a month now. He is taking some time this summer to hang out here before heading back for his senior year at college this fall. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have another American around just to be able to ask questions and process things with. What a welcome surprise!

Erin
My friend, Erin Counihan, who I worked with on the coast for 21 months is ending her term with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in the beginning of August. Before settling in to “normal” life, she is coming to India for two weeks at the conclusion of my stay at the Home. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a travelling buddy to explore more of the New Delhi region with and to have an excuse to prolong my stay.

Other
I got word this evening that my luggage has been delivered in New Delhi and will be taking an auto-rickshaw into the city tomorrow to retrieve it. I have never been so excited about clothes (and most importantly flip-flops) before in my life. I’m also still working on the whole acclimating myself to life thing. I did not get much more than four hours of sleep during the traveling craziness, so needless to say I was pretty wiped when I got here. I fell asleep Tuesday afternoon at 3pm and slept hard until about 2am. Of course, since my internal clock was flip-flopped, I spent the rest of the night awake and doing the few miscellaneous things one can do when there is one roommate, 11 boys and a caretaker couple all sleeping in most areas of the house. Today was much better, I hit the wall at 6pm, but with a little bit of soccer time, I’ve managed to make it this late (10pm). I’m hoping to crash hard tonight and be close to getting on schedule after that.