Weekend in Delhi Pt. 2

Last weekend, I had the chance to travel to Delhi again, this time with the other 3 interns. The purpose of our visit was to attend an Indian Premier League cricket match, widely considered the best club cricket in the world. There are few things in life that I enjoy more than watching live sporting events, and I had never been to an international sporting event of any kind, so needless to say, I really, really enjoyed the match. The atmosphere was electric, the match was suspenseful, and it was a unique cultural experience on many levels. Highlight of the weekend: when I was picking up my tickets at the box office the day before the match, a few teenage guys thought I was Australian cricket player David Warner (pictured at right) and asked me to sign their shirts. So I played along and signed his name in all caps. :)

Work at the office is pretty steady right now as we try to publish our design report for the orphanage by the end of next week. I'm doing all of the water supply and wastewater design for that, so I'm gaining some valuable experience and getting pretty darn quick on AutoCAD. I also started Hindi classes again this week after a 2-week hiatus, and I'll probably continue taking them until I leave at the end of May. I think I'm finally at a point where I can semi-converse with people in Hindi, which is great, but I'm pretty sure my brain is out of room for more vocabulary and grammar rules. So we'll see how the next couple weeks of classes go.

The Future

As some of you may know already, for the last month or so I've been considering coming back to eMi in the fall for another 4-month term. Well...crunch time came recently as the staff asked me to make a decision so they could get on with interviewing new intern applicants (very similar to the Brett Favre retirement fiasco, really). After much thought, prayer, and gnashing of teeth, I decided to return, so I will be back in India from September to December after spending the summer back in the States.

Needless to say, I've really enjoyed my time here and have known all along that I would enjoy another 4 months here. But it really boiled down to whether I felt like staying for selfish reasons or for legitimately good reasons, and I think it's mostly the latter. I feel like I've invested a lot of time in getting to know the language, the people in the local community, how eMi operates, etc. that my usefulness here would only multiply exponentially (sorry for the math terms) by staying for another semester. And, most importantly, I really enjoy the work (usually) and feel like has an important place in Gd's Kingdom.

So that's that. It's weird to say I'll be back in India for another 4 months like it ain't no thang, but 4 months really does fly by. I feel really good about my decision so far and I'm excited to be staying for a little while longer.

On the Road Again

This past week, I had the chance to go on another mini-project trip, this time to a remote village about 25 miles from our office. My co-intern Andy and I boarded a bus at 7 AM and arrived there around 4:30 PM. In between, we had a 3-hour bus ride along winding roads – during which my breakfast came out the wrong end – and a 4-hour car ride on the bumpiest road I've ever been on. But the amazing views along the way made up for it.

While there, we surveyed some property for a man who runs a Chrstian school for village kids. Currently, the school (grades K-4) is run out of glorified storage sheds that he rents, but he would like to build a legitimate school so that classes can be expanded to K-8. So Andy and I spent about a day surveying the property and talking with the man about his ideas for the school, and now we will be spending the next couple weeks working on the plans for the school at the office.

Unlike my last project trip, I got to spend some time with the kids who will benefit from the ministry, which was a joy. The man who runs the ministry has about 15 of his students living at his home, where we stayed both nights, so every day I was greeted with “Good morning, sir” and “Good evening, sir” by all of the kids. And best of all, I got to play a little cricket with them one of the days.

Also, in one of the small towns we stopped in, I spotted a man with a Wisconsin Badgers shirt on, and I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life. I nearly hugged the guy, but instead just got a picture with him. GO...BIG...RED!