and so it ends...for now.

ok note to self... when traveling i must remeber to take care of my health and not put off a day off in the name of partying with the locals... I was laid out for 24 hours in my bed yesturday with the flu and extremely bad stomach issues... I think i was out of bed for a total of 30 min to eat a little (what i could hold down) and check my email. I'm on metro and cypro and feeling better today.. though my energy level is a little low. I'm kind of mad that i don't have the neergy to go crazy on my last day in india but having a few days to take it easy at the end of a hard journey is a good thing. I was talking to a fellow traveller the other day who has been all over the world (everywhere from guatamala to loas to japan, etc) and he said that India more then any other country is a hard country that rapes your body, mind, and spirit. If you can handle traveling here you can make it anywhere. I'll admit, this IS a hard country.. the mass poverty and the seeming diregard by the locals, the extremity of life here, and the tendency for natural disasters (since i have been in the country there has been a 7.2 eathquake and MAJOR flooding in several cities.. luckilly(for me and not for others) all have been pretty far away) all play in exact tension with the extreme beauty, history, and moment of joy that can be found.
So anyway, i'm headed to the airport tonight with a 9 hour flight to london, a 5 hour lay over, and then a 6 hour flight to Toronto. With the time difference it will all be in the same daya nd i'll be in TO at 230 in the afternoon ET Not sure how i'm getting to my brothers from the airport.. but i'm sure things will work out.

When i get back to Canda i'll finally post more pictures as I havn't been able to since Kulkuta... ive taken over 500 pics here... thank God for digital cameras..hehe

so i'm outti...

the last couple of days have been good.

well i'm feeling a little better.. but i'm drained and need to rest.. owell... i'll get some sleep when i get back to Canada... but i warn you... the posts from this point on until i get back are going to be less and less coherant...

Working round the scams and the pitfalls in agra by yourself is like a game of chess. Sometimes you win and sometimes you loose and everything depends on thew skill of the player. I will admit.. i got scamed out of a few rubees .. but i also won a few times. At one point even made a bet with a rickshow driver how wanted me to dirve with him.. not only did i end up not having to take his cart.. he had to buy me a coke. On the other hand i got suckered by a different driver later on into going to see a shop.. and ended up wasteing an hour not buying anything (money is low) while a man tried desperately to convince me i needed to buy an over priced carpet.

Later in tyhe day I met 2 girls who I had volunteered with in Kulkuta and though one was leaving that night the other had no plans so after supper we headed to a local place and spent the night drinking chai and playing chess.

The next day I headed to jaipur, the city surrouned by small mountains... Unfortunatly, my train was late and so all I had was the evening.. The cool think is that I spent the night hanging out with locals who refused to let me pay for my food or my beer... after long conversations and random games I finally got to bed around 2.

Today has been good. I slept in for the first time since ive been in india and breakfast was at 10 with the locals i had met the night before. After a local guide took me around th epink city and then we headed to a monkey sunb god temple just outside the city. There were SO many monkeys that at one point an entire herd of monkeys crossed the my walking bath like I was standing at a cross walk. This afternoon I head to a few local forts and then tongiht before heading to the train station i'm meeting up with some locals for a bit of a house gathering. Should be good...

on a side note.. ive heard what has happened south of here in mumbai.. i really hope the rain stops soon... to many people have died already. I have only been minorly inconvieniced..the banks connected to monbai (like mine) are not working so i'm alosmt out of money...but all is well for me

i hope things get better for the victems there...

Dear God.. don't let me puke, don't let me die..

Last night on the train half way from varranasi to agra The room got dark, i became dissy, disorientated, feverish, and had a great desire to puke. Because a girl in the group had been noked out for 2 days resulting in a hopsital visit... i was freaking out. Especially since i had been bitten by alot of misquitoes the day before all i could think of was the word malaria...I layed there trying to get the room to stop spinning and for the chills to stop. I prayed with a sense of fear that i wouldn'tg et sick in the middle on nowhere on a train and that i wouldn't get malaria... Luckily It only lasted 2 hours and the gravel i found in my bag seemed to work... but this morning i am still feeling a little off... and by a little i mean alot.

Coincidenatly, i am now on my own. The 2 girls i was traveling with REALLY wanted to go one palce and I wanted to go another.. so they, along with another girl, are going to a small vilage and I go to jaipur tomorrow after 24 hours near the taj mahal. I think on the 19th were all meeting up in delhi for 2 days before everyone flies out for either home or more travels. I think this alone time is exacly what i needed... I loved my traveling companions.. but i think we all needed some space.. as was apparent by the general crankyness in the group as of late.

I'm so glad that even though ive been a little sick here and there (sinuses, 1/2 a day of diareha and malaria pill induced gass) up until now i havn't been really that sick. I really hope my immunse system can handle whatever it is fighting right now because with only 5 days left in this country i have SO much to see and so little time...

i will miss it here.

varanasi is famous for sweets, silk, and drugs

Conversation of the day:
We are crossing the street and I suddenly see a team of people of whom i worked with in kulkuta. There are millions of people on the street becuse we are near the main ghat.
-Other person freaking out: "Your not here to socialize.. If you want to do that wait until you get back to Canada."
-Me: "If I'm not here to socialize i should have stayed home."

This town is so chill. Even in the crazyness of the crowds (tomorrow is the shiva festival so some areas of town are packed.. especially the holy sites...) there is a peacfull flow. The only anxioty that exists is not from within me but is caused by being with the same people 24 hours a day and not sleeping alot. Unfortunatly not everyone was made to be a traveler... further still travelers differ on world views... To me, i don't care if i am risking being scamed... i'd rather take the risk and expereince somthing new and great then to live in paranioa and with the fear that everyone is out to get you. Yes this city can be dangerous and you have to be aware of what is around you... but you still need to che'lax... I mean SO WHAT if i get scamed out of a few rubies... Really it is not a scam... A man told me significance of the burning ghat .. he talked for 20 min about history and faith.. and i gave him 5 ruppies... (lke a quater) In all i lost like 2 bucks dollars canadian today through "scams" but really is it a scam? every time i get a service of which i haev enjoyed.. or atleast did not, not like... i mean i spendt 5 bucks today and I was on a boat on the gangies, i got to see aLOT of temples, I was blessed by a holy man (or atleast a man who was pretending to be one), had lunch with an israeli and some girls from france, recieved a history lesson about the hindu-muslim troubles in the city, saw the burning ghats and watched as some were burned and some where carred to the mddle fo te river and attatched to stone to sink(there are reasons for this) AND I saw a few religous ceramonies.... what the heck can 5 bucks get you in Canada?

I have to work on my patients and i think that is what this part of the trip is forcing me to do... This seems to be a reocurring trend. People i don't really know ask me to travel with them and then when i do the people have a hard time adapting to their surroundings and maybe to my personality. my usual relaxed nature is my gift an curse...

Anyway, We are away from the crowds now. I chose to loose my friends from Kulkuta in the crowd so that my travel mate could find a place to calm down and breath... I doubt that such a chance encouter will happen again... owell.. i wish them well... and i'm sure i'll see atleast some of them again...

anyway i'm off.. ive been up since 430 this morning... and i think i'm over stimulated... i love this country...

ive been missing entry days ebcause of lack of time so here is a cap for the ast few days..
-Thursday
Spent most of the day doing gropu debriefing stuff, email, and shoping... BUT ht highlight was the 20 min hike up the side of a HUGE hill to get myself to the tallest point in the village which doubles as a kali temple (hindu god of the bloodthristy perswasion). It was awsome for 2 reasons. Frist we stumbled onto a hindu pilgriam song circle... second, the entire hill was overed in trees and MONKEYS!!! entire families.. scratch that.. entire possies of monkeys were swarming the hill and playing around, on top, and in the temple... i'm nt sure if you can tell... i like monkeys...
-Friday
The start of a long day...
With the official group trip being over 2 friends and I got up early friday morning to buy our tickets to varanassi. Ironicaly, EVERY train that went directly to where we were ging was booked for four days.. We had 3 options.. stay in Darjeeling and give up on seeing anything but varinasi, agra, and delhi. Try to get on the waiting list that had 30 ppl ahead of us, OR take a 20 hour train ride intertwined with 2 hours of auto rickshaw rides. All this of course AFTER a 3 1/2 hour jeep ride down the mountain. We decided to try our luck and take number 3. O i forgot to tell you.. number 3 meant taking half the gtrip in the lowst class seats and at points waiting in areas were you, your bags, and everything you see is covered with flies. The highlight was getting on the WRONG train at one of our stops but in trying to get on ths train we had to litterally fight to get a seat as people would THROW themselves onto the train AS IT WAS MOVING...lol
To be honest.. though not showing for 2 days + the heat and dirt made me fel disgusting.. i had an AWSOME time... all expereince that does not lead to death, lasting pain or dismemberment is a good thing and though we wanted to jsut give up at some points.. we met the most amazing people and though some bad things happened .. alot of good came along. I think you have to be willing to face the bad in order to realize the good... there is ALOT of good in this country under the surface... all it takes to find it is to give up the western idea of comfort and be positive about finding it... Your find kindness and lve everywhere.. if you look beyon the scams.. the men who do wrong both to each other and to women... you will find the smile of a child.. you will find the stranger who does everything he can to show you thwe way... you will find the richshaw driver who likes to tell bad jokes.. you wil find you are surrounded by people wonderign why tourists woud come to see them...
After everything.. I think that i am at peace here... and though this trip is challenging (now that volunteering is finished i now face the challenge of dealing with the comfort levels of other) I Thank God that of all palces and of all times.. even dispite the fact that i am a student and REALLY cannot afford to travel... i am here.

So now im in Varinassi for a couple of days... a friend from France is meetings us in Agra on tues and i think i'm finnaly going to see the taj mahul... should be good times

But ya.. i'm back in Canada aug 31st... i can't believe it is almost over... now i jsut need to figure out how the heck i'm getting to my brothers place from the airort because i'm flyig home alone..hmm..

one of those days...

Don't mind the winy ranting nature of this post... i'm having one of those days...

We left kulkuta on monday. My volunteering is finished, atleast for this trip. Because I did this trip with a organized group and not on my own i am forced to keep to the groups sceduale. Thus we headed to Darjeeling for some r and r time to debrief from our expereinces in Kolkuta. Saying good by to the people ive met, the friends i've made, and the children of whom i spent time with while i volunteered was hard. I think the hardest was saying good by to Daya Dan... I will misss the happieness i encountered there.. i will miss the children i have grown to love.

The plan was to take a 10 1/2 hour train ride to the end of the line and then take a jeep 4 hours up a mountain to the hill station of Darjeeling. (the whole trip cost 15 bucks each i think) The funny thing is, we didn't make it to Darjeeling. We arrived at the end of the line to find a massive transit strick in effect and we were stranded. We managed to bribe a few rickshaw drivers to betray the strike, and as we snuck though allyways and dark corners trying to go around the taxi blockade I felt like we were in a movie... Some of the team seemed annoyed, some were scared, and some were out right freaking out. I on the other hand was haveing a blast.When we finally made it to our hotel I had the largest smaile on my face. The rest of the day was spent resting.

The jeep ride up the mountain was amazing too.. we traveled thourgh what seemed like 3 different environmental systems, roads that at times were barilly wide enough for 1 jeep let alone the traffic that came from all directions, and of course, monsoon rains.

Now i'm staying in a hotel that was made for debriefing and i havn't done anything but talk and eat for the last 2 days. I'm going a little nuts actually. Yes i know i'm a talker.. but talk without action only goes so far. The hotel we are styaing in is TOO nice... I am resting TOO much... and i'm feeling a little stir crazy... but then again ive never been one to be able to stand still for very long.. and maybe that iswhy i adapted to life in india alot better then some of the others...

i mean i know it is neccesary for some of the team members.. some of my group have had a REALLY hard time dealling with India.. the dirt, the hardships, the poverty, the scams, etc have been so great on some people that a little "western comfort" is needed for their sanity right now.. but me... i feel ashamed to be spending money i raised for this trip on nice accomidations when i could be fine in a hostel... I love Darjeeeling because it is SO peaceful.. but i know that if it hadn't been for promises made before I came... i would have styed in Kolkutta.. and then just traveled on a SMALL budget .. like i will be starting to do in a few days when I leave this place.

There is so much more fustration of which i'm feeling right now... but there is no clarity... and this post is a pretty unclear as it is...

The funny thing is... even though i would rather be volunteering rightnow it is still a selfish want.. it is still self interest... for I know i would feel more comfortable volunteering at dayadan then sitting here debriefing... so even in my need to help all is vanity at this point....

ok.. so like i said.. i'm just having one of those days...

yah.. the sun is out and i'm feeling a little better.

Taking the day of yesturday was definatly a good idea. I slept mostly and with the exception of a little errond running i had to do in the afternoon and meeting up for a beer on the roof with some fellow traverlers, i really didn't do much. The roof party was a good idea. Jeremy bought an indian drum the other day and we alredy had guitars so we had the chance o jam on the roof... it was awosme beause we could see people on other roofs comming out to listen. Goo times...

I think the only crappy thing that happened was what we say a few buildings away. Under a light we say a man throw is sun into a wall and then proceed to smash his head again the wall several times... I yelled as loud as I could threatening to kick his ass to try and get him to stop. Though i'm not sur eif he understood english, he understood the anger in my voice and the violence stopped. i know that all i did was stop the immidiate violence and i'm sure it will happen again. I am not a violent man.. in fact those who know me probably would laugh at the idea of me even trying to fight... but for a moment I wanted so much to go over there and thrown the man's head again the wall to show him how it feels. Of course that woudl not have solved anything and only would have made me feel better. Thus im stuff in an infant like state unable to do anything... my heart breaks for that boy.

I think the weather is getting to me...

My sinuses are leaking like faucets and i think i have an ear infection. BUT i love this place. It is fustrating sometimes and really it is the dirtiest city i've ever been too.. But there is a character to this city that makes up for everything. On our day off yesturday dipite the lousy monsoon rains we went to the village we had gone the week before and once again were met with smiling faces. The day was spent playing with the children and drinking chi in the homes of different people. Going was probably a bad idea because i havn't been sleeping well as of late... and by supper time i had developed a full blown cold. Even so i went to volunteer this morning and ended up on cleaning duty for most of the time i was there. By the kids lunch time unfortunatly my head had had to much and I had to go home to rest. My time of volunteering is nearing its end.. only a few more days until this part of the trip is finished... I wish we had longer. I think that at some point I will have to come when i have more time to give and more money to allow me to stay. This country has so much to offer and disite the mass poverty there is alot of love here and it is infectious...

ok so my malaria pills are giving me painful gass...

Its been a wierd 24 hours... Last night we eat at a Western resturant to give our bellies a break which was awsome.. but the walk home was really trying for some. I had walked ahead with one of the girls in the group because she had to be somewhere so I wasn't around when this happened... but I guess a local grabed one of the girls in our group in the crotch as he walked by! I guess it happened so fast that no one realizsed what exactly had happened... but Nick.. one of our guys.. realized that atleast somthing had happened and he gave the guy a shot to the head. I guess they realized they weren't going to get away with it so the guys friend appoligised. Then 10 min later one of the local drug dealers grabed andrew by the arm. Now still stired fomr the incident 10 min before andrew pushed the guy back.. and the man fell to the ground. Soon the guy is threating to take revenge and threating to kill andrew... when the group finally got away from it all they were a little shook up...

On a side note... a friend how had come to visit and was on his way home(hes from sweden) was kicked in the back my 2 teenagers driving by on a motercycle. So it seems that ALL the crazies were out last night.

This morning i had my bad luck but of a different nature... monsoon rains were heavy and the street in frunt of the hotel was flooded with calve deep water... and well if you know how clumzy i am i'm sure your not surprised that I triped on a submerged rock and did a back flip into the water...which is the mixed with the pee and poop that is daily distributed along the sie of the road. Then we get into a taxi and as I try to estimate the damage i forget to look where we are going and soon realize that the taxi driver has gotten lost and has taken us to the wrong place.. o man.. got to love this city..hehe

Ok.. Bear with me...

You cannot escape yourself. That is the first thing I have learned here. You carry your baggage wherever you go. You carry your hopes, your fears, your inadequacies, and all your contradictions on your back like a Mack truck no matter how far you go from the place you live. The normal sort of Introspection of which is necessary for life is almost impossible in the midst of clamoring horns and blinding lights in the streets of kalkuta. As such I believe all things internal become intensified out of the rage of wanting to be heard. Paradoxically, this city seems normally to leave one in such a state of exhaustion that this rage is never addressed and as such it seems to me that the pressure on the soul force all things of significance to the surface to beg to be addressed even though it knows that is impossible at the moment.


Thus it becomes violently important that in the brief moments of silence, that that which has been made apparent is tackled with urgency... is faced head on before the tide returns and the tension once again grows in the soul until the next free moment.

I must tackle my demons... Unfortunately this tension has made it apparent that I have many and i'm sure it will take a life time to reconcile them all...

random..

day of rest...
highlight:
climbed by a baby monkey! So cute.. um.. and dirty.. i need to wash now...hehe

a few more pictures...

a few pictures for you...

how i spent my day off in india.

The night before was spent at the "discoteck" daanding to beats that were cool when i was 12. So much fun... but being out till 2 when i'd been up since 5 am for work made getting up early on my day off extremely painful...

But as painful as it was, i was out fo bed and wondering the streets by 730. Joining me on the adventure were 2 italians (a boy and a girl) and a spanish girl. After eating some local grub we went to the bus station and using really bad bengalli asked for the bus that was going to a certain village that one of the italians had been told was a good time. 2 Hours later we find ourselves in the middle of no where and come to the realization that outside of the major urban centres noone speaks a word of english. After tasting the local food we jump on a rick shaw in a random direction for 3 rubies (10 cents ish) for 30 min and land outside the comercial area of the villiage and along side an amazing view of what we think is the gangi river. When the road gets too bad for the rickshaw to continue we pay our fare and begin walking. The coolest thing is that within 20 min we stumble on a ship yard and pay the security personel a rubee each to wander through. Next thing we know we are playnig with the fishermen and going swimin. we can't figure out why the fishermen keep telling us to stay close to the shore until one man reveals through make shift sign language (and we confirmed this whe we got home) that there are crocodiles near by... o man...

Next we venture into like this village outside the village and withing a few minutes we get adopted by a local family.. we can't understand them and they can't understand us but withint minutes they are feeding us and both sides are laughing trying to communicate. Soon word spreads that there are white people in the village and now the half the village is standing outside the house wanting to see and say hi. The boys are playing with us.. and the girls come with 5 feet but scury off when we come close. That is until we start taknig pictures and showing them the digitals. Even the older people are laughing and playing with us. Everyone is dancing and everyone is happy. One thing i couldn't believe... i pass around Canadian money as well as large indian bills because i'm sure they have never seen either... and maybe because this would never happen in Culcutta, but 20 min later, after being through about 40 strangers hands, everything came back to me without asking.

The love in this village is astounding. though they only eat once a day they offer us food the entire afternoon. I accepted everything that was given and even drank the local water though i knew there wa a chance I could get sick. I felt that it would be rude not to be accepting. Though i'm sure they did not expect it (as could be told by their reaction) after 5 hours of being there we sent someone to the market that we has seen comming in and bought the family 150 rubees worth of food. For us that is only like 5 bux.. but to these people that is almost a weeks wage! The money bought HUGE bages of rice, 30 eggs, 2 bags of patatos, curry, spices, AND a huge bag of treats for the kids.

Everyone was so happy. When the sun was setting and we knew we had to leave we sang one last song with the children and began to leave. To out joy the entire village walked us to the edge of their little sub village, huged us, and waved and watched as we walked into the night.

Dirty, sunburned, tired, and with a sore belly, i finally got home just after 9. After a quick shower and an attempt to mend a blister on my foot, i layed down and was asleep in minutes.

so i was almost a daddy...

so i'm walking to the mother house and somone hands me the cutest little baby to hold. Without thinking i accepted the chance to make the baby smile and before i knew it, the mother is gone.


I was surrounded by beggers to begin with and extremely distracted so i didn't get a good look at the mother. All of a sudden i'm freaking out cus i can't find the mother and her fellow beggers are telling me she has left an that the baby is now mine. "Mother gone, you keep." i'm probably as white as a ghost. I've never been so freaked out in my entire life. "what do you mean mother gone? where did she go? she can't be gone? I can't be a dad!"

Finally one man is like, "mother come back in 2-3 hours... i take you to her for money"

Now i might be new to the country but i'm not dumb.. i'm not taking my wallet out when i'm being swarmed by people asking for money... its jsut a bad idea because mobs are never good.

So now i'm contemplating what i'm suposed to do with a 6 month old baby and how i'm going to explain this to the group... i can't even begin to describe to you the mix of emotional hysteria that i was expereincing...

Finally after like 20 min of me freaking out... the mother... who was there the entire time!!! (but was a different person thent he one who gave the baby to me of course) FINALLY realized that i was not going to give money and would probably leave with her baby soon and thus presented herself.

i almost cried with relief!

a girl told me today i'm one part goofy and one part charming...

Yesturday was probably the hardest day that ive had here so far. The work is not hard but yet it is hard still the same. It is hard from the inside as i try to cope with what i have commited to do. As a whole, things culminated durring the day to leave me in dispear. In the morning I had to take a child (Rakesh) to the nurses office and hold him down with another volunteer as the doctor stuck a huge needle into his knee joint trying to take our puss and blood from a kneww that was the size of a soccer ball. They have NO anistesia's tooo offer and thus as the boy cries i try to calm him, tell him it will be ok.. tell him he is brave.. tell him anything to take away the pain... i wanted to take the needle out... i wanted to stop the pain. All this pain because he has trouble walking though he is 12 and thus walks on his knees causing great trama. All this could be avoided with knee braces, but the house cannot afford it. I'm going to try and pool some money together from volunteers and see what we can do. Once bandaged and cleaned of tears i brought him back and made sure he was ok...

In the afternoon i went to Kaligat for the first time. Now, I am very sensitive to energy in its extremes. From the moment i walked in a wave of pain and negativity hit me. At least witht he children they have the spark of life, no matter how bad their ailment or deformity... but the majority of themse men are filled with desease and/or waiting for death. You can sense that the know the time is near. Some are missing limbs, some are rotting, some are only bones will very little flesh. Some cannot speak, some cannot move, some are so dead inside that that are but corpses with hearts that havn't havn't realized it yet. Now there are also some who are happy, some whos situation has not gottne the best of them.. some whose stregth of will has kept them alove and even full of hope... but the dispair of the many smothers the joy of the few within me as I watch grown men shit themselves and then cry because they have not moved by their own will in a very long time... as i watch some rot away...

later, on the way home, my heart was crushed further. Unfortunatly the women have already have had bad expreinces with some of the men here that has left some of them negative about the men of this country... Understandablly they are angry.. but a comment slipped that sent a pike into myheart as I have tried come to love these people... ive had too.. you cannot pour your sweat for a people with a blind eye...
ok i'm being veyge...
anyway.. there were other things too... but needless to say i needed a beer at the end of the day.. and then by 10 i wasn in my hotel and fast asleep...

here are some pics...

some days are harder then others...

This city has a way of stretching you to the brink. The rest of yesturday was emotionally draining. The girls in our group are having a hard time dealing with the kind of danger that exists for women in this country. The several "incidents" that have occured in the last couple days turned last nights group meeting into a venting ground which left many in tears and hystaria. The men in the room served as soundoff booths trying to give the support that we knew the women needed. By the end we all needed to get out... Luckily it was Canada day and witht he help of some non-canadians we returned to an easier mood on a 9th floor roof padio with beer and chips...

Today at daya dan was the hardest so far. The day started ok as we returned to familier faces. I already have favourites.. Some of their faces shin with so much love and brightness that that make you want to love them and take them home. Today though, the energy of the place was a little off. Between the massive tantrums, the crying, and the fact that almost every kid peed their pants (covering me) I was wiped when i got off today. I'm still loving it but i'm realizing that this is not going to be a walk in the park.. especially when i start at Kaligat in 2 days.

still, the smiles of these kids makes everything worth it. I held this one kid for an hour... blind, he jsut wanted to be held and sung too... i'm not sure if my singing is good for much... but it made him happy, which in turn made me happy...

Tomorrow is a new day

um.. i will not squat cus i have diareha and it aint pretty!

wow.. last night was crazy. The mass was awsome but trying to get back to the hotel ended up more complicated then expected. Between the mass of children that came from the garbage shacks that jumped us for our water (i thought it was cute but some of us were a little freakd out), the other masses of street kids that wanted attention(which was fun but exhausting and left my head black with sut), and the moter rickshaw ride of DEATH (playing chicken with big cabs in a wood/metal moterized cart is a BAD idea... o trying to ram a bus was not good either!) by the time we finally got home i needed a beer. So for 90 rubees (2.50) we got to try 650 ml of kingfisher strong. Finally relaxed i showered and was in bed by 10.

Now it is Canada day and our first da of volunteering. Although i don't start full days until monday, In the morning i am at Daya dan with disabled children and in the afternoon i'm at Kaligat with the dying and destitute. Wake up call was at 5 am but i had long been up. My malaria pills are giveing me interesting dreams and I think i'm on Canada time because by 2 am i was getting up every 40 min or so... Mass was at 6, a quick breakfast, and then off to volunteering at 730 in the morning.

The kids are great! So innocent... i held one child in my hands for almost an hour becaus he just wanted to be held.. my heart broke for him. His legs are malformed so he can't stand on his own and he is mentally handicaped so only actions are communicatable.

I wore a canadian flag sticker and it was a hit with several of the kids... by the end of the day the sticker had traveled and had been stuck and restuck to every part of my/their face imaginable... i think the flashy red was a good thing..hehe
anway, i need to shower... until next time