September 29th- I step in cow dung!

Today, I did yoga at 7am and practiced some tough asanas. I am pleased to say that my glutes are so sore! After yoga, I enjoyed my walk home and took photos of the large lake next to the temple I have my yoga lessons at. After showering and eating breakfast, Jessica didn’t feel well, so she chose to stay home for the day. Reid and I left, and while walking, we stopped to photograph some gorgeous Indian flowers. I accidentally called Shane, and I heard “hello? Hello?” from my bag. Though accidental, it was really nice to talk to him.
When we arrived at the CFI office, we were told to go with the Mobile Van (a medical van that visits to a couple of tribal villages in the mountains and then return to the CFI office. The villages were AMAZING. Surrounded by spectacular views of waterfalls, lakes, rolling hills, mountains, trees, and flowers, these villages are in the perfect spot. There are rice patty all around, cows, chickens and goats walking around, and approximately 300 people residing in these villages. The first thing I did when stepping out of the van was step into a huge pile of cow poop!! Reid of course laughed, but we immediately began cleaning my sandal with water, scraping the poo onto a rock. Of course, soap was not available, so I was incredibly thankful for the hand sanitizer I religiously carry with me.
In the next village, just down the road from the first, there were many locals that came running to the van for treatment of symptoms, like: fungus, skin infections, fevers, coughs, and boils. One woman remained in her house, and when I peeked inside I saw that she looked quite ill. She was coughing a lot, and when she stood up I saw she was very frail. So, I asked for her to come out of her house to see the doctor in the Medical Mobile Van. The doctor’s name is Dr. Deepa, and she diagnosed the woman with a fever and cough. I wasn’t convinced this was the extent of her illness, but we had so many people to tend to that there was no time to do a full check up on her.
After this village, the van brought us back to our house where we had a quick lunch and then walked back to the CFI hospital. I found out we were going to watch some more tubal ligations, and I knew I would get sick if I saw another one. Instead, I headed back to the CFI office and talked to Akshata, the program manager of the Child Sponsorship Unit. She assigned a Social Worker, by the name of Suvarna, to show me the lay of the land. I read progress reports written about sponsored children and learned how to write one myself.
On the way home, I saw a large truck moving slowly with a statue of Goddess Durga on the back of it and many people dancing on the street behind it. It was part of celebrating the last day of the 9-day festival, Navratri, when they worship Goddess Durga, a warrior goddess. As I passed by, a man was lighting a firecracker and I, unknowingly, almost walked right into it. It blew my ears out! I wasn’t sure if I had gone deaf or not for a few seconds there. Then, I went to the market where Jess and I picked up our Indian outfits from the tailor. On our way to the internet cafe, we saw the truck again! It had been making its way through the whole town. We came across some older women that kept us from the crowd so we wouldn’t get pink powder thrown at us, as is tradition during many Indian festivals. They were so sweet!