I’ve not had time really to blog or journal until now (read: “I’ve been horribly lazy and gone to bed as soon as I got back to the hotel.”). I actually had about 5 paragraphs written out before when Sam accidentally unplugged the computer. I think I cried.

Anyway, this has been a really different trip from the last time. I mean, much of the same things I saw last time are the same; desperate poverty, trash everywhere, extremely dirty conditions, and a culture that uses it’s gods to shill candy bars. However, being based out of a single location and doing day trips to really rural areas has been amazing.

Before, in southern India, even the “rural” areas were in very populated areas. Here in West Bengal, we’ve been to mud hut villages in the middle of huge fields of rice patties. Mike explained it best: “Apocalypse Now”. The villages are very tribal, the towns (by town, I mean 100,000 people) very compact and worn down. Where there is power, there are rolling black outs or brown outs, but most of the places we have gone do not have power.

One thing is the same though: The children. Sure, they speak a different language (Bengali and/or Santali) and hardly any of them speak English. They all speak the language of football (non-american), Cricket (I still don’t get it) or tag. They’re also as cute as it gets and quite affectionate once they warm up to you.

I think Meredith is trying to find ways to smuggle a couple back with her.

PS. Thank You. Come Again.