1 month in 10 minutes

Me, danielle (U.S.A), Sandeep (India/Nepal), Tamuz (Israel), Jessi (U.S.A)

To say the least this last month has been amazing. I'm leaving in an hour or so for Rishikesh, to do yoga and sit on the fact that I let the plane that was supposed to take me back to the U.S. take off with an empty seat. Now my adventure has no planned end just to keep on learning and exploring these far off wonderous places of the world.
I've been out of contact for a little while because I was living up at the village. There was so much work to be done because Pooja's first annual function for her school was on April 8th. I committed when I arrived here to stay until the completion of it. We worked so hard, especially Pooja, she has devoted all of her energies to her school it is amazing and inspiring. She has treated me so well and I've felt so at home in her home and with her family. in fact she's because my "Indian mother" and I'm her "brat!" This experience here has been one of the most rewarding of everything that I've done in India, so much has happened, here's a quick recap.
I got lice and shaved all of my long floppy hair off, the hairdresser actually did it all by hand with a pair of scissors, totally impressive, especially for only 50 cents.
My camera had another adventure, it spent the night on another mountain top. I went on a hike and after taking photos I forgot it on my way back down. The next day I climbed back up and found it perched at the peak in it's same old flashless beat up condition.
3 new volunteers arrived. Two from the U.S. and one from Israel, we had so much fun dancing around fires and repainting the school to ocean, dinosaur, space and other themes. We were all a great help at a crucial time to Pooja, I was unsure why exactly she was inviting three more volunteers when we were in such a crunch, but when they arrived it was pure magic. Everyone had something to bring and we worked hard for the week leading up to the program. I've uploaded some of Jessi's photos onto flickr, check them out!
The function was amazing. Every kid had their own costume and got up on stage. They did wonderfully, the kids loved it, the parents loved it, and we were all so happy and proud. I had been helping for a month and seen all the kids practice countless times, when they got up on stage my heart started racing. I felt like I was the one getting up there. The preformed better than I've ever seen them, even though they'd only had one rehearsal on the stage and in costumes. I even received comments on my narration of Snow White, Pooja has given me the disc so maybe I'll be able to use it again at another school.
There is so much to write about, I'm antsy to get going off on another adventure, back to traveling. I've got 2 weeks left on my visa in India, I'm heading towards Nepal! New adventures await.
Pooja, Tamuz, Jessi, Danielle, Pooja's family, Town school staff and all the villagers have given me so much positive energy, I'm practically floating. I'm sad to be leaving yet another wonderful place. But I've promised everyone that I'll return. When I do I can't wait to see the changes that Pooja, the villagers, town school staff and all the volunteers will be making. Wohooo!