My First Day Off

It was spent sleeping until 11:30 AM, traveling to the Aroma Home Spa, taking a local bus to dinner, then to the Ice Cream Corner and a bumpy ride back to Hotel Evoma. It was a pretty perfect day!

Below is an email I sent to my work family yesterday:

I'm feeling super homesick today and wanted to drop a line and say hello. India is wonderful and you all know how in love I am with this country, but today I'm a bit sad. Lots of mixed emotions.
We are really getting to know the family we are building for. A family of five lives in a room the size of Cary's office. They eat there, study there and sleep there. It's heartbreaking. But today when we broke down their old wall and started building a new one, we were all overcome with joy. We spent the last hour of our build, playing with the kids and hanging out with the homeowner. They made us the best chai I've ever had because it was made with love. I couldn't help but shed a tear when I saw Pyari (the home owner) buy eight cups from the street vendor because she didn't have any. She bought cups for us! Maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal, but she earns only $2/day. The cups cost $1 total.
I'm also sad that we will not be able to complete this home before we leave. I will be back to see it though. I have to.
I feel so unbelievably fortunate to have a roof over my head, a job, a car, and all of you. So I am overcome with emotion today.
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I have no idea how to say goodbye to this beautiful family. They have transformed my life. As of yesterday, we completed the first set of cement bricks around the edge, outlining their living and sleeping area. We also broke down their last wall! The last hour was spent playing games with the kids of the family and the neighborhood children. We had a blast with them! Please check out the pictures below.

There is another day off tomorrow. I’ll be taking some girls shopping and then off to see Karthik Calling Karthik (movie). Taking it easy until another busy Monday!