India Trip- Day 8

It is the beginning of the week again and last week went at a nice pace, but somehow it seems that time has now started to speed by.

We visit a village that was made for gypsys to settle in. The people here are friendly and the kids full of fun. They all wanted to hug and kiss us. We meet a couple of families and see what life is like for them here. It is life at the bare basics, but there are smiles on their faces. The women here make necklaces to sell and they were so sweet and gave us each one. I know the work put into making necklaces and then needing them to sell and I want to buy more, for them it is a life's work.







We visit the Leprosy hospital today and learn more about Paul Brand's and others work there. It is very interesting, they make shoes right there on site for the leprosy patients and for people with diabeties, etc. Some of us want to have some sandals made for us while we watch.

We went out for lunch and had Indian hot dogs made from chicken and I had my first coke while here. My sons asked me if they had Indian pizza and now I can tell them that, yes they do. It was on the menu at this place.

We visited another small village, I keep getting the two mixed up, the people here are so sweet too. At one of them there was a man with a parrot and he brought it up to me and made me kiss it three times on the beak. If you knew me you would know that I would not have done this anywhere else, but here I really didn't mind for some reason. He even put the bird on my shoulder. I am thinking of getting one of these for a pet! One thing I can say about these villages is that the ground is so hot if you aren't wearing shoes, I almost burnt my feet, I had to dance to my shoes and put them on. I don't know how their feet ever adjust to this hot, hot ground. It is just daily life for them.

It was a nice surprise when we drove by another village and it was pointed out to me that this is the town where Sandhya's mom lives.

We went up the hill to visit the Community for Peace and Justice, the second time for some of the group. It was raining and the electricity went out and it was dark by now. We made this a very short visit, but at least I got to meet a few of the girls and they even gave me hugs.