happy new year!!! i hope everyone had a nice holiday.

everything has been going well!!!!

since i have arrived in india i never look at the date. i can go days without knowing what the date is. i can't believe it is already mid sept. time is going by very quickly. allan has already been here for two and half months and i have been here for a almost five weeks.

we have been spending lots of time with the volunteers from the mango house. there is a couple from germany and a couple from england who will begin volunteering next week. come holiday season 15 new people are going to be volunteering at the same time. it is so interesting to meet people from all around the world. hopefully we will stay in contact with some of the people so we can go and visit and they came come visit us.

this week all of the volunteers came to our hotel for drinks and then we went to a restaurant down the street from us called the delhi darbar. it was fun to have everyone come to our hotel. it is very different from were they are staying so they all had a really good time.

the mango house is still going very well. i just love the children. they are sooooooooo cute and so funny. i know i have said this before but it amazes me how sweet, polite and generous these children are. many of the parents are wonderful but a majority of the parents are not the best role models. it makes you wonder how these children have picked up such good behaviors.

one day we were walking to the swimming pool which is about a half a mile away from the mango house. one of the little boys stopped at the little grocery store to buy a piece of gum. the piece of gum was probably the size of my thumb nail. he started ripping apart the piece of gum and insisting that i have some. now, here is a little boy who probably gets one rupee every few days and he is sharing this little piece of gum with me. it was so sweet.

another thing that was so shocking to me was on a friday when we were celebrating the aug birthdays. a little girl brought a bag of chocolate candies. when she took out the bag you could tell there were not enough pieces for all of the children. all of the volunteers looked at each other with the same thought "oh no this is going to be a disaster." we thought there would be a massive fight between the children but there wasn't. they all sat quietly, some got candy and some did not and nobody shed a tear. i couldn't believe it.

this past sat all the volunteers were invited to ali's house (the house parent). his family lives about an hour and half away from the mango house. ali lives at the mango house during the week so he can work and then on the weekends he takes the bus home to be with his family.

he invited us to his home so that we could meet his 6month old baby, his wife, in laws and parents (who all live in the same house). the area he lives in is so cool. all u see is big green trees (very green because of all the rain) and palm trees. it is the jungle. it is so quiet compared to what we are use to in panaji (where our hotel is) and mapusa (which is the town i work in).

it was so nice of him to have us at his house. when we got to his home his family gave us chi tea and cookies and we all just sat around playing with his little girl and talking with his wife. nobody else spoke english so we were not able to talk with the rest of the family. even though they could not talk to us you could tell that they were so appreciative that we came to visit them.

ali named his little girl cinderella. at work one day he read all the children the cinderella story. he loved the name so much that he decided that was what he was going to name his baby. (keep in mind that was probably the first time he had ever heard the story)

the women who cooks the food at the mango house came with us to ali's house so when we dropped her off at home at the end of the day she invited us into her house. she wanted us to meet her family as well. again, nobody spoke english so it was just us talking with each other. they also gave us something to eat. it was some kind of fruit salad. if u go to an indian families home and refuse the food they pass out they get very insulted and think that it is rude. thank god it was only fruit salad because whatever it was she was giving us i would have had to eat it!!!!! it was really neat to see the different homes and meet the family members of the people that we are working with.

allan is in china right now and will be back in goa on monday night. on sat i am leaving to go to mumbai with three other volunteers. allan has a lay over in mumbai sunday night so i will spend sunday night and monday morning with him in mumbia. he will leave for goa monday afternoon. i will go back to goa on wednesday with the other volunteers.

to get to mumbai we are taking an overnight train which takes 12 hours. ( i know , i can't believe i am doing that either.) it is going to be quite an experience. i am looking forward to it. on the way home we are flying. it only takes 45mins to fly to goa.

it is suppose to be one the best weekends to go to mumbia because on sat (in all of india) starts a ten day festival which marks the birthday of hindus' elephant-head god. the festival is called genesha chaturthigenesh. there will be lots of people partying and lots of different parades. it started in mumbia so everyone says the parades are the best.

when i get back i will post pictures. i have a lot more from the mango house and i am sure we will have some from our trip to mumbai.

yesterday my friend sophie and i went to the mapusa market which is the market that most goans go to. it is not a very touristy market. it was really fun to watch people and see the different things that they sell. we went to a jewelry store and i bought alot of fun jewelry for only 18 dollars. lots of rings, earring and bangle bracelets. if anyone wants anything let me know!!!


we miss everyone lots and hope to talk with everyone soon.

oh just so everyone knows i always ask allan if he wants to write something. i still don't think he is as into as me. so, alot of this will be about my experience at work!!!!! at somepoint i will get him to write something!!!!!!!

love allan and abby