Well, the phone at Daya Dan is out of order still, so I have no more news to tell you all.
Instead, I find myself trying to distract myself fromt the situation and all of my feelings. I simply can’t manage them otherwise. Travel is the only thing that gets me out of myself and on to the next step, sometimes.
Unfortunately I can go no where at the moment, as I am tied (although pleasantly, mind you!) to dog/cat/job/house/bills/car–and , dare I say it, life in the USA.
Oh, I rant and rave about alot of the greed and ridiculousess of all of it, but at the end of the day, let’s face it: the culture that produced me, with all of my good intentions, has done some things right. I think what I love about being here is that I actually feel pretty safe, pretty comfortable. I have no harrowing stories to tell.
Unfortunately, now that I have the taste of travel –in particular, adventure travel–I can’t seem to let it go. This in spite of my sincere effort to do so these last few months. You would think that coming home with amoebas and two kinds of worms would change my mind.
Sigh. It hasn’t.
Of course, I have the tiniest travel budget ever(read=zero.) and I have the least possible amount of time ever(read=less than a week) as I am trying to be a superhero in real life and must tell all of you, it is very expensive! Not only must I work a million billion jobs (ok, so ust one big one and then other odds and ends) in this strange economy to make it all happen but I must also go to school fulltime to get all the neccessary slips of paper saying I am a superhero. Busy, busy, busy. Even when I need a break, I must schedule one.
Sometimes I don’t quite feel up to it. I am taking on more in my life in the present and for my future than I over thought was possible. But no one ever accomplished anything great without going to great lengths to do so, right?
One of the main perks to wanting to adopt overseas is that you must go see the child you would like to adopt pretty often. So since I am going to India already in December, I have decided to tag on a short adventure after going to the orphanage, this time, to Bihar.
As you remember I visited Bihar 3 times before and each time it got better and better. So I have decided to make more of a go of it and really , really look at it. There were many places there that were not in any guidebook and where no tourist ever went–exactly the sort of places I want to go before my life changes someday and I won’t be able to.
So other than learning Hindi , I’m tackling a little Urdu and also doing alot of research on Bihar. I went to the Buddha-tree (lovely, but once was enough) but what I really want to see are more, tiny, poor, colorful, vibrant villages. I want to drink chai on a dusty street. I want to be in palce where there is nothing but water buffalo and giggling children.
Everytime my frustration overwhelms me about the phone not working in Daya Dan, I just sit down with a cup of tea and begin plotting out my next journey–overland from Calcutta into Bihar, visiting small villages and making it to the edge of Nepal.
I hope to have some excellent adventures to post, and even though it’s months away, it helps me sleep better at night knowing that..
..my adventures are not over.
gigi