Thursday, July 4, 2013

Earthquakes!

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the States! Hope you all are enjoying some nice fireworks!

Last night, we had two earthquakes! The first was post-dinner while we were all hanging around in our living room. It felt small, but long – at least a minute! The second was in the middle of the night. It was shorter, but strong enough to wake me up. It definitely felt a little like home in California! 

Today was our first day conducting baseline surveys in the village. We split up into two teams and worked in different zones of Kasambika 2. We walked house to house and asked questions about mosquito nets and sanitation facilities. Working from 2-5PM, we only got to 17 houses and considering there are about 270-300 households, we have a lot of work to do the next few days. As we finished our last house, it began to rain. We tried to outrun it for some time until we conceded to the thunderstorm and took shelter in a nice house. After some harsh rain, the mom of the house brought us hot milk tea and sweet bread! The bread was so tasty - it reminded me of a donut. What I would give for a glazed donut... Mmm. 


Coming home to a large group of kids, it was comforting to see a group of familiar faces after a long day. After punting the football to them from the front porch, they quickly set up their game. Today, I sat back and watched. It was fun to be a spectator for once. 

After we said bye to the kids, it was time to fight the rat. The past few nights, we've had these critters running around on the beams of our roof. Last night, it sounded like I was listening to a rat war. Hopefully, we'll be able to rid them.