Nandi Hills...

The first place that we visited was a small orphanage called "Green House" that is located in a rural area. I brought another one of the flying toys for these children, and they loved it. Aunty must have seen something that she didn't like, because she spent quite a bit of time giving instructions of some kind or another. This orphanage was smaller and different from St. Anthony's in Delhi, but seemed to be nice in my opinion.

One of the things that I noticed when I was visiting projects, was that although the services provided to the children seemed to be complete, those of us from wealthier countries might not see it as enough. We want the children to have fluffy beds, gingham curtains, lots of toys, etc... Unfortunately, that's simply not going to happen... There has to be a balance between using funds to provide enough services to assist the children, their families, and their communities to improve their lives, and using funds to assist even more children. Thank goodness that CCF is able to do that, because I wouldn't know how to strike that balance. It seemed to me that they were doing a good job of that.

Next we walked to a nearby hospital that was, I believe, also run by Dr. Khan. On the way, we were followed by some neighborhood children who took turns holding my hand. They found me to be fascinating. I wondered what Asma thought of the commotion, but never found out... The hospital itself was small and seemed to be well-equipped. I was surprised, though, that no one but the nurse was there. I guess that most of the patients only come in the evenings, after working hours.

We then drove to a "model farm", another one of Dr. Khan's projects. I never quite figured out its purpose, I think it's a project that he does with the local university, but it was nice to walk around and see all the different plants.

Then came Nandi Hills... (insert foreboding music here) We drove through the countryside for a while, and then started going up a small mountain/large hill. At the top there is a park. We had a nice picnic lunch at the park, even though our poor driver had to spend most of his time chasing away monkeys. In Seattle, our parks have a lot of squirrels. They seem to think that they own the place. In India, monkeys seem to have this job. Monkeys were nearly everywhere I went, parks, the zoo, temples, etc. They like to be fed, and will steal if you don't feel like sharing... After finishing our juice boxes, we threw them to the monkeys. It was interesting to see how different monkeys would tackle the challenge of getting to the remaining juice.

We took a nice walk around the park, and I took lots of pictures of everyone, including the monkeys... :) Aunty had brought tap water from home for everyone else, (they'd also get sick if they drank unfamiliar water) but I was drinking bottled water. Before we left, I went to buy some more water. (increase volume of foreboding music mentioned above) I was thrilled to note that they had a bottle of water that had been frozen, and still had a big chunk of ice in it. I generally drink my water as cold as possible, and none of the water that I'd had since leaving home had been refrigerated. I was so excited, looking forward to this special treat. Then, I noticed something. The seal on the bottle of water was broken. I mentioned it to Gangamma, and we went back to exchange the bottle. Unfortunately, it was the only bottle of cold water that they had. "Don't worry," I was told, "The seal broke when the water was frozen."

Take a look at the above statement... Does it make any sense whatsoever? Nope... When the water froze, it would clearly burst the bottle before it would break a seal on the *outside* of the bottle... I wasn't paying attention though, I simply wanted my cold water. I hadn't had the least bit of stomach trouble the entire time I was in India, and was probably starting to get a little lax.

Sure enough, after happily drinking the entire bottle, I found myself in agony in the middle of the night. In my "middle of the night" logic, I was sure that I was sick enough that I would have to go home for emergency medical care. I kept thinking, "I don't want to go home yet!" I didn't want to disturb my hosts, but as most sick people do, I wanted some sympathy and tender loving care as soon as possible. So, I went downstairs to sleep on the couch, knowing that when someone woke up, they'd see me there. My pathetic little brain probably thought that I wouldn't die if someone was nearby, too...

Dr. Khan woke up early as usual and went to his study. He didn't turn on his lights, so he didn't see me sleeping there. The way he tells it, he realized something was wrong when he thought he heard a kitten crying. I guess I was whimpering in my sleep.

In the end, I survived the ordeal, but felt pretty rotten and refused to each much other than *real* bottled water, boiled milk, and bread for 3 days. Soon everyone knew that *I* was a kitten that Dr. Khan found mewing in his living room early Thursday morning... Everyone fussed over me, but after the really bad night, it became clear to me that it wasn't so bad, and my system would readjust itself soon. Little Noor would come running to me with a joyful, devilish smile on his face, and ask if I wanted some "ice watta'?" It was adorable. He'd gotten it in his head that the fact that the water was cold was what made me sick. I'd tease him back by saying, "Oh yes, please!" And he'd squeal, "Oh no! No ice watta'!" Another thing he loved to do was to come to me and start meowing like a kitten... The little monster sure liked teasing me about getting sick. :)

Noor was great fun. He's clearly a very smart little boy. I would call him "monster boy", and he'd repeat back to me in his best monster voice, "MOONSSTERR BOYY!" I joked with him that when we went to the zoo in Mysore in a few days, we'd leave him there in a cage labelled "Monster Boy". He thought that was hysterical. A few months after arriving home, I sent Noor a little sign that I'd made for him. I had taken a photo of him at Nandi Hills while he was behind a fence. He looked like he could be in a cage. I attached this photo to some construction paper and added signs that said, "Monster Boy" and "Mysore Zoo". I hear that he though it was great... :)