Sunday afternoon, Sept. 13

Just looking down at my hands on the keyboard, thinking that anyone who would want to practice starting an IV would love to get ahold of my veins - so bulging with the heat! It is currently 93 and with the humidity, feels like 108. May rain a bit tonight and more tomorrow. Well, speaking of rain, let's go back to Tuesday, the 8th. As we were heading to Prem Dan in the morning, one of the volunteer guys was mentioning the blue sky. Yes, I had noticed it also - haven't seen much of that since it is usually quite hazy. Anyway, shortly after arriving at Prem Dan it started raining. It rained and then it rained and then it rained even harder!! By the time we gathered for our break (in an outside covered area), it was a mad dash for cover!! And as we sat there, it rained even harder (maybe we were just getting close to solid sheets of water instead of drops?). It eased up momentarily which allowed some of the sisters and a couple of men to be lifting up and checking out the manholes right outside of the women's portion of Prem Dan. I was inside by then, watching what they were doing. All of a sudden, these very large cockroaches started coming up and out of the manholes! I don't know how many there were - oh, at least twenty - but they are quick critters, just scurrying across the cement. Both the sister and one of the men just started swatting at them with their brooms - don't know if they actually killed them but I also know that some managed to escape (I was hoping they didn't make their way into the building!). Well, the morning continued and pretty soon it was time to leave so we each (Garrett, Laura and myself) donned our ponchos and headed out. At this location, the water was decently contained in the gutter (a miniature river but in the gutter), but as we got across the bridge to the area we take the bus, taxi, or autorickshaw, the water was making large puddles. Our ride home in the autorickshaw was interesting :-) as the guy didn't use wipers, he had these drop down curtains on the side so it was getting a bit steamy and we were wondering how he was going to be able to continue to see! Plus the water was getting quite deep on most streets the longer we drove. Well, I have to tell you, walking to the hotel from the place we were dropped off was quite the experience!!! Water depth about mid-calf, water color some version of coffee color (maybe a bit of cream added?). I had on a pair of flip-flops, and a mid-calf length skirt. I was laughing (better than making the totally disgusted face I was feeling inside) and just hoping I didn't fall over in this stuff. Here's the interesting/difficult part of it. Well, we think of road/sidewalk construction as being what's been going on in Oregon City - big equipment, construction crews, uniform material and fairly cleaned up construction areas. Well, here, some of the sidwalks are "intact", many have areas of partial construction or at least the thought of being repaired, and the rest have piles of rubble (pieces of broken brick, cement and these large stone slabe) from who knows where. It's tricky enought to walk by all this when you can see where it all is but with the water as it was that day, you don't know where to walk! I stepped off of one area, not knowing at all that I would be stepping off and down. Whoa!!! Ireally had to catch myself! Garrett had recently done the same thing which was pretty funny - then me - Laura was just dying with laughter (several others thought it was funny too). Right after that, my left foot found one of the piles of ruble (I'm thinking one of the bricks) as I just walked right into it! Then there came a car towards us (honking of course), creating quite a wave of water towards us. Trying to keep a fun attitude to the experience, I mentioned that it was like being in the wave pool at the aquatic park!! By the time I got back to the hotel, my skirt was wet all the way to the top of my legs (it was pretty disgusting to see the color of the wash water when I washed it sever days later). One of the first things I did was to remove the bandades on both of my heals (attempting to protect some broken blisters), scrub them, apply some antibiotic cream and new bandaids. "Good" to have experienced that once - hope that's it!! It was in taking my nap that afternoon that my fever first appeared (absolutely not related to the morning's events). Well, today, I am hoping for my first full day without a fever... went back up to 101.2 yesterday but then back to normal today. I have come to realize that I must drink even more than I thought - I'm aiming at 3-4 L. a day. Keep drinking, Kathy! Well, my last couple of days have been slow - I've gone to the Mother House but have only done "desk work" - well that consists of helping recover their song books in paper and clear plastic and writing it's name in permanent marker on the plastic. The sister in charge of volunteers likes my printing and would like me to help with all the stuff they are doing like this but that is not exactly what I came to Calcutta for. Hmmm - the day before, she was mentioning that she would like to do "more meaningful" seeming stuff but this is what she is doing now and Mother always stressed that we cannot all do big things but we can all do little things with great love. I guess I'll have to see how this all works out! Well, we're going to be heading for dinner in a bit and then back to the Mother House for Adoration (6-7), so I guess I should wrap this up. I need to start carrying a piece of paper and pen with me as I am walking around to remind me of some of the many things that run through my head to share with you. Oh, I can tell you that I had a great time doing my laundry earlier - hand wash in the bathroom. I had my ipod going and I was just rocking out to Matt Maher songs - it was fun! Have a blessed Sunday!