REST DAY... FOR REAL?

So at long last, I have a few hours off. They have our schedules so tightly packed that we literally have been going nonstop from 9:00 AM until 11:00 PM. The Rotary district that we are in exchange with is so big - over 300 clubs - and it feels like they are trying to get us to see as many as we can.

I am still in Kolhapur and will be until Friday morning. On Monday we rode to a town called Sangli. Everywhere we go, we are greeted with these ceremonies - flowers, oils and the "dot" on the forehead. In Sangli there were three clubs and we got to see some of the projects that each Rotary club was involved in.

Sangli's big project is fitting poor, handicapped people with free prosthetic legs and feet (see if you can google "Jaipur foot") We watched them fit four people with new prosthetics for the first time. It was so beautiful it made us cry. They also provide physical therapy to teach the people how to walk.

We toured a new hospital and then a grape vineyard and winery (wine's not real big in India) and then we went to a place where they make and store raisins (cause Sangli is pretty famous for grapes and supplies a lot of the world with raisins and table grapes.) In the evening we did our presentation for the Rotary club and watched some cultural dancing.

Yesterday we went to a town called Ichalkaranji (say that three times fast!) The projects that this RC are working on were even more amazing. We saw a mobile medical unit that visits 19 poor villages each week and provides free medical care to those in poverty. Then we visited a Rotary Colony: 24 low-income housing units for homeless. These homes (and I use the word "homes" loosely) consisted of two small rooms. For a five-person family.

The third project we visited was a school for the deaf. Rotary built a school for poor deaf children - a population that was probably never given any consideration - and teaches the kids sign language, speech skills and general education. It also provides them with a full meal for lunch. And it's all free for them.

When we're not visiting RC projects, we're visiting the vocational places that Rotarians work. The grape vineyard, for instance, and we've seen a lot of textile factories. Gives me a whole new image when I read "Made in India" on a clothing tag.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but Sunday I attended a musical performance in the home of one of the Rotarians. He arranged a sitar, violin and tabla - just for me! It was frigging awesome.

I'm about to head to the market with my host family. It is the first opportunity I've had to do some shopping and the first thing I need to buy is a second suitcase! Every time we visit a club, we leave with a gift. And my suitcase will no longer close :) We're in Kolhapur until Friday morning and then we head to a place called Bijapur. I will write again when I can. 'Til then, NAMASTE!