A rambling update, (once a year literary burst)

Life here in Garo Hills has started taking on a sort of a routine. After two weeks we have started making significant progress in spite of short work days other complications. Our upstairs small third of the triplex we will be temporarily staying in when it is finished is located third from the end. The top floor is two dwellings meant for only a couple. It has a small entry big enough for a small couch or a few chairs and coffee table. The next room behind a full height barrier wall is the bedroom. A king bed is out, the whole room is just larger than a king bed. Then another full height wall and the bathroom/shower, has the only door inside the house. Last, the kitchen. Out the back door is a shared balcony with the dwelling on the other half of the house.

That will be home as soon as we have a toilet and running water. For now we live in a room about the size of the guest room Gina and I stayed in at your house, approximately 12'x16'. That includes bathroom, a table with a propane stove on it we call the kitchen, fridge, small table that we have to clear off for every meal, and a bed I am guessing is the size of a full, just larger than a twin and I think the locals call it a queen, we are still figuring out the names for miniature beds.

I have finally given the engineers in the states the information they need to complete the septic design. The seemingly simple tasks of 1) asking people with any certainty how much water each person will flush down the drain for each building, 2) Make a relative elevation (topo) map of the construction site so the engineers know up from down and can make the water flow downhill, 3) take a picture of local water plants that fit the description of reeds, cat-tails, or bulrushes so the engineers know we are actually planting the right plant, and 4) take a soil percolation test to find the water absorption rate, takes a really long time.

Now I am on to designing the water distribution for the campus. There is already one 400 foot well and we will be digging another one on the other side of the campus in light of a water tower for redundant water supply. Digging wells is about 1/3rd the price of installing a tower. Once that is done Gina and I will probably head down to the next school site and start designing the next septic system. I am quickly feeling more like a civil engineer every day and will probably be able to write a book on "waste water management out-side the United States" by the time I am done here. The interesting thing is that Maranatha will probably have me write the standard procedures manual before too long.

Gina and I are hanging in here. The living quarters are a little tight and if anyone wanted a nice QUIET corner to call their own... well India is not the place. We look forward to having our own apartment soon. Until then, we are calling it full immersion as we live in the old bank with about 10 others and we take long walks along the peaceful village roads lined with fireflies at night and in the morning the clouds hang low over the lush green hills and flooded rice patties.

I am including a picture I was thrilled to have captured. In the middle of a 2 hour conversation the three others in the car were having I heard a few English words that threw me into action. "There's an elephant", I looked up just in time to see the rear end of an elephant that looked about the same size and shape as the trucks we had been dodging at 70 km/hr. Already equipped with the camera and zoom lens, I whirled around and snapped the photo out the back window. It made my day.

Lest I give the false impression that life is all frustration and horror, it is not. The people are very hospitable and love taking us on trips to new places and seeing new people. Visiting the 5000 year old Hindu temple was a real treat. The food is good, it will take a long time for us to get used to the amount of oil and hot peppers that are in use. Sometimes, it seems like we are going so many places and doing so many things we cannot get the work done that we need to. This, of course, is frustrating. I have had to learn that shaking my head to say "no" looks strangely like tilting my head to the locals, which means "yes". I am still feeling a little weak as my body recovers from jet-lag. My ears are starting to adjust so I can now understand when people speak to me in English. Hindi is on the list of languages to learn.

Moms and Dads, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, I love and miss you all,

David