lots of stuff has happened .....

we finished all our painting
the canadians went home
some tiny babies arrived
a small boy from the Carribean befriended me at the pool+likened me 2 a mermaid
gillian got sick
2 older kids got adopted
we went under a mental waterfall
elizabeth the doctor's australian boyfriend arrived
Nadia had a tantrum on an unprecedented scale
i turned 22
we saw gypsies, kittens and old people (one looked like Helen from neighbours)
another older kid got adopted
gillian got better
there were lots of ants
we had babies for a sleepover
some even tinier babies arrived
we had a pet lizard called clive
Nadia broke the Guiness World Record for Tantrums
we named the tinier babies-Gillian chose Luna+I chose Jyota (brilliant)+Tamir(innocent)

This week Prassana, who's normally lovely, bit me on the arm because i wouldn't let him steal someone elses milk. there is a big bruise. also i counted 18 mosquito bites at one point on my feet alone - worrying given lack of maliaria tablatage. i made a serious error in spatial judgement while attempting to swing on my tummy+ended face first in the sand. For the last 3 days i've had a sore thumb+finger...it got worse today and i kept dropping stuff i was trying to hold in that hand. weird. think i've maybe trapped a nerve coz when i wiggle my thumb i get spasms up my arm. creepy. glad elizabeth the doc is here. except she's not. she's in pondicherry this wknd. Finally last night i floored myself by tripping over the laptop cable in my room.

in more positive news i think my tapeworm has died coz my appetite is decreasing (for those who havent heard the tale of the tapeworm, its pure speculation that said worm is responsible for rapid appetite gain or even exists).

of all the baby pee, poo (loose or otherwise) and vomit (projectile or otherwise) incidents to date, the weirdest has to be yesterday when a film crew who were making a documentary for a local NGO arrived at the exact moment that Manesa decided to point out a huge turd pile she had recently produced. the cameraman preceded to zoom in as i tried to simultaneously wash Manesa's bum + restrain the other kids, some of whom were overly intruiged by the turd pile, others indignantly disgusted.

Found out from the rents that beloved Zippi (family Cat) had bronchial pnuemonia (Rachel Sellar secretly pleased) but is now on the mend (Rachel Sellar secretly disappointed)

We continue to be perpetually amused at the way the Chief talks, and the way elizabeth the yank talks, and the way Paul the Aussie talks. Rajini's daughter Renu calls me Rachel Akah!! (Akah is what kids call older girls, like big sister, the older orphans call us it too) and she says HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me every day coz she got taught to do it last week. Had a nice birthday despite getting diahorreahoeoeosoejgfbxved on by a small baby. Gillian bought me nice things including pretty bracelets which i broke coz it turns out i have grossly malformed, GIANT hands which will not accomodate normal sized bracelets And we went to a cool place for dinner. i had my favourite meal Palak Panner which is cheese things that look+taste like tofu in a spinach sauce. then i had carrot sweets and ice cream. amazing. not loving being 22 but hoping it will grow on me.....

my weird finger+thumb r increasingly sore, so i'll stop now.

Jerry Springer's final thoughts;

-i have to come home in 11 days
-the world is a mess...see Western economic recession, zimbabwe inflation atrocities, iran's nuclear lunacy, pakistan's nonsense, china+russia's UN veto bullshit (china seemingly not in favour of human rights in ANY country not just its own)and insanity like this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...
-Gillian is tossing+turning in her sleep, awaking briefly to describe a bad dream about a rabid monkey

Take care of yourselves, and each other
Kerrface
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just spent an actual hour trying to upload photos but it won't work. also a beetle just crawled across my chest and I got a fright. now too angry to blog.

Of all the unusual and surprising aspects of indian culture......the 'Period party' really just exudes unprecedented levels of ridiculousness. thats right, some poor girl had to sit on a chair looking absolutely, and quite understandably, mortified as her entire family, friends and 5 white chicks stood about having a celebration for the sole purpose of recognising her reaching womanhood. had my parents thrown me such a party i would literally have disowned them. i felt really bad for her. but the food was good.

gillian called rajini the other day and asked if we could go to the doctors about her breathing (she's wheezing like a really wheezy person). rajini asked 'is it painful? is it excessive?' to which gillian replied 'yes'. an hour later whilest we were napping in the women's shelter, rajini suddenly appeared and shouted 'Don't worry i have found you a great gynocologist!!'

moments of confusion followed...

eventually we realised she had misheard breathing for bleeding....and come to the wrong conclusion. quite disappointing this misunderstanding was discovered before we arrived at said gynocologist's clinic - coz that would have been SO funny!!

So other than that.....it has been a week of more painting, doing the outside of the building too! the flat is now very full, got 4 canadians staying til june 27th and an American too.

we had dinner one night with Jesse and Ad who run a pre-school. there ended up being a HUGE debate about religion and i think they found me quite controversial (moi?) but it was really interesting to hear what they had2 say and i think they found me interesting too. after some beer (like half a can), Ad was a little tipsy and proceeded to do some bollywood style dancing. legendary. he also then started a random speech about the power of motherhood and how we all have a fire in our naval. as usual i ate so much i had to lie down when we got home.

on saturday me and gillian went to Spencers plaza for some shopping and wandering and such. got a nice skirt. got chatted up by a million guys from shops shouting YEEEES MADAME!!!! and hey baby and stuff. one guy offered me slimming tablets and then an indian version of viagra, he told me it was 'sex drive for my boyfriend' and then giggled a lot. i politely declined. chilled out in coffee day in the afternoon (like the indian starbucks), got some matching beads (like last year) then decided 2 go 2 the cinema. no ticekts left for sex and the city so bought them on the black market...oooooh. most dissappointing film ever. only good thing was that for the first 10mins they messed up the screen and squashed it so everyone looked 3foot tall and really fat. hilarity. film=ridiculuos tho. sends out entirely wrong message to girls; basically if i guy cheats on u, doesnt show up 2 ur wedding or is generally a tool and continually breaks ur heart, u should jsut forgive him and take him back. well i disagree. hmph.

more later
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