India is full of Excitement!

Well this week certainly has been exciting! And to think, it's only Tuesday! I know my past posts have been devoted to specific subjects, but today I decided to just give a general update.

The Mumbai rains have come in full-force at last. I've been a bit spoiled up until now and haven't seen the true monsoon season. But since this weekend, the skies have really opened up and we haven't seen the sun for days! (I guess Megh Mudra did its job!) This has made travel a little more challenging, with roads flooding, but so far, I haven't gotten stranded anywhere yet!
Our flat has also had some excitement. 2 days in a row brought power-outtages in the evenings. Thankfully they only lasted a few hours, but those fan-less spans of time were pretty stuffy, since the outrageous number of mosquitoes outside made opening the windows really unwise.

Once the power issue was resolved, we had another issue to contend with. One evening, while going to put away some dishes, I opened a drawer only to see a furry, black thing jump out and scamper into the cabinet below! Yes, our kitchen now has rats! One of my flatmates, terrified at the thought, promptly went out and bought poison to set around. Unfortunately, Indian rats must be pretty smart, because no one fell for our trap. When we saw another rat the next night, another one of my flatmates decided she had had enough, and was going to force the rats out! So, while my roommate and I holed up in our bedroom with the door tightly shut, Glenda, armed with a broom, opened the cabinet where the rat was hiding. When he came into the kitchen, she began beating him with the broom as he frantically scurried to avoid her blows. I think Glenda must have special rat-chasing skills, because she successfully goaded the rat out of the kitchen, through the living area, and directly out the front door! It must have been quite a sight to see her standing at our open door, broom in the air, yelling "Stay out of our house!" to the poor, abused rodent! (Since Shradha and I were hiding in our room, I only heard that part of the story from Rekha. But since I could hear the commotion from my room, I can picture the scene quite vividly!) Once that rat had been successfully evicted, we thought our troubles were over. But apparently the first guest had brought a friend along too, because not 1 hour later, we had another furry friend on our hands. But, Glenda took care of that one in a similar fashion. So, for now, it looks like our house is rodent free. (Using the term "rodent" quite loosely, of course! We still have all of our lizard, leech, and centipede friends!)

Finally, I have one more exciting thing to tell you all. The reason I came to India was, after all, to do social work. So, it might be good if I wrote about that at least every now and again, right? Well, today is the day for me to begin. Yesterday at school, we were given our field placement assignments for our first year of study. This semester, I will be working in the agency to which I was assigned 2 days a week for 8 weeks. Each week we must put in 15 hours of work in addition to our class load. Then, in 2nd semester, we will have a block placement with the same agency for 5 weeks. During those 5 weeks, classes will be suspended, and we will be required to spend 5 to 6 days a week at our respective placements. And now, for the moment of truth! My placement is..... Akshara Centre! I know that means absolutely nothing to any of you, though, so let me elaborate. I don't know much about it yet, but Akshara's main focus is women's rights issues. They work in a lot of different areas related to women and other marginalized groups, and have various projects, including documentary films and awareness campaigns. Here is a link to their website, if you are interested:
www.aksharacentre.org
I'm really excited about this new dimension of my education in India. I know this will be such an enriching experience for me, and I can't wait to get started!