It's been one week

It's been exactly one week since the global impact team reunited in Hubli, stepping off the small Kingfisher airplane and into the monsoon. Although I have been in India for weeks already and have no excuse of being jet-lagged, I feel just as exhausted as the rest of my team mates. Our days have been long, the heat has been intense, and I have walked more than I have in months. I can't believe it's only been one week since arrived in this town. Already, I have developed my daily routine of yoga at 6:30 am, cold showers, granola bar for breakfast, and off to work. We have become regulars diners at Hotel Ambesh and know the staff by name. We have learned to barter with rikshaw drivers that try to over-charge us. We have learned how to cross the street dodging buses and cars and risk drinking fresh juice from stands. We're used to our 8:30 pm curfew and don't flinch by power outages. We have even made friends with a few of the girls of BVB Engineering College at the girls' hostel we are staying at and gone to the mess hall to eat 20Rs meal with them and taken the bus to Kopikar Road for bargain shopping and delicious ice cream. They now come to our room every night to come talk, laugh, and share life stories. It feels like we're in the dorms all over again.

It has only been one week and I feel like I have already been living here for a month. I feel like I have seen and interacted more with India in the last week than I have in the two weeks I was in Bangalore. I have met people from all walks of life - from the wealthy but ever so modest co-founder of this foundation, Mrs. Jaishree Deshpande herself to Indian fellows from Karnataka who have dreams of opening their own NGOs to a 16 year old village girl who was thrilled to be able to show me her two bedroom mud hut and wanted me to stay to dinner. We have come here to make a change but judging by the amount I have seen and experienced in the last week, it is I who is going to learn and grow. I hope I can make the most of this amazing opportunity and take lessons learned to heart - let's see what the next month and a half has in store!

~ Tapasya