I'll miss you Kotagiri!!

I got to get up and run one more time, then we said our goodbyes to the wonderful people of Kotagiri before we headed to Thermopaly (that spelling is crazy wrong but of well). We drove for 7 hours and as we went down the mountain it got hotter and hotter, but it really wasn’t a bad drive at all. We were going to visit Kingsley’s best friend Devaraj and his new wife Pushpa! Initially we were supposed to stay in a hotel “because they’re newly married”, (I laughed at this comment and Kingsley told me I am the initiator of all things bad.) but for some reason they changed their mind, so the four girls got to sleep on the roof!! They almost insisted that Devaraj sleep up there with us, but finally we convinced them that we would actually live, as long as we had Kingsley’s phone (I actually have no idea what that would have done, but hey, it made them happy). While sleeping on the roof sounds ideal, it actually sucks. Not gonna lie. But hey, we asked for it!
When we first got there Pushpa came to talk to us, which was really cool… most people here doubt their English so much that they won’t even try to talk to us, but she was so sweet, and insisted upon giving us more mahendi! We were a little scared, considering the other stuff covering our bodies had just come off, but she only did our palms and they were very pretty, not to mention that it made her so happy. After that we went to a CDC for mentally challenged kids that was actually really awesome. The kids were so sweet, and if what Kingsley told us and the way things appeared is true, they’re really well cared for. We were supposed to only stay for a few minutes but we were having so much fun playing with the kids that we stayed for over an hour!
The next day we visited another CDC and some women with AIDS who also work with AIDS awareness came to talk to us. The craziest thing was that almost all of the ladies had gotten HIV because they’re husbands are truck drivers, and would sleep with prostitutes while they were on the road, then come back to their wives. All of these women had still stayed with their husbands though. They were amazing ladies and they really made me miss my AIDS hospice friends back home. After that we went to a leper colony, where Kingsley told us you contract leprosy from the flies… which were swarming us… I really know nothing about leprosy, but this was a very interesting place. You really couldn’t tell any of the people had it, and all we did there was sing our 2 Tamil songs for them… sometimes I just feel like a tourist here looking in on people’s lives like they’re a novelty, when I really want to get to know them, to somehow show them that I love them.
At lunch I fell asleep at the table… I may be able to sleep most anywhere, but even this is kinda crazy for me. We were supposed to go watch people make handbags, but Kingsley insisted we take rest, so I slept for 2 hours on the concrete, then we left for the CDC again. It wasn’t so much of a surprise when I blacked out in the road on the way in, but still rather inconvenient. The CDC leader had them take me to his amazing house (with a western toilet, the first one we had seen in about a week!!) and I recovered quite well there. That night Tam and I got to talk on the roof, and she just asked me the simple question “Who is God to you?” I think that’s a question that needs to be asked a lot more, really to anyone and everyone. It just opened up so much for us, but also made me realize how important it is that I know who God is to me. It started to rain then though, so we were moved to the porch, where I was watched intently, like really Indians standing over my bed to made sure that I was taking rest. Finally they left though and we were able to sing patriotic songs very quietly, since it was the 4th of July. Maybe not the most amazing 4th, but hey, definitely different. Some people come back from these trips hating America, but while there’s definitely things that America has wrong, I am still absolutely proud to be an American.