I'm presently the only volunteer at the home - one of the Notre Dame girls is sick, so her friend, my mom, Mike Joseph (Home of Hope's volunteer coordinator, who arrived last night), and one of the nuns took her to the hospital. Feeling I'd be superfluous there, I decided to stay back, spend some time with the girls, and of course, rest.
My mom and I went to Mass this morning before she left. Again, it was conducted entirely in Kannada, but I could definitely identify the fundamental similarities (Communion, for example) between it and the Episcopal services back home, despite the many ostensible differences. I couldn't help but notice the Hindu influence, seen in the lights and heard in the music of the church. I'm curious about the source of this influence, as the village of Josephnagar is predominately Catholic (virtually the entire town comes to Mass every Sunday).
I've spent the morning catching up on summer reading and playing with the girls. I showed them my iPod for the first time, giving them a further glimpse of American culture. Like in Bangalore, America sits on a pedestal among these girls; they've spent the last few days asking my mom and me to show them any relics of life back home - pictures, our cell phones, my deodorant, you name it.
The others should be back from the hospital soon; in the meantime, I'm going to rest up for our last few days here. Our flight to Delhi is Friday morning, and we're either leaving Wednesday or Thursday for Bangalore... hopefully Thursday.
Happy 4th of July to everyone back home. Haven't done anything here to celebrate, though the girls greeted me with "Happy Independence Day" this morning. They won't celebrate until August 15, which marks the day in 1947 India gained independence from Britain (fact courtesy of 9th grade Honors Humanities).
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