Settling into a routine...

Work is still going really well and I like my coworkers a lot. My boss is mainly giving me writing assignments, so that I "get accustomed to the climate prior to spending long days out in the field." I'm eager to get out, but I will be spending a half-day in one of our villages tomorrow and I have made sure that I will be working in the field daily soon.

So, for now, I am finishing the annual report and writing two grant proposals. Though it's relatively boring office work, getting funding is a huge struggle for Veerni and I think that having a native English speaker write the documents will really help them out. Among the funny English mistakes I've found in the report: "At our gynecological camp, the Veerni team diagnoses a wide range of problems and provides care on site. The diagnoses include: yeast infections, pregnancies, STDs, and virginities." I'm not really sure what they meant, and I'm not sure I want to know....

In other news, I am settling into a bit of a daily routine here. Each morning, I wake up, take my bucket bath (though I have a shower, for anyone who has travelled with me, you know how big a fan I am of bucket showers), read an English Indian newspaper over my chai and breakfast, and head to work. As I generally take one route to work, I am now recognized by all of the children and women who I encounter on this route. Often, the women are outside picking stones out of lentils, washing clothes, bathing their infants, etc. The children (sometimes as young as four) seem to partake in morning cricket matches in the streets. This means that I often risk getting hit with a cricket ball, but the games are rather cute to watch. There are also a number of cows and dogs that greet me each morning and, one day, even a stray camel (who must have run away from his master, as he had a cart hooked to his back and was dashing through the streets).

After work, there are a number of places to go in Jodhpur. Generally, it seems I will go for shopping (usually just to the fruit market), see a Jodhpur tourist site, or just head back to the guesthouse and hang out. Once my job settles in, I may start volunteering at Sambhali as well and I expect to start my Hindi lessons in the next week. I also plan on going to a Bollywood movie soon.
Once its dark, and after dinner, we have gotten into the routine of congregating in the courtyard and hanging out. Last night, we drank our delicious pineapple beer (seriously...this stuff was amazing), chatted with the new Maltese backpackers, and played a few card games. Before bed, I usually either do some yoga, read, or study a bit of Hindi on a computer program I have.

For now at least, it is really nice to have a separation between work and life, as I feel I have virtually never experienced that before. Going to UChicago means that there is constantly something I should be working on and even my internship last summer demanded a fair amount of stuff outside of my regular hours. This may change once I get into the field (or once I start the terrifying Fulbright application process), but for now, it's extremely pleasant to be able to go home and just sit and chat or read for hours. Work is intense, but it happens at work, and even though I am engaged in the issues we address on a constant basis here, I am still able to divorce myself from certain obligations for a few hours each evening. As I plan to travel every weekend, it is also key that I relax during the week (because I see many hours of night trains and sightseeing in my future). But really--it is so odd that just sitting back and reading a novel is such a luxury at home, and finally gaining this "luxury" has reemphasized that.