Trip to Den town (where I did my student teaching in 2003) (Journal Entry)

Anyway, today I went down to Den town to visit Bindiya’s family as well as Katare Ma’am and go to PTS for church. Wow- what a day. It was so nice to be with people I knew and be in a place I called home at one point! I had a really nice time.

I left our guesthouse this morning around 8:30- already a half hour later than I wanted to leave- but couldn’t leave earlier due to no water to take a shower. I did get a shower before leaving, so the half-hour late part was worth it. It was even better since Goldy (one of the guys who took us on motorcycles on Saturday) saw me from his jeep and offered me a ride down the mountain! What perfect timing. I had just started out and was able to get down the mountain about an hour quicker than I would have if I had walked! And, the bus was there and left in about 10 minutes so again, perfect timing.

The bus down went well- I tried to watch how people got off the bus, and I thought that they just kind-of yelled at him and he stopped. I figured out that they whistle when it’s all clear and he can go again. So, what did I do when I wanted to stop? Well, first I asked a guy near to me to ask the driver. That guy either didn’t understand or didn’t want to talk to the driver. So, I had to kind-of yell. He looked at me like, “what’s wrong” and directed me to the door of the bus- but we were still moving! Basically, I realized that when you want to get off, you move to the door (while bus is in motion, of course) and then yell from there. Anyway, he did stop long enough for one of my feet to touch the ground! Haha.

I walked back a little bit to Bindiya’s road- I had remembered it from before! Anyway, I spent time with Diksha, Mr. and Mrs. Arora, Bindiya and Bindiya’s fiancé! She told me a friend was coming to visit- she didn’t say on the phone that it was her fiancé! Wow! I’ll have to write more about that later also since I’m not sure Bindiya’s ready for that! Anyway, it was a really nice time with their family.

I then left- feeling bad for staying so long. I walked to the Vikrum stand and caught a vikrum – sitting halfway on the seat between two men as there wasn’t really room anywhere else. I got off at PTS and went to visit Katare Ma’am- and Mr. Katare. It was such a pleasant visit- I felt so at home with them and was happy to be there.