The Things of Late.

There’s something about living next to a 1500 year old temple that really puts your life into perspective. So do student loans.


Moving on, here’s what I’ve been doing lately:

Sweating.
The temperature started off a palatable 80 degrees in the first week, but has now climbed into the soul-destroying range of the high 90’s. I wake up inside a furnace and go to sleep wondering if life is worth living. It’s a dramatic cycle.

Listening to a lot of Tamil.
This is known worldwide as the Most Impossible Language Ever. Taking into the account the unusual length of words, it has even received the distinction of Even More Difficult Than Mongolian.

Interviewing people endlessly.
This always begins the same way: We arrive uninvited onto someone’s property. Someone begins introductions. This takes a while and is entirely in Tamil. This wraps up with everyone looking at each other and saying, “America!” ten or twelve times while I stand there trying to look as though I am, indeed, from America. Whatever that means.

Being a celebrity.
India is more developed than Malawi. This means more cell phones. This means more cell phones with camera capabilities. This does not mean that people are less surprised to see white faces. They just take more pictures.

Traipsing around Agricultural Fields.
Primarily for the purpose of learning about bananas with a close second being watershed projects. My mother can die happy because I now know everything there is to know about drip irrigation systems. I could probably install one. This alarms me.