long time

hard to believe it's been six months since we've written on this blog. (i've been more diligent with my other blog.) not sure if anyone still looks at this one, but i feel like writing so here goes. let's see... well, we've had some great trips in the last several months. more south india travel (hampi, shimoga, gokarna, cochin, kerala backwaters) and sri lanka (colombo and unawatuna). we are hoping to take one final trip to delhi and some yet-to-be-decided-upon beautiful hill station. it looks like we're headed back to the US at some point during the month of june. it's a perfect time to spend a few weeks in the tristate area and take a road trip down south. who wants to join us?

by the way, this photo was taken in hampi: soldiers from the vijayanagar empire ate at these thalis in the 15th century.

surabhi has been loving her work and is continuing to impress everyone with her kannada skills, which she has been using brilliantly in trainings on qualitative data collection. i'll let her tell you more about that...

my work has picked up tremendously, and i'm learning a lot. i'm still language editing part-time, teaching private lamaze classes, being a doula, and participating in the bangalore birth network (BBN). we (the BBN) applied for a grant and i just got the word that we got it. our priorities are getting materials on normal birth adapted and translated into kannada and tamil, creating a website, and holding awareness-raising events around bangalore. all very exciting. oh and we organized a very successful film festival, the review of which you can read in the hindu by clicking here.

what other news? megadeth is coming to bangalore soon and serena williams played in some big tennis match here over the weekend. didn't get to see the match, unfortunately, and have zero desire to see megadeth. the new airport is scheduled to open in a few weeks, which everyone is pretty much dreading because it's so far away and, because public transportation is abysmal, it will be wery, wery inconwenient.

otherwise, i think we're both starting to mentally prepare (or at least try) for saying goodbye to india (for now). needless to say, we both have very mixed feelings about leaving.