Shadow

The past few days have been very busy and interesting.
Tuesday we went to visit a village that was established by the YMCA. It is a women's co-op village. The YMCA has sponsored 14 of them. These villages were each given something to help them start a business that they could make a living on and become self sustaining. All the villages are now self sustaining but the YMCA still oversees everything and makes sure the money is being used equally and paid back when loans are take out. There are about 12- 20 women involved in each village, but their fa miles are there also. We saw to villages, one harvested rice and one raised chickens. Families have used the success to start other businesses within the village. We had tea with a family that started their own tailoring business. Everyone was so friendly the whole village came out and walked around with us on our tour. We had tea and LOTs of sweets at the Woman's house that is head of the villages near where we were. While Mr. Sampon oversees everything, she is there all the time to make sure everything is running smoothly. It was a really great day. I enjoyed seeing what the YMCA has done for people. The Y is very active here in helping to create better lives for people. These women now have a way to provide for their families, and the girls we work with have been given the chance for a better education. The Y is so great!
Tuesday night we were awoken in the wee hours (10:30pm haha) Mr. Sampson and Swarnali were yelling to us from below out balcony. Mr. Sircar came and wanted us to leave with him at 5am because 114 years ago the Lord came, and he wanted us to go to the gathering. We found out the whole story when we woke up nice and early. 114 years ago there were farmers in a drought and they had been praying for rain. All of a sudden water came gushing from the ground and falling from the sky and the farmers all started speaking in different languages. So every year there is a few day, over night gathering where people go to a Church service and what ever you pray for will be answered there. It was a really neat experience to go to this gathering that is so important here and to see thousands of people at it. It was in a large tent like building. In the US they have those huge white tents for weddings and stuff, well in India they have something like that, expect its made out of bamboo and cloth, and the ground was covered with hay. We met the priests giving the sermon because they are good friends of Mr. Sircar. On the way back to Ranaghat we stopped at a place to eat. We had these friend dough bread things (but not sweet) with a curry and vegetable sauce to dip it in, it was amazing! Mr. Sircar is great, he really likes us to try the Indian food, and wants us to experience India, like going on the train and things like that. He is also great at explaining things to us and as we pass places he tells us all about them.
Yesterday when we were going to play games with the girls, there was tiniest little puppy! Tumpa had rescued him, he was outside our our gate. So small and skinny. The girls wanted to keep him as a pet, but Ramon and him did not get along. So we took him. Currently he is living on our porch, we have a cardboard box for him and he have given him water and biscuits. We are hoping that Mr. and Ms. Gomes fall in love with him, so when we leave he does not go back on the streets. Today we plan on giving him a bath, and there is a vet near by where we can get medicine for him. He is so so sweet and he loves the three of us so much! and I think Ms. Gomes like shim a lot too. He decided to name him shadow. He is black with a white belly. He loves to follow us around. Tim made a collar for him and a leash, so we can take him for walks. Hopefully we can get him healthy, he bones are sticking out everywhere. I'll put up a picture of him!