BACK TO ROUGH OUT CAMP!

Wave goodbye to luxury. Enjoy the hot, clean shower one last moment. Use the bathroom one last time before going back to a hole in the ground to pee in, bucket showers, and a hard bed. But it's all worth it to see the smiles on the kids faces as they run up to you as fast as they can yelling, "Auntie, Auntie" and jump up and attack you with hugs. After our drill sargent count off, we were off in the half-sized bus back to Chennai. And then....maybe not.
Halfway through our long, hot journey back our bus decided to break down. Having a breakdown in India is a little different than back home. No AAA, no 24 hour Subaru service...just even a hotter van with a LOT of beggers coming up to the bus knocking on the windows begging for money or trying to sell their burnt corn they just cooked up. One begger I will never forget was this woman in a pink sauri consistently knocking on our van, pulling on the door determined to get in and get some money from us. It is hard to watch and do nothing, but Rising Star discourages beggers. Instead, promotes them to be self-sufficient. I agree with this as well, but it is hard to watch them banging on the bus with their sorrowful faces.
We were watched over though cause of all places to break down it was in front of about 4 different mechanic shops. It just took about 2 hours to fix.
After doing the potty dance for about 30 min, I knew I was going to have to explore the streets of India for a bathroom. As I set out on a journey to find a bathroom, I was reminded of the show, Slumdog Millionaire. I was here out in the slums. It was messy, trashy, and dirty. There were a lot of people without work walking around begging. I finally found a toilet, and lets just say this. NEVER will I think an American gas station bathroom is discusting and dirty compared to what I used.
After this adventure, we went to a place where you could ride an elephant and camel. One of our friends, Annie, was totally attacked by a monkey and it bit her and broke skin!! We were so scared and again were grateful for the conveniences we have in America of so many clean, efficient hospitals and clinics we can go to if things like this happen. In this case, we had to wait till we got back to Rising Star to see the doctor on that campus.
We finally made it back to campus at midnight...back to our AMAZING hard beds! :-)