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March 10, 2011
Coming back to the US after a service trip is always bitter sweet. I look forward to a hot shower and being inside insulated buildings and all the other little things in life that we often take for granted here in North America. But I miss the villagers. I miss the people I work with. I miss the rawness of it all. There is a lot of information that needs to be processed now. I am hoping that over the course of the next few days, I will have some time to sit and just think about what direction all of this work is going in. I think the biggest lesson I have learned from this trip is that I need to be patient. This might sound obnoxious, but I put unrealistic expectations on myself and the people I am working with. I want change and I want it now. But I need to learn that change has to happen in the proper way, at the proper time. The issue can't be forced. But patience does not have to come in such an abstract sense. I must be patient in simpler terms as well. For example, I have to remember that working in villages, especially in India, the lack of basic infrastructure really slows the progress of work. Not having Internet, something so ubiquitous in the US, is another big hinderance. So working around some of these obstacles is essential. Understanding that they are not going anywhere anytime soon, is necessary to keep your sanity. Moving forward, our hope is to have the kitchen ready for the LHA by May. We hope to have the first 4 toilets built for Deep Jyoti by that time too. After that, we will install the educational component at LHA and will hopefully start a nutrition center for the kids of Deep Jyoti as well. We have donet the cost analysis of that, and believe that it is well within our means to do. I am already getting excited for my next trip.
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