Sponsor Crunch

September 29, 2008
Saturday the ambulance was fixed, so we tried to get going early to monda market, but just as we wanted to leave, Rachel (the girl who is friends with a girls that worked here before and is spending a semester going to school in Hyderabad) called to say that she had a arrived to play with the kids. We picked her up from the bus stop, and brought her to H2 so that she could take a couple of kids at a time into the playroom, however when we got there, a bunch things just went wrong, and we ended up wasting almost an hour before we could get back on the road, even though we had hoped to only spend 10 minutes, just getting Rachel set up. On the way to Monda Market, Lynne had to pick something up, and right next to that place was a street vendor that sell amazing pressed sandwiches, which Lynne said was like one of the two approved street vendors of food for me in Hyderabad. We finished off our sandwiches and then went to Monda market. Monda Market is a huge area filled with every kind of shop you could need. Just as we drove into the market, Lynne spotted a Punjabi on display in a shop that she really liked. She had Hafeez stop the car and we got out to look. Even though Monda Market is considered a lot lower class than General Bazaar, we liked the cloth a lot better and it was for a better price. We got four dresses at that shop, Thanuja and I each got one, and we got two for Laxmi. Mine is cream on top is dark blue accents with dark blue pants for about $5.50. We then we went to the underground bazaar. We found another store that we liked, and I got another, it has almost a jean look on top and plain pants for about $11. It is often really hard to find anything unless your really know what color or pattern you want. We only buy the fabric at these shops and they are made at a tailor. The Punjabis are split up so that they have the fabric for the top, pants and dupata in one bag, but none of it is made unless they have added some special things to the pants. All the shops have floor to ceiling shelves filled with these bags. The only thing you can really see is the color until you ask to look at it. Since you obviously can’t look at all of them you have to get good at realizing not only what color looks good on you, but also exactly what shade. Lynne is amazing at it, I still have some work to do. We continued to do a little more clothes shopping for Laxmi’s sister, Prema, who is a mentally challenged. She obviously is also Lynne niece, but lives at H3 and goes to the Agape school. She is probably at like a second or third grade reading level at the age of fourteen, but she has made a lot of progress since she moved from the village to Agape. We were unsuccessful at finding anything. Before it could get to late, Lynne and Thanuja said that we should head over to the vegetable part of the market. We dropped our bags off with Hafeez and walked over. The traffic was crazy. There were about six jammed lanes in a three-lane area, all pretty much at a stand still. The place we came in, there were a bunch of people sitting on the ground showing their vegetable, and very thin paths, where a large number of people coming to buy have to pass. The first area, the vegetable did not look so good, But there was another part that was raised up and each vendor had a table to display on. On our way into this section, a woman came up behind us and tapped us. She had a huge basket on top of her head. These women carry all you produce in the baskets on their heads. There was no way by the end that we could have carried that all by our selves. After about halfway, whenever the woman put the basket down for a minute, it took two people to left it back over her head. The vegetables were surprisingly good quality. I was very impressed. Since we got there so late, some of their usual vendors had gone home, so they didn’t get as much as they had hoped. After that we went home. I was completely exhausted. Yesterday was very laid back, I stayed in my nightie the whole day, but I did work the whole day in my room/new office. Today Lynne had random meeting lined up pretty much the whole day. We continued to work, trying to get the child database to match the sponsor database, so we would be ready to crank out the rest of the sponsor things. We are sort in a panic now because the kids are going to leave tomorrow after school for a week vacation, and a lot come back late. And since Lynne is leaving in 12 days, we have to be prepared that the last day to finish everyone is tomorrow. We have over 75 pictures to take. We did also get the tailor to come tonight, and he measure the select boy in each group, so the boys will be all set once we get the cloth, for their Christmas clothes. Now we just need to do the girls (easier said than done). I really hope we get everything done. Part of the problem though, is that the kids are taking exams this week, so it is not like we can pull the kids out of class, which is what we usually do if we are desperate.