Prepare to be violated.

The title of this blog refers to an underwear ad that Lauren saw outside of a building on the way home from school one day. Slightly inappropriate but comical all the same.

Today is Thursday and I knew I couldn't escape India unscathed. I have a terrible head cold. I'm so congested and it feels like a rickshaw loaded down with 11 schoolchildren is parked on my face. I'm trying to keep my happy face on, but I really am quite miserable. All the kids are sick at school so it's no surprise that I lost the battle in fighting off the cold.

So I'm just gonna write about some quick highlights because I don't have a whole lot of time right now...so Tuesday night the whole team is over for what I thought was a normal team meeting...turns out we're getting the sex talk from an elderly Australian couple. Pretty darn epic and slightly offensive. They were seriously telling us things that I'm pretty sure I learned about decades ago...but alas, they continued to pound the issue of boundaries into a pulp. So that's been the highlight of conversation among the Americans for the past couple days.

Tuesday before the oh so glamorous sex talk, Sharola took us to a slum called Bagalur that we have a special club for on Thursday nights...which is where I'm headed in a few minutes. I left the slum a broken mess. After witnessing what some people call home and observing the overwhelming amounts of joy they still reap from their lives, I wept in the rickshaw on the ride home. Families of 11 will live in a room the size of an American bathroom. Some of the children even have to sleep outside because there's simply no room.

Yesterday we went shopping and I truly learned the art of haggling. I actually had fun with it and even laughed with some of the merchants. I bought some pretty beautiful things, among them some mugs. I already broke one.

Last night after watching HP and the GOF...Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire according to Taylor...I decided I needed some meds or something to ward off this cold. Sharola suggested I try steam inhalatation. I had never tried it before so I agreed. I then ended up under a sheet, breathing steam up my nose and I seriously thought it was burning the lining of my nasal passages, but it helped...momentarily.

This morning I woke up feeling worse, of course, so Sharola gave me a handkerchief doused in this oil that smells like concentrated Vicks vaporub. Again with the singing of the nasal passages. But again, it worked. So I headed off to school with my hanky glued to my nose and this morning was the high school's Investiture Ceremony...which is where all the best students get elected captains of their grade. It was magical, because not only did they honor us Americans and present us with flowers to thank us for volunteering, but they let us help in the crowning of the captains. It was so amazing and the highlight of my day. Then we had tea and cake after the ceremony. We have a lot of tea here. A lot. I've never been much of a tea drinker but I think I might be once I get back to the states. I'm sorta hooked on it now.

Us Americans are in charge of the mixers again today...we have two clubs tonight...there is a Bagalur club and a Young Adult club...for Bagalur we are playing link tag and for the Young Adult club we are playing screaming ninjas. Oh how I love YoungLife.