There are so many people here in Bangalore:  walking, riding motorcycles, in buses, on ox carts, wandering around, on scooters, walking in and out of traffic, sounding their horns, trying to sell stuff. There is alot of poverty – slums  on the sides of the road, people living under off ramps, families living in broken down buildings,  and children playing in trash heaps. Yesterday on our way to the airport from Mumbai to Bangalore I saw a young boy squatting on the side of the road going to the bathroom – that was very sad. Other kids were playing off behind him, along with a few cows, in the trash heap. Not quite sure where to put that except that to notice and wonder and pray. People are incredibly kind – I think I have a new perspective on hospitality. I am greeted with smiles, kindness, wonder (think I’m one of the few people they’ve seen with braces!). It feels odd and out of my comfort zone  to be the caucasian/tourist definitely noticed on the street and stared at.  Also, if I make eye contact with any street vendors or beggars, I am constantly followed and questioned with “mam, you buy, mam, you help, mam, you need “. I just keep saying, no, or end up saying yes. Yesterday we were on our way to visit a Hindu temple and there were many people selling trinkets on the way up. I ended up saying yes to having my hand henna’d with this whole stamp thing that covers my palm, fingers and travels up the back of my hand to my elbow. The symbol on my hand is the beginning “ohm” for prayer – I’ve just turned it into my Jesus hand. The most fascinating part for me was watching the elderly man work on my hand – what an amazing face – I found myself wondering what his story was. He didn’t understand my questions  so I simply  sat quietly and watched.  We ended up paying more than the original price because he printed more on my hand . Dave and I walked out for dinner last night – what an adventure – lots of people, some really huge cockroaches jumping out and running along the road, broken chunks of sidewalk, potholes, dirt, garbage, sometimes some rather odd and overwhelming smells, friendly people, then an excellent indian dinner at the “coconut grove”  The weather is very tropical,warm and humid so we sat outside under  palm trees and asked the server to recommend some dishes for us. It was pretty spicy so I had to heap on curd(yogurt) to cool it down and to stop my lips from feeling like they were on fire. Today  we are heading out to some meetings and  lunch, then tomorrow we are up early to head out to some of the rural villages outside of Bangalore to meet with the borrowers. I am looking forward to that.