Day 4: Meet the Roses

The first Hindu call to worship woke me up this morning. It was at 4:30 am. It sounds like a severe weather siren. I fell back asleep and then was awaken by the second call to worship at 6:00 am. I dosed until I was awaken by a knock at the door for the delivery of our morning Chai. I'm rooming with Doris. She is from Oklahoma and is working to start a handicapped riding program near where she lives. Shortly after our tea our buckets of hot water were delivered for our morning bucket baths. The baths turned out to be much better than I was expecting.

Here is the room that Doris and I stayed in for most of the two weeks.

And here is our bathroom. Note: the sink drains down onto the floor. There is a drain at the back of the bathroom. When we take our baths, we fill our bucket of hot water with cold to the desired temperature. Then the water is poured over our body with a little pitcher. The water runs off our body onto the bathroom floor and then down to the drain. Actually works quite well and uses far less water I'm sure than our accustomed showers.

Okay, I have to tell one more story about the bathroom. Ever just spit your toothpaste right out onto the bathroom floor? Yeah, me neither. Any spit that was spat in the sink went down the drain and emerged on the floor beneath the sink then ran along the wall to the drain behind the toilet. Every morning and night I would watch the white toothpaste foam perform the series. I thought I could shorten its journey if I spat it directly on the floor, but I could not bring myself to do it. So every morning and evening I would start the journey of my toothpaste spit in the basin of the sink.

Breakfast consisted of a cream of wheat type cereal, poached egg and toast w/ mango jam and Chai.

-our breakfast dishes drying on the sidewalk in the sun-

After breakfast we gathered on some steps the form a plan for the day. Today is the day we get to meet the rest of the staff and the roses (rescued girls).

-Doris and Angie soaking in the sun-

-our first motor rickshaw ride; Cathy and me-

-gang climbing out of the motor rickshaws in front of Mala's house-

-Freedom Firm staff with one of Mala's lab puppies-

After we stopped by Mala's house we headed to Roja (the name of the aftercare home). There we met Karishma. She and some of the staff arrived safely back from the trial.

We sat together in the living room as a group and got to know one another. It was Doris, Angie, Cathy, Mala, Rohi, Sapna, Laxmi, Karishma, Fenni, Angela, Ginny, Mertha, and myself.

Horses: In the afternoon I began our lessons on horsemanship. We started it all off by talking about horses and their natural instincts. The discussion veered and we began talking about the experience with Jade, a rescued race horse that broke loose and fell down a steep slope. Her death left already wounded and hurting hearts in more sorrow.

Tonight I was able to pull out my laptop and write my first letter to everyone at home. Hopefully I'll get to send it in the next day or so.