Mass Email - Monsoon Madness

Hey all...

Today I witnessed rain like I've never experienced before. Even though its been insanely hot the past several days, we're still technically at the end of Monsoon season. This morning, bright and early...actually it wasn't bright, but dark rather, I was awakened by this enormous rumble and shaking, and the sound of things falling off my shelves. At first I thought it was an earthquake, but when I came to and looked outside to see literally - I kid you not - a SHEET of water pouring over all of my windows, I realized the sound was thunder. The rain was literally pouring out of the sky...no little droplets or even globs of water...it was literally like one giant waterfall coming from the clouds. The wind was so powerful, too, that it broke a couple of my window panels, and the lightning so intense, you could feel it on the back of your neck. It was fantastic! The grounds of the compound were so flooded, we couldn't even leave our rooms unil noon. It looked like The Ganges was flowing right through Ramana's Garden! The kids were excited because we had to cancel school since none of the teachers or outside kids could make it in, so we all got to stay in bed until noon. One of the older kids had left his guitar in my room, so it was a great chance to play a little music, which I hadn't done in a while...even though the strings are horrible and practically impossible to tune. It was also a great opportunity to rest a bit, as I was officially initiated into the Delhi-belly club last night with a nasty stomache bug. Fortunately, we have this Chinese remedy that clears it up in about a half hour.

Last night all of the volunteers went out for dinner in Laxman Juhla at a place called the Moonlight Cafe. Apparently a lot of westerners go there, as they are the only place in town who serve real Tofu (which is why we wanted to go there, all of us being vegetarians who had been eating nothing but daal for protein). It was great fun, as we have a good group of people: There's Maggie, the other American girl (19) from Jersey, Liz & Jared, and Aussie couple (he's a DJ and she's a nanny) both very cool hippie folks...then Marc, from Amsterdam (he wears chords and vans every single day, even if it's 100 degrees outside)...Raydene is a 40-something woman from Boston who just got divorced and sold everything she owned to travel around the world "forever" as she says, and we had a young Indian girl from Bombay, Regita, visiting us who came along. It was great to get everyone together and let loose a bit (athough it's hard to let TOO loose, as alcohol is practically impossible to find around here). We had this dessert called "Hello to the Queen" which was amazing...I dont even know what was in it, but I think it was deep fried bananas, ice cream, chocolate sauce, and something that looked and tasted like cake batter at the bottom...the Queen served us well for sure.

Anyway, I'll try to keep it short. I had to get out into town before the rain came again, and so I could check on a room in town to see if I might move in. I am still working on getting pictures up, so bare with me.

Thanks to all of you who have been keeping in touch. It's always great to hear from you all and hear what you're up to. Also, let me know if you want anything specific...everything is so cheap here, I"ve already started gift-shopping.

I hope you are all well. Do me a favor and take a nice hot shower for me so I can live vicariously through you all (we dont have hot water here).

Peace y'all

Cass