Pictures!

I just got back to Singapore after taking Jess to Shark Bay in Australia (north of Perth).  She is going to volunteer there for 2 1/2 weeks with a marine biologist grad student.  She thinks that she might want to be a marine biologist, and this ought to give her some idea of what they do day in and day out.  The researchers haven't been out on the boat for over a week because it has been too windy there, but the forecast is for the weather to settle down today or tomorrow.  Their plan is to do "shark tagging" on Tuesday.  I am pretty sure that the sharks that they are tagging are tiger sharks - yikes!!  I am a little nervous, but she seems like she is in good hands.  They dive with a huka (spelling?) - where the diver gets air from a hose straight from an air compressor on the boat - instead of with tanks.  This will be new for Jess.  Last night she went with the research group to an Aboriginal festival, where she had a chance to try dugong (she didn't like it) and kangaroo (liked it, but said it was tough).  Today they were playing some fun sports games against another research group to celebrate 4th of July.  She is living in a trailer and will eat all of her meals, etc with the group.  She was really nervous because they are all older than she is, but I think that she will have a great experience.  I was sad to leave her, though - I'll miss her for the next 2 weeks!

Anyway, here are some pictures of our favorite people in Nangi...

Kami and Talmuna

Ganga - teaches high school English

Krishna - teaches 9th and 10th grade math

Toya - he is the village "jack of all trades".  He is good at everything!

Hemkumari - teaches all kinds of things at school.  She cooked us some dinners.

Tek - one of my buddies.  He does all of the piping in the village.

Moti - our favorite!!  A retired Gurkha...

Kami talking Moti's ear off!

Jagat - he does the woodwork.  He made signs for the kids, and they visited him all the time.

Lila - she teaches at the school and is a nurse and midwife in the village.

Kisoj (pronounced Key suze) - he is Krishna's son.  Our kids loved to play with him.

Rhupal - Jessica and I met him while we were teaching photography.  He's in 10th grade, and he would bring us plums and show us around.

Chitra and his daughter.  Chitra is the person that I worked the most with on this project.

I'm going to upload more pictures tomorrow...