Gina writes:

Nothing too exciting has happened in the past week. In fact, I've been bored out of my mind! Corey is gone for two weeks, to a conference near Delhi. He left last Wednesday evening and returns next Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Before Corey left, we told our coworkers and friends that he was going. After realizing that I would not be going with him, but staying in Koraput, the look of shock and pity on the Indians' faces was really just comical. The look was generally followed by an offer to stay with me or a "call me if you need ANYthing." The offer from my 23-year-old single friend, who lives by herself and hundreds of kilometers from her family, was the best!

I was initially looking forward to having some time to myself. With working six days a week, trying to keep the house clean enough to deter pests, and washing our clothes by hand, it seems like our free time is limited. I never realized, though, just how much time is spent each evening just interacting with Corey. The time passes so quickly when we're joking around, having impromptu discussions about culture or about work problems, cooking together. The five hours between returning from work and going to bed seem to fly by when he's around, but drag on and on when I'm alone. I mean it has been nice to have time alone, but I am looking SO forward to having him back. The thrill of sleeping diagonally in the bed only has it's charms for a night or two...

In other news, our landlord has returned after being in Egypt visiting family for 5 months. He left just 2 weeks after we arrived in December, so it's been an adjustment getting used to having someone live above us again. He and his wife are an elderly couple (actually the father and mother in law of the director at SOVA). They're nice enough and relatively quiet, but there are some changes we have to make now that they are around.

• If we are out of the house after 9 p.m., he wants us to call him to notify him. (He wants to keep us safe, which is strange, since we were perfectly fine for the five months of their absence.)
• He and some workers are now walking to and from the back porch area, so they go past our open windows. They also knock on our door sometimes to ask us questions. We need to be more careful about what we wear in the house.
• Some of the neighbor children that we've made friends with and Binu's family will not come over when the landlord or his wife are home (class issues), so our opportunities for casual chats in the evenings are sadly no more.

When Corey returns, he will hopefully have a lot to blog about. Until then, I'll gleefully ignore the piles of clothes and dishes and dust accumulating around the house (yes, Corey is the clean and organized one...)!