Lucky in Kentucky?

I was recently asked when I would finally come clean vis-a-vis the bloggerworld and admit that I am not at all here:

but here:

Since I am running out of old pictures and new ideas, I will reveal that my current abode is actually rural Kentucky.

The housemother Saraswathi sent me off in style, with my very own henna embellishment. Unfortunately, it wore off all too quickly, and the artist's signature stretching across my calf was already indistinguishable by the time this picture was taken. But this and the ones ambling up to my elbows did elicit plenty of comments at the doctor's and dentist's office when I first arrived.

I returned to the States to renew my visa (and to eat). Now my visa application has been rejected not once, but twice! What was supposed to take a matter of days has stretched into weeks. This all seems too strange and unprecedented.

School started two weeks ago, just as American kids were getting out. Because May is the hottest month in southern India, we hold our summer break at that time.

My mood oscillates between calm and collected (while inhaling my gift of unexpected extra moments with all that I love and is unattainable in India-family, library, gym, pool, Whole Foods, temple) and sleepless and distraught over reports of children who didn't return to school and other heart-wrenching issues.

Yet what is unattainable here are those incomparably trusting, unpretentious Rising Star faces! Forfeiting a few this-worldly comforts is not only worth it, but it actually renders the whole experience more worthwhile. The utter simplicity is all part of the journey.

I'll conclude with one of the endearing letters children handed me as I was leaving:

I can't decode all of it (help me if you can!), but what looks like "I like you mattress" probably means "I like your mother" (she visited a few months ago and was universally loved).