SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: I Have Tickets

This is a special announcement. I have train tickets. I am so relieved. Yesterday, when I got online and checked the India Rail website, there was only one berth remaining on one train from Goa to Mumbai on the day I need to travel. All other trains on that day and several days before were fully booked. I panicked. There was nothing I could do at that hour. I went back to Kumbalam, stayed in my room, skipped dinner, and slept badly. I was up at 4:30 this morning worrying again. Joseph told me to call two people to see if they could help. Both just said to go to the train station, although one told me that he would meet me at the station to see if he could help. When I got to the station, there was a different man there who approached me--a government official who is a friend of the office assistant/bus driver at the school. He had met me two weeks ago when he brought his two girls there to enroll them. He walked me inside the offices rather than waiting at the counter. A man checked and found the one berth still available and booked it for me. Then he found the other train I needed to get me from Mangalore to Goa 5 days earlier and booked me a seat on it. What a relief!!

It's not total relief, however. I still don't have hotel reservations. This is the high season in Goa. I e-mailed a hotel yesterday about reservations, but there is no response today. I probably need to get on the phone and call places directly to see if I can get a room. I won't be able to rest completely until I at least have a reservation in Goa. I don't think that getting a place on arrival in Kochi and Mangalore (my first two stops) will be a problem.

Now it is time to wind down the week. A new volunteer is supposed to arrive today at the school. I have to make copies for my activities for Saturday's workshop for teachers. And I need to buy some materials for the workshop and some sweets for the kids and the teachers. I can now relax while I do those things.