The chaos ends

I'm sitting in my hotel in London reflecting on the last month. India wasn't at all what I expected. It is only described as constant ironies. Full of love and hate, chaos that cannot be described and serenity, tradition and always change. It took me by surprise constantly.It's fitting that  I'm so happy and sad to be leaving. I have a new family in India and that cannot be topped, but it feels so good to see organization again. Katie, Robin and I are bonded for life. In true Charity form, sending Katie off to China made my eyes well up.
   I promise that I'll post several hundred pictures on facebook asap, but for now, it's time to reflect and appreciate being home. I am so happy that I get to spend some time with some of my best buds tonight! Can't wait to be back in the USA!

Farwell

So...last day in India. Leaving a land of peace and tranquility (amidst pollution and crowding), delicious food (every meal spicy with 'mystery' ingredients), culture and calamity (riding trains with Sheiks and beggars) and the mystical aura that can only be known as India.

Charity and I are leaving touristy Goa to head back to Bangalore. We will post more tonight but we are ready to head back to the big city. Tomorrow I part ways with my sweet friend while she heads back to the land of red, white and blue and I head to the land of red....uh, I mean China:) I will miss my friend that has been a constant source of support and friendship. She has been the best friend to have sifting through the complex mess of India's travel web. I wish her the best and hope we travel together again soon.

Slacker Blogger

So...Charity and Robin have been picking up the slack on blogging so here is something I wrote after leaving KGF...reflection of sorts. Love to everyone. Please send prayer and any help you can to Haiti...peace be with them.


I am sitting at the hotel in Bangalore watching children who two weeks ago were complete strangers and have now become close family. The mission trip to India was beyond anything I could have imagined or predicted. The mantra 'expect the unexpected' was a clear understatement for our two weeks in South India. We came with the mission to deliever eye care to people in rural India and due to circumstances out of our control we ended up changing plans...many times. I had the opportunity and good fortune to do a variety of missions during our time. I was welcomed into a wonderful family, invited to conduct children's programs, help facilitate eye care clinics and work doing wound care with lepers. Every day was a struggle and blessing. I leave this experience a better person in faith. The flexibility of my team and help from people in the community came together to create a unique mission trip experience. I leave blessed.

a different kind of day

What a wonderful day. We took a tour today for 700 rupees each - that's about 15 dollars. It included a jeep with a guide who drove us to a wildlife sanctuary, some caves, 5 different waterfalls and breakfast. There were 3 germans that we spent the day with and they were about our age so it was great fun! At the caves I bought a lollipop but the monkeys were closing in on me so I laid it on the ground (I do not want a monkey jumping on my head!). it was funny to see a monkey pick it up, lick it a couple times then bite off the candy and throw the stick on the ground. My mom always wanted a monkey for a pet so I thought of her a lot today. Off to a city tomorrow called Mysore yes, that's right MY SORE.

The longest day ever

Katie and I headed to the mountains yesterday. Our trip was pretty hilarious. We started by taking a ferry to Kochi, took an autorickshaw to the trainstation, took a 4 hour train to Calicut, took another autorickshaw to the bus station loaded what we deemed the scariest bus ever up into the mountains toward our destination-Kalpetta. We expected to arrive at our hotel about 8 pm. A truck accident on the mountain overpass we were on blocked traffic and suddenly our bus was turned off and we sat for about 2 hours. We recognized that there were 2 other white people on the bus (from berlin) and we banded together. Smaller vehicles were still moving in traffic, so our bus driver flagged down a random safari type jeep and we jumped in the back assured that the driver would get us to our hotel... in a nutshell, ALL traffic eventually stopped and we sat again until 130 am. We are now near Wayanad wildlife sanctuary, and will probably head into the park with hopes of spotting tigers and elephants in their natural habitat. Can't wait to have a big salad!

Home Sweet Home

After 26 hours of travel, I arrived home on Monday night. Aside from adjusting to the 12 hour time difference and trying to cough all of the pollution out of my lungs, I am alive, well and glad to be home. I am still trying to get my mind around all that we saw and did. I think it will take a bit of time before I am able to understand the impact of the time in India.

For now, here are a few things that make me glad to be home:
Michael's sweet face, hot showers, US customs and police, raw, fresh vegetables, cereal with cold milk, drivers who follow rules of the road, my bed, whole grain bread, independence and anonymity.




Here are a few things that I will miss about India:
Gracey, Yesudass, Samuel, Daniel, Shiny, Pinky, Pravene, Navene, Papa, and the rest of my Indian family, chapatis, the head bobble to indicate “yes,” being called Aunty, singing Christmas carols by headlamp, singing Katie Block original tunes, non-stop time with Charity Aunty and Katie Aunty.

As soon as I am able to gain concise perspective on our Indian adventures, I'll post what I've taken away from my time there.

We found the white people!

Katie and I are currently in the island town of Fort Kochin in southern India. What a crazy contrast to what we've been experiencing. There are white people EVERYWHERE and a lot of dirty hippies (from various countries) walking around barefoot. When we arrived last night, I was so DONE with Indian food that we had to order french fries. We've now stuffed ourselves with every sort of american junk food that we can get our hands on, and are going to go for a search tonight. We're craving VEGETABLES. Will post pictures of this beautiful place asap, tomorrow we are off to the mountain town of Munnar.