A timeless editorial

In 1949, Vermont Royster wrote this Christmas editorial and it has been published annually in the Wall Street Journal ever since. My Dad had me read it this morning and I wanted to share it here. Food for thought on this Christmas Eve...


In Hoc Anno Domini

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression -- for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render until Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in diverse places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

"Don't Forget"

At the end of our time in South Africa, we spent a couple days at a place called Klein Kariba to debrief, enjoy our last couple days together, and try to mentally prepare to return home. One of the things that Pat asked us to do on our own was to take the time to make a list of ten things that we didn't want to forget from the trip. Well, mine refused to be limisted to ten (no surprise there). Though they might not all make a lot of sense to someone outside of the situation (or in some cases, even outside of my brain, haha), but I thought I would share them here. To remind me of them again and perhaps even accountability - feel free to ask me or remind me about these things!

SOUTH AFRICA "DON'T FORGET" LIST

1. Don't forget the feel of a little girl's arms around your neck as she clings goodbye after a few short minutes' interactions.
2. Don't forget the poem on my class board and the poem the girl read at the talent show that were such the heart of our mission.
3. Don't forget what it sounds like to sing praises in a chorus of voices unified in heart and drive.
4. Don't forget the letters my students wrote, displaying their tragedies, determination, joy and desire.
5. Don't forget the look in Perseverance's eyes as we hugged and I gave her a Bible of her own.
6. Don't forget "Date Night" and how much it made me feel that I am worth.
7. Don't forget the splendor of the Lord, made so clear in sunrises, sunsets, the expanse of Swaziland, the wildness of the game reserve, and the wonders of South Africa.
8. Don't forget understanding the unity of the Body of Christ like I did at Mamelodi Baptist Church, through joy, hugs, and individual translators.
9. Don't forget that it takes intentional boldness to live wholeheartedly for the Lord (and tough decisions) - it won't happen passively!
10. Don't forget the woman that Cort, Chris, Natalie, and Claire described in our car affirmations - the woman I desire and am striving to be.
11. Don't forget what the night looks like when it is completely blanketed by stars.
12. Don't forget how much it meant to the students and youth of Mamelodi to know that people from somewhere else know that they are there and care.
13. Don't forget that it takes intentional vulnerability and the decision to love in order to build a community like this.
14. Don't forget that the life of a Christ follower is an ADVENTURE!
15. Don't forget to live a rhythm of life with God at its center.
16. Don't forget understnading that the point of my short life is not my comfort or happiness, but God's glory.
17. Don't forget how important encouragement is to people.
18. Don't forget Will Franklin's names, jokes, and "pound it" adaptations.
19. Don't forget how much joy comes with playing games - ultimate, cards, ninja, signs, mofia, "Good day, Bob"...
20. Don't forget the welcoming attitudes of the people we served, those who served us, and those of chance encounters.
21. Don't forget how grateful I am for these people and how much I want to keep up with them.
22. Don't forget the power of prayer.
23. Don't forget that gratitude is a choice.

Thinking, thinking, thinking...

It has been four months since I finally arrived back in Raleigh after leaving Joburg some twenty-odd hours earlier...twenty-odd hours of layovers in Frankfurt and Boston; napping on airport floors; plane food; congregating in the back of the plane for one last game of Kemps; all plugging our headphones into the armrests and picking the same music station, thus allowing us to have a silent dance party in our seats and aisles (though the flight attendants weren't quite as thrilled about this); affirmations; and lots of goodbyes and tears.

Anyone who knows me well will be shocked not at all that I was crying since that is pretty much how I process everything - happy things, sad things, scary things, overwhelming things, spiritual things...my heart cries most emotions :) Thinking about those tears reminds me of so many different aspects of the trip because they flowed for so many reasons...

I was crying because I was saying goodbye to this group of people who had become so dear to me. The sense of community that we shared on the trip was very eye-opening and wonderful for me. It was a very diverse group in terms of interests, life experiences, areas of study, etc, but our group formed and was held together with our shared love of Jesus. In our pre-departure meetings we talked specifically about how we were going to love and support one another while we were there and we did. One of the most important things I learned on this trip was about community because of what I was a part of with this group - how to handle conflict well, how to offer advice with grace instead of judgment, how it takes intentional vulnerability to build real community...We were a 33-person family and I couldn't believe my time with them was up.

Along similar lines, I was crying because I wasn't ready to go back home. I was really impacted in South Africa and I felt like I was closer to the woman of God that I desire to be in that place, with those people, doing that work. So I was not excited about coming home, mainly because I knew it would be hard to return to home and especially Rhodes where people already had expectations for me and it would be up to me to adjust them as necessary. Part of that nervousness was the fact that I was going back to Memphis while about 96% of the rest of the group would be back in Boston for school. I was preemptively missing their accountability. [Needless to say, I was immensely grateful to be able to go to Boston for my fall break, so we could have a mini-reunion - so refreshing and life-giving!]

Those things and semi-shock at being back in the States accounted for most of the hug circle tears in the Boston airport. The "arrival crying". The "departure crying" that started literally as soon as I sat down in my seat on the plane to leave Joburg, haha.

Those tears weren't about where I was heading back to, but where I was leaving. I was crying about the students that I was leaving - the eleventh grade class that a friend and I tutored regularly who had opened up to us, shared their lives with us, laughed with us (and at us when it was clear that we were totally lost - who could blame them? we were laughing, too), played games with us, sang for me, and cried and hugged with me on our last day. These students completely captivated my heart with their stories, their passions, their dreams, their hurt. They know where they are and they know where they want to be and, while they respond to their reality differently, the majority of them know that working hard at school is what will give them even a chance. What frustrated me was how the floundering education system in South Africa is in such a state that it will be the lucky ones of those who put everything they have into their studies and do the very best they can that will actually have the chance to continue to university. The combination of shortage of teachers, huge lack of resources (as a school and as individuals), and the attitudes and environment of some of the community seems almost impossible to overcome. But I don't believe that it is.

We spent a lot of time on the University of Pretoria campus talking to students about everything (faith, cultures, the recent events in South Africa politically, prejudices, etc), but especially about the tutoring that we were doing in Mamelodi, looking for students who would be interested in continuing work their after we had returned to America. The response that we got from the school was phenomenal. We had been praying for 33 people - the same number as in our group. We ended up getting the contact information of over 100 students and had the Head of Student Affairs and a few professors very excited about continuing the work. We even had a few students who were coming with us for the last week that we were tutoring. It was a phenomenal answer to our prayers! A group from Boston is going back in January during their J-term break. I will pass on anything that I learn from them after they return.

One of the dangers of short term missions is that one can go to a place and feel superior to the people one is "serving" for whatever reason. Of all of the things that God taught me while I was there, one of the greatest was humility. How I am capable of so little on my own. How I can offer myself, but that isn't very much when it is not given wrapped up in the grace and love of God. How I have so much to learn - about myself, about life, about God, about others, about other cultures and viewpoints.


I wish I was reporting about how my life looks completely different now from how it looked before I went to South Africa. But it's not true. The past four months have been a roller-coaster ride of joys and struggles and wanting to serve and being self-focused...but I am grateful for the fact that I am not stuck where I was before. I have pictures, letters, blogs, and two journals full of prayers and songs and notes and thoughts that remind of me of who I was and who I want to be; of how to say "I love you" in Zulu, Sepedi, and Tsonga (a lesson from my student Kiketsu- I was teaching him some Spanish in exchange); of the majesty of God I was so keenly aware of while hiking in Swaziland; of the importance of grace and honest communication in relationship; of the total transformative power of Jesus in the lives of people...

In some ways, this trip will never be over. And for that I'm grateful.

Swaziland! - and no strike!

Last Saturday was one of the most incredible of my life - Most of the group woke up at 4:30 so that we could hit the road and drive 4hrs to within Swaziland. Dana used to work in Swaziland for 4 years and he took us to this wild area where we were going to hike and when we first got there, he walked down a hill (and by "walked" I mean "waded through waist high grass"), pointed at a house and said "That is where I lived for 4 years, so right now we're standing in my backyard." I have never been in such a wild place - a massive expanse of grass and rocks and just complete breath-taking glory of the Lord. It was a lonely kind of place, but I love that feeling. I love being in a place so vast that I am reminded of the magnitude of the Creator, my complete insignificance, and the wonder that in the midst of creating all of this He took the time to create me specifically too. We had an amazing hike that included a cave that we had to hoist one another out of a small hole to get out of, scrambling along giant boulders, hiding in the grass pretending to be Simba learning how to pounce, and singing joy to one another and God. I wish that I had had hours to spend there, but I will treasure those moments for the rest of my life.

___________________________

There was a very high probability that yesterday was going to be the last day that we were able to work at the school because there has been an impending teachers' strike. We have been praying desperately that the strike wouldn't happen or if it did that we would be able to find a place where we could meet with any children who were interested. Yesterday our prayers were fully answered when the principal told us that the strike was not going to include the main educators, but is right now only involving some administrators. Praise God!

Please continue to pray for our last week with these children.

Stanza Bopape Secondary School

Week 1 of our 3 at Stanza Bopape Secondary School is now done. In a lot of ways, I don't even know where to start or how to convey anything about this week.

Students, grades 0-12, desperate to learn and understand the information, dutifully listening and responding to their teachers' questions.
Students sharing seats because there aren't enough in the classrooms.
Students sharing pencils, textbooks, protractors, calculators, erasers...because they can't all afford them.
376 students in grades 10-12 staying after school to be tutored as they look towards their matric exams (at the end of grade 12) that determines whether or not they have the chance to move on to university.
Classrooms of students who sit at their desks trying to do work when a teacher doesn't come to class or isn't assigned to them because there aren't enough teachers.
Students hungry for attention and just a smile and a hug.
Students who only eat when they are at school and can be a part of the food programme there because they don't have food at home.
Students who are orphaned by AIDs and taking care of their siblings and households.
Students who are already parents themselves.
Students who dream of being doctors, pilots, social workers, nurses, graphic designers, lawyers, accountants...
Students who are so hungry for hope.

It has been a long week. I am so grateful for the two more we have with them. I can't believe that's all. The thought of leaving breaks my heart, especially as that thought comes with the memory of the 8th grade girls who implored me to let them come home with me to America when I leave.

These children deserve a future. And they deserve one on their own terms. They don't deserve a world that has made them think they aren't worth as much as someone else -one girl told me when I asked her what she wanted to be that she wants to be "a white person".

What are we - the world, the people who have the resources and the opportunities and the chances and the time - what are we teaching them about themselves? Because they deserve more.

Sawu bona! More! Ashe!

Hello! That's what this title is in Zulu, Afrikans, and SePedi - 3 of the 11 official languages in South Africa :) Dana, our wonderful fearless leader in various aspects of this trip, and his wife Sibongile gave us a talk a few days ago about customs in South Africa and various things of that nature and then taught us how to conduct a basic greeting in those three languages so that we can start to dig more into the culture and have a good jumping off point with people (English is also one of the official languages, but it is nice for people when they hear us trying to embrace their native tongue). It is pretty great - Zulu is my favorite so far - "so far" meaning "from the greetings we've learned because we haven't learned anything else yet" haha. And a typical greeting is not just "hello", but also asking how the person is doing and having it reciprocated. Nothing is done here so much in a rush that you do not first say hello and how are you. I love it :)

The past few days have been a whirlwind of getting to know South Africa. We met the administrators and teachers at the school where we will be working in the township of Mamelodi - our first day of tutoring is tomorrow and I am so excited and nervous and all a-jumbled with feelings about it; I will probably be helping with biology class and tutoring. On Friday night we drove for about 45 minutes out into the middle of nowhere and participated in an African drum circle, witnessed some fire-dancing (and a couple people tried it out - that was a "heck no" from me, haha), and had an awesome dance party to the amusement of our South African contemporaries there. Saturday we drove to Johannesburg, or Jo'burg as it is called here, and visited the Apartheid Museum and then went to a traditional craft market (let's just say that everything is AMAZING and I wish I had unlimited funds and was decorating a whole house). Today was our Sabbath. The leaders are wonderful and very intent on us driven crazy college students to understand that REST is an essential part of being able to serve well and of abiding in the Lord who bears our burdens, so they work hard to make the schedule one where we have at least a few hours free for exercising, journaling, reading, playing games, sleeping - whatever it is that recharges you and brings you back to the joy of Christ. The Sabbath today has been wonderful: church at the Methodist church that Dana attends (he has two PRECIOUS sons, ages 5 and 3), lunch at the center where we're staying, ultimate frisbee and kickball at the High Performance Center (this is where the U of Pretoria teams practice and national athletes train here - on our tour of it I was 3 feet away from an Olympic gold medal winning South African swimmer who was working out and we saw the rooms in which the Argentinian soccer team stayed for the duration of the world cup), and now a brief stint at the humongous mall with the internet cafe.

I can't believe that I have only been with this group of people for a week and that we have only been in South Africa for 5 days! It feels like so much longer. It is all so amazing and interesting and heart-breaking and life-giving. God has been stretching me as I am reminded to find myself solely in Him and His loving grace, rather than in relationships or skills or anything else that is totally fallible just like me. It's a lesson I must learn over and over again, but He's so faithful and patient to remind me :)

A thought that spoke to me that my small group leader, Kat, shared with me last night, has been on my mind so I wanted to share it as well. This is taken from John Piper's "Desiring God" and is a quote from George Muller:

"While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now...more than forty years have since passed away.
The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit."

As I am such a fixer and one who just constantly wants to be helping while not needing help and serving while not being served, it really struck me that these actions miss their true mark if I am not at peace and joyful in the truth of Christ's sacrifice and love for me. So I have been taking full advantage of our opportunities to rest and my time to spend in the arms of my sweet Savior Lord :)

One of the things that I am looking forward to is making a list of my God-given passions and then reading over it to see who it is that I have been designed to be, where my uniqueness and individuality lie, and how I can pursue those areas. Yay for soul-searching :)

I'm so thrilled to be here. I can't wait to report on how our first week of tutoring goes. Please keep sending thoughts and prayers our way.

I love you all!

"Mzansi fo sho!"

I'm in South Africa! Currently in an internet cafe in a gigantic mall/movie theater/amusement park-esque type place called Menlyn Park. And there is a keyboard covering on the keys that is Kung Fu Panda characters :)

It has been a great adventure so far in different places: a great 24 hours in Boston with being commissioned by Park Street Church, having a number of meetings and briefings as a team to get to know one another and prepare for the trip in terms of attitude going in and being intentional about keeping in mind that the down-side to short term missions is that they are short, and some good bonding time at the Wilson House; 7 adventurous hours exploring Frankfurt, Germany (since we had a 10 hour layover) that included the beautiful Kaiserdom Cathedral, delicious gelato (sp?), almost getting bowled over by a man as he sprinted away from a police officer (crime unknown), and a 20 minute ride on a train heading in the wrong direction so that we had a few sprints involved getting to the correct one before it left us; and now here we are in Pretoria!

The man who met us at the airport with a number of volunteers from his church to drive us is an American man named Dana who lived in South Africa for 4 years after college, married a South African woman, they came back to America so he could attend Divinity School at Harvard, and now they have been back in South Africa for 4 years. He is wonderful and so nice and willing to answer our questions. We've already had interesting conversations about politics since Mandela and polygamy in African marriages.

"Mzansi" means 'south' in Zulu and is how South Africans refer to their country, so as we took a group picture in front of the Union Buildings (where the executive branch of government works; anyone who's seen Invictus - it's where Matt Damon got dropped off to have tea with Mandela) he encouraged us to happily exclaim the phrase "Mzansi fo sho" :) We had a great picnic lunch in the beautiful public gardens that are in front of the Union Buildings, after getting settled into the convention center/community center that we are staying at.

We're off to see more of Pretoria. Tomorrow, Dana's wife is going to come give us some lessons in basic languages which I am thrilled about!

Prayers for rest for everyone and joy as we settle in for our month here and learn how to live with, work with, and love and support one another would be greatly appreciated!

Love to all :)

And I'm off! and hoping to encounter Ubuntu

Today's the day...In two hours I'll be getting checked in at the RDU airport to up to Boston and meet the team - eeee, I'm SO excited! I don't know when I will first get the opportunity for internet, so my family is operating on the "no news is good news" policy and I will communicate when I have the opportunity - full of stories about travel adventures, meeting new friends, and whatever mishaps are bound to occur :)

One of the things that I have come across multiple times in my reading about South Africa is the philosophy/way of thinking/traditional value system that is called ubuntu. Ubuntu is about how one interacts with others and thinks about oneself. It has been sometimes described as the idea that "a person is a person, only through other people." Here are a few blurbs about the philosophy (from a couple names you might recognize...):

"Ubuntu is an African philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept.
A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"A traveller through our country would stop at a village, and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of ubuntu but ubuntu has various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to improve?"
~Nelson Mandela

I love this understanding. As my discussion-based Adolescent Development class can attest to, I am far less individualistic in my thinking than a lot of people in our country, so this idea of a community based on relationships and mutual care is very appealing and beautiful to me. I am interested to see if this will be the heart of the communities that I visit on my trip. I hope that it is. I pray that it is. As Desmond Tutu once said, "We are bound up with God's creation and a solitary human being is the ultimate contradiction."

I hope I find that community there :)

_______

I'm thrilled my trip is almost underway. I am excited to meet the students and leaders that I will be living and working with for a month, excited to see the ways that we challenge and support and love one another.

Prayers for travel mercies as we gather today and then leave tomorrow would be appreciated! I love you all and will be praying for you as well :)

Gearing up for South Africa...

My weeks at home have flown by, wonderful time spent with friends and family in North Carolina, Connecticut, and Tennessee. Now the countdown is on: 4 days until I fly to Boston to meet the team that I will be a part of to go to South Africa. After spending Sunday night and part of the day Monday getting acquainted, meeting in our small groups, discussing the tutoring, and praying for the trip, we will head to the aiport on Monday night and set off on our adventure.

I am thoroughly settled in my nervous excitement phase as I look ahead to the next month. I'm excited to meet, get to know, work with, support, grow with, and love the team I'm lucky enough to be a part of. I'm excited to go to a country and culture that I have never experienced and have my mind opened by what I witness there. I'm excited to meet the university students that we will be partnering with to develop the tutoring program. I'm excited to meet the children and youth (and their families, I hope) in the township where we will be working and loving. I'm excited to worship with believers in a new part of the world and to learn from them. I'm excited about the opportunity to tutor and see if I have gifts to offer in that area in the future. And, of course, about all of these things I am nervous as well :)

I know very little about South Africa in general, so I've been trying to learn what I can in the short time I have. A family friend gave me an issue of Alive Now that is completely about South Africa - its spirit described by South Africans and those who love it - that has been wonderful to read with devotions. I am planning on watching the movie Invictus before I leave. Most informative, though, has been a book recommended by one of the team leaders: "Bring Me My Machine Gun: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa from Mandela to Zuma" by Alec Russell. Russell is a journalist who has spent a significant amount of time in South Africa over the past 15+ years, covering the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela's presidency, and the political environment since. I'm only a quarter of the way through the book, but I already have a much greater understanding of the political and racial atmosphere since the official end of apartheid. I am very interested to see how what the media presents measures up to what we witness in our time there.

For the most part, I feel like I have no idea what to expect from this trip - and I'm fine with it. I doubt that any expectations I could come up with could get close to doing justice to what is coming - both the trials and the blessings - so I will rest in hopes and wonderings and utter lack of assumptions, haha. Prayers for my preparation - physical, mental, and spiritual - and the preparation of my team would be greatly appreciated!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jog...

I have now been home for 4 days and am currently enjoying the company of all my family - Mom, Dad, Suzanne, Mary, and Jay. In a lot of ways, my 3 1/2 weeks in India feels like a dream. Luckily I have my weird sleep schedule and a henna-ed hand and foot to remind me it was real! It's interesting to see the things that I do and don't miss. I was thrilled to return to my life as a "regular" person, never looking up to see one or two or twenty people staring at me and snapping pictures on their phones. I laughed when I tried the new spicy chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A and declaring to my impressed mother, "that is NOT spicy!", even though the server had assured me I was need a drink on hand to try it. I walk around my house flipping lights off in empty rooms, have been driving around with the windows down instead of AC on, and appreciate the little blue light that comes on every time I plug my computer in signalling that power is actually getting to it. I love my home food, but have found myself really missing my Indian food. I could definitely go for a thali right now with extra dal and a hefty supply of butter and/or garlic naan - oooh how I miss the naan! It really amuses me that one of the things I most consciously miss is the ability to turn outlets on and off with the accompanying switch.

I'm so grateful for my time in India. I'm grateful for the wonderful experiences that I had and the hard realities that I saw all around me. I met a world there that is hugely different from the one I grew up in and have always known, but that is no less legitimate and has so much to offer. As I begin to prepare for South Africa and the people and cultures I will meet there, I am excited and somewhat apprehensive. Because I know I will be changed. India changed me and it isn't done yet. My heart is open in a different way, a different perspective, and I'm not sure where it will lead me yet.

I can't wait to find out :)

Goodbye India :-\

I cannot believe my 3 1/2 weeks here are already over. I have a lot of processing to do and I'm sure that will lend itself to a post when I'm home, but for now, let me just say that I love this place. I don't understand it and sometimes it makes me uncomfortable, but I love that it never sleeps and that I see fresh fruit everywhere I go (even though I can't eat a lot of it) and that people are so communal and that I feel like I can get around function here now without Hemanshu or Sunita leading me. And there is so much that I didn't get to explore. I'd love to see Southern India, I'd love to go to the Himalayas, I'd love to see Mumbai and Bombay and Calcutta. But I am SO grateful for the time that I've spent here, the friends that I've made, the experiences I've had, and the ways that I've been challenged.

And I'm really intrigued to see what happens when I get home - what things will I slip right back into and what things will I have to readjust to? I guess I'll find out soon.

God willing, I will be home in 26ish hours. I'd appreciate prayers for travel mercies!

Three Cups of Tea

Okay, now that I have read it, reread parts of it, cried over parts of it, and copied parts of it into my journal - time for a post about Three Cups of Tea.

Three Cups of Tea, subtitle: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, is written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It is the story of Mortenson's work building schools in rural Pakistan, beginning with his promise to return and build a school for the village that nursed him back to health after a failed attempt to summit K2 and journeying with him more than 10 years to post 9/11 when he is able to reach Afghanistan, too, through the organization now known as the Central Asia Institute.

This book is an amazing testimony to the fact that one person CAN make a difference, especially when they approach their goal with heart and passion. It is inspiring to see the sacrifices that Mortenson and his family make because they are driven with a purpose: educating children. In many ways, this is Mortenson's own "war on terror" (though he began it long before that phrase had a reason to be familiar to us) because he believes that education is the only thing that can stop terrorism. In response to a Congressman who interrupted a presentation to say that this is all fine, but the point is security, so why does this matter, Mortenson said:
"I don't do what I'm doing to fight terror. I do it because I care about kids. Fighting terror is maybe seventh or eigth on my list of priorities. But working over there, I've learned a few things. I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death."

This book has a story to tell, but it also has a lot to say about world understanding. Are we looking at the world as it really is and seeing into the heart of people to know who they really are?

I encourage you to please read this book. And if you have read it, talk about it. Because it is not just the people in rural third-world or developing countries who need education. We need it as well. We need to make sure we are seeing clearly.

If you are interested in learning more about the book, the website is www.threecupsoftea.com and if you're going to buy the book to read it, please buy it from that site so that 7% of the proceeds can go straight to a girls' education scholarship fund in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Also, Pennies for Peace is designed to help educate our children and give them a way to help because children tend to have a heart for other children in a way that is beautiful to see. To learn more about that, the website is www.penniesforpeace.org

I could talk for ages about this, but don't want to take away from the book. But please, if you want to talk about it, I'd love to! :)

Bollywood :)

So, if you're like I was three weeks ago, hearing "Bollywood" makes you think of really cheesy, really colorful movies with random dance numbers thrown in. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no movie snob, so I usually enjoy movies like that to some degree, but I didn't have any expectations for anything else from Bollywood movies here. Thanks to Prof Mason's and Hemanshu's suggestions from the IES movie library, I have learned how wrong I was! So here is the list of the 7 movies I've watched here and a blurb about each of them:

Delhi 6 - We watched this very early on and I have received plenty of teasing for how much I loved it and the soundtrack. They will be purchased and I am excited about it! This is a story of a man who has lived in America his whole life, but his parents immigrated their from India. His grandmother lives with them in the US, but when she learns that she has cancer, she wants to return to India to die at the home of her heart. He agrees to take her back and it is about his interactions with the people, culture, and heart of India, as well as speaking to the conflict between Hindus and Muslims here, very prevalent a couple decades ago.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - This is the type of movie that I would have described when asked about Bollywood movies, haha. And it is Prof Mason's self-proclaimed favorite movie which just makes me laugh :) I did enjoy it, but it took me awhile to get past the ridiculousness. It is the story of a young girl who's mother died after giving birth to her and had written her letters to open on her birthdays. This particular letter tells the story of the girl's father and his best friend Anjali in college and then how he met the girl's mother. I don't want to get into the complicated-ish twists and turns, but it was enjoyable and had a nice happy ending.

Maqbool - We watched this as a whole group the night before we had a guest lecturer, the woman who is the expert in India on the topic of Shakespeare in India. Maqbool is an adaptation of Macbeth that is Macbeth meets the Godfather in Bombay. It was well done. Very intense.

Rang De Basanti - I really enjoyed this movie (although since Hemanshu had forgotten the details and told us that it wasn't a serious movie, I was not very prepared to cry for the last 45 minutes). It is about a British woman who's grandfather was an officer stationed in India and had been in charge of the imprisonment and hanging of some revolutionaries. She has his diary and goes to India to make a movie because she thinks that their stories deserve to be told. It is about the people she meets who will be in the movie and Indians' feelings towards their country: shall we fight and work to improve her or is she a lost cause? Very good.

Chak De India! - I enjoyed this movie, though I wouldn't say it is one of the best movies I've ever seen. But it does have one of the most infuriating theme songs to get out of your head - Catherine, Amy and I have driven each other crazy because as soon as one of us gets it out, someone else will start it and there it goes again! It is the story of the national women's field hockey team (woot!) which is a huge joke to pretty much everyone and the man who comes to coach them and teach them what it means to represent your country and why it matters, etc. Go, inspirational sports movies, go!

Jodhaa Akbar - I quite enjoyed this movie, not because it's the greatest movie in the world, but because I enjoyed the story and it was really incredible to see so many of the places that we have visited as they would have looked in their real age of splendour. It is the story of the Amer princess Jodhaa and her marriage to Jalaluddin Mohammad, dubbed "Akbar" by the people once he has earned their trust and love. It is about all of the obstacles they face approaching marriage as a Muslim Mughal emperor and a Hindi princess, and plots of political sabotage, etc.

Taare Zameen Par - I really enjoyed this movie. Cried through pretty much the whole thing. It is the story of a young boy who is failing everything in school, getting in fights, etc and everyone thinks that he just has a terrible attitude, but he actually has severe dyslexia and some motor development problems. A teacher at his new school sees what is going on and works to help. It is a beautiful picture of how people can reach one another if they take the time to care and a hard look at how Indian culture does not understand much about people with special needs. Aamir Khan (producer, director, and actor in it) does a lot of work to try to bring awareness to the reality of situations that Indian society as a whole is not very open to or knowledgeable of. He also starred in Rang De Basanti.

So there are my blurbs and a few thoughts on each. I am excited about this new genre of great movies to explore :)

Amritsar

I am quite behind on posts, but it's been a busy few days as my time in India is winding down. So I'll take a break from packing to try to do justice to our overnight trip to Amritsar the middle of this past week.

Wednesday morning was an early one as we got up and left the residence at 6:15 so that we could make our 7:05 train to Amritsar. I love train rides and don't hate the mornings, so I was very excited :) After half of us getting a little lost when we got separated from the lead half of the group and Hemanshu because of the mass of people, we all made it to platform 2 and found our seats. I was a little sad that the train didn't have compartments like the Hogwarts Express, but alas, you can't have everything in life. Catherine, Amy, and I settled into our seats that were very much like airplane seats, except plastic instead of cloth, and prepared for our 6hr journey north. We filled the 6hrs with lots of conversation, investigating and enjoying the breakfast we were given, drinking black tea (with varying levels of sugar and creamer depending on which one of us you looked at), and making a number of trips (thanks to the tea) to the squat toilet which was one of the cleanest we'd seen and had the fun factor of one being able to see the ground beneath the train right below it! At last the train pulled into its last stop and we disembarked into the frenzy of taxi/rickshaw drivers spotting the white people and descending upon us. Luckily, our blue-turbaned guide found us immediately and led the way to our bus. And I was delighted to find that it as smaller than our other monstrosity, not bright blue and yellow, and did not have TOURIST written boldly across the front :)

After settling our things into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (which we did not find to be too ritzy), we headed out to a delicious long afternoon lunch and then made our way outside of town to the Waga border crossing where we were going to watch the closing of the border between Pakistan and India which happens every night. I didn't really know what to expect, but I would never have guessed what we were in for! The border area consists of two decorated gates, flags, and grandstands on both sides (in different syles) so that people can watch the show every night. We got to our seats and there was music playing while people lined up for the opportunity to run the length of the street carrying an Indian flag. Eventually the music changed from random to more popular music from Bollywood movies and a dance party started in the street with a bunch of young (and some older) women. I really wanted to dance with them, but was cowed by not knowing what they would think of me and, much more of a factor in my decision, the female soldier who was doing crowd control in our area terrified me! So I just enjoyed their enthusiasm from afar. Most of the soldiers wandering around were either in camo or plain officer uniforms. A few, though, were wearing tan uniforms that stopped mid-thigh where they met these big white shoe covers and headdresses (for lack of a better word) of bright red feathers - and they were definitely chosen for their height already, so they towered above everyone else. At 6:15pm, right on the dot, the official show began. A man who clearly was the emcee of the situation pulled out a microphone and started cheers and went around pointing to the different sections to encourage the crowd to cheer louder. It absolutely had the feel of a giant pep rally or sporting event. Now, I had heard that the soldiers would be "preening" for one another and there really is no other way to describe it! The Indian feathered guards went through an elaborate series of lines, marching, gun-handling and one-by-one made their way to the gate that met Pakistan where they would literally strike a pose of showing off their muscles to the Pakistani guards on the other side. It sounded like similar things were going on on the Pakistan side, but I can't say for sure because everytime our side was quiet enough to hear anything from Pakistan, Indian trumpets blared and the crowd erupted again, determined to out-shout the Pakistanis. [Aside: we could see from our seats that people eventually arrived on the Pakistan side, but that there was maybe a tenth of the people over there than on the India side. Hemanshu said that it is always like that and it is probably 1) because of the outcome of the conflict, the Indians feel like they have a lot to prove and want to clearly demonstrate their national pride, and 2) Amritsar is only 30 kilometers from the border while the closest Pakistani city is 60 kilometers.] This whole display went on for at least 30 minutes before the flags even were involved. The ceremony then finished up with a looong process of opening the two gates, preparing to lower the flags (both right next to the gate and the ones that were on top of the respective gate buildings), and then lowering them all very slowly, precisely and with much trumpet-blasting, all synchronized so that no one flag was lowered before others. I have never seen anything like this display of national pride, especially not with something that happens every night! It was pretty awesome to witness.

On our way back to the hotel we decided that we would meet at 6am to get to the Golden Temple early the next morning, so we had nothing planned for the night. Hemanshu said that he was going to go to the Golden Temple around 9:30pm because he likes seeing it during different times of the day. Prof Mason, Catherine, Amy, and I went with him (involving two interesting rickshaw rides that I rode backwards on and my eternal gratitude to Amy for holding me tightly the whole way to keep me from falling). Some of us wanted to explore individually so we agreed to meet back at the entrance side of the temple pool an hour later. It was a breath-taking place at night. The brilliant gold of the temple shone beautifully in the dark water of the large pool that it sits on and there are thousands of people who visit it every day. The temple complex never closes (though the holy book gets "put to sleep" around 10:30 or 11 each night), so many people come and sleep in the alcoves, and there is a kitchen that serves about 40,000 people a day for free. I wandered very slowly just drinking everything in and trying to ignore the fact that I was drawing as many stares as ever. Less than a quarter of the way around, a group of 4 girls (ages 7-14) said hello to me and then proceeded to adopt me into their group. I sat down with them and we stumbled through introducing ourselves, them teaching me that "hanji" means "yes", and establishing that 3 of them were sisters and the other was a schoolmate. They then took me back to the alcove to introduce me to their mother, two older sisters, and older brother (I think I startled him because he was sleeping, but they woke him up to introduce him to me, and he looked rather surprised to find a white girl sitting at his head when he woke up, haha). I sat with them for a few minutes, took their picture, and then said that I was going to keep walking to meet my friends and enjoy the temple. We parted with smiles and "namiste"s all around and I continued on. The girls caught up with me not 20 yards away and said they'd walk with me. Though communication was a major barrier, we laughed through our language blunders and I was happy for their company as it made the guys (and one awkward middle-aged man) who had been following me disperse. We talked some about family (I successfully told them that I have two older sisters and a brother-in-law) and the youngest, Trinka, told me that I looked like Hannah Montana, haha. At one point, two families with small children were walking with us and took pictures with me, too. We got back to the appointed meeting place and the girls decided to wait with me so they could meet my friends. While we waited, I met a very nice young woman named Rosie who approached them to ask something about her phone service (I think) and then realized that we couldn't understand one another so she translated because she is a student at the University of Delhi and speaks good English. I also had a brief but nice conversation with an older Sikh man who asked me where I was from and then told me about a school in Amritsar for Christians who are converting to Sikhism. Hemanshu, Prof Mason, and the girls arrived shortly and after introducing Catherine and Amy to my new friends, I had to tell them goodbye and we headed out. It was such a lovely experience and I was so grateful that I had decided to come to the temple that night or I would have missed it! Prof Mason said that young women who are alone seem to have experiences like that much more often than any young men he's ever taken to India. I guess people are more prone to adopting the lost looking girls, haha.

After a very short night's sleep, we loaded up into the bus for the whole group to the Temple. It was storming when we woke up, but the rain stopped as we gathered in the lobby. The overcast feel of the sky, however, stayed which meant we had the lucky experience of seeing the Golden Temple in the daytime without being scorched by the sun as we walked along the white marble. On my way to gather in a corner with our guide, I saw my friends from the night before and we exchanged happy waves and then a sweet voice next to me said "Do you remember me?" And it was Rosie :) We chatted just for a few minutes and then had to separate as I went to hear the guide. It was nice to feel like the night before was real. There was a miscommunication on my end somehow and after initial talk from our guide, I thought that we were wandering on our own again and would meet in an hour at the front. I had a lovely hour of taking pictures, having pictures taken of me (sometimes just me standing there, sometimes with people being in them with me), and appreciating the beauty of the inside of the temple because I hadn't gone in the night before. I wandered to the meeting spot on time and didn't see anyone, but wasn't worried. I turned my phone on just in case and then pleasantly continued to take in the people bathing in the pool, the small children playing, and the general colorful mix of people all around me. When 5 minutes had passed with no sign of any others from the group, I began to wonder if I had somehow been left, but wasn't concerned and just decided I would stay there because that would be the easy place for them to find me when they came back to look for me. My phone rang then and it was Hemanshu telling me that they were all in the inner sanctum of the temple and would be at the front in 15 minutes or so. I was surprised that they had all managed to end up there at the same time, but happily sat down by the pool to wait and have some quiet time of prayer. When they got there, someone asked me how I had gotten lost. "What do you mean 'lost'? Were we supposed to all be together?" Apparently the guide was going to lead us all around the temple! Though they got to see the kitchens which was interesting, many people had wished they could have wandered on their own, not finding our guide to be their favorite. Prof Mason asked me how I had escaped and I said I didn't realize that I had. He said he kept trying to, but the guide would corral him back in, haha. Most of the group was hungry for breakfast by this point, but Prof Mason and Hemanshu wanted some alone time (sans guide), so the two of them, and Catherine, Amy, and I stayed for another hour or so. After a lovely morning there we went to a street restaurant and had a delicious Indian breakfast since the hotel breakfast was already closed, went back to the hotel and took a 45 minute nap, and then reconvened at noon to check out of the hotel.

Our train back to Delhi didn't leave until 5 so we visited the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, the site where British troops opened fire on hundred of unarmed Indians without warning, many of whom jumped in a well to try to escape. It was a beautiful but heart-breaking place to be. Hemanshu said that this event was a turning point in Indians' understanding and unification towards separating from the British. I was reminded of the scene in The Patriot when Colonel Tavington has the church full of villagers burned down, unable to see that nothing could and would strengthen the resistance more than actions like that.

After an ice cream stop and a delicious lunch (the ice cream was while we were figuring out where to go to lunch, haha), it was back to the train station and another 6hr drive of conversation, tea, reading "Three Cups of Tea", and attempting to doze. Then an exhausted return to Neeti Bagh and finally some sweet sleep :)

A walk in the park

This afternoon was rare in that we finished class early and there were not plans to go to a market, historic palace or fort, or some other sightseeing around Delhi. Since we have to leave the residence at 6:15am tomorrow to catch our train to Amritsar, I didn't particularly feel the need to go looking for something to do in the city. I decided, instead, that I was going to go read while walking in the neighborhood park.

One of the things that I love about Neeti Bagh (and communities in India in general) is that they are still designed on the premise that not everyone has a car and, even if they have one, they shouldn't have to hop in it whenever they need the smallest thing. Within a few minutes walk down the street from my door I can reach Neeti Bagh's small market that has two 24hr ATMs, a chemist (aka pharmacist), a stand that sells soft drinks and chips, a pet hospital, a tailor, and two salons (one for women and one for men - although the men's is called the "Beauty Saloon"...don't ask me). Walking down the street a few minutes the other direction and about 30 seconds outside the gates of Neeti Bagh is another small market that has a few take-out restaurants (both delicious!), a few small "grocery stores", a tailor, and a number of other small businesses. Along the street and within the neighborhood there are always numerous fruit and vegetable carts and usually a wandering ice cream stand. There are a number of small fields in the neighborhood, so there is always at least one game of cricket going on. And in the center of Neeti Bagh is the park.

The park is lovely - I am enchanted with it. Though there are gates on all sides of the fence, only the one that leads the path in is kept unlocked, so that is where the guard sits (guards are everywhere in India - stores, ATMs, parks, residences ). I am horrible with judging sizes/numbers/distances of things, so I don't know how big it is, but it is quite large enough for all that I'm about to describe to you. There is a brick path that runs all the way around the park, with a dirt path running alongside it - as a runner, I appreciate the option of surfaces, especially as the dirt is easier on the knees - not that I've been running here, though, haha! There are trees around the paths and inside the paths there is a huge green space that has trees, benches, open spaces, wire animals (elephants, kangaroos, tigers...), sprinklers, and many friendly dogs.

When I got there at 5:30, there were only a few other people there. It was still a little early for Indians to be voluntarily spending time out-of-doors. Since the sun was on its way down and I was not directly in it, it felt quite pleasant and I was greatly enjoying walking along the path with my book (I have since checked to see what the temperature was then - never in my life did I think I would reach a place where 106 degrees felt pleasant!). As time passed, the park came alive. By the time Catherine joined me at 6:30, it was full of children chasing each other or playing cricket or playing soccer with their parents, adults in 2s and 3s walking briskly together, people relaxing on the benches, and a few adults helping their elderly parents walk along the dirt path with their walkers. I couldn't get enough of it!

The book that I am reading is "Three Cups of Tea." My sister Suzanne has been telling me to read it for ages and now that I am almost halfway through, please allow me to say: if you haven't read it - PLEASE go get it now! It's amazing. But that's a whole separate blog that I will get to once I'm done, haha. As I was reading and walking today, I was reading a part of the book where Greg (the man the book follows) is thinking about life in America versus life in the Pakistani village where he is trying to build a school for the children. At one point he quotes a Bhutan king who says that the true measure of a nation's success is not its gross national product, but rather its "gross national happiness." When I read that, I couldn't help but look up and see the happiness in the community around me.

I love that community. I love that people find joy in coming to the park in the early evening in whatever state they choose to come in -some men in business slacks and shirts; some women who had donned sneakers with their sarees or salwar camiz- and interact with one another. To me it seems like this is their transition from day to night, from job to home, from business world to family world. How lovely to make that transition out in the park with one another, with family, with friends, with children, rather than the sad-but-often-true American transition of coming home, turning the TV on and maybe having the family all in one room watching the same thing. There is a joy found in community (and it is palpable here) that simply cannot be found alone. Are we keeping that joy confined in our own individual houses or have we lost it all together? If the former, why do we not recognize that that joy could be so much greater when shared with others? And if, sadly, the latter, are we even aware that we're missing something so vital?

Community is essential. That is a lesson that I have been learning constantly for the past year and a half. I pray that I will remember that and that others will too. We are relational beings and we can't love others well if we're never with them!

***
When I reached the park to begin my reading and walking today, I realized that I hadn't brought anything with me except my book - no wallet, no camera. I decided that I would step back from the tourist and just be a Neeti Bagh resident, just walking and reading in my Indian clothes and Indian shoes in my Indian park with my Indian neighbors. I would just soak it in. And I did :)

A new appreciation

I'm off to class, but briefly wanted to share a thought that I was discussing with a friend last night.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus washes the disciples feet and it is a sign of Him lowering Himself to our level and even lower to reach us and to serve and it is supposed to be an example of how we treat one another. In our day and age and culture, it is an image that does not always make a lot of sense because we don't walk around barefoot, wash our feet before entering someone's house, or sit for meals in such a way that our feet matter. We understand that it was a nice gesture, but that's about it.

Not so in India. After walking in sandals day after day through dusty streets, grimy markets, dirty rickshaws - there is a layer of dirt that just doesn't come off in the shower. The idea of the Son of God humbling Himself to wash His friends' and loved ones' feet is amazing because I know that their feet must be even dirtier than mine. And I would be as resistant as Peter if Jesus wanted to wash my feet right now!

It seems to me odd that this realization has affected me so powerfully, but it is an image I can't get out of my head. How blessed we are to have such a Friend and such a Savior, who would lay down His life to wash our grimy, filthy, dirty feet (and lives) clean.

Monkey Scare

While I have far too many stories from our trip this past week to share them all, I will try to do justice to one. Because, really, how often do you fear that your life might end by monkey attack?? (And while I'm sure it wasn't a truly legitimate possibility, it sure felt like it at the time!). So, once upon a time, on Tuesday... :)

We arrived in Vrindavan, a town quite unlike the areas we have been thus far. As I said in my earlier post, it is almost completely a pilgrimage town so the narrow, winding streets are lined with stores almost all of which are dedicated to selling Krishna souvenirs. Aside from the pilgrims and locals, the main inhabitants of the town are rhesus monkeys. They roam uninhibited and with no problem being in human space. And unfortunately, because of the incredibly poor sanitary conditions of the town in general, they are often very dirty, if not diseased. Prof Mason has been warning us about these monkeys since our pre-departure meetings at Rhodes (especially because he was attacked by 5 of them at one point when he lived in Vrindavan for 7 months working on his dissertation). Our guidelines from Prof Mason and Hemanshu included, but were not limited to:
1) When outside of a building, do NOT wear eyeglasses or sunglasses. The monkeys will steal them right off your face and will only relinquish them in exchange for food. And if you aren't fast enough with tossing food, say goodbye to any semblance of functional glasses.
2) Do not openly stare at a monkey if you are anywhere near it; it may take it as a threat. This includes cameras, so if taking pictures, be sneaky or only take them from far away.
3) Do not get close to an adult monkey with its baby/ies or a baby if it appears to be alone (because the parents are probably not far off). Monkey parents are fiercely aggressive if they feel that their babies are being threatened.
4) Do not go anywhere near a lone male. They're just looking for trouble.

So with these warnings ringing in our ears, we arrived in Vrindavan ready to ward off the beasts (read: "run for our lives from them").

Now as people who know me can attest, I love animals! I think they are wonderful, so interesting in their own ways, and so loving. I have a special place in my heart for them, right behind God, family and friends, and babies/small children :) So suffice it to say, I was having to repeat the warnings to myself constantly to remind myself that I shouldn't try to make friends with the monkeys, I should just love them from a distance. And I did this successfully for our afternoon of exploring the ashram, wandering up and down the river, and exploring some of the market. But then came the time of waiting for our visit to the temple and dinner...

The ashram was quiet as much of the group had stayed in the market to visit a bead shop, so I decided to go up to the roof to watch dusk settle into night over this new strange town. Prof Mason had shown us the roof earlier, so I knew how to open the iron gate of a door and that the roof had multiple levels and a couple small building-rooms in the middle. I knew that there might be some monkeys up there, but that there would be plenty of space for us to be nowhere near each other.

So my heart leapt a little when I managed to scrape open the iron bolt and open the door only to discover 2 monkeys sitting not 6 feet in front of me. After my small start of surprise, I could tell that they didn't care at all that I had just appeared so I mosied my way to the other side of the roof, the lower area, leaving a good 50 feet at least between where I wandered and the upper roof where 8 monkeys (give or take a few as they moved around) were residing. I spent a very pleasant 30 minutes in quiet appreciation of the novelty of my surroundings: the monkeys I could see scrambling around all of the roofs in view (including a mother nursing a few babies two buildings over); 3 roof-fulls of children flying kites into the setting sun; colorful boats lining the river; bats waking up and beginning their evening escapades; drums and chanting beginning from multiple directions as people began their evening devotions...a cacophany of life all so foreign and wonderful and interesting to me!

As darkness fell, I walked over to the railing that overlooked the courtyard so I could try to see what was going on in the hut shrines. As I let myself soak in the atmosphere, I did not think about what my monkey roofmates might be up to and there was now one of the roof buildings between me and the upper roof where they had been hanging out. After 10 minutes or so, something made me glance to the left - and my stomach dropped. 3 adult monkeys were 7 feet from me and heading right towards me in the space between the railing and the building! I quickly headed back to the center of the roof with thoughts of "I didn't get a rabies shot!", "I'm all alone up here!", "Will anyone hear me or be able to do anything if I scream while I'm attacked??", "Why is there only one way off this roof??"...and all of that in the span of the maybe 1 second it took me to reach the other side of the roof building. And since my stomach couldn't drop any lower, my heart leapt to my throat: 6 other monkeys had moved from the upper roof to the lower roof, not moving towards me (thank goodness - I might have passed out right there), but all looking intently in the direction of my very non-monkey presence. So now the new thought that joined the tirade of others was "They're between me and the door! Okay, STAY CALM. WALK SLOWLY. DON'T MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVEMENTS. DON'T LOOK AT THEM DIRECTLY. Thank goodness there are no monkey babies!" I slowly and deliberately tip-toed along the wall of the roof building, looking towards the door and praying that the monkey who was about 3 feet from it would become interested in something else. Thankfully it hopped up onto the railing which made me feel slightly better. Until two of the adults that had originally stalked me bounded right across in front of me - causing my heart to stop completely for the .5 seconds that I thought they were coming to attack. I sprinted the last 4 feet to the iron gate, frantically worked the bolt open, slammed and bolted it behind me, and ran down the 3 flights of stairs (which now that I think about it must have been purely out of adrenaline because I was no longer in any danger of being attacked by my furry friends).

The whole situation could not have lasted longer than 2 minutes, but they were definitely two of the most fear and adrenaline filled minutes of my life! After regaling Prof Mason with my tale, he reckoned that once night fell, they were ready to defend their territory against the unknown. Although, lucky for me, they seem to have been more curious about me than threatened because if they had felt really threatened their hesitation in attacking me would have been around zero...so YAY for me not appearing too threatening to a band of monkeys! I did admit to Catherine, though, that it was probably not a bad thing for me to have this experience in order to thoroughly quash my leanings towards an "oh, but they're so cute, I must love them and hug them" approach, haha.

So I believe I would add a new warning to Prof Mason's and Hemanshu's list:

5) Do NOT be near monkeys when night falls. Especially not alone. Especially with only one exit. Especially without a rabies shot.

Camels and elephants and monkeys....and more!

We're back! Yesterday late afternoon, we arrived back in home sweet Neeti Bagh after our journey to Jaipur, Agra, and Vrindavan. It was quite a trip! Like the rest of this Indian adventure has been so far, there is too much going on all the time and too much that it will take me a looong time to process for me to describe everything, but I'll do my best to hit the highlights.

Saturday morning, looking a little bleary-eyed, we loaded up into a big blue and yellow bus that said TOURIST in big bold letters across the top of the windshield. Funny, I hadn't known that we could be more conspicuous than we'd been already just traveling around in small cars as a large group of white people. So much for any hope of a decrease in stares.

We rumbled along in this monstrous bus for 5-6 hours along highways, main roads and 2-lane roads. You know my feelings about driving in Delhi. What I have now learned is that outside of cities, lanes are believed in a little more, but our bus driver was very confident in the fact that he was the biggest thing on the road and therefore could do as he pleased (for the most part) and everyone else would react to him or pay the price (the price being getting smushed by a gigantic bus full of Westerners - who maybe you were staring at in the first place and that's why you didn't react and are now smushed!). We knew we were out of Delhi and heading to new places when camels started appearing along the road - pulling carts, carrying riders, or pulling farm equipment in the fields.

We made it to Jaipur without smushing anyone/thing and settled into a beautiful hotel - we truly were living in the lap of luxury for India (and it would have been a very nice hotel in America, too). Some people went out to investigate the pool. I hunkered down in my room and read a chapter of my book (since in the bus I hadn't wanted to read because then I wouldn't have been able to look out the window) and promptly took a lovely nap :) Saturday night we went to a resort on the other side of Jaipur that has a "village" within it where one can eat a delicious authentic meal sitting on the floor of a hut with banana leaf plates and bowls, and then venture out of the hut to see dancers, puppet shows, and palm readers, get henna, look through a few shops, and ride a camel and/or elephant! It was like Indian DisneyWorld. We had a blast -though having a camel stand up and sit down when you are astride it is a little unsettling!- and I was thrilled to learn from Sunita that all of the proceeds go to the villagers who work there and their home village.

On Sunday, we visited the Amber Fort (known to Jaipur natives as the Red Fort, as opposed to the "real" Red Fort in Delhi) which was very big and very beautiful - and we got to ride up to it on elephants! Our guide took us to a workplace where the owner showed us how printing works on fabric, how carpets are made (some of them were exquisite!), and then had a large area of fabrics, bedspreads, tablecloths, sarees, and much more. All of the girls tried on sarees and explored the store (the two guys on our trip are doing their best, haha). The long day continued with a visit to the Maharaja's City Palace and observatory, but it was all very beautiful and worth the hot, sweaty exhaustion. We all tend to agree that, while some of the days have been very long, how can we not take advantage of doing these things while we are here in this place where we very likely will never be again?

Monday morning we hopped back in our blue and yellow machine and headed to Agra. We stopped on the way at a place called Fatehpur Sikri where the emperor Akbar had prayed for a child and his wife (as opposed to the rest of the harem) finally conceived, so he decided to move his capital there. After 15 years of construction and beginning to live there, they realized that water was to scarce, so it was abandoned and is now just a tourist attraction. Talk about good planning! It was beautiful and there is a mosque there with his beautiful white marble tomb in it, but we didn't have the time I would have wanted in the mosque as the ground was scorching our feet, our guide was hurrying us along, and there were throngs of people just dying to talk to, stare at, or sell to the white girls. So back to the bus we went. We arrived safely in Agra where we settled into another nice hotel (same hotel family, though not as nice as in Jaipur) and met Hemanshu who had come to switch off with Sunita. Catherine, Amy and I spent a nice couple of hours talking at a coffee shop right next to the hotel -where we got to enjoy an amazing array of old-school American music: a little Eminem, some Pussycat Dolls, Black Eyed Peas covers, and much much more- before the whole group went to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was the night before Grey's birthday so all of the waiters called her to the front of the restaurant so she could stand before them while they did a Bollywood dance for her. It was aweseome :) It was then time to be off to bed since we were going to leave the hotel at 5:30am so we could get to the Taj Mahal early.

So you can imagine the stressful first few minutes of the day when Grey and I were awoken by our weird screeching hotel room doorbell going off at 5:37 because we'd slept through our alarm! Amazingly, we were downstairs ready to go at 5:43 - including me putting on my new saree! The Taj was simply beautiful. Such a unique building, beautiful location and grounds. I was amused, though, that he went to such great lengths as to have a separate not-for-use mosque built on the right so that it would be symmetrical with the mosque on the left, but then the complete perfect symmetry was totally abandoned when he died and his daughter thought he should be with his wife, so his tomb is now next to hers. I discovered in our time at the Taj and then our visit to the Agra Fort, 1) Indians loved seeing an American in a saree, either because they thought it was funny or because they thought it was great and wanted to compliment me or take a picture with or of me, and 2) if I am wearing something out of the ordinary, I don't mind at all that people stare at me; it is when I am being stared at for just being me that I get frustrated.

After our sightseeing, we loaded back up in the giant TOURIST machine and headed on to Vrindavan. Unlike the other places we have been, Vrindavan is visited by pilgrims, not tourists. It is a devotional city because of so many of the acts of Krishna supposedly taking place in and around it. Professor Mason lived in Vrindavan for 7 months with his family when he was working on his dissertation, so he knows and loves it well. We stayed at an ashram that he had stayed in before and taken students to on the other Rhodes summer program he lead a few years ago. We were lucky that they have added AC to some rooms since that time and were kind enough to give those rooms to us (although the electricity and AC were finicky things and some people had a much hotter night than we would have hoped for). One of the things that we had been warned about many times was that Vrindavan is overrun by monkeys, and not the docile langurs, but the aggressive rhesus. None of us suffered any kind of monkey attack, thank goodness, but I did learn that you shouldn't be on the roof (especially alone) when it turns to night because they will start to defend their territory - I had an adrenaline-pounding few minutes of avoiding the monkeys moving towards me in order to get to the door and the sanctuary of bars between us!

Yesterday morning, we got back in the blue beast for the last drive "home." We stopped briefly in Mathura which is just outside of Vrindavan and is the birth place of Krishna (which is now a carnival-esque place with a temple, an animatronics buidling depicting miniature scenes from Krishna's life, a "cave of wonders" with scenes from his life, and much more). Unaware of the extent of the undertaking of seeing the birthplace, some of us didn't bring water or what we needed, so I experienced my first bad time of light-headedness/dehyrdation, etc. Luckily, once we were back in the semi-cool bus and I drank a bottle of water with a gatorade pack in it (bleck!), I gradually felt fine again. A few hours of trying to doze but being blasted awake every 7 minutes or so by the terrible horn of our beast warning that it might run someone over, and lots and lots of construction later, we arrived back in our now-familiar neighborhood of Neeti Bagh.

I wish I could tell all of the stories of the trip, instead of just the cut-and-dried "here's what we did", but I unfortunately don't have the time and, honestly, most of it is still circulating. I continue to see things every day that make me smile or break my heart. India is a roller coaster ride. But I'm growing every day and I thank my gracious Lord for that!

Heading out of Delhi...

We're off for new adventures in the morning! At 7:30 (assuming we all get our act together and are hustling) we will load up in a bus to explore Jaipur, Agra, and Vrindavan until returning to Delhi on Wednesday. We have lots on our itinerary, not all of which we may accomplish, but we will definitely be visiting the Taj Mahal. And I have my fingers crossed that I'll get to ride a camel and/or elephant! Lots of stories to come, I'm sure...

Please be praying for safe travels!

Bits of Home in Delhi

For the most part (from what I have seen thus far), India is almost nothing like America. We are all about convenience and individualism and processed foods and the ability to have what we need (ahem, want?) instantly available at our fingertips. As fast-paced as India still is, it's different. It isn't designed on the assumption that people have cars and can drive distances to get whatever they need, so each neighborhood has at least a few little shops (for example, Neeti Bagh has a 24hr ATM, a chemist , a pet shop/hospital, and a couple assorted grocery-type stores). Family is hugely important and many people live with or near extended family members and life is lived together. You can get fresh fruits and vegetables off of carts at almost every corner (though, we unfortunately, are advised not to eat them if we can't peel it ourself, for sanitation reasons). And Indians make do with what they have. Power goes off at least once a day in Delhi (yesterday 3 times) and in more rural areas they sometimes always shut it off at a particular time, for example: some places have a system that all power stops at 8pm for the night. Water, also, runs out sometimes. They do their best. Unfamiliarity is one of the best words to sum up the trip thus far.

BUT little pieces of home pop up here, too, and sometimes in the most unlikely places. For example, some of us went to the Defence Colony Market this morning and one of the things I needed to do was buy new headphones (my week-old ones are broken...a Kelly Prak spaz moment ). As I was waiting for the electronics man to finish business with the woman in front of me, his cell phone went off. He answered it quickly, but not before Leila and I had excitedly turned to one another in shock. His ringtone had been the first few words of the chorus of Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Unmistakeable. It was like a little hug from the world I know :)

We then went to lunch at a delicious restaurant called Chilli Seasonss, offering a mixture of Indian Chinese, Thai, and Burmese food. We were eating a little earlier than most Indians eat lunch, so when the music turned on, they apparently had chosen it just for us. The best way to describe the station or mix or whatever they had on was American Chill Soul music. The first song they played? "Walking in Memphis". Hello home! Even the people in the group who don't particularly care for the song were thrilled that it was on. And each song just made us love it more and more. I hadn't realized how much I have been missing being able to hear music I recognize and sing along (either out loud or in my head) - no wonder everything's been so challenging...I haven't had my release of singing!

All in all, home has been waving at me today, bringing me such joy with every unexpected bit :)

And I thought I had car anxiety in America...

Many people can attest to the fact that I hate cars. I don't like the fact that we drive around in giant killing machines and that you can't control whether the people in the killing machines around you are responsible drivers or not. I get anxiety if I am the passenger in a car where I don't know the driver or if they aren't driving safely. I prefer being the driver because then I know that I am in control of my vehicle and responding to what other's on the road do, instead of being in no control at all. And, though I consider myself to be a generally calm and non-confrontational person, get into my car and start messing around and you will meet a Kelly Prak you've never seen before (a pretty terrifying one, as some of my friends can attest to, haha).

But that is all in America. A country where people expect one another to stay in their lane, use turn signals, use their horn only when necessary, carefully avoid pedestrians, and wait their turn even if the line is long. Jet around the world to Delhi, India. OH MY GOSH. Because of my carsickness on the drive from the airport Friday night, I did not open my eyes. So Saturday morning was my first time looking at the Delhi traffic as I rode in it. And what a horrifying scene met my eyes! [Now, as far as my background knowledge: I noticed as we were waiting to board our flight to Delhi that the majority Indian crowd was eager to push forward, regardless of whether people were actually moving onto the plane or not, forming more of a mosh pit than a queue; and the nice man who sat next to me on the plane said I would be shocked by the traffic]. As Prof Mason said, Indians only know one direction: forward. If that is where they want to go, there is no diverting them, no matter who or what is in the way or already in the space. Lanes? What are those? Most roads in India don't even have lanes drawn because they are just ignored when they're there. On a road that is theoretically designed to be two lanes, you'll find 5 "lanes" across of motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, taxis, trucks, cars, vans....and there is no method to the madness! Vehicles weave around one another into non-existence space in a desperate attempt to get where they want to go, not caring that they are cutting someone off or almost hitting a pedestrian or (my personal terrified "favorite") driving ON THE COMPLETE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD.

Horns are also used liberally. In the US, horns have a few simple meanings that are used occasionally, such as, "Watch out, you just pulled in front of me too close and I'm annoyed!"; "You slammed on your brakes and I almost hit you!"; "Why are you going soooo slow on this one lane road where I can't pass you?"; or with a friendly little toot of the horn, "Excuse me, I need your attention to tell you your gas door is open/get directions/etc." Now in INDIA, the horn means one thing and one thing only, as far as I can tell. "I AM COMING INTO THIS SPACE, SO IF YOU'RE IN IT MOVE BECAUSE I'M BLOWING MY HORN SO THAT IS ME CLAIMING THE SPACE AS MINE!!!!" I have never heard horns used so often or so vehemently. It is a horrible constant cacophany of "Get out of my way"s. Some places have "Please Do Not Honk" signs, such as neighborhoods, driveway gates, and some places along the road (I haven't been able to figure out what is special about those places). They are small areas, so they seem to work decently. On the other hand, some auto-rickshaws or trucks have those pleas written on their rears and I just have to laugh because they are so useless. I'm worried that I'm going to get back home and be so conditioned to ignoring honking, that I don't realize it means something important again.

It is really just a scene of constant chaos. Motorbikes winding their way through cracks that don't exist -sometimes with up to a family of 4 on them!-, pedestrians crossing the street wherever they want or walking along the edges in the street because the sidewalks are all under construction or covered with stands, people hopping on and off the public buses as they slow down or speed up. One of the most hectic areas are the giant traffic circles because, as there are no lanes, you have vehicles literally going in every direction as they try to merge on, off, or keep going "straight."

Suffice it to say that I have sworn an unbreakable oath with myself to NEVER drive a vehicle in Delhi. We have three taxis that take us to and from classes and to and from our excursions when it is a "scheduled activity" with the whole group, so I have found my favorite driver, a sweet man with a steady hand in this craziness, so I desperately try to ride in his car everytime. I will stick with him driving, looking at what we are passing off the road so that I don't see what is going on all around me, and clapping my hand over my mouth with eyes tight shut when I think we're about to kill or be killed.

Say a little prayer for three weeks of travel mercies, please!

"I am praying for the light that will dispel the darkness" - Gandhi

Few people would disagree with the fact that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an amazing man, full of a love for all of humanity (and creation), and hugely influential the world over. So inspiring was he that he was given the title of Mahatma ("Great Soul") and many in India called him Bapu ("Father"). He desired much for India - rejecting the caste system's hold on people, fighting unfair taxes, wanting to reinforce the idea of community (clearly seen in his developments of ashrams) - most of all its unity. He maintained that the plight of the poor and the overlooked was the responsibility of all.

Yesterday, we visited the National Gandhi Museum here in Delhi, located where he was assassinated January 30, 1948. The residence in which he was staying has been turned completely into a museum that walks visitors through his entire life, his teachings, his heart for all people, and then, finally, through the last 48 hours of his life. The first floor is full of photos and quotes by Gandhi and by others about him, all displayed in Hindi and in English, and at the far side, shows the room that Gandhi stayed in, still set up as he had it: a bed on the floor, a writing desk, a tin cup, a spoon, his glasses, and nothing else. The second floor is interactive displays and videos that are meant to demonstrate Gandhi's teachings in more technological ways. There is a room that was built to be part of an ashram, with the floor made of the mixture of mud and cow dung that is commonly used in India to build huts and to make floors and a pole that you could spin one of the 11 rungs of to learn about a particular rule from the 11 guidelines that Gandhiji laid out for ashram-living; there is a pole of peace that lights up if you and another person stand in a particular place on either side and hold hands, but it will not light up otherwise, because peace cannot be achieved alone; there are examples of the "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" monkeys that Gandhi had a set of; and many others.

When you are finished inside, there is much more to visit outside, including a number of huts where you can see examples of ashram-living and many more displays of quotes, information, etc. The most poignant and special thing, though, is you can follow the path that Gandhi walked his last steps upon as he went out to prayer meeting that last day. At the spot he was killed, they have made a memorial, which you may approach after taking off your shoes, and the prayer meeting space is now decorated in a beautiful mural that depicts scenes from Gandhi's life. I'm having trouble loading the video of the walk to this post, but I'll try again later.

It was a humbling place to spend time. This man gave his life and inspired many with his love and compassion. And as a cartoon depicting Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr, stated so wisely: "The odd thing about assassins, Dr. King, is that they think they've killed you." How grateful I am that that is untrue!

"Hello Miss Beauty Queen! Welcome to India!"

Being a celebrity has never been a life that I have been very interested in. Oh sure, I danced and sang around my room while I was growing up (and I plead the 5th about whether I still do it now that I'm an "adult"...) pretending to be a famous singer or actress or what-have-you, but the actual life of someone famous has never appealed to me. Let's just say that the past 2 days in India have introduced us a little to what it must be like to be recognized everywhere you go. We, of course, are not being recognized for who we actually are, but for who we are as foreigners - light-skinned, light-haired foreign girls (although the two guys on the trip have gotten lots of stares, too). Today especially as we toured the Red Fort (with our absolutey hilariously ridiculous tour guide Mr. Kohli who deserves a post to himself), weaved our way through a busy crowded market, and visited the Jama Masjid (one of the largest Mosques in Asia) we realized how much we stand out because of the literal crowds that we attracted. And many of them took pictures of us! Some of us started taking pictures of them if they pulled out their phones to take pictures of us, haha. At the Jama Masjid, a man approached Grey and me and said his mother would like a picture with us, so we took one with this sweet petite old woman in her lovely pink sari. A few other people throughout the day asked for pictures with some of us as well. It was quite an odd feeling to have people be so intrigued with us!

As has been made clear to us by the crowds and by people's reactions as we walk places, Indians have no problem staring openly. In America, if we get caught staring at someone, most people would immediately look away or feel awkward. Indians feel no such shame. And unfortunately, not all of the attention is just out of fascination or curiousity. Most Indians know enough English to be able to compliment you in hopes of you stopping at their stand (hence the title of this post - as flattered as I could have been, I was pretty sure from the sweat dripping all over me, flushed face, and dehydrated panting that I was not looking my best so he either had ulterior motives or has no eye for beauty!). Some young men walked along with us in the market for a ways with persistent murmurs of "Come over here, please. Come with me, come over to me, please" - thank you very much, but NO. And I learned a lesson about Indian culture when we were waiting for our cars and a man got out of his car and asked for a picture (his friend in the car had a camera phone). He put his arm around my shoulders for the picture and I was not uncomfortable because we do that in the US and I was with my group, but I learned -after Hemanshu came over, took his arm off me, and told him off in Hindi- that it is completely inappropriate for a man to touch a woman who is not a family member in India! In response to this situation and a question about homosexuality in India, Hemanshu explained that Indians are very physically affectionate, but ONLY with their own sex. It is not uncommon to see men walking down the street with their arms linked or holding hands, but it is inappropriate for men and women to be physically affectionate (or really even touch at all) in public. Well, I've now learned my lesson!

One of the interactions I had today that simply amused me was with a young man at the mosque. He approached me as I was looking around with a pleasant smile and asked me what country I was from. We stumbled through some communication problems when I was trying the United States, but once I tried America we understood each other. He asked where in relation to New York I was from because he has a brother who lives there, he asked my occupation and, once he learned I was a student, he asked what my subject of interest was and I learned that he is a professional of some kind. I asked if he lived in Delhi and he said that yes, he has always lived here. He then asked if I was married or unmarried. Upon hearing unmarried, he said "Ah, I am unmarried, too." I think I said something along the lines of "oh, that's nice...well I'm going to keep looking around, it was nice to talk to you" and he said something about oh ok understanding I wanted to see more. It had been a very friendly smiley conversation to that point, but I decided that I wasn't interested to find out where that question might lead, haha. A few miscommunications and confused nervous inaction on my part and I could have found myself agreeing to move to Delhi to marry! As pleasant as he seemed, I'm happy with my decision to continue meandering through the Jama Masjid :)

Welcome to India!

Well, we made it here in one piece! I was so grateful that the majority of our group met up before the Newark-Delhi flight; it made the 3 hr layover much better to have people to hang out with so I didn't just sit there stressing, haha.

The 15hr flight went smoothly and didn't seem to last forever thanks to various modes of entertainment (watching the three Bourne movies and then continuing my listening of the 7th Harry Potter book). And I was on an aisle, so I could get up and down whenever I needed to - which was often, since I was able to doze maybe a total of an hour and a half the entire time. The man next to me lives in Delhi and had been in the US for business meetings for a few weeks, so we had a very nice chat about India. He told me that the two biggest things that would blow my mind would be 1) the temperature, and 2) the traffic! I'll get back to that in a minute. There were SO many small children and babies on the plane. I especially loved the bulk head seats that had little basinets on the wall in front of them - precious! I tried some new foods to go ahead and get the ball rolling with that aspect of the adventure. My favorite was Mango Shrikhand. It was a bright orange pudding/yogurt type food, the ingredients of which are: yogurt, sugar, mango pieces, mango pulp, mango essence (this intrigued me), saffron, cardamon, nutmeg, almonds & pistachios. There were some chunks of stuff that I picked around because I didn't like the texture, but other than that, I thought it was pretty delicious :)

We landed, found one another, and ventured off to stand in line to turn our entrance forms in, get the bags some people had checked (everyone's arrived!), passed through customs with ease since no one was declaring anything, and then found Prof Mason. Catherine and I had a semi-stressful experience trying to work the ATM, starting with it not taking my card for a couple minutes and then me letting out a ridiculous squeak when it ate my card (because I had been fighting with it for so long and because I'm not used to machines that aren't just me swiping the card). Prof Mason had 3 vans lined up to bring us to the Residence. And with this drive I was introduced to Indian traffic and driving :-\ Now disclaimer: I am prone to motion sickness normally. This week at home, I think because of the bronchitis, I have been easily motion sick when riding around town, so I had a store of starlight mints (seriously, they're amazing for settling stomachs!) in my bag because my Mom is wonderful and bought me some before I left. It became apparent to me that I needed one very shortly into my drive. I was hoping that the combination of that, keeping my eyes closed, and resting my head in the AC blast zone would be enough to make me feel alright like it usually is. Alas, that was not the case. Probably the combination of so many things going on with my body - exhaustion, motion sickness, bronchitis, new foods, etc - I spent a little quality time with the plastic bag that I luckily had at my disposal. Bleck. Not my ideal way to spend my first drive through India, but I'll actually look around at the surroundings some other time.

We're settling into our rooms at the IES Residence after meeting with Himanshu, our "house father" figure, and talking briefly about the basics of staying here. Real orientation starts tomorrow at 10am. Since it is almost midnight here, I guess it works out that I didn't sleep on the plane and am therefore really tired...hopefully it will help my body adjust quicker to the time change. We shall see. Off to bed soon and then it's India 101 tomorrow! :)

Aaaand I'm off!

This is it. Time to be off on my adventure. I spent the morning rushing around getting my last minute things together (made difficult by Ben following me around and sprawling on top of whatever I was trying to work with at the moment) while listening to the 7th Harry Potter book on my ipod. After a lunch of my favorite comfort food - Prak homemade mac&cheese! - it will be off to the airport and my travels will be underway. I think everything will hit me when I reach my gate at RDU, finally not having any busy things I can be doing to prepare, as I wait for my flight to Newark where I will meet up with most of the group. We will then settle in for a 15-hr flight to Delhi. Prof Mason is already there and he emailed us this morning with a few thoughts, one of which was "It is a furnace. My eyelids are sweating." Woohoo! Haha, the extreme temperature change will be an adventure to itself. Luckily it isn't as humid as usual, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that will continue for the next 3 1/2 weeks!

I can't believe this is finally happening! I'm so excited - and terrified - and thrilled! Please be praying for safe travels for everyone and for peace of mind as we embark on our journey to a world so different than our own. I should have internet access so that I can blog and receive emails/facebook/etc, so please feel free to keep in touch! I love y'all! :)