Blogs from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, Asia

Shalom: peace (used as a word of greeting or farewell). This has got to be the hardest post to write. The team, tired, weary, recovering, and anticipating home has had to say goodbye to over 1300 students and teachers in the last 48 hours. I'm writing this post while we await our last flight home in the Seoul International Airport. There was no way that any of us were in any state of mind to write during the last few days. Let me take you back. On Sunday we returned from the girls school. It was a short stay and it was a heartwrenching goodbye. It's amazing that when you are willing to give it all to someone how close you can get in such a short time. After only 3-days the girls were calling all ... read more

It was another early morning but all were awake because of the dog-fights outside. We had work duties starting at 6:30am. A mound of sand, much larger then the first, was to be spread in the playground. With the help of several little kids (you can see them in the pictures) we were able to get the job done - ok, half done. You have to love the Indian work schedule. We worked for about an hour and then they bring us a hot cup of Chai - this is a system that will definitely need to be implemented back home! 8:00am rolled around and we had our daily breaky and devotions. A few days ago we promised the teachers of the school that we would pop by their classrooms to observe. The school is one ... read more

Day 6: A Day of Rest After a busy, fun-filled week mixed with travels, new experiences, and everything else we finally had some down time this Sunday. Our day started at 6:45am. The school hosts a Sunday School for the 650 boys in the dining hall and so after waking up we were wisked away to participate. You could hear the drums and singing from the guest house (which is on the polar other side of the dining hall) of all the kids worshipping in unison. We were welcomed in to the meeting again by their clapping and smiles. All of the kids sitting on the ground listening and watching Pastor Dilip (double Dilip) lead them in prayers and song. We were able to sing "My God is So Big" again. The kids are catching on ... read more

Day 3 Continued... After music lessons where Pam taught the children "Every Move I Make", we were able to go out into the fields and teach the children some games. Anne did a fabulous job teaching the students duck duck goose, head and shoulders, and Pam lead them in a rousing chorus of Boom Chika Boom. It started to get dark out so we had to stop, but I'm sure we'll get a chance to do it again! Supper was at 8 pm and I'm pretty sure we all almost fell asleep in our plates. After travelling for 32 hours and staying up for who knows how many hours, sleep was much needed! Day 4: 40 degrees… YUP, you heard that right… that was the temperature today. The kinda hot where you are sweating in places ... read more

~~India~~ We arrived in Nagpur India in midday, about one. We flew on Kingfisher Airlines, which was a fun flight, with a beautiful view. The first thing we did was go out to lunch to Shamaar's, a mid sized curry filled restaurant. We had traditional curry chicken salad, along with aloo paratha bread and kulfi, a sweet dessert dish. Our second day there we signed up for an India educational course called 'History of India's trouble' They talked about when India was ruled by England in the eighteen hundreds, and their fight to regain freedom. We learned about how peaceful India is, they have never invaded any country in her last 10000 years. One of the most important days for each Indian citizen is 15th August, it was on this date that India was declared ... read more