I am just at the end of my first 24 hours in India and I feel like I've expereinced it all! I am sure I will wake up tomorrow and be prooved wrong by this amazing country and all it offers me.
Ok, so the best thing to do is probably just give you bits and pieces of what has gone on. I said goodbye to Mom and Dad at 5:30pm at Dulles. : ( Four months without them will be the hardest part for sure. I then arrived in Zurich, Switzerland at 2:00 am (your time still) I grabed a bar of swiss chocolate and headed to my gate for my next flight. On the next flight I managed to score 4 seats to myself and I slept pretty much the whole time! Now it is, Jan 29th and I arrived in Mumbai 10:30 (mumbai time). After a very long and confusing converstaion I found the welcoming commitee with sign in hand!
It was very late and I was kind of out of it with all the time change but they were the opposite. I have never seen three women with so much energy. It was the funniest ride form Mumbai airport to their home in Navi Mumbai. We dot stuck in a traffic jam at 11:30 at night which is amaing to me. They could see I was a bit surprised they laughed and said, "This! This is not busy." I don't thik I will ever complain in DC rush hour again! (especially as we have lanes!)
Ok, so I finally made it to bed at 2:00am and got eaten alive! I think the mosquitos over here acctually like deet. When I woke up I was a bit in shock. A "where am I?" moment definitly happened and then i looked out my window and could not believe it. I am in India!
So, I have barely made it through the first 12 hours and this is already getting long. Here are the headlines of all that followed.
A banana for breakfast that is not the banana I know. Much better. A STRONG cup of Indian tea. A long quiet time in my very orange room. The best lunch I have ever had. Wow. It took them all of like 10 minutes to make. They said they'd teach me how to cook. They offered me a fork, I refused, they laughed. I then had a scooter ride to one of the homes to meet some of the girls. I have seven new best friends, they are beautiful and so funny. I then went to to the D-Market which is basicallt an Indian target. Two of the younger staff picked out an Indian top for me which they said I HAD to have. When I put it on they cheered, I am now officially Indian. Everything is so amazing. I am so in awe of how God has planned this trip for me and how spoiled I feel by this experience. Thank you for your prayers that got me safely here.
I can smell dinner is ready so I better run! I don't have time to spell check this. sorry!
I miss you all already! xxx
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Where am I going? What am I doing?.......
On January 28th I fly to Mumbai India where I will be living for the next four months. I have had a desire to go to India since I was about ten years old. This might have been the result of seeing Bollywood films, but of course there is no way I am admitting to that! : )
I decided to complete an accelerated highschool education in hopes of spending my last semester overseas. Sure enough, here I am, red-eye ticket in hand and feeling nauseous from malaria meds. A dream come true.
Truthfully it really is though. I got the privilege once of watching an IJM montage of photos and video clips to the Sara Groves song "Add to the Beauty". It was the first time I had a focused look into what I wanted to be apart of in India. My heart goes out to the girls who are victims of abuse and neglect. The ministry I will be working with was started in 1998 and was the vision of Lagoinha Baptist Church in Brazil. The church saw a need for Christians working amongst the vulnerable youth in India and they decided to fill that need. Their work has grown so that they now have four homes with a total of about forty girls in their care. Having been established for over ten years now, they have reached the point where they are raising up staff members from within the homes. One girl I will be working alongside is eighteen years old and first came to the home when she was eight.
While I am there I will be tutoring the girls in English. About half of them speak English and the other half are starting to learn. I am also interested in starting some sort of arts curriculum with them, offering opportunities for them to explore areas of art, music, and dance. I will know more about my day-to-day responsibilities when I settle in, but to begin with they just want me interacting with the girls and getting to know them all. They have expressed a huge need for more people to be there to love and encourage these girls and assure them that they are known by name and cared for.
If you want to know more about Ashasthan please visit their website;
Parts of it are outdated but it is a great way to get a picture of their work and vision.
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