Mum-Bye For Now: Church Trip to the Beach

We went home from the wedding and had a short night’s sleep before leaving to meet up with the rest of the church congregation. We all piled into four buses and started our drive to the beach. We were going for a picnic!

They said the drive would be maybe 30 minutes. By the time we left it was about 8:00am but this did not stop them from handing out the spiciest samosas I have ever eaten. My tongue was burning and forehead sweating. Sumitra, one of the other Ashasthan staff, took the samosa from me. She laughed and said she would help but I cold tell it was not an extra burden as she ate the whole thing in one bight with no sign of pain.

The bus ride was so nice. It ended up being three times as long as they said but with all of the girls singing in Hindi and all the things to look at out the window I did not mind the extra miles. They kept telling me to sing along so I went for the universal clap to replace my nonexistent Hindi.

When we got there we had a short church service and then we all went for a swim. The water was so nice. Everyone in India swims in normal clothes, jeans, t-shirts, saris, whatever. The girls didn’t want to get out when it was time for lunch. We all went to eat. I always sit next to Sonam, yet another staff, when I eat because the chances are I cannot finish my meal it is so big and even though she fits in child sizes she is always ready to scrape my plate clean for me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting, talking, playing football (soccer), and then having big group games. A lot of it felt very familiar to COSC, same family setting. They pulled me out of my chair and made me join in the relay races! I got paired with this very very elderly woman who seemed to think we would win. She was so ready and was beaming at the challenge ahead. Truth is we lost miserably as her shoe fell off half way through. It was a disappointment she took very well. : )

After games we piled back into the bus and everyone fell asleep for the ride home. Annamma, the oldest of the Ashasthan staff, assured me every weekend was not as busy as this!