Tuesday, January 29, 2013

let's get caught up...

Dear blog followers,
Before I post anything in regards to our trip, I simply wanted to take the time to say "thank you" for following along with us on our journey...I must say that it's the amount of people I know are looking at our blog and the wonderful comments that you are leaving that fuel my fire at the end of the day to stay up and post about our experiences!  We are so grateful for those of you who have left encouraging and uplifting messages for us; you can't imagine how comforting words from home can be when you are on the other side of the world...thanks for taking the time to do that! 

Now we need to back up a bit...
The last two posts were both from Sunday and I'm actually starting today's post off with the last of the days events.  I mentioned that after going to 3 churches that we were taken to an area where they'd like to build another church.  This plot of land was located right outside a section of Madhavapatnam where the poorest of the poor live. It was like their own little community right within the larger community itself.  Apparently  it is not customary to associate with these people and yet Novahu has not only welcomed the children into the Marshall Public School, he has also hired some of the women to help in the kitchen feeding the children in the Lunch Bunch program.  We were all very moved by the way these people welcomed us into their "neighborhood" as well as their homes.  They had great pride for the little they did have; and quite frankly this had to be the cleanest area in regards to garbage laying around homes.  Whether it's because they simply don't have the means to buy anything that would not be totally consumed or because they have become self sufficient in obtaining food...the point is there was no garbage laying around the outsides of homes like there was in every other area we've been in.






 








This is a photo of the rice fields down the road from the above community...


I have two things to say in regards to what we experienced here...
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!!!!  and...
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!!!!

This finally brings me to Monday...

Okay, wait...first I must share a couple things with you...
~when you're supposed to leave at a specific time, allow a leeway of 45 minutes or so
~when something is supposed to take an hour, it usually takes three
~when somewhere you are traveling to is 50 miles away, it's usually 150
~when someone from India tells you that the food is not spicy, it usually is
~when someone bobbles their head "no", it usually means "yes".

That all being said, we planned to take a little excursion with Novahu and his family down the south Ganges river...assuming I wrote everything above for a reason I will simply leave it at that and focus on the positive parts of the trip.  We rented a boat that was exclusively used by our group and had a very peaceful afternoon riding down the river seeing landscapes and scenes that you just don't see while driving in the cities, or for that matter, even between the cities.  Okay I not referring to the fact that Big Bob and Solomon are holding hands because honestly you see that whenever you see the two of them together!


I'm talking about the beauty in the countryside...


In case you can't tell, those are bats hanging in this tree!



We stopped at a sacred Hindu Temple along the way...we had trouble pulling the boat up close to the shore because the water is so low right now.  It was amazing how parched the ground was.


You were supposed to remove your shoes before venturing up the stairs and then there was a place to wash your feet before entering the temple. 

 The temple itself was build out of one stone.

There were many statues around the compound...




These little stone shrines reminded us of one of our favorite beaches in Door County.  
It is said that the homeless people come here and set those up to represent their homes...
and then it is believed that they all have a home within the temple.
We left and continued on our journey down the river.  


We saw many different types of dwellings and hard working people as we cruised on by...





We stopped at one village, but after only moments of being there Novahu told us to get back on the boat.
Not sure what that was all about...


Anyways, we returned to the boat and enjoyed the company of our Indian family for the rest of the ride; sharing stories, playing games, applying henna to each other, and having lunch...






I must say that after being served food that even Novahu thought was hot; I was grateful that we had stuck the remaining Carmel Corn in our bag to bring along...so was Manjula!!


All in all it was a delightful day!

I'm now writing about today, which is technically yesterday as once again the time has slipped away from me.  I am going to keep this very brief as I do need some sleep tonight; however I promise that each one of my family members will be posting on our blog once we return home with followup stories from our trip so that you won't really miss anything.

In a "nutshell" we arrived at the school early this morning so we could see their 'morning assembly"




We had a chance to greet them all and hand out some awards before they started their day and we moved forward with ours.  We spent a good part of the day following up on projects that we had been working on as well as talking with Novahu about future plans within Joyful Journeys Inc.

Later in the afternoon we were invited to visit both of Manjula's sister's homes within the village.
What an honor it was to be invited into their humble homes. We could feel the love that went into preparing the apple slices and tea for us; plus we got a special treat of ice cream!





Now I MUST go to bed for tomorrow (which is already today)
is going to be an emotion packed day as it will be our last day with the orphans.
Again, thanks for following along!
Namaste'
~Jenny