Jo's "better late than never" comments...

Hi this is Jo!

These are my favorite memory's that I would like to share with you.

The first day we went to Novahu's home , he said he wanted to show us the school from his house, so we went to the top of his home, and  we could see the kid's waving from the school just a block away. We all were filled with joy and we did not even meet them yet.

While eating  lunch we were all really excited to meet the kids, after we were done eating they asked if we were ready to see them and we all said "YES" and went down stairs. There they came, one by one with a brief pause for a  cow crossing.  "OH HAPPY DAY" are dream is finally coming true.

For Christmas my sisters and I bought all the school kid's a t-shirt with the Marshall Public School logo on it. Here are some of the kid's wearing them...

We each got a t-shirt too. I thought you would like to see a picture of my dad and Creamy Fester wearing theirs.  As you can see, the clothes sizes are different there then they are here, XXL just won't cover it!

Before we left for India the J.A.M. Time children and youth from our church raised money so we could put together a library while we were there and here's how it turned out...

Here are some of the kid's in the library.

Oneday we went to a field behind Novahu's house to play Cricket. They did not explain how to play it so I was taking pictures. The kids said "come play akka", and I said "maybe". Novahu said I should just try and once I hit the ball I did not have to play any more. So I said yes, and guess what happened, I HIT THE BALL on my first try. You know what that meant, I did not have to play any more. So here are some of the pictures I took. 

First here is me after I hit the ball.

Novahu...

Shekinah...

Rajany...

T-auntie

Uncle HeadBuck...

Auntie HeadBuck...

We have been back from our trip for about 3 weeks now, and I miss everyone there terribly!

What I experienced there was true joy in the simplicity of their lives, whether it was playing games on the bus, in the orphanage, or at the school, it made me feel so warm inside the way everyone was so connected with each other.

We have already decided to start "workin' 4 change" again so we can go back,

Madhavapatnam is my home away from home!

Thanks for following along on our blog,

keep checking back as we still have more to say.

Johanna

Sweet comments from Sophia

In my last blog I told you about Sophie's Sweet Treats and now I'd like to tell you more about it and share some more pictures with you.

Since my sisters all had a special job to do while we were in India, we decided that my special job would be to share the different treats with the kids each day.  I think I had the best job out of everyone!  Each day I would pick a treat and put it in the bag that cousin Sally made for me and when the children would see me with that bag, they would get so excited and ask me if I needed help with anything.  I had so much fun sharing candy with them and seeing them try different treats for the first time in their lives.  I wish I could go back and give them more of Sophie's Sweet Treats, it made me so happy to see them smile!

The first treat was Fruit Gushers


This is Vijaya, she is the Komro's orphan.  When I gave her the treat
I thought of my friends back home.

We also gave out the Candy Necklaces to all the school children that day which were donated by Scoops Deville in Hartford.  They all loved them so much.  Some of the kids ate them right away and some still were wearing them a couple days later.

The funnest treat to give out was the Pop Rocks.  It was so funny watching their faces when they ate them.  Some wanted more and some spit them out.



This is Rajini, she is Manjula's sister and cooked all our food for us.
She made good rice and was really nice!



Fun Dip was another Fun Treat..

I gave out Gummy Worms to everyone on the bus while we were on the way to the beach...

When I gave out Suckers, some of the kids were surprised to find the chocolate in the middle.

They all had fun peeling, braiding and eating the Licorice ...

The last treat I handed out was bags of little Oreo Cookies.  I was handing them out as the orphans were walking out the door after we all said our last good-byes.  We don't have any pictures of this because we were all crying to hard at this point.

That's all I have to say about the Sophie's Sweet Treats, but wait there's more...

You know we went to the beach and I just wanted to tell you how much fun we had.  I couldn't believe how big the waves were, I could hardly stand up in them.  They kept knocking us all over.  It was so funny watching the orphans run into the water, then when the waves would come they would run back.

On the way there, Siddu (Jackie Nieman's little boy) had put white powder all over his face.  I don't know why he did but he sure looked cute.

The best part about being with the orphans, was that they called me "Akka", that means "older sister" in Telegu.  It's the only time in my life when I wasn't the "Chellie" that means "younger sister".  I loved being an Akka!

The last part of our trip was the Safari up by the Himalaya Mountains.  It was really fun.  I liked riding on the elephants the best.

I would just like to add, that if you ever go to a remote village, you should look past the scary things and look for the good things, because the good things can help make the scary things seem not so bad.  I am very happy I got the chance to go to India and can't wait to go back!  Thank you to everyone who helped us go on this trip.

Love, Sophia

p.s.  Morgan, thank you for sending me the note, it made me smile!  Also Megamind is a great movie, I watched it all the way home too.  I can't wait to play Cream Puff with you!