The Journey's End

Our last week in India took place in Mussoorie, back in the North. Mussoorie is well known for its ritzy Woodstock Boarding School. Woodstock was our base for the week, with trips to the market and hikes scattered throughout the week. The area is GORGEOUS. Walking anywhere in Mussoorie is a workout, but the beautiful views at the tops of the mountains make the strain worth it.

The week was mostly uneventful, as everyone was racing to

finish the final synthesis paper by the due date. Fortunately, there was lots of down time to get it all completed. Easter in Mussoorie was special, not because anything lavish happened, but because I was in a place where I could truly feel God' presence, and fully appreciate the holiday's sentiments. Similarly, my birthday was also special. Being in India was all I really needed as celebration.

As I sit writing this post, I'm less than twelve hours from boarding the plane for home. When I left, I told many of you that I might disappear at the airport and vanish into India, living without the stressors of responsibilities. I promise, I will be on that plane. Although it may be tempting to run away from responsibility, the truth is that I don't know if I could do it. There's too many of you who I care about immensely. I eagerly anticipate all stressors of life if it means returning to all of you!

I'll post again after my return, to close off the adventure. For those at EMU... Saturday, early afternoon, Hillside 3rd. be there! :)

The Valley of SIDH

We arrived by train in Dehradun (I had no idea this was our destination) in the early morning and bused throughout the mountains. After awhile, we had driven far enough into the middle of nowhere that the bus could no longer continue. So commenced a twenty minute walk with all of our luggage, ending at the Society for Integrated Development of the Himalayas. After a vital nap I was able to learn more about where we were and what we were doing, as well as appreciate the phenomenal view. SIDH is an NGO that provides mountain villages with an alternative to the common government schools, where the quality of education is getting worse and worse. SIDH subscribes to what they describe as the classical view of education, believing that it should not only help an individual acquire knowledge about self, society, and environment, but also help him or her learn to lead a happy life.

As part of our experience with SIDH, all of the EMU students divided into three groups and spent a day/night in villages that work with SIDH. I was in the group that went the Kaandi Khaal, a village of 40-50 members. Our time was spent having interpreter aided discussions with teachers, youth, and older villagers. We spent the night sleeping in the small SIDH schoolhouse and were awoken at 7:00am by the sounds of little children playing outside. When we walked outside, the children arranged themselves into a formation and began chanting their daily prayers. It was quite a sight. We spent the morning talking to the students and playing games. The children also performed a few songs and dances for us, complete with plate spinning.

For our last full day in the valley, the group got to go white-water rafting. The water was low since it wasn't the rainy season, but the river was still navigable. Our raft briefly lost a member to the rapids, but their (living) body was recovered. Unfortunately, I am without rafting pictures of our group, since a raging river didn't sounds compatible with my camera, but I did do some internet searching and found an equally excellent picture.

That's all for this week. There's less to tell in my blog entries as the trip is winding down and India has pretty much been pwned. Stay tuned next week for ritzy Woodstock School in Mussoori.

H.H. The Dalai Lama!

Hello again! Allow me to apologize preemptively for what will likely be a quick blog entry; there are people waiting in line for internet getting angry!

For several days we loafed around Udaipur with only a few structured events on the schedule. One morning we went to a polio hospital that I found particularly interesting. The hospital completes 40-50 surgeries a day. Unfortunately, I was able to watch because they were taking a tea break .

Our last night in Udaipur we spent the evening meeting and playing games with Indian children at St. Matthew's Christian School. The kids were all very cute. It's exhilirating to be able to share an understanding and enjoyment of simple games when languages are so different. Games we played: freeze tag, duck duck goose, sharks and minnows, and red light/ green light. It was also great to hear stories from the school's founder of Christianity turning lives around in the Villages despite persecution. I have to question if my faith would be able to stand up against heavy harassment and imprisonment.

The next few days were spent in Ranakpur at a resort. We visited several Jain temples, but the rest of our time was open. Free time was greatly enjoyed through swimming, playing chess, and competing in windy badminton competitions. I blame the gale on my early elimination...

After driving back to Udaipur, we took an overnight train to Delhi. As usual, we've had two days of in-between destinations time. We were surprised to hear from our guide that although we hadn't been able to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, he was coming to Delhi and we had a chance of getting into the conference. We went all the way to see him in Dharamsala, but we just had to wait for him to come to us! Yesterday, we were fortunately able to get in and were able to get in and hear the Dalai Lama talk at the Thank You India conference. The conference was a way for Tibetans to express their gratitude to India for accepting them as refugees 50 years ago. The Dalai Lama is an excellent speaker, and the 50 min. that he talked went by very quickly. The tiger may have eluded us, but we caught the Dalai Lama! Opportunity: not lost.

Tonight we board the train for Mussori, a town back in the cold of the Himalayan mountains. This will be our last excursion of the trip. 2 and a half weeks should go quickly and I'll be back in America before you or I know it. I'm thinking about all that I miss regularly and I'm excited to catch up when I return! Take care!