Monday, May 21, 2012

Home

I'm living in a dream being back in America! Everything in these past 3 weeks has been so exciting, down to the carpet in my living room. But I'm reaching that point where I am really missing India and our families there. I am going to go back one day and see them! There is no doubt about it!

It really feels strange to just continue on my life here in the northwest... I think about India every day and the people there. It's amazing the affect a place and it's people can have on you. India did a lot for my heart and for my view of life and I will be forever grateful for such an incredible experience.

I am starting a new blog that can be found here: brookebauer.posterous.com
Feel free to continue following whenever you want! 


Sunday, April 29, 2012

slight change of plans

It has been one crazy and eventful week. I don't even know where to begin.

I said in my last post that it would be one of my last because we were headed to Thailand for a two week trip and then home on May 8th. Well things have gone quite a different direction since then!

Last Friday we left our school with tearful goodbyes to our of our friends and kids. We took a train to Chennai accompanied by our two good friends Vara and Ramana who helped us a ton with our 6 giant bags we planned to check on the plane. Each of us also carried a full backpacking pack... too much luggage! On the train we had a minor mishap because three of our tickets we had booked were still waitlisted and were never confirmed, but we ended up paying a small fee and were on our way. We reached the airport in Chennai and said some more sad goodbyes to Vara and Ramana and headed for the check in counter...Here we spent the next two hours struggling with the Air Asia people about our bags. Apparently it is not possible to check an extra bag without a major kick to the your wallet. We were going to have to pay $480 for our excess weight between the three of us. Instead we unloaded as much as we could bare to part with and left it in the airport for some lucky security guard who would find it. The fee's were now only $200. Lucky us. Next we got in line for customs, which we barely made it into with our giant carry on backpacks. So far we felt like we had gotten lucky, but then everything went down hill... At the counter, we were stopped and told that we didn't have the proper registration papers to leave the country and we needed to go back to Kadapa in order to get them. No begging, pleading, or offers of money would help us.

We left the airport stunned and at a loss for what to do. The rest of the weekend consisted of many stressful events including sleeping on the ground, getting ripped off by a cab driver, phones calls to the US embassy, waiting and waiting and more waiting only to get to the Foreign Registration Office which opened on Monday and be told that we needed to go back to Kadapa once more. Talk about false hope!

We finally accepted the fact that we would be going back to Kadapa and got on the next night bus. This is about a 7 hour journey, and then 1.5 hours more out to our school. So this last week we have worked our tails off getting these papers and only yesterday (Sabbath) did we finally have the triumphant moment of holding them in our hands! Countries like this don't make it easy to get stuff like this done, especially in a timely matter. For more details about "getting our papers," which a long, but good story in itself, you can visit our joint blog sidtrevandbrookeinindia.blogspot.org. We will be posting the long version (in a nice, entertaining list format) very soon! But long story short, we were illegally living in India because we didn't properly register with the police when we came and we stayed longer than 6 months. If we had left just 20 days before, we would have gotten out just fine. Since we have our papers, we have been instructed to leave the country immediately (which we have no problem with).

Tonight (Sunday) we are finally heading back to Chennai and will be getting on a plane bound for North America on Monday night! We decided to skip to Thailand adventure this time and are really excited to just get home... It has been a long ten extra days in India and I think we are all ready for some American culture.

This last adventure in India was full of miracles and we are so thankful for everything who prayed for us. I don't know if I've had that many people praying for me at the same time ever in my life. So thank you to everyone who contributed! God worked in so many ways helping us to get those papers. I know there is some reason behind our extra stay in India. Although I may not know it now, I sure I will sometime in my future!

See you soon America!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Native places


I am sad to say this is going to be one of the last blog posts from India! I can’t believe we’re down to our last 10 days here. So far we’re keeping our last two weeks busy and it is going by incredibly fast.

Rented bicycles in Nuzvid--USA cycling team in India
 
Two weekends ago, our friends Zach and Jeff came down for the weekend and gave us a surprise visit which was very refreshing. They were only asked to preach for church a few times on Friday night ;). We had fun talking in our habitual Indian ways and laughing about it. In India, Zach and Jeff have become Jack and Jeff…according to every Indian person. All the kids knew their names by the time Friday was over. The boys took off on Sunday night back to work. Then this last Thursday we made a trip up to Nuzvid where Zach and Jeff are working at the Gifford Memorial Hospital to visit for a day, and then continued our journey a little farther north for Easter weekend to our brother Ramana’s home village outside of the big city Rajahmundry. So last Wednesday night we began our adventure with the same ten hour overnight bus ride that Zach and Jeff made from our little town of Vempalli to Vijayawada and followed up with a one and a half hour bus ride to Nuzvid. Nuzvid if famous for mangos—everyone tells us. And yes there were lots of mango trees there! Sadly mango season doesn’t really start until May so the mangos aren’t very sweet yet. It was really fun to hang out with the Gilbert boys and funny to see the different parts of “Indian-English” that we all have picked up so nicely. In Nuzvid we rented bikes for 3 rupees an hour (about 6 cents an hour) and rode like an awesome cycling team through the mango fields—it was so nice to be back on a bicycle, even it was an Indian Hero bicycle with scary brakes and a seat tilted at the most uncomfortable upward angle. (One thing I cannot wait to do when I get home: get on my road bike!) We got the grand tour of Nuzvid and enjoyed hanging out in the AC guest room that Zach and Jeff have at the hospital. These boys have learned the Indian way of hospitality and spoiled us with a gourmet breakfast of Morning Star Sausage links, fried potatoes, and eggs! What a treat. We were sad to leave them, but excited to head off on another adventure to see Ramana’s ‘Native Place.’ This trip has been planned since before Christmas time and we knew Ramana was excited to show us his home, which turned out to be everything he has ever described it as—paradise! 



 So Friday afternoon we hopped on a bus, switched to another bus, met Ramana, switched to yet another bus, and then met Ramana’s good friend Srinuvas who was waiting with a motorcycle and a scooter to take us out to the village. Trevor and his backpack, Sid, and Srinu packed onto the motorcycle while Ramana and I balanced on the scooter.  I wore Sid’s backpack on the front, and mine on the back. After stopping shortly to pick up some freshly cooked egg noodles in a parcel for dinner, we took off down a tree tunneled road dodging the bugs and potholes. 



We arrived in the small rural village of Kaleru about thirty minutes later and were welcomed by a giant banner and a bunch of village kids and people. We stayed at Ramana’s brothers house and slept on a mat on the floor. Everyone was so excited to have Ramana’s foreigner friends staying right in their own little village… Since no one there speaks any English, Ramana became our translator. At school, other people translate for Ramana because he doesn’t speak English…but over the last 6 months of talking with us, we have learned to understand each other even through his very limited and broken English. (When my mom and Debbie came to visit, we had to translate Ramana’s English to them because they couldn’t understand. And the same went for Trevor’s mom and Zach and Jeff!) Thankfully we speak Ramana’s language. I couldn’t believe how much they pampered us the whole weekend serving us endless amounts of tea, fresh coconut water, strange new fruits, and too many meals. They even tried to fan us when we sat sweating in the heat!  To go along with our bucket showers from the freshly pumped well water in the small outhouse that doubles as squat pot, the weekend was full of more motorcycle and scooter riding, Telegu church going, village touring, a cloth market, coconut rice and egg curry eating, and entertaining people by simply being a foreigner! We also handed out the left over tooth brushes from Peach Ortho to kids in the village and at Ramana’s church. It was a chaotic and busy, but slow and full of ‘time-pass’ at the same time as India always seems to be. There’s a book called Shantaram about a guy who comes to live in India after escaping from prison in Australia and at one point he goes to live in a village of his Indian friend for about 6 months—our weekend reminded me so much of this story. The family water buffalos living right outside the door are milked in the morning for the daily tea and curd, everyone lives close together and the men shower outside at the water pump and the women take bucket showers from the freshly pumped well water in the small outhouse that doubles as squat pot. What I am realizing is that even with all of the strange awkward and sometimes uncomfortable situations we found ourselves in, we were relaxed and went along with whatever came our way. How things have changed… I know that if we had done this trip during the first couple months of our stay in India, things would have been handled much differently! If India has taught me anything, it’s that when life hands you uncomfortable situations, you sit back and enjoy them because each one will pass without fail and you can laugh about it later. This truly was an amazing and humbling experience that showed me another incredible side of India. 


Sid got to hang out in his lungie with all the other village men

swimming in the River! Ramana has talked about this place
 for many months where he grew up swimming

Successful shopping at the whole sale cloth market


Ramana (center) and his two brothers (elder-right, younger-left)
In front of the house that he hopes to purchase someday with Chandu...
Ramana-left holding some munjakia palm fruit
The boy on the right climbed the tree to confiscate these fruits

"Very taste!"

Today we made one last trip to Kadapa to buy sports equipment for the school. Some close friends of my grandparents were incredibly kind and donated money for this purpose. We are using the money to fix the swing set that has not been used this entire year, and to get lots of sports stuff for the kids to play with. Before today they only had a few cricket bats and only one volleyball that Sid, Trevor, and I bought in Kadapa after their only ball popped. We were able to buy an arsenal of items for them to use for this last week and the rest of next school year. When the kids ask who donated all the things, we tell them it’s from an auntie and uncle in the U.S. and they always tell me to make sure I tell them thank you! So HUGE THANKS to Doug and Joyce Ellington for making these kids extra happy!

It’s hard to think about leaving these people and never knowing when I will see them again. Our goofy brother Ramana and his “my understanding” and “my written back” personalized English language, my tiny sister Chandu and our baking extravaganzas and inside jokes… And of course Vara, Prim, and little Nancy who turned three yesterday, and our TBSVPN Bakery shop that we invented (Trevor, Brooke, Sid, Vara, Prim, Nancy—creative I know!) where we roll too many chapathi and experiment everyday with new curries. I can’t believe all of these things that have become part of my daily life are coming to an end.  It’s going to be a bittersweet moment when we take off for Chennai next Friday. 

Monday, March 26, 2012

one moment at a time

It's almost the end, and yet we're still learning. This last Sabbath we experienced an Indian communion service with foot washing. It was very different from the ones we have a home. It felt like a ritual ceremony and it may have been the most uncomfortable foot washing I've ever done... If I was not a christian and I attended this service for the first time, I'm not sure what I would have thought... I have always wondered why the services in India are so formal and always follow a strict protocol so to speak. Things are done in a specific order and the song must begin at a certain part of the service, the sermon and prayers have to be a certain length etc. It's somewhat awkward and sometimes it feels very staged. I wonder if it's because there is so much Hindu and Muslim influence in India, and those religious and worship practices follow a specific routine? I always feel like worship should be more flexible than this. God isn't expecting us to follow someone's made up rules about how long our prayers or sermons should be because usually the same words end up being repeated and everyone in the audience becomes uncomfortable kneeling or standing and lose focus of the thought anyway. God wants us to worship. That's it. He made us differently, and I believe he expects us each to have a different way of worshiping him. That includes Indian people! For us, their services feel awkward and too long, but for them, it is worship, and I respect that.

This week the 10th class students go to a nearby town everyday to write their government exams. You could feel the nervous excitement exuding from each one of them as we gathered to pray for them in the staff room this morning. It reminds me that the end is near and we now have less than a month in India. And I can join the 10th graders in nervous excitement. I find myself becoming more and more anxious everyday. Usually time goes by so fast, but the closer it gets to the end, the slower it seems to go. I have to keep telling myself to slow down! Enjoy the last precious moments I have and don't take them for granted.

Another thing that I see happening the closer we get to the end is that I am becoming less and less tolerable of the little things that get on my nerves. I'm thinking too much about how soon I get to be home and focusing less on how I should be living in this moment, being thoughtful towards people who sometimes drive me crazy. There are times when Sid, Trevor and I all look at each other knowing exactly how the other person is feeling because we are being asked to do something that seems so meaningless and time consuming. But life is different here. People worship differently. Not everyone has a computer or camera. Technology is foreign. When church drags on for too long and I can't understand the speakers English--I should use that time to meditate in my own way of worship. When someone wants to borrow my camera to take 2000 pictures of the same person feeding cake to every one in the school, then so be it! When I'm invited to a last minute birthday party and then expected to give a worship talk on the spot, I'll do it. We aren't full time teachers. We aren't necessarily teaching these kids all they need to know about English and other subjects in school, but what we can do to give someone joy, we should be happy to do. India has taught me to relax. To live in the moment. My job is to love and to show love I'm not always going to be comfortable, it might actually be pretty inconvenient and irritating. A friend of mine wrote a blog post that reminded me how there is no joy without sorrow and no gain without pain. I have to constantly remind myself of this, I can't always show love without hardship.

It is so hard to see the good in some situations. In addition to the little issues, it's even harder to fix problems that come from deep in your soul, from your childhood or your genes, from life experiences that bend and shape you as a person. Some things you can't just fix one time, there is no one time fix. You have to go on this life journey fighting the same issue the whole way through and its not possible without higher help. Living in this moment is what matters. I am still here. Fighting the small issues and the larger ones one day at a time. We just have to keep going, one revelation, one faithful prayer for a forgiving heart, and one prayer of thanks at a time.



cherishing every moment of this face...



Friday, March 9, 2012

Uncomplicate your life

http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/03/08/11-easy-ways-to-uncomplicate-your-life/




Let things be less than perfect. – Smile every chance you get; not because life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated, but because you choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things you do have, and all the problems you have too.  You must accept the fact that life is not perfect, that people are not perfect, and that you are not perfect.  And that’s okay, because the real world doesn’t reward perfection.  It rewards people who get GOOD things done. We get GOOD things done when we are imperfect 99% of the time.


Good thoughts... 

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Dance!

"David danced before the Lord with all of his might..." -2 Samuel 6:14

When I read this, I can't help but picture a lanky Indian boy with a huge white smile, dancing with his arms and shoulders moving up and down and hands unscrewing invisible lightbulbs in the air. Just like I've seen some of our 10th standard boys do!

We're supposed to become undignified and dance before the Lord--show the rest of the world our love for him shamelessly.



Last night, we got Nancy on film doing some little dances. Sid and I danced around on either side of her, encouraging her to join in and go for it!!! And she finally did, after she saw us looking silly, jumping from foot to foot and snapping our fingers, she went for it! She clapped her hands and sang a little song too.

Sometimes a person just needs a little encouragement, or a good example, to let loose and become undignified with love for other people and God. Eventually you will stop following the example and become one yourself.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Creativity


It’s amazing what can happen when you get creative!

Today you can learn how to bake with only a stove... :)

First go outside with a container and spoon and shovel some sand. Make sure you have enough to fill the bottom of whatever pot you decide to use! Some kids will think you’re crazy, but it’s not a problem.



After you make a nice, smooth layer of sand on the bottom of your pan or skillet, place it on the stove and cover, allowing it to warm up for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of your makeshift oven).

Mix up the dough for whatever delectable treat you want to make (for us it was blueberry muffins the first time and chocolate chip cookies the second time!). For muffins, we used our mini tea mugs and for cookies we simply put them on a steel plate…




Place the dish inside your “oven” and cover. Check often, times will vary, ha! Our cookies took only 7 minutes and turned out perfect…



One thing I am glad for is that God is creative… and that he works differently my life than anyone else’s! I often find myself comparing my spirituality with everyone else. I read other SM blogs and about their experiences and find myself thinking about how that compares with my own, whether or not I am doing enough or learning enough. But it doesn’t matter! God will work in a way that is specific for me. And in the same way, I shouldn’t expect him to use the same tactics he uses with me on anyone else! I read this quote in the book Crazy Love,
               
“Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you.” –Oswald Chamber

It all seems to come back to those expectations. I shouldn’t be thinking about what’s expected of me as an SM, or a roommate, or daughter, or friend. I just need to learn to listen and obey God’s specific instructions for me. And the only way to figure out these instructions is to put myself into uncomfortable situations and give God a chance to show me what he has planned.


Sunday, February 19, 2012

Anxieties


You know you are getting comfortable when your Indian neighbor and roommate with rockstar hair decide to start a band together with a street purchased mini drum and guitar that needs tuning! 



Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun and making lots of memories! But sometimes I ask myself if I’m getting too comfortable.

“Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become… But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it’s about eternity, and nothing compares with that.” – Francis Chan, Crazy Love

You would think that being in India, having this experience, living in a much simpler way, would make me realize that my relationship with God is all that matters. But even here, I find myself being stressed out about how much exercise I am doing, if I’m going to be super slow at biking when I go home, whether or not I am really learning something from this experience, or actually helping anyone, and even what is going to be different about home when I return. I feel this strange anxiety when I think about home or picture myself in America. Part of me can see my life carrying on just as it was before I left and it being a simple transition because everything will be left just as I remember it. But the other part of me feels anxious about talking to people, about sharing anything about India, because how to do you explain it without it sounding so repetitive and the same as every other SM story? I’m anxious because I feel like I wont be bale to talk easily with anyone I was ever close to. Even right now, I get this feeling when I log into skype or facebook and someone I know is online… I want to talk to them because I miss them! But I can’t make myself do it, because what am I going to say? It’s strange and I feel like I can’t relate. Like I no longer have anything in common, but how can this be possible when I am the same person. Am I too comfortable here in this mindset to go back to what I thought was 'normal' life? 

But in the end, the anxieties don’t even matter. It’s not about the person I want to become or about the body I want to have or the trendy relationships I want to build. It’s about my relationship with God. He has some plan for my life and I believe my life will work out this way… It doesn’t matter if I’m not as fit as I want to be or that I don’t exactly have as many close relationships with people as I wish I did, because in the end these things don’t matter at all! There’s a time for each of these things and I have my whole life ahead of me to master those. But I don’t have my whole life to begin working hard at my God relationship. That has to happen now…in every part of every day…

Every morning, I sit down with some tea, read some spiritual motivation, write in my journal, promise myself that I will include God in my daily activities, and then move on with my day. Why can't I seem to remember him in the other parts of my day? It's a good question, and I think the answer is hiding right underneath all my anxieties. I remember that my life is already planned, why worry? I simply need to let go.  

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentines Sugar Cookies - Microwave HOW TO

I love food blogs, so I decided I'm going to start my own India version.

These Valentine cookies are soft and delicious and can make your V-day great no matter how far you are from home!



First, be sure to become a member of a really cool church who will send you a package with Trader Joe's sugar cookie mix. (If you are looking for one currently, I might make a recommendation for www.summitnorthwest.org)



Read the directions thoroughly on the package. Make a journey to the nearest village and go to several different shops to acquire each ingredient.

Return home and locate the nearest microwave oven (if a regular baking oven is unavailable of course). In a large bowl (or a cooking vessel if you don't have a large bowl), combine the cookie mix with butter and egg and mix well. If you don't have quite enough butter, like me, you may have to add a drop of oil to get the right consistency. No problem.



Next, borrow a roller from your neighbor and roll out the dough onto a flat surface. Use a knife or some pointy utensil to cut cool heart shapes into the dough. Or whatever other random shapes you would like. I encourage creativity at this point!

Finally, use a microwave safe plate, place the cookies a half inch apart and stick into the microwave. Cook on high power for 1 minute and 30 seconds (depending on your microwave of course) and VOILA! You have delicious quick baked sugar cookies. After cooling, squeeze on some of the packaged frosting that came in the box and spread on the humidified sprinkles that soaked up lots of moisture for a nice touch.



ENJOY!
Happy Valentines Day

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Expectations




Expectations ruin relationships. When I expect something in return for something I’ve given, what does that say about me? That I’m selfish. This is what destroys happiness. A gift is not a gift when you expect something in return.

Christian hands never clasp
And He doesn’t give gifts for gain
Because a gift can never stop being a gift—
It is always meant to be given.

I am supposed to be Christ-like. God gives us gifts—of grace, joy, friendships, love, LIFE—so that we can serve the world and share them. The more thanks we give, the more He gives back to us, and we in turn should continue spreading it around! It’s supposed to be an endless cycle. “The way through the pain is to reach out to others in theirs.” That is how we are healed. We share ourselves and serve someone else, giving to them, and God heals us with happiness.

Why is this so hard? It’s hard for me, and it’s hard for others, which then makes the service even harder for both and THEN it becomes this backwards cycle that is going the opposite way God intended. Expectations kill happiness. It is hard to ignore selfishness because it makes the next person feel selfish, and then the selfishness just keeps multiplying until everyone is sitting around complaining to themselves! I want to make it stop. I can definitely say that I’m surprised by what the hardest part of my seven months in India really is. 

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Adventure Number 2 (or it might be 236)


The last week has been full of adventures! My mom and Debbie Hayes arrived safely to the Kadapa train station where we picked them up last Monday night. We had a fun two days at school showing them around and introducing them to everyone. We ended up eating almost every meal at someone’s house. The first night we had dinner at our neighbors, Ramana and Chandu , where we ate some really good homecooked Indian food and sat on the floor. Of course there was way more food than any seven people could possibly eat, but it was good and Trevor and Sid had lots of left overs to eat while I was gone. The next morning was breakfast downstairs at the Headmasters house with Sunetta who also fed us a feast and continued to try and put more and more food onto their plates even though they were stuffed. Indian breakfast is very different from American breakfast, just throwing that out there! Ha! Then we had lunch at the principals house where, AGAIN, we were served enough food to feed an army. And finally, dinner at Vara and Prim’s were we ate like Sid, Trevor, and I usually do, family style around the table and every man for himself. But of course, they also made us a feast. It was fun to share our daily routines and house with Debbie and my mom. We even took them into town on a packed auto rickshaw (luckily we picked a guy who likes to pump his stereo system so they could have the full experience). We showed them our friends at the shops in town, the vegetable guy, the bakery guy, the twins at the cookie/soap/everything else random shop, and the pots/pans guy! It was fun, but may have been a little overwhelming. My mom and Debbie brought 500 toothbrushes in a duffle bag that were donated by Peach Orthodontics and at midweek prayer (vespers program on Wednesday nights) we did a tooth brushing demonstration and passed one out to every single kid. They were so excited. My mom told me that every single girl she handed a brush too said thank you. So THANK YOU Brenda, Carl, and Peach Orthodontics!

50 rs scarves - our favorite place!
Two days later, we were off to the Tirupati Airport (we opted for a taxi instead of the train) and headed for Delhi! Our trip was the golden triangle, Delhi-Agra-Jaipur with a tiger safari in Ranthambore on the way. We saw lots of cool stuff, some things I had seen in December, but others I didn’t have the opportunity to see! After our sight seeing in Delhi, I took my mom and Debbie to the area that Trevor, Sid, Evan and I had stayed in a very different part of town…we had fun running through the bazaar and getting good deals at the shops. It was exciting! Let’s just say that area caters to a different type of tourist. J I tried to find our favorite 50 cent chowmein street food guy, but had no luck. There is a possibility that my mom and Debbie will come back to the US and try to barter for their purchases at Walmart, but we’ll see…

We had the same driver the whole trip, his name was Krishna, and he was super cool! We made good friends with him and he took good care of the three blonde American ladies traveling India alone. We made it to Ranthambore National Park and got to see a tiger (people only see them 25% of the time) and stayed in a sweet tent. It was nice to get out into the country side. After the tiger adventure, we went on to Jaipur, which is still my favorite with its pink sandstone and the Amber Palace. We rode an elephant and a camel and before I knew it, I was back in Delhi getting on a plane bound for Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh!

Now I am sitting in the Tirupati Railway station with my good friend Ramana waiting for a train to Kadapa. After that we hop on one more bus and we’ll be back to school. I hope that Sid and Trevor have been coping ok without me…I’m sure they are starving… ;)

Jantar Mantar Observatory in Jaipur

I am blessed to have such a loving and caring mom and ‘auntie’ that would come over here to visit me and take me on such a cool trip! I am proud of them for conquering the crazy India traveling and the many stares…(especially three blonde white ladies ha!). They are both awesome travel partners and I am a lucky girl!

Can’t believe there are only three more months in India…time is flying. It cracks me up to see Ramana helping to carry my backpack which he slings over his shoulder backwards every single time, but it makes me sad when he says things like, "April 23, my brothers and sister going, my crying..." It makes me say MY CRYING TOO!!! (I might need an English speaking refresher course when I get back). I guess it's just a reminder to use time wisely and enjoy every second of it because this is a once in a lifetime experience. 

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Time Continues!

Another week down. Monday my mom and Debbie arrive! All the kids know already (don't ask me how) and each one asks me about her every time they see me. "Brooke! Your mom is coming? When, monday?" Even though I know they already know this... They are excited for some more foreigners to arrive, and so am I! We already have two meal invitations from different families. I'm thinking we should have visitors more often!

Pramila :)
Yesterday was our sister Prim's birthday. It was kind of supposed to be a secret, because they hadn't planned any meal or cake for all the staff (which is expected). But......the secret kind of got out. I may not have helped when I went and asked our neighbors if I could use their microwave to make a cake for her. Unfortunately, the microwave option didn't work out, but they decided to announce to the whole school that it was her birthday! I felt bad, so I went a bought a cake in town and we shared it with all the staff. The day was saved, no problem. :) 

But, since I couldn't make a cake for her, I decided to make the next best thing that I could decorate, a pancake! Topped with some peanut butter frosting and candies, I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it, especially little Nancy, who is addicted to sweets already at a young age of two. 

Her middle name should be sugar

This Sabbath flew by. In the afternoon we led Bible study as usual and then we hosted a game night for the kids. We have a bunch of gifts for kids, but not enough for everyone, so we had to come up with some creative ways to give stuff away! It was kind of a long night, but they had fun, and so did we. It's crazy how much a small gift, such as an eraser, can make a kid so happy. I think the most popular new game he introduced was the one where you race eating a donut that is dangling on a string (only we used Jelabi, deep fried sweets that are somewhat similar to donuts...). It was a hit!

The same girls quiz me every day, "what is my name ma'am?" and every day I tell them their names...again. Today I decided to let them know that I will never forget their names. I will remember forever! Maybe they will finally stop asking, but I doubt it. :)

I have been stuck on a thought all day that I read this morning: 

We learn to trust God with our future when we remember what He has done for us in the past. So when we are thankful for all that God has done and is doing, we not only gain joy, but we grow in faith. 

It's so interesting how many places in the Bible express that we should 'give thanks' that I have never noticed before. It can be a real challenge to be thankful sometimes...I try not to be cliche when thanking God, but sometimes it ends up that way. I just need to remember that the little things should be my focus, making the familiar become unfamiliar and thanking God for it. A verse happened to appear in the Bible study lesson I did with my kids today... it was Colossians 2:7

"Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with THANKFULNESS."

There it is again, the Bible sneaks in some thought about giving thanks... it's everywhere! Our faith will grow strong in the truth we were taught. So the truth from our past. We see what God has done for us, thank him for it, and we know he has a will for us in the future that is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2] I think that's a good enough reason to trust.

One of the cutest people on this planet!

Sun flower fields in full bloom.


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Saturday, January 14, 2012

What you don't know won't hurt you

I have been reading about thankfulness and gratitude. I received a book from an amazing person that is very inspiring. It's called 'One Thousand Gifts' and is written by Ann Voskamp. She talks about her search for joy by making a list of things she loves or is thankful for, not just the usual list like 'my family' or 'my friends' or 'a roof over my head,' but the simple things in life that usually go unnoticed. The small things that are gifts from God but we normally don't even think about twice. So I've been trying to notice these things and be thankful for the simple and small things in hopes it will bring me joy.

When we first got back from our trip, I was so happy! Our apartment was so homey and I had missed our friends here. I was in such a good mood. It's silly that a mood can change so quickly... The past couple days have been frustrating and a struggle to be thankful. As much as I don't feel like being nice to people who frustrate me, I have told myself I have to kill with kindness. I will admit, I complain and grumble to myself about how generous I am being with nothing in return when I definitely should not... But it is irritating! I don't want to be nice when someone comes and TELLS me to give them my ziplock bags. Or when I'm told I can bake away (my therapy) with the oven I usually borrow as soon as it's fixed and then go to the work of hunting down someone to fix it, only to have it taken and sent away as soon as it's finished! I ask myself, why do I share my cakes and cookies all the time with people who seem to selfishly hoard theirs?

I guess there are always those people in life that you won't get along with. They will frustrate you and drive you crazy but if we got along with everyone, what would be the challenge of life? I think about how I should be thanking God for all the small gifts and be happy regardless of those challenges. I read, not only in the book by Ann Voskamp, but in another by Ravi Zacharias about Appreciative-love. "Thank you" is the highest form of love. He writes that this is how we worship God and use our love and gratitude together as powerful weapon.

I found it funny that in a two day period, the books I'm reading emphasized the same point. It makes me think about how God speaks to us. I don't think I've ever really felt that God has spoken to me personally, but maybe its because I just don't notice it? Maybe I need to notice things like this and take note because it could be God making a point for me to remember. That must simply be the way He works, but I guess we won't know until we get there. It's like a train in India. You ride the train for hours, really having no idea where you are on the map and not knowing exactly when you will arrive at your destination. You can ask people around you and they will tell you some amount of time, but really they are just guessing and are often very wrong! No one really knows, not even the conductor, because things always happen along the way that cannot be predicted. But that is the mystery of it all. That's the excitement, the wonder and awe! We don't know how God works. He does it, and we live. If we knew everything about the end and all the wonders of God, we would lose interest. When you finish a good mystery book or movie, you don't keep reading or watching it over and over because there is no way to have that feeling of excitement or wonder every again. You know how it ends, so its not as fun to experience the story again! I think God made our lives a mystery on purpose. And I am glad that we don't know how things work or why things happen. Otherwise life would be unbearably boring. So I truly thank God for not telling me where or when because anticipation is what fuels our lives. I can plan as much as I want, but it will never turn out exactly as I think it will. Our lives are just like the books, and what would a good story be without some conflict or pain or confusion? If the main character always had it together or always knew what was coming next, would they enjoy their part? Nope.

The mystery and wonder, the questions and confusion and struggle to make decisions, those are blessings. And I thank God for those things because life would be robotic without them!


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Travels and more travels

I did not know what I was in for when we set out on our Christmas journey on December 9th. We stepped onto our first delayed sleeper class train at 1 in the morning and shared two berths because only two of our tickets were confirmed. The first people we encountered were a group of about ten bald guys who spoke loudly, laughed a lot, and smoked their cigarettes late into the night. It was a shock. But over the course of the last month, we have gotten comfortable jumping onto these gross trains where the mice run freely and the berths and walls look like they haven't been washed in 20 years. There is always someone playing indian music loudly from their cell phone and some guy walking down the aisle with his canteen and tiny cups yelling "chai coffee chai coffee!" (They always seem to pause a little longer at our berth...just checking us out). It is an experience I will never forget.

We have traveled a complete circle around India. I am currently sitting on our first AC 2 Tier class train that we decided to upgrade to for our last 20 hour train ride (let me tell you, it is plush!!!). In about two hours, we will arrive in Vijayawada where we jump on a bus for 10 hours that will take us back to our school! I honestly can't wait to get back. 

Our trip was a lot of fun. In summary, we started by spending a few days at the beach in Goa on the west coast of India. Here we cruised around on rented scooters and enjoyed the sand and the sun. Evan met up with us here. We then headed north to Mumbai for a day and a half where we saw the Elephanta caves and did some exploring of the biggest city in India. Then we headed to Jaipur in Rajasthan and saw the Amber fort, Jantar Mantar observatory, some camels, and some more cool Aladdin looking architecture. We continued on the golden triangle to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then up to New Delhi. From Delhi we got on the longest train ride of our lives that took us to a town that was a few hours from the Nepal border. The train was six hours late to the station, so we didn't end up leaving on it until about 3:30 in the morning. This 12 hour trip turned out being about 21 hours long and we finally arrived at 10 pm where we crammed eleven people in a jeep and took off for the border where we woke up the officials (since it was the middle of the night) to get our visa and got on the first bus leaving for Pokhara, Nepal at 3:45 am in order to avoid the strike that wouldn't let buses through later that morning. Nine hours later, we FINALLY arrived in Pokhara, exhausted. Pokhara is great because its on a lake, and you can see the mountains. We spent Christmas here and even did small trek into the hills. We headed off on another long bus ride to Kathmandu for New Years and the next day, an even longer bus ride to the eastern border of Nepal. We weren't so lucky this time and got stuck in the strike creating another crazy long journey to reach the mountain town of Darjeeling, Inida. We made a nice German friend named Philip along the way and ended up hanging out with him for our time up in the hills of Darjeeling where we went to a tea plantation, a tea festival, tasted tea, bought tea, and then left in order to catch our train to Kolkata where Evan would fly home (Darjeeling is famous for its tea in case you were wondering). From Kolkata, Trevor, Sid, and I got on our last train and are almost on the last leg of our journey back to the farm land of Andhra Pradesh. 

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the small town that we are living in. The big cities are cool to visit, but being based in a little town out in the middle of nowhere is a blessing. 

The lonely planet was our best friend on this journey, but we wouldn't have been able to do it without the good friends we made along the way who helped us get from place to place. I learned a lot on this trip, but I am excited to be almost back. I have missed our friends and family at the school and can't wait to see them... Over the past month I have been reminded of how blessed we are to be surrounded by our Indian families during these seven months away from home. It's good to have a place to be taken care of. I spent about a week of our time traveling sick as a dog and wishing I could stay in one place and be taken care of. Now I can really appreciate all the pestering I get when I'm sick at the school when everyone wants to come and visit me or make me "porridge" or tell me to drink hot water (haha)... Friends and family are GOOD! And I love them. :)

More photos of our trip will be coming soon!!!

I don't know what the plan was for this photo!

Scootering in Goa :)