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.