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April 27, 2006

The last couple weeks

I tried on blue jeans in a store in Bangalore, India yesterday. It was the first time I'd worn long pants since we left the mountains in Nepal and the first time I've had a pair of jeans on in 5 months. Well...jeans are uncomfortable! After wearing nothing but shorts and loose trekking pants for so long, it was really weird to try on a stiff pair of Levis...I actually thought every pair I tried on looked funny...Mo eventually picked a pair for me, but I'm thinking of starting a major "bring back the pyjama pants!" campaign when I get home.

we're back in Bangkok by the way...

...we flew out of Bangalore at 1:00am this morning and staggered into our non A/C hotel room at 8am in what was already +30 weather. Monsoon season isn't too far away now and Bangkok is much hotter than it was two months ago when we left for Nepal.

So what were we up to over the last few weeks?

Well, in our 25 days in India we traversed over 4000 km - not bad for a country in which you're lucky if you can average 35-40km/hr. When I wrote my last journal entry we had just arrived on Palolem beach in Goa. We had plans to hit a number of different beaches along the coast, but once we had started to relax a bit we just stayed in the one place in a beach hut for a week. We had an awesome time eating seafood, swimming, throwing the disc, etc.

When we finally were able to pry ourselves away from Goa we took a night bus to Bangalore, arriving there the 20th. What a mistake that was...imagine an old Greyhound bus with bunkbeds in it...no A/C...12 hours on a bumpy "highway" that actually had speedbumps on it every 10 minutes or so. Speedbumps on the highway...

Anyway, in Bangalore we met up with Paul and Jisca and headed off 2 hours east of the city to the village of Halesipum. Paul and Jisca had been there a couple of times but it was our first opportunity to meet up with Paul's friend Anbu and to see the children's work he's been doing there. Having themselves been raised in an orphanage, Anbu and his older brother Jeyam made a commitment 2 years ago to serving God by caring for the orphans in Halesipum. Every day, the 200 square foot hut that Anbu shares with Jeyam and his family is packed with 25+ children (18 orphans and 7 children whose families are too poor to care for them) for breakfast and supper. The children crowd around on the floor and wait patiently as food is served - usually rice/chapatti and curry. What a humbling experience it was for us to be able to serve the children dinner and to spend some time playing with them. With the help of Paul and Jisca's family we were able to buy them all new clothes (1 for school, 1 for play), sandals, toothbrushes, soap, and cups/plates (they'd been using paper or banana leaves). Quite an experience.

Paul and Jisca flew back to Bangkok on the 24th and Mo and I spent a couple of days wandering around Bangalore before making it back to Bangkok. It is amazing how perspectives change. When we first came into Bangkok it was the most foreign place imaginable...now it seems amazingly clean, well-organized, and with all amenities accessible. It sure is a good thing we didn't go to India first or I think we would never have lasted this long.

oh well...now to go shopping for souvenirs :-)

PS...THANK GOODNESS THE CANUCKS FIRED CRAWFORD!!

Posted by David at 4:24 PM

April 20, 2006

New pics...

We've put up the rest of the Nepal pics as well as some from the first week or so in India

Here's one to whet your appetite:o)

Posted by Maureen at 7:11 PM | Comments (1)

April 18, 2006

huh?

you know the world will be coming to an end soon when you can still hear MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice played everyday here in Goa, India...today we got a little Michael Jackson thrown in for some fun.

Posted by David at 8:54 PM

April 15, 2006

Chaotic India

I love my wife. One of the things that I really appreciate about Maureen is how she almost always looks at the positive side of things...she could be eating a baseball glove and she'd say "...not too bad...could maybe use a little ketchup". However, for her to say in her last blog entry that India had been "a little hectic" is too much. That's as dramatic an understatement as if I got run over by a bus and said that it "hurt a little bit"...ok, so I'm a bit dramatic, but our first few days were more than hectic, they were crazy, chaotic, fun, stressfull, and fascinating all at the same time.

In our first 10 days in India we spent 6 nights sleeping on trains, got stuck at a railway outpost where no one spoke English, rode five hours in the broken front seat of a taxi, visited the Taj Mahal, got sick, got asked to be extras in a Bollywood movie, had to weather a desert dust storm, sweated through temperatures above 40C without AC, visited...

...the ruins of a 5th century fort, almost got run over, saw camels hauling wagons of marble through the streets, did a river cruise along the sacred Ganges river, climbed up to a massive 15th century castle/fort that was never conquered, got sick again, were the honoured guests at the exclusive Cricket Club of India, and spent at least a day in each of Bauroni, Varanasi, Agra, New Delhi, Jodphur, Mumbai and now Goa.

So yeah, it's been pretty crazy - one couple that we met a couple of days ago just laughed at us when they heard that we started our journey in Varanasi as it is undoubtedly one of the most intense Indian towns you could ever visit....

...all that being said, it has been a fascinating experience, between the amazing food, colours, sights (and yes, smells).

We'll be heading off to meet up with Paul and Jisca soon which we are really looking foward to - we haven't seen them since the start of March when they decided to skip Nepal, so it will be great to see people from home again. We'll keep you posted.

Posted by David at 8:11 PM

April 5, 2006

Hello High-Speed!!!!:o)

Well, we made it to India and can finally give you an good update as to what's happening. I won't get into India just yet as Nepal is still deserving a little more air-time.
I haven't even given my recap of the trek, but David did a very good job of that so I won't go into too much except to say- wow, it was one of the best investments of time and energy I can think of...absolutely the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done in so many ways. I am really proud of us for making it to the top...there were definitely times when I doubted, especially when we met so many people on their way back who didn't make it to the top because of all the snow and avalanches.

(we finally have the trek photos up and a few more of you want to check them out)

And the Lord just really blessed us with great views (the rain really helped to clear out the dust that is usually hanging thick in the air at this time of year). Without knowing it, David and I both had the hymn "How Great Thou Art" in our heads every day as we were walking...I think the guy that wrote it must have been to the Himilayas:o) Anyways, I think you get the picture...I loved the trek (and the Snickers too:o))!

We had 2 1/2 days in Pokhara after the trek before leaving to Nepalgunj...

It ended up being very busy. We were the last minute guest speakers at a local Bible college one afternoon...that was a bit stressful (INTIMIDATING as all the students are training to be pastors), but it was great to see their passion for the Lord and leadership. We were also able to join our guide Sansar for dinner at his home one night and meet his family...that was wonderful.

David already mentioned the trip out to Nepalgunj... not the greatest experience for him. But once we were there it was great. Nepalgunj is in an area that used to be part of India so it is very similar in a lot of ways...food, mix of people, heat! It is not uncommon to see cows lying down in the middle of the road causing a traffic jam...or eating someone's homework...seriously, I watched a cow chew and swallow about 6 sheets of paper.
We were welcomed into the home of a missionary couple (Rosanna and Alan) whom I know from Canada (well Rosanna's from Canada, Alan's from Scotland)...it was so wonderful to be in a home for a while...they were a huge blessing to us. They hooked us up with Maya Sedan orphanage whom we were able to go and help a bit. That was a blast. We ended up teaching at their school for a couple days and playing with them in the evenings. Just beautiful kids. The orphanage is run by 3 Indian Christian couples (usually there's only 2 couples there at a time though) and they have almost 70 children between the 6 of them. It's an amazing story actually that we will tell sometime if youi're interested.

We also took a couple days and visited Royal Bardiya National Park. Business was really slow there right now...well because tourism is really slow all over Nepal right now...there were 8 toursits in the whole park, including us. We stayed at a really nice spot and went for a full day walking safari one day. We saw some peacocks, a tonne of deer (spotted, swarm and hog), some monkeys (two kinds), lots of bright and beautiful birds, a huge python (yikes!!, from like five feet, but he was curled up in his hole and was apparently sleeping...still the closest I ever hope to be to a snake without some kind of THICK barrier in between), and at the very end of the day we got to see a one-horned rhino (from about 40 yards). That was really cool, we'd been hoping all day to see one. They look like they have armour on. We did also see 2 Gharial crocodiles and a bunch of domesticated elephants hauling lumber. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any wild elephants or a tiger...but we did see plenty of tracks and poo:o)...maybe that's as close as we want to get to a tiger anyways. We really enjoyed the safari...it was a great way to see these exotic animals in their natural habitat (we were usually hiding in the bushes and most never even knew we were there).

While in Nepalgunj, we did hear several bomb blasts, which was a bit freaky but the missionaries there don't even bat an eye. It's crazy what you can become used to...the fact of the matter is, the Maoists are quite strategic in where and when they place their bombs and attacks, so it'd be pretty hard to actually be in the wrong place at the wrong time...but it's stil a whole lot closer than I've ever been!! However, the Lord has really protected us and I don't regret for a minute our decision to come to Nepal.

We crossed the border into India on the 2nd and it's been a bit chaotic for us so far. We came across at a place that is rarely used by tourists and not many people speak English, and had a hectic time getting on a train (not really knowing where we were going, just the general direction). Now, after about 40 hours straight in transit, we have taken a couple days to stop and get our breath before tackling the rest of the country. We are currently in Varanasi, on the mighty Ganges river. This morning at sunrise, we took a boat ride along the river's edge (Ghats) where we saw many people taking their morning bath (cleansing them of their sins), or doing laundry. At one ghat in particular, they perform many cremations and we saw that also...quite creepy.

We are getting on a train tonight to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) for a little over a day and then on to the state of Rahjistan...very middle Easternish with deserts and camels and big ancient forts. More to come...

Posted by Maureen at 5:19 PM