Last day...

Well, today is our last day!  We handed out some blankets to a few kids in one of the slums.  These kids attend Pathshala, an educational program for kids that can't go to school.  Hopefully they will be able to go to school in the future because of this extra help!
Next we took off for central Delhi to see the Parliament buildings, the Presidential Palace, and India Gate.  We took a picture in front of India Gate, then we headed off to lunch.  We had a Western-style meal, so many of our team members did not hesitate to order pizza! :) After lunch and shopping, we went back to our hotel and packed everything up!

Now we are sitting in the Malakars' apartment, ready to enjoy some chai, debrief, and eat dinner.  I got the recipe for chai, so if anyone wants it when I get back, I will be glad to give it to you!  Soon after dinner we will head for the airport for our 24 hours of travel.

We have had a wonderful time in India.  It was hard, it was fun, it was hot, it was stretching.

Thanks for following us on our adventure.  Ask us for details when we get back to California TOMORROW!!

"Please, what is your good name?"

Our view on the way up the mountain

If you visit India, you just might be asked this question.  This is the way that some Indians say, "Hi, what's your name?"  It's just one of the interesting things that comes out when traveling cross-culturally.  A few people on our team were confused when the packing list for our retreat called for a torch.  Torch is the British term for flashlight, but several of the guys pictured themselves carrying flaming sticks through the jungle.  Everything got straightened out though, and we headed out on our trip.
We took the metro to the train station and boarded our "boogy."  I don't know why ours was called a boogy train, but it was.  Our train had hard, padded benches that flipped up into beds.  This was nice because we left Delhi around 10:00 or 11:00 pm and got to the end of the line around 5:30 am.  We had a whole section to ourselves, but the rest of the train still stopped to load and unload other passengers.

Monkey!

When we woke up in the morning, we were passing rice paddies and corn fields, and the mountains were looming in the distance.
Our stop was at the very end of the line.  We unloaded everything from the train and loaded it back into Jeep-like vehicles to make the climb through the mountains to the retreat center.
The retreat center was set in a beautiful area. We were surrounded by high mountains with deep valleys and misty clouds.  A few lakes were scattered around as well.  Monkeys wandered around in the trees and occasionally sat on the railing of the girls' dorm.

I found part of a huge butterfly!

Our accommodations were not five-star, but they worked!  Sometimes the lights in our room worked and sometimes they didn't.  Sometimes the sound worked in the meeting hall, and sometimes too much power tripped the breakers.  The girls got to use a miniature water heat to heat buckets of water to take a "shower."  It was quite the trip, but we all survived and several of us thrived!  We were all glad to be away from the Delhi heat and humidity.

Hudson in a paddle boat with friends

Our partners from Delhi were very excited to be at the Sattal retreat.  Some of the activities included soccer, boating, hanging out, water balloon fights, singing, hiking, photography, etc.
We also listened to Todd speak at several different sessions.  His messages were very encouraging to our team and to our partners.  It is our hope that our lives will be changed because of this retreat.  Be sure to ask us more about it when we all get home on Tuesday!

Our whole group!

Tuesday...

Monday will have to wait for its own post...

On Tuesday we ran a kids' camp, ate at Karim's, and visited a Sikh temple.

The first day of kids' camp went pretty well, even with a visiting rat, a vomiting child, buckets of rain, a power outage, and of course, miscommunication.  However, I think the kids had a good time and we learned a lot that we can use tomorrow at kids' camp.  All obstacles aside, our team did well painting faces, applying tattoos, telling the story of Peter walking on water, giving a hygiene lesson, singing songs (the Hokey Pokey needs some help, but you can ask Todd and Aimee about that...haha!), and playing games.  Today we are going to get feedback from the full-time children's staff; that should help it flow more smoothly and help us help them do what they need to do for these slum kids.

After the kids' camp, we took a few cars to Old Delhi to eat lunch at Karim's, touted as the best food in Asia!  It was pretty good, as Darren will tell you.  Cara found  the pit toilet at the restaurant, but no one else wanted to follow up on her discovery.

Next we visited a Sikh temple.  We had to cover our heads with bright orange bandanas and remove our shoes.  Our team walked through the temple and was even invited by one of the men to take pictures from the front.  We declined and walked on to see the temple's kitchen where copious amounts of food are prepared for the needy in the community.  We walked through a lot of dirty rain water, but we survived that, too.

After the Sikh temple we went to the Red Fort where the first Indian flag was raised.  We took a picture and left.  Unfortunately there was no time to explore.
Returning to our hotel, we had some down time before the girls headed to the Malakars' house to put together folders for our upcoming retreat.  The guys headed to the resource center for a forum on "hope" followed by dinner from one of the local restaurants, Ramble.  The girls joined the forum when we were done with the folders.
Tuesday was a trying day, but we made it through.  Look out for another post later concerning Monday's trip to the Taj Mahal and our plans for the rest of this week!

Hudson and Greg captured the rat, while Aimee stood on a chair and wanted nothing to do with it!

Things Hudson says...

Hudson says a lot of random things, so that's the reason for my title.

Hudson said that an airplane can survive a lightening strike without crashing.  Good to know.  We survived the plane flight.  Four hours from LAX to O'Hare, then fifteen hours from O'Hare to Delhi.

Look at our huge plane in the foreground compared the small plane in the background! 

We spent this morning having breakfast, going to the resource center where we will be working, and going to our hosts' home for orientation and lunch.  We are currently eating lunch as I type!  Later we are going to explore the neighborhood of Hudson Line and go to a coffee shop so that we can stay awake.  We're operating on jet lag and adrenaline at the moment.

Tomorrow we are going to work at the medical clinic.  Pictures to come after that adventure!

On the way to the resource center...

Lunch time at our hosts' house

Thanks for thinking of us!  Keep us in your thoughts as we work here in India!