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!

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! 

दो दिन

It worked!  The title of this post is "two days," written in Hindi.

Our team leaves in TWO days.  We had our last "meeting" yesterday where we got last minute instructions and some extra supplies to take with us (about 1,500 bottles of vitamins to take to a doctor for distribution + many blankets for the homeless).  Last night we got our roommate assignments.

We are still waiting on a visa for Charles; hopefully it gets here before Thursday, his departure date!

Until we leave on Wednesday morning, I'd say it's safe to say that we will all be very busy with last minute details.  We're almost there! :)

Namaste!

We are team INDIA and we are leaving for India in just EIGHT short days!  Please check back as we will be updating this blog during our trip!  Thank you for your time!