Retreat! Retreat!

Well, our kids' camp went better today!  We didn't have a power outage, the heat wasn't as bad, and we got to play water games outside in the park.  Pictures will have to come at some other time because right now we are getting ready to go on a retreat in the jungle!
We're leaving late tonight by train to go to a retreat with the people we're working with.  We'll be gone from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning.  It should be an experience, if nothing else. ;)
Our team won't have internet access, so this is your last blog post for a few days.  Have a good rest of the week and expect an update when we get back!

It rained yesterday in Delhi, and this was the result!

This is a typical house under construction.  The third floor is being held up by poles which are probably tree branches.

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!