Jaipur

So last time I left you in the story I was getting on an early morning train to get to Jaipur.  Just getting on the train was an adventure.  When I arrived at the bus stand the gentleman taking me helped me with my bags and checked on my train.  He was told that everything was on schedule, and to head to the train now.  So we get in line to get on the train, and a man approaches us and says that he needs to see my ticket and passport.  Upon looking at all this he tells me that the train is cancelled.  The gentleman that was helping me told the guy he was lying and needed to stop.  We went into the main train platforms and there was my train standing there waiting to leave.  So I got on with no other problems.  This train left at 7 am and I arrived in Jaipur around 4 hours later.  I got picked up by the two ladies I would be staying with.  We went to their place and I got unpacked.  Then all the adventures began.  I went to a restaurant on one of my first night called BBQ Nation.  It was good!!! It was all the meat you could eat and that was just the starters.  After that they had a buffet to get food from as well.  Wow was it good.

I also got to see some really amazing sights.  Jaipur is a city very proud of its history.  To work with the people it is best to know their history just as much as they do.  So some of the days in Jaipur I was going to historical sights to learn the history of the city.  I got to see the worlds largest sun dial which was accurate within 2 sec! I got to see some amazing forts and palaces.  One of the palaces floated on the water.  Then the Amber Fort had a really cool sound and light show at night telling more of the history of the fort and the city.

Palace on the water

Amber Fort

Amber Fort Sound and Light Show

I also got to go to go to a place that they have recreated a village setting from the early parts of Indian history.  They had dancers and performers to show what it would have looked like during a village festival. The sights and sounds and smells were wonderful.  I felt like I was walking in a local village.

Village Recreation

Young Boy Dancing at Village Recreation

Whole family performing at the Village Recreation

Besides doing all of the tourist things I also got to see some of the basic things that people do when working in India for their first few years.  I got to attend Hindi lessons a few time, but they were way above my head so I had no idea what they were saying.  I also got to go to work with one of my roomies.  She would with a group of women making scarfs out of vintage saris. I got to help match them and pick threads for the scarfs. They have a website if you want to see what I mean.

www.villageartisan.com

My time in Jaipur was well spent doing something every single day.  I loved it!!!! I felt useful in a new way.  I  left Jaipur on the 1st of January. On to my next stop of Lucknow!!!!

Delhi

So Delhi was the first stop on my journey in the North of India.  I arrived later in the evening so driving to the family's house I was staying at was kinda interesting since I had no idea where I was.  In the cab I learned that Delhi now hold the record for being the most polluted city in the world.  Which was later proved when I blew my nose and all that came out was black.

So my first few day there were just chill days.  Which was nice because I was sooo tired from the school term. One day the family I was staying with just had a movie day, which I have not done since I was in the US so it made it great to just watch a bunch of movies.

Then Sunday came around and I had my first things to do.  I went to church with the family I was staying with, and actually ran into 3 teachers from the school.  They had just dropped some of our students off at the Delhi train station the day before, and were getting ready to leave for their vacations.  Then that afternoon I went to a Christmas decorating party.  This was used as an outreach for another family's neighbors. In India since it was around Christmas so many people asked the story of Christmas, so it made it easy to just openly share about the Father.  We did not have a huge turn out, but the few who came were great to talk to.

On Monday I got to go and tour another school in Delhi.  It is similar to the school I work for with the kids they reach, but they do not board at all.  The school reminded me of CCS in its very young days.

We also got to have Christmas parties with multiple teams. The first Christmas party was at a nice restaurant in the mall.  I know what you are thinking "A MALL?" yes in some big cities in India they have malls.  They are great to go and look.  They even decorate like we do for Christmas, and they had an Indian choir singing  chorals in the main court area.

Decorations at the mall

Decorations at the mall

You can see the choir through the wreath 

Me at the mall

The other Christmas party was more like a traditional Christmas Dinner.  The team had tracked down a Christmas Ham.  Which is saying something since beef and pork are not normally eaten in India for religious reasons.

The next day I went to the Qutub Minar.  This structure was build when the Muslims invaded India.  They basically tore down tons of Hindu temples and use the building materials to build this structure and the mosque that stood near by.  As you walk through the mosque you can see where they basically just tore off the face or part of the body of a Hindu god on the building materials.  In India it is such a big tool to know the history and story of the people.  It helps to understand why India is just the way it is.

Qutub Minar

god that was scraped off

Heads of the god cut off 

Me at the Qutub Minar

The next day was super busy.  I went to a fort that was in the middle of Delhi, and then had a Mehndi Party to attend.  A mehndi party is for a bride the night before her wedding. All her female family and friends would be invited and they all get henna put on their hands and sometimes feet.  The bride basically will sit for 2-4 hours getting the henna done.  Once it is on the family and friends will sing and dance and feed the bride so she does not have to move at all.  The henna will darken over night and the color of the henna tells you how much your new husband will love you.  I being me became the dance entertainment of the evening.  They found out that I studied and taught acting.  To Indian people acting=bollywood which =singing and dancing.  They had me dancing all night.  The kinda cool thing that we did do to tell these women about the Father was someone has designed some henna designs to tell the story of the Father and the Son.  So one of the ladies I went with got to tell a story from the word from a henna pattern.

My henna 

My Henna

The rest of my time in Delhi kinda flew by.  I got to go and see the Lotus Temple, and it was just beautiful.  It is a large white structure that looks like a lotus flower about to open.  Then I also got to spend Christmas with two great girls from Hong Kong.  They were soo sweet to me, because they do not normally celebrate Christmas that big, but they made sure I had a good Christmas.  We went to a Christmas Eve service and we got to go to church on Christmas day.  Then I had a train on the 26th to head to my next stop in my journey.

Lotus Temple

One thing that you notice so much in India is the poverty.  People frequently just live in little homemade tents on the side of the road.  Even when it is freezing they will be out there.  Sometimes even little babies.  It is just so hard to see.  Many time the mothers will have the kids run up to white people to try and get money.  Which you naturally tendency when you see them is to give them money, but most time the money is not going for food.  It normally goes for drugs or alcohol.  Also sometimes the families are under the finger of a "pimp" who takes the money from them.

All the kids in this picture are beggar children that approached
us to give them money. 

Beggar girl that followed us for almost 6 blocks

Tent village on the side of the road

I do have to say that the Indian people are amazing.  They will do all kinds of things to work.  This picture is a guy who sells balloons off the back of his bike on the side of the road.  For most the day he can not sit on the bike because of sooo many balloons, yet he walks right next to his bike for the day just to make some money for his family.

I am home!!!!

Ok before you get to excited this does not mean home as in USA. It means Hebron.  I have now began to consider Hebron home.  I think you have to when you live here for a year.  I think that it is a good thing to think of a what used to be very unfamilar as a place you love. 

The next few blog post I put up will be all about the break.  I warn you they will be long!!!!!!!!!! So know that before you get into them.

Thanks for all the Christmas card I got and for all the talks with the father on my behalf.  I hope you guys enjoy the next few blog post.

-Melissa

One Week Left!

Hello All,
   I have one week left of vacation before heading back to school.  School will not officially start until the 2nd of  Feb, but I will be back the 14th to get moved into a new apartment and get to know the new IGs.  This previous week has been wonderful.  I have been in the home of a family or had people over almost every night.  This group is big into building relationships, so that is what we are doing.  Most of the time I am kinda confused because most of the people only speak Hindi.  As most of you know I speak nooooooo Hindi, so I just sit and smile a lot.  Because of that I have been told multiple times that I am cute for my big smile and fair skin.  If you did not know this...in countries that people are naturally dark being light is the thing.  Compared to in the US everyone wants to be dark.  Here people actually use bleaches to make them selves fair.  I have loved getting to see life of these families.  I can not wait to see more in the coming week.
-Melissa

I made it to Lucknow!

So i am on my last leg of my journey of North India!  I arrived yesterday morning in Lucknow.  It has already had some great conversations and some great adventures. Like getting our jeep stuck in knee high mud, but that is a story for my longer post about Lucknow.  Thanks all for following my blog!  I am sure some of them have to be pretty boring so thanks for reading them!!!!