coffee day walla!

yesterday we went to uddamarri school, about 45 minutes from the base. immediately i was struck by how well loved that school is. the children are wonderful, speak english flawlessly and are so confident. if i could come spend every day of my trip here at uddamarri, i would do it.

this morning i was able to meet with some more of our india staff and also see dear marcus and annamma- always a joy, although they chastised me for not coming by their offices earlier so they could arrange for me to come home for dinner with them. :) this afternoon, jennifer and i wandered through general bazaar (and picked out something for beth amma! :)) and now we're enjoying chocolate donuts and chocolate cake at a little westernized coffee shop. (i'm amazed at how westernized india is becoming- moreso every time i visit!)

i'll stay with jen tonight at paul uncle's apartment and then, tomorrow is a visit to pipe village and NCL banda, and then graduation. it's so good to be here, to see the faces behind the names, see familiar faces and spend time with the people that i love here. i can't believe the trip is almost over! tomorrow night around midnight i'll head to the airport and hop on an emirates flight to cairo. i can't wait for that, either (obviously!). i'm not quite sure what to expect, as india is my only point of reference for non-western countries, but i can't imagine anyone better to jump headfirst into egypt/ egyptian culture/ life in general with. :)

it's strange to be here for just a short time, but certainly makes me excited for what's to come this summer. pinckney family, get ready. it's going to be wonderfully awesome!

thank you sir, may i have 5.5 more hours??

drove to papaiahpet today. a kid passed out because it was so hot. 5.5 hours worth of a one-way drive home. my kundy hurts. no more driving, please. ever.

apart from that, all is well. :)

and also, i will be in cairo SO SOON! yay!

nothing much to say, just wanted to let ya'll know i'm still alive.

just met with our IT guys here in hyderabad... after my favorite thing, ever: a motorcycle ride. :) sadly, it was a short one, but if i had it my way i'd never travel any other way here in india! (jp anna- a few ninjas, but no hijras and nothing really worth writing home about. ;) fret not!)

i'm looking forward to thursday as well- i spoke with jen sabin this morning (a former teammate from india travels and fellow gordon grad... or, almost grad). we'll be seeing each other on thursday- she's making the trip into the city from the BIRDS farm with our dear paul uncle. i wish she could take all the kids here with her. :) but, kids or no, it's always fun to see jen here in india. i think i see her more often in this country than in the US. i love having friends like that!

"notes" during a meeting in hyderabad

just a quick note as i'm currently in hyderabad, at a meeting, and i should be paying attention. :)

spent the day yesterday touring mumbai with bama- including, well, all of the places attacked by the terrorists in november. we went and had coffee at the taj, walked around the gateway of india, walked past oberoi and drove by VT. bama said everything was back to normal in mumbai almost immediately after the attacks- she said that 3 days afterward, everything was back to normal and mumbai was hurling on toward westerization and progress just like always. crazy.

we flew into hyderabad last night and we're staying at a hotel near general bazaar. we've got strategic meetings all morning/ day here on the base, which sounds boring but is actually really, really helpful. :) (i'm not just saying that because DFN people may be reading.)

all for now, but pray for cairo.

mumbai: maximum city

again, i am home. the mumbaiwallas, the dogs, the weight of the humid air all rise to greet me as i step off the airplane... and bama- oh, bama. what a treasure. i love her dearly already! and i am fortunate enough to stay at her apartment with her- i knew i'd be ok when she told me that she'd turn the light on in the bathroom first thing in the morning so the cockroaches would leave before i took my shower. (ick.)

once again, foreign is familiar... it's funny to me that i can sometimes feel more at home here than i can in denver. the smell of this place- the dirt, dust, the spices, the air here smells like home. i wish, oddly enough, that i could bottle it up and take it out to comfort my heart on the days when india seems so far away.

jet lag, i'm hoping, will not hit me. my strategy in winning the war on sleepyness: sleep at every opportunity available. denver to dc: sleep. dc to london: sleep. london to mumbai: sleep. then, when we arrived in mumbai, i slept. pretty amazing, but usually the late afternoon is when it hits hard. i'm wide awake here at 5pm, from bama's little apartment in mumbai- right down the road from coffee day, conveniently enough- and hoping to stay awake until at least 9 pm. we'll see how it goes. :) (even as i'm typing, i'm fading. how is that possible when i slept for probably 24 of the last 30 hours of my life?)

this morning we went to church in a slum, where i promptly fell in love with four kids: reuben and his brother vishal, vaibhav and rebekah. reuben and vishal and i read hindi and english together after the service, while rebekah (in upper kindergarten- she's six years old) held a conversation in english about how she was wearing her school uniform shoes (not allowed) on sunday and vaibhav is just darn cute. it was also pretty amazing and certainly very humbling to go to church with a bunch of slum dwellers and hear them give thanks to the Lord for the abundant blessings He has given them- amazing and humbling and a much needed reminder that being blessed does not de facto equal material wealth or wellbeing.

tomorrow we'll be back in the slums- sadly, the children have a day off of school (sadly for us, but probably not so much for them!), so we won't get to meet them all- only the few who invite us into their homes (it feels like way more than just a few when you count the cups of chai and number of biscuts consumed at each house). then, it's a quick tour of the city (colaba causeway, leopold's cafe, fab india and coffee day in one day- does it get any better? i submit it does not!) and then we leave for hyderabad.

so, we're safe. we're happy. we're excited. caleb is a freakin' trooper and a really cool kid, doug loves these people and their kids just as much as i do, and, well, you all know my heart for this place. :)

i'll try and update again as soon as i can. thanks for reading.

but i am le tired.

... and i am ready for bed. i am also just as packed right now as i was this time last night. ha. i knew this new leaf thing was just too much to hope for! blah.

this is the blog of one of the guys traveling with us. he's Awesome.

the next time i update, i will be in the country i have come to love... that makes me ridiculously excited. the thought of all it will take to get there does not.

ok. that's all i've got. the last of my laundry needs putting away, and i need to get my kundy in bed. we're leaving from the house at 6.30 am, then for the airport at 7.30 and then from the airport at 11.30 (obviously these people are WAY more attentive to timing, potential traffic, etc. i'd leave at 10, if it were up to me... alas, it's not.)

phir milenge!

t-minus a few HOURS! yeah!

miracle of miracles, i am mostly packed already.

and it's NOT the morning i'm leaving! i am turning over a new leaf. when i rolled out of bed this morning and saw my stuff packed, it made my heart all warm and fuzzy. i should do this more often. :)

we'll see what tonight's round of procrastination brings forth- i'm supposed to finish glittens for ms manna micks and mail them to her- we'll see how i do. :)

i'm feelin' it

... my pre-trip freak-out, that is.

i do this every time. i get all excited for this great adventure, then in the single-digit days i start freaking out. i'd like to think it's just that i loathe packing SO much that it distracts me from what i'm about to do... i don't know what it is, really, though. perhaps it's a mix of everything- packing, uncertainty, general travel-related exhaustion, the thought of spending close to 20 hours on an airplane, the non- brushed- teeth- scuzzy- travel- face- same- clothes- for- two- days- where's- my- passport- and- why- do- i- always- misplace- it- in- my- luggage- a- million- times feeling. that, and, who wears a long skirt in a desert??

there are, of course, a number of things i'm really looking forward to- graduation, of course, but smaller things, too- the intial step off the plane, breathe in the air and know i'm in india feeling, the humidity that sits on my shoulders like a blanket (believe it or not i'm actually really looking forward to that. it's a friggin' desert up here), catching ya habibi's eyes across an airport full of ninjas and all the adventure that a week in a new place, a new city, a new country will bring. wearing sandals! taking in the country that i fell in love with almost 4 years ago. i'm excited, and i'm trying to remember the excitement more than the freak-out. we'll see how i do.

this trip's procrastionation has, thus far, resulted in a batch of homemade yogurt and a very large chunk of reading. hopefully tonight i will make some homemade cards.

to be continued.

packing list

... things are slow at work. :)

i'm revisiting this post as i think about the things i need to get together this weekend. it's my goal to not procrastinate with packing... ie, pack BEFORE thursday night. or friday morning. again, this post is largely for me, but i don't mind sharing. :) india is not ALL glorious, here's-how-i-saw-God-moving moments, at least not in my life. right now it's a lot of mundane, silly little details that i'd rather not bother with... which is probably why i don't usually deal with them all until the night before/ morning that i leave.

to do list:
- get addresses of peeps who want postcards.
- get fruitsnacks and oatmeal! and a bar of soap! and a little thing of toothpaste!
- call the bank.
- mail out matthew's surprise.
- possibly learn how to wear a buff, 'cause i have one and i don't know how to.

to pack list:
- presents for j!
- salwaars. oh, wait. i don't have any.
- find a long skirt to bring! (dang, it's going to be so hot there.)
- patagonia pants
- linen pants
- i should probably find another pair of pants, as my one pair of linen pants are white and it would be helpful to have more than one pair of pants.
- 1 pair shorts
- 1 tank top
- 2-3 plain t-shirts
- polypro. what kind of stuff does one wear for climbing a mountain where one is continually warned that one will freeze if one does not pack well?
- hat. and gloves.
- smartwools.
- scarves. for the wearing over the shirts in the absence of salwars situation.
- things to tie around my head.
- black chacos
- chaco shoes? for sinai?
- swimsuit. for dahab.
- miPod
- adapter
- book (s)
- sewing kit
- rin soap- if i still have some?
- tp/ hand sanitizer
- camera! battery! memory sticks! charger!
- face wipes (mmm. pollution...)
- toiletries
- snacks. what that means right now, i have no idea. but i will figure it out soon. (see oatmeal! fruitsnacks! from above.)
- sleep sheets
- saftey pins
- journal/ bbl/ bcp
- PASSPORT, you fool! (make copies!!! leave them with people!!!)
- towel?
- headlampy lamp
- paper to write on, and pens to write with (what else would you do with these things???)
- some kind of first aid kit, as most of mine was lost with my luggage. (argh.)
- watch
- nalgene?
- marmot
- black jacket?
- blue zip-up
- some kind of shoulder bag
- sunglasses

feel free to comment with more things i should bring. again, that is if anyone has found this blog/ checks it.

visiting pipe village

we are planning to visit pipe village on our trip to india, the thought of which stirred this up in my heart and mind.

today i was asked about my luggage situation- not the situation with continental airlines, which i hope to never, ever revisit, but how much i'm bringing and how much space i'll have to bring other things we have around these parts that needs to make its way to india.

when i was told that i'd be carrying a suitcase of dresses for the girls in pipe village, i made up my mind to pack nothing more for myself than will fit in a carry-on. i am in love, and love makes you do crazy things. :) ... which, really, in light of what life is like for those who live in pipe village, is not crazy at all. i really feel i'd be crazy NOT to do whatever i can to help.

shmeegypt! it runs in the family...

cross-post.

see photos of grama's travels here.

t-minus 9 days! YEAH!

t-minus 16 days

i am excited.

in t-minus 16 days, i will be stepping on an airplane bound for mumbai, where i will spend two days in the slums of dharavi, probably mostly at a DFN school among the rag-picker caste/population. then, i will travel to our base in hyderabad for the high school graduation of 47 children, the first to attend a DFN school from lower kindergarten to completion of studies (10th class, the indian equivalent of 12th grade).

then, i will step onto a plane bound for cairo, where i will spend a week gallivanting across egypt, from cairo to the sinai, smoke hookah, find grama k's egyptian boyfriend or his relatives or friends, use my one arabic phrase ("fi il mish-mish," or, "in your dreams") in the souk with gusto, spit in the nile and watch the sun rise across the sinai and the sun set across the gulf of aqaba.

i am excited.

i may have an incurable case of wanderlust. maybe. but i think it's something deeper, too. my bff from college once said that traveling to far-flung corners of the earth lets one see God's creation and meet His people, and thus helps us, His kids, learn more about each other and the character of God. i like that. i'm excited to see old friends in india and meet new ones in shmeegypt, to see another part of God's earth, and meet another family of His kids.

jai ho!