Well, the end is in sight... only 16 days to go until I'm back in little Abingdon again.
Firstly, thank you so much for all your prayers and support as I'm feeling much more at peace about leaving. Yes, I am sad to be leaving India and everyone here but I'm also looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone again. Thank you.
So here's what I've done since the last blog:
- The weather is getting much hotter now... often around 33 degrees. Thank the Lord for fans!!
- Spent time at both City and Village School, both are lots of fun. And whenever I'm at one, I miss the other, but we're always greeted by huge smiles when we return the next day. A particular highlight has been the improvement in Pinky. Back in November/December time, I started to teach her one-on-one the alphabet, and now she's able to read some words, and knows all the numbers really well and body parts. I'm so glad I've had this opportunity to help her in her English skills, and it's been great forming a deeper relationship with her, and it's made me realise that words mean very little in a relationship, it's more the actions and time spent together.
- We've all enjoyed the various church activities, and continue to lead the services, childcare and bible studies.
- On the last two weekends Abha has taught us how to make pakora's, and puri - yummy foods :) We've also visited Phyllis and Val (our indian grandma's) which was lovely. We've also visited a christian bookshop in Delhi, a big Catholic Church where we walked in on a wedding (make that our 3rd Indian wedding!), this was followed by a visit to a Sikh Gudwara.
This will be my last update before returning home, and until I see some of you! (exciting stuff!)
It would be great, for those of you who do, to pray that we make the most of our 2 weeks left and that saying our goodbyes will be ok. It's strange to think that we'll soon be leaving all of this behind - our hosts, all the children at the schools, everyone at church, the teachers and women, the kids in the compound and other people we've just seen a lot such as the people who work at the ice cream parlour, the workers at the nearby small shop, the lady who we buy our fruit from and where we buy are suits from... the list is endless.
I hope you've all enjoyed reading these updates. I hope they've made sense and haven't bored you too much!
Once again thank you so much for all your prayers and support over the past 6 months, it's all very much appreciated.
Take care, and see you soon,
Hannah xx
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Highs and lows, and one month to go...
Hey everyone,
Hope you are all well.
The last week or so has been busy but good, although we are all struggling with the prospect of going home. We go through highs of seeing family and friends and lows of leaving our indian home. It's hard.
So since the last update we've experienced Holi, visited some interesting places and seen our third bollywood film!
First, Holi.... It's a Hindu festival which was celebrated on the 1st and involved tonnes of powder paint being thrown! On the Friday before we celebrated at school with the children (eventhough Anusaran is a Christian organisation, I guess it's kind of like Christmas in England- Everyone celebrates regardless of faith). It was lots of fun getting messy with the children. We also celebrated it on Monday, we weren't allowed out of the house in the morning as unfortuantly it's just too dangerous. However in the afternoon our hosts picked us up and we visited John's sisters family. The journey there was hilarious - everyone was multicoloured from head to toe, including dogs and cows! We had a fun afternoon, playing Holi, and once again got covered in paint... its still in my hair and won't come out.
Last weekend we visited some unusual places on our day off, including a toilet museum (don't ask...) and we visited a science centre which was surprisingly fun. We ended off the day shopping and going to our favorite restaurant in Delhi, called Rodeo (where the waiters dress up as cowboys!)
And we recently watched our third Bollywood film ' My name is Khan' on a cinema trip with our hosts - it was a good film and nice to spend some time with them.
Overall things are going well here, we had a good week at village school but we our struggling with leaving. So prayers for that would be good, along with praying for Louise as she's ill at the moment. Thank you.
Love,
Hannah xx
Hope you are all well.
The last week or so has been busy but good, although we are all struggling with the prospect of going home. We go through highs of seeing family and friends and lows of leaving our indian home. It's hard.
So since the last update we've experienced Holi, visited some interesting places and seen our third bollywood film!
First, Holi.... It's a Hindu festival which was celebrated on the 1st and involved tonnes of powder paint being thrown! On the Friday before we celebrated at school with the children (eventhough Anusaran is a Christian organisation, I guess it's kind of like Christmas in England- Everyone celebrates regardless of faith). It was lots of fun getting messy with the children. We also celebrated it on Monday, we weren't allowed out of the house in the morning as unfortuantly it's just too dangerous. However in the afternoon our hosts picked us up and we visited John's sisters family. The journey there was hilarious - everyone was multicoloured from head to toe, including dogs and cows! We had a fun afternoon, playing Holi, and once again got covered in paint... its still in my hair and won't come out.
Last weekend we visited some unusual places on our day off, including a toilet museum (don't ask...) and we visited a science centre which was surprisingly fun. We ended off the day shopping and going to our favorite restaurant in Delhi, called Rodeo (where the waiters dress up as cowboys!)
And we recently watched our third Bollywood film ' My name is Khan' on a cinema trip with our hosts - it was a good film and nice to spend some time with them.
Overall things are going well here, we had a good week at village school but we our struggling with leaving. So prayers for that would be good, along with praying for Louise as she's ill at the moment. Thank you.
Love,
Hannah xx
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Fasting and mice!
Odd subject I know, but more on that later!
Firstly, thank you to all you lovely people who have sent me encouraging replies, I really appreciate them :)
This last week had been a pretty average week, apart from Shashi's wedding on Friday. It was a lot smaller and less extravagant than the previous wedding we'd been to on Tuesday. As it was in a village (where people are generally poorer than people living in towns or cities) Shashi's father had put everything he had into this wedding. So we arrived at village school on Friday evening (near to Shashi's wedding) and we saw her with all her make-up, jewelery and henna on, we found this quite hard as a team and didn't really know how to react in this situation, as weddings here are neither particularly happy times, or sad times.
We then walked round to the wedding where we were greeted with lots of 'Namaste didi's from all the children and women at school who were also attending. It was so good to see them all dressed up in their fancy salwars! Unfortuantly this wedding didn't really have much of a happy ending as a fight broke out, before we'd even properly seen Shashi and the groom hadn't even arrived. Apparently this is common in village weddings, as thier are often fights over money or food. This led to the majority of the guests leaving, our hosts ushered us out pretty swiftly as it could have, and did, turn into something more serious. On the way home we found out that her husband was already drunk before he's even arrived at his own wedding. My heart just broke for Shashi... So the way home from the wedding we all prayed for her. As a team we've found it very easy to judge arranged marriages, just because it' not in our western culture, but I pray that they will fall in love, and treat each other with respect.
As a said this week as been a pretty average week, teaching at both village and city school. It's been lots of fun with the children.
Now it comes to the subject of this email/blog... well a mouse update for you all - we currently have two resident mice in our flat. Freddie, the big mouse and Frankie, the small mouse. And it was Freddie that kept me up since 4am this morning - mice are so noisy. So I'm tired now, and I'm feeling hungry. Today our church is having a day of fasting and praying. So we're all fasting until 8pm, and everyone has been allotted an hour to spend praying for Anusaran and it's members. I've already had my hour, and found it really good just to be able to focus for a whole hour on praying for Anusaran.
Thank you for your prayers about health - we're all better now, except Lydia who's been to the doctors and now has medicine, so hopefully she'll be back to herself soon.
Thanks for reading once again,
Love Hannah x
Firstly, thank you to all you lovely people who have sent me encouraging replies, I really appreciate them :)
This last week had been a pretty average week, apart from Shashi's wedding on Friday. It was a lot smaller and less extravagant than the previous wedding we'd been to on Tuesday. As it was in a village (where people are generally poorer than people living in towns or cities) Shashi's father had put everything he had into this wedding. So we arrived at village school on Friday evening (near to Shashi's wedding) and we saw her with all her make-up, jewelery and henna on, we found this quite hard as a team and didn't really know how to react in this situation, as weddings here are neither particularly happy times, or sad times.
We then walked round to the wedding where we were greeted with lots of 'Namaste didi's from all the children and women at school who were also attending. It was so good to see them all dressed up in their fancy salwars! Unfortuantly this wedding didn't really have much of a happy ending as a fight broke out, before we'd even properly seen Shashi and the groom hadn't even arrived. Apparently this is common in village weddings, as thier are often fights over money or food. This led to the majority of the guests leaving, our hosts ushered us out pretty swiftly as it could have, and did, turn into something more serious. On the way home we found out that her husband was already drunk before he's even arrived at his own wedding. My heart just broke for Shashi... So the way home from the wedding we all prayed for her. As a team we've found it very easy to judge arranged marriages, just because it' not in our western culture, but I pray that they will fall in love, and treat each other with respect.
As a said this week as been a pretty average week, teaching at both village and city school. It's been lots of fun with the children.
Now it comes to the subject of this email/blog... well a mouse update for you all - we currently have two resident mice in our flat. Freddie, the big mouse and Frankie, the small mouse. And it was Freddie that kept me up since 4am this morning - mice are so noisy. So I'm tired now, and I'm feeling hungry. Today our church is having a day of fasting and praying. So we're all fasting until 8pm, and everyone has been allotted an hour to spend praying for Anusaran and it's members. I've already had my hour, and found it really good just to be able to focus for a whole hour on praying for Anusaran.
Thank you for your prayers about health - we're all better now, except Lydia who's been to the doctors and now has medicine, so hopefully she'll be back to herself soon.
Thanks for reading once again,
Love Hannah x
Thursday, 18 February 2010
1 wedding down, 1 wedding to go...!
Time for an update again… As a write this to you I’m admiring my new henna (ready for the second wedding of the week tomorrow) and praying that this laptop doesn’t crash too many times on me. We haven’t been able to make it to an internet café today as 2 of our team members are ill, so instead using our rubbishy laptop in the flat.
Last Friday we went to Arnold’s award ceremony. The singing went well, after the brief panic when we couldn’t get the accompanying keyboard to work, the girls did fantastic in the dance and Arnold said a great little winning speech. (Oh, and during this time we had the 5th rain since arriving here!)
On Saturday we visited a place called ‘Dilli Haat’. It was a posh market full of Indian scarfs, clothes, bags, jewelerry etc – I could have spent so much money there!!
This week we’ve been back at village school, which had been great. We really missed everyone here – women and children so it was brillant to see everyone again and get back into our routine of teaching. We also had a chance to visit Shashi (the girl who’s getting married tomorrow) at her home. I found it quite hard seeing her knowing it’ll be the last time I see her before her marriage to a man she’s only met once. It was lovely to have a chance to see her after so long though.
Tuesday was a very fun day for us. As it was Shrove Tuesday we stuck with tradition and made pancakes – very yummy! In the evening was our first Indian wedding and it was amazing. On Tuesday there were 42,000 weddings taking place in India (some special day in Hinduism as certain stars line up… something along those lines.) Anyway, the wedding venue was a huge beautiful open topped marquee. We started off the evening with the starters and chatting to a few people. We then left to join the groom’s procession. He travelled on a horse-drawn carriage behind a band, and many of the groom’s guests were dancing along. Of course us 4 were dragged into dance A LOT! It was quite a surreal experience but lots of fun. Once we’d travelled about 200m in an hour we arrived back at the main marquee with even more dancing. Once inside we ate more food and had a photo taken with the bride and groom whilst they sat on thier thrown type chair on the front stage. It was a good night.
Yesterday (Wednesday) the celebrations continued with it being Tabi’s 19th birthday. It was a normal day really, with added cake and of course cake fights. A very different birthday for her but she enjoyed it.
The celebrations continue tomorrow with Shashi’s wedding. We’re excited for another wedding, but sad as this will be the last time we see her before she moves away to live with her new husband and his family.
If you would like to pray for us then the main prayer request would be for our health, as not all of us our feeling 100% at the moment and I’m feeling quite tired and lacking energy at the moment. Probably due to many late nights and lots of planning, so prayers for feeling refreshed and re-energised would be great.
Hope you’re all doing well. Please do let me know if you have any prayer requests, as I’d love to pray for you.
Love, Hannah xx
Last Friday we went to Arnold’s award ceremony. The singing went well, after the brief panic when we couldn’t get the accompanying keyboard to work, the girls did fantastic in the dance and Arnold said a great little winning speech. (Oh, and during this time we had the 5th rain since arriving here!)
On Saturday we visited a place called ‘Dilli Haat’. It was a posh market full of Indian scarfs, clothes, bags, jewelerry etc – I could have spent so much money there!!
This week we’ve been back at village school, which had been great. We really missed everyone here – women and children so it was brillant to see everyone again and get back into our routine of teaching. We also had a chance to visit Shashi (the girl who’s getting married tomorrow) at her home. I found it quite hard seeing her knowing it’ll be the last time I see her before her marriage to a man she’s only met once. It was lovely to have a chance to see her after so long though.
Tuesday was a very fun day for us. As it was Shrove Tuesday we stuck with tradition and made pancakes – very yummy! In the evening was our first Indian wedding and it was amazing. On Tuesday there were 42,000 weddings taking place in India (some special day in Hinduism as certain stars line up… something along those lines.) Anyway, the wedding venue was a huge beautiful open topped marquee. We started off the evening with the starters and chatting to a few people. We then left to join the groom’s procession. He travelled on a horse-drawn carriage behind a band, and many of the groom’s guests were dancing along. Of course us 4 were dragged into dance A LOT! It was quite a surreal experience but lots of fun. Once we’d travelled about 200m in an hour we arrived back at the main marquee with even more dancing. Once inside we ate more food and had a photo taken with the bride and groom whilst they sat on thier thrown type chair on the front stage. It was a good night.
Yesterday (Wednesday) the celebrations continued with it being Tabi’s 19th birthday. It was a normal day really, with added cake and of course cake fights. A very different birthday for her but she enjoyed it.
The celebrations continue tomorrow with Shashi’s wedding. We’re excited for another wedding, but sad as this will be the last time we see her before she moves away to live with her new husband and his family.
If you would like to pray for us then the main prayer request would be for our health, as not all of us our feeling 100% at the moment and I’m feeling quite tired and lacking energy at the moment. Probably due to many late nights and lots of planning, so prayers for feeling refreshed and re-energised would be great.
Hope you’re all doing well. Please do let me know if you have any prayer requests, as I’d love to pray for you.
Love, Hannah xx
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Practice makes perfect
Hello everyone!
Time for an update again! Not too much to say though...
Church went well again on Friday, with another new face turning up. On Saturday we all went into Old Delhi again to buy new sarees (as we didn't get them after updating last time) and we visited Phyllis and Valerie again. It was so lovely to see them again, they love to chat so much and they really are our Indian Grandma's!
Sunday was an... eventful day... We went on our first trip to the hairdressers in India. (no, we hadn't had a hair cut since arriving, I guess it just wasn't one of our priorities!). I'm NOT having my hair cut in India again... none of us are... Tabi and Lydia looked like the Pink Ladies from Grease, and Louise and I looked like Bon Jovi! Definitely an experience!
The dance is looking good for Friday. All the girls have been practicing LOADS and have got really good. I love their enthusiasm for it, and their willingness to practice. They're all very excited to perform on Friday.
The only other news I have is that it rained on Monday!!! Only our 4th day of rain since being in India and lets just say I'm not missing British weather!
Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Take care,
Love, Hannah xx
Time for an update again! Not too much to say though...
Church went well again on Friday, with another new face turning up. On Saturday we all went into Old Delhi again to buy new sarees (as we didn't get them after updating last time) and we visited Phyllis and Valerie again. It was so lovely to see them again, they love to chat so much and they really are our Indian Grandma's!
Sunday was an... eventful day... We went on our first trip to the hairdressers in India. (no, we hadn't had a hair cut since arriving, I guess it just wasn't one of our priorities!). I'm NOT having my hair cut in India again... none of us are... Tabi and Lydia looked like the Pink Ladies from Grease, and Louise and I looked like Bon Jovi! Definitely an experience!
The dance is looking good for Friday. All the girls have been practicing LOADS and have got really good. I love their enthusiasm for it, and their willingness to practice. They're all very excited to perform on Friday.
The only other news I have is that it rained on Monday!!! Only our 4th day of rain since being in India and lets just say I'm not missing British weather!
Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Take care,
Love, Hannah xx
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Only 2 months left...
Hello everyone,
Hope you are all well and have had enjoyable weeks.
So yes, I'm two-thirds of the way through, and I find it sad to think I'll be home in 2 months. I love it here so much!
So update since last week...
Friday saw the first of Friday Church Services in our hosts house. This is the new ministry starting up in this area. On Friday we had 2 new faces, which was great and we're all praying that it continues to grow. This new ministry is hoped to reach more people in this area of Dwarka and encourage more people to come to church, as the other church is in a slum area so many people are relectant to visit there.
On Saturday, we went to an awards ceremoney where are hosts son, Arnold, recieved 1st runner up in a national fashion designing competition. We all enjoyed the day as we got to wear our saree's again, and eat lots amazingly yummy food!
All this week we've been at city school and all really enjoyed it. In the mornings I've been teaching a boys class and teaching the alphabet to a group of small children. The afternoons consist of the team doing a skit and teaching songs, followed by craft or games. Lydia and I then take 12 girls upstairs to teach them dance. Arnold has won 1st prize in an art competition out of 14,000 people and so Anusaran have been asked to perform a dance at the ceremony so we've been teaching the dance to 'Every Move I Make' to perform.
For those who would like to pray, please pray that:
- the dance prepartions would come together on time.
- A lady from church who is moving out of Delhi as their family are having water problems, involving needing to travel 11km to collect water.
- For the team as we prepare various services and church groups.
I'm off to buy a new saree now, as we have mnay saree events coming up and can't be wearing the same one to them all!
Love and prayers,
Hannah xx
Hope you are all well and have had enjoyable weeks.
So yes, I'm two-thirds of the way through, and I find it sad to think I'll be home in 2 months. I love it here so much!
So update since last week...
Friday saw the first of Friday Church Services in our hosts house. This is the new ministry starting up in this area. On Friday we had 2 new faces, which was great and we're all praying that it continues to grow. This new ministry is hoped to reach more people in this area of Dwarka and encourage more people to come to church, as the other church is in a slum area so many people are relectant to visit there.
On Saturday, we went to an awards ceremoney where are hosts son, Arnold, recieved 1st runner up in a national fashion designing competition. We all enjoyed the day as we got to wear our saree's again, and eat lots amazingly yummy food!
All this week we've been at city school and all really enjoyed it. In the mornings I've been teaching a boys class and teaching the alphabet to a group of small children. The afternoons consist of the team doing a skit and teaching songs, followed by craft or games. Lydia and I then take 12 girls upstairs to teach them dance. Arnold has won 1st prize in an art competition out of 14,000 people and so Anusaran have been asked to perform a dance at the ceremony so we've been teaching the dance to 'Every Move I Make' to perform.
For those who would like to pray, please pray that:
- the dance prepartions would come together on time.
- A lady from church who is moving out of Delhi as their family are having water problems, involving needing to travel 11km to collect water.
- For the team as we prepare various services and church groups.
I'm off to buy a new saree now, as we have mnay saree events coming up and can't be wearing the same one to them all!
Love and prayers,
Hannah xx
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Back to routine
Hi everyone
Hope you are all well. So I've been back at school just over a week now and we're all back into the familiar routine we had before Christmas and our holiday.
I'm very happy to be back to church and back to school teaching. I missed my class a lot, and all the girls at village school. A particular highlight since being back was last friday when the team organised everyone to make flags and then we attmpted to teach the whole school 'Our God is a great big God'. They all got the actions and the chorus, but the rest of the words are a bit of a mumble at the moment - we'll get there though!
Our relationships with the children living in the same compound as us has also developed as we've had more opportunities to go out and now they're even knocking at our door asking us to come out to play.
Last Sunday the team lead the service went well. Our service included a drama, a prayer activity, a rubix cube and a talk. The message of the service was that God chooses anyone, anywhen, anywhere to do anything and how we should be obedient to what God asks us to do. The rubix cube symbolised how even if things can seem impossible, all things are possible with God!
Tuesday was Republic Day in India, which meant holiday for all!! We spent the day with a couple of elderly ladies visiting from Scotland called Fi and Rosemary. In the morning we went to 'Swaminarayan Akshardhan'. A temple in Delhi -it was interesting to visit (with a build in boat ride and huge cinema screen!). In the afternoon we went to visit a couple of thier Indian friends - Phyllis /Phillis (I don't know how you spell this name) and Valerie. Both 70-something years old and 2 of the most amazing ladies I've met in India. They both had amazing stories to tell of thier lives. They're now our adopted Indian Grandma's and we're hoping to go back to visit again someday.
Some prayer points for those of you who pray:
- that my cold and cough would soon go as it's hard to teach without a voice!
- that we'd all have creative ideas for teaching
- our relationships with everyone here that they continue to deepen
- Shashi as she prepares for her wedding on Feb 19th. I've had a conversation with her, and understandly she's scared at the idea of getting married to a man she's on;y met for 15 minutes and after her wedding she's moving away to live with his family. So huge huge prayers for her would be great.
Hope you're still enjoying these updates, but just let me know if you'd like to be taken off the email list. I won't mind.
Love, Hannah x
Hope you are all well. So I've been back at school just over a week now and we're all back into the familiar routine we had before Christmas and our holiday.
I'm very happy to be back to church and back to school teaching. I missed my class a lot, and all the girls at village school. A particular highlight since being back was last friday when the team organised everyone to make flags and then we attmpted to teach the whole school 'Our God is a great big God'. They all got the actions and the chorus, but the rest of the words are a bit of a mumble at the moment - we'll get there though!
Our relationships with the children living in the same compound as us has also developed as we've had more opportunities to go out and now they're even knocking at our door asking us to come out to play.
Last Sunday the team lead the service went well. Our service included a drama, a prayer activity, a rubix cube and a talk. The message of the service was that God chooses anyone, anywhen, anywhere to do anything and how we should be obedient to what God asks us to do. The rubix cube symbolised how even if things can seem impossible, all things are possible with God!
Tuesday was Republic Day in India, which meant holiday for all!! We spent the day with a couple of elderly ladies visiting from Scotland called Fi and Rosemary. In the morning we went to 'Swaminarayan Akshardhan'. A temple in Delhi -it was interesting to visit (with a build in boat ride and huge cinema screen!). In the afternoon we went to visit a couple of thier Indian friends - Phyllis /Phillis (I don't know how you spell this name) and Valerie. Both 70-something years old and 2 of the most amazing ladies I've met in India. They both had amazing stories to tell of thier lives. They're now our adopted Indian Grandma's and we're hoping to go back to visit again someday.
Some prayer points for those of you who pray:
- that my cold and cough would soon go as it's hard to teach without a voice!
- that we'd all have creative ideas for teaching
- our relationships with everyone here that they continue to deepen
- Shashi as she prepares for her wedding on Feb 19th. I've had a conversation with her, and understandly she's scared at the idea of getting married to a man she's on;y met for 15 minutes and after her wedding she's moving away to live with his family. So huge huge prayers for her would be great.
Hope you're still enjoying these updates, but just let me know if you'd like to be taken off the email list. I won't mind.
Love, Hannah x
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Holiday!
Hello everyone!
We've safely arrived back home today after a brilliant holiday. Here's a brief overview of what we did....
On the 3rd January the Kolkata Action Team arrived in Delhi and we went out for a meal and ice cream with them. The next day we saw the sights of Delhi - Qutab Minar, Humayan Tomb, Zoo and went shopping and to a cowboy themed restaurant, where the waiters dress up as cowboys!
The 5th we went to the Taj Mahal! It was such a good day, despite the train being delayed by 3hours there and nearly 4 hours back!
The 6th we took the kolkata team to village and city school so that they could see the projects we're working with. In the evening we went over to the David's to celebrate Christy's birthday.
On the 7th we got up at 2am to catch the train to Jaipur but the train just kept getting more and more delayed so instead we went by coach. This journey was meant to take 5 hours, but took 8 instead and eventually we arrived in Jaipur and found our hotel. In the evening I had my first warm shower in 3 months and we just relaxed.
For our only full day in Jaipur we rode elephants up a hill to a palace, and fed monkeys at the Monkey Temple. It was a good day!
The 9th - 11th were the most boring days. We arrived at Jaipur train station at 2pm to catch our train to Kolkata (we'd then planned to go on to Darjeeling from there) but our train was delayed by 17 hours! We didn't really have much choice but to stick it our at the station. We used the time well though - we prayed for the other action teams, read the bible, played games and took it it shifts to sleep. The train finally arrived, and we had a 33 hour train journey, but by God's grace this time didn't drag either. Eventually we arrived in Kolkata at 5pm on the 11th. We decided not to go to darjeeling because we didn't want another 24 hours travelling there and back so decided to stay in Kolkata for a week.
During our time in Kolkata we had a good balance between resting and doing touristy things. In Kolkata we watched '3 Idiots' at the cinema (the biggest film in India right now - its a good film!), went shopping, relaxed at a beauty salon, went our for yummy meals, mass at the Motherhouse (where Mother Teresa lived and worked), went to a theme park (where we got away with all sorts of things that we wouldn't have been able to in England!), went on a boat under Howrah Bridge, had a party on the roof and went to church.
On Sunday our train back to Delhi was meant to arrive at 7.40pm, but guess what.... it was delayed! It arrived at 1.30am, and 33 and half hours later we were finall back home.
I had a brilliant holiday - we saw amazing places, had brillant fun with the Kolkata team and even the boring bits were blessed. I'm now feeling refreshed and can't wait to go back to school soon. I miss my class and all the women at village school!
And there's a 'brief' overview of my holiday - hope you enjoyed reading it!
Love,
Hannah x
We've safely arrived back home today after a brilliant holiday. Here's a brief overview of what we did....
On the 3rd January the Kolkata Action Team arrived in Delhi and we went out for a meal and ice cream with them. The next day we saw the sights of Delhi - Qutab Minar, Humayan Tomb, Zoo and went shopping and to a cowboy themed restaurant, where the waiters dress up as cowboys!
The 5th we went to the Taj Mahal! It was such a good day, despite the train being delayed by 3hours there and nearly 4 hours back!
The 6th we took the kolkata team to village and city school so that they could see the projects we're working with. In the evening we went over to the David's to celebrate Christy's birthday.
On the 7th we got up at 2am to catch the train to Jaipur but the train just kept getting more and more delayed so instead we went by coach. This journey was meant to take 5 hours, but took 8 instead and eventually we arrived in Jaipur and found our hotel. In the evening I had my first warm shower in 3 months and we just relaxed.
For our only full day in Jaipur we rode elephants up a hill to a palace, and fed monkeys at the Monkey Temple. It was a good day!
The 9th - 11th were the most boring days. We arrived at Jaipur train station at 2pm to catch our train to Kolkata (we'd then planned to go on to Darjeeling from there) but our train was delayed by 17 hours! We didn't really have much choice but to stick it our at the station. We used the time well though - we prayed for the other action teams, read the bible, played games and took it it shifts to sleep. The train finally arrived, and we had a 33 hour train journey, but by God's grace this time didn't drag either. Eventually we arrived in Kolkata at 5pm on the 11th. We decided not to go to darjeeling because we didn't want another 24 hours travelling there and back so decided to stay in Kolkata for a week.
During our time in Kolkata we had a good balance between resting and doing touristy things. In Kolkata we watched '3 Idiots' at the cinema (the biggest film in India right now - its a good film!), went shopping, relaxed at a beauty salon, went our for yummy meals, mass at the Motherhouse (where Mother Teresa lived and worked), went to a theme park (where we got away with all sorts of things that we wouldn't have been able to in England!), went on a boat under Howrah Bridge, had a party on the roof and went to church.
On Sunday our train back to Delhi was meant to arrive at 7.40pm, but guess what.... it was delayed! It arrived at 1.30am, and 33 and half hours later we were finall back home.
I had a brilliant holiday - we saw amazing places, had brillant fun with the Kolkata team and even the boring bits were blessed. I'm now feeling refreshed and can't wait to go back to school soon. I miss my class and all the women at village school!
And there's a 'brief' overview of my holiday - hope you enjoyed reading it!
Love,
Hannah x
Friday, 1 January 2010
One year over, and new one begins...
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!
So here's a run down of my Christmas and New year...
On Christmas Day the first thing we did was open our stockings from each other and ate Christmas cake, we then went over to our hosts house who helped us all put on our brand new sarees! In the morning we had a service at church - this involved the team doing a skit of the nativity (from the point of view of Mrs Donkey, Mrs Sheep and Mrs Camel!) and doing Indian dancing at the front of church! This was followed by us going back to our hosts house and onto their roof (yes, it was a lovely hot day!) to help prepare vegetables ready for lunch. After a couple of hours of dancing, singing and chatting to our hosts family lunch was eventually ready at 4.30pm. This Christmas dinner was typically Indian - rice, curry and chicken (though having meat is special). We spent the rest of the afternoon opening presents, and in the evening we all cuddled up under blankets, in our pyjamas eating chocolate watching Finding Nemo. It was a very different Christmas to usual as it has much less hype than in England but I still enjoyed it, and it helped me to remember the true meaning of Christmas.
Boxing Day was very much a lazy day for us as we staying in our pyjamas until 4pm watching films and eating more chocolate!! In the evening we went out for a lovely meal with our hosts and watched Avatar.
Yesterday (New Years Eve) we spent with our hosts watching our first Bollywood movie! It was a good film, and finished just in time for us to countdown to midnight, and welcome in the new year with a cheer, sweets, an attempted at sining Auld Lange Syne (none of us really knew the words) and a prayer. It was a great evening :)
Today, we've been at church having a thanksgiving service and church lunch.
2009 has been a very good year for me - I've had so many new experiences and grown in myself and my relationship with God. Thank you to everyone who's been part of my 2009 to make it special :) I'm very much looking forward to whats instore for 2010!!
We start our holiday on Sunday and don't return until the 18th so no more updates from me til then! Prayers for a safe and happy holiday would be very much appreciated - we're going to Agra, Jaipur, Darjeeling and Kolkata for those of you who are interested.
I hope you all have a great couple of weeks :)
Love,
Hannah x
So here's a run down of my Christmas and New year...
On Christmas Day the first thing we did was open our stockings from each other and ate Christmas cake, we then went over to our hosts house who helped us all put on our brand new sarees! In the morning we had a service at church - this involved the team doing a skit of the nativity (from the point of view of Mrs Donkey, Mrs Sheep and Mrs Camel!) and doing Indian dancing at the front of church! This was followed by us going back to our hosts house and onto their roof (yes, it was a lovely hot day!) to help prepare vegetables ready for lunch. After a couple of hours of dancing, singing and chatting to our hosts family lunch was eventually ready at 4.30pm. This Christmas dinner was typically Indian - rice, curry and chicken (though having meat is special). We spent the rest of the afternoon opening presents, and in the evening we all cuddled up under blankets, in our pyjamas eating chocolate watching Finding Nemo. It was a very different Christmas to usual as it has much less hype than in England but I still enjoyed it, and it helped me to remember the true meaning of Christmas.
Boxing Day was very much a lazy day for us as we staying in our pyjamas until 4pm watching films and eating more chocolate!! In the evening we went out for a lovely meal with our hosts and watched Avatar.
Yesterday (New Years Eve) we spent with our hosts watching our first Bollywood movie! It was a good film, and finished just in time for us to countdown to midnight, and welcome in the new year with a cheer, sweets, an attempted at sining Auld Lange Syne (none of us really knew the words) and a prayer. It was a great evening :)
Today, we've been at church having a thanksgiving service and church lunch.
2009 has been a very good year for me - I've had so many new experiences and grown in myself and my relationship with God. Thank you to everyone who's been part of my 2009 to make it special :) I'm very much looking forward to whats instore for 2010!!
We start our holiday on Sunday and don't return until the 18th so no more updates from me til then! Prayers for a safe and happy holiday would be very much appreciated - we're going to Agra, Jaipur, Darjeeling and Kolkata for those of you who are interested.
I hope you all have a great couple of weeks :)
Love,
Hannah x
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