Musoorie

So that first post after getting here was very long. I guess those who really want to know what was going on got the gist of it! The electricity goes out a lot here. Am I feeling homesick yet? Yes and No. Liz’s birthday was a couple of days ago so we had a party at the little boy’s house. Chow mien on a special cup cake plate for the birthday girl and a happy extended birthday song. Liz is whom I plan on traveling around India and hopefully to Nepal with while I’m over here. I changed my return ticket for April instead of in May because of my visa. After that thunderstorm it’s definitely cooling off more and it’s dark by 6, but not without an incredible sunset first. India sunsets are by far the best I have ever seen. On our drive to Mussoorie we stopped in Dehra Dun to get some fabric for our new wardrobe. I bought fabric for three shirts and a pair of pants for about 15 dollars. We’ll take the fabric to a tailor near by to make our clothes. I’m excited I like the colors I picked out! Greens, white, reds and purples.

I knew that there was a leper colony near Dehra Dun but I learned this weekend on our drive to Mussoorie there are actually a couple of boys in the home whose parents live there.

Our weekend in Mussoorie was incredible. Frieda drove us up on Saturday and we stayed over night with someone they knew and we got back today. The drive is a couple of ours from Shishya in the Himalayas. It’s about 7 thousand feet up and you drive up this windy road that’s got two lanes, but it’s about as wide as one side of the lane in the states. There was even a landslide that covered half of the road at one spot! The road was steep with tight turns and the elevation gain was pretty drastic! There are lots of cows in this part of India and there were some on the roads too… There are monkeys all over the place and you could see them on the road and in the trees. Liz compared the number of monkeys that are around to squirrels in the states! I’m not going to lie; I got a little headache on the ride up. But the view was incredible and the location of the Mussoorie is breathtaking. The houses are literally on the sides of the mountains at the top and all over the luscious green landscape. The British established Mussoorie in 1823 and it’s a popular holiday destination. You can see the Doon Valley were Dehra Dun is and on the other side the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas. You can tell it’s’ a popular tourist spot. The place is very clean, and like I said before the sunset was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E. But before the sunset we did some grocery shopping and saw the church that Frieda and Ken were married in called Saint Paul’s. I looked inside and it’s very pretty. The service this morning at 930 didn’t have one but would have been neat to experience! We had lunch near there when we arrived and I had a tortilla type thing with potato, cheese and onions in it with a banana type smoothie drink. Delicous! The food is so good in India. I thought maybe I would lose weight here but I don't think so! So to back track Frieda and Sharon left to go back to Shishya and Amanda, Abby, Liz and me stuck around to go to the bazaar and I bought some cute earrings. For dinner we had this delicious vegetarian dish with cauliflower in it with garlic Nan. Again, delicious. After our night in Mussoorie, we walked back to Woodstock, a boarding school, where a friend of Frieda’s is a house parent for girls that go there. Her name is Sabrina and she is from Canada. She had been working with sex trafficked women and children in Mumbai but is currently working at the school but hopes to have her own charity someday working with sex trafficked victims. She was very inspiring. You can check out the Woodstock school here to get a better idea of the area it’s in and where we were. Before our taxi ride back down on Sunday we walked the loop around and it was a crystal clear day to see the snow capped peaks in the distance. Back at Woodstock while we waited for our taxi back to Shishya, I played 2on2 basketball with some 8th grade boys and played HORSE with a kid from Nepal. It was fun! I had a great time visiting with the other girls at Shishya and getting to know them better.






I am shadowing the classes I’ll be teaching this week. The teacher I am replacing is leaving because she is getting married soon to a man that was arranged by her parents. She told me once she is married she will live with her husband and his family. He is in the military and could be transferred around a lot. There are four military academies in India and one is near Dehra Dun but there are some other bases and things we passed as well.

I decided that traveling within India is important while I am here, but I knew before I came here that my sole reason was to spend time at Shishya. We have a break in December and into January and again in March for a couple of weeks. The plan is to take a trip after Christmas for a couple of weeks then the plan in March is to see Nepal, and whatever else on the way.