Leading up to Christmas

A few days ago my dad sent me a video link and I wanted to share it with you: http://www.wimp.com/wecould/ It’s only a few minutes long but definitely worth watching.

When someone buys a new house here, for a housewarming gift the new house owners give things away to their friends. Can you guess what some of the volunteers got recently? You guessed it…food. We grow many things on the farm and I had my first guava a few days ago. Delicious! My friend Cathy laughs every time I talk about the food here. She says I’m clearly having a love affair with it. It may be true! Where the guava trees grow I see pretty bright green parrot birds flying every once in a while.

I have discovered one thing in India that doesn’t taste good though-- dirt. With all this delicious food intake in high quantity I’ve been trying to run every once in a while. I run on campus between goal posts usually at night and about a week ago I sprained my left foot and literally ate dirt. That’s what I get for trying to run I guess. It hasn’t swelled up like a sprain, though-- just a piercing pain on the bone. I stayed home the next day elevating my foot (I accidently just wrote food instead of foot) with ice. I didn’t need to teach that day and our prop group for the show wasn’t doing too much so it was a good day to get caught up with school stuff and reading. I have always had the weakest ankles! It’s been over a week and it still hurts; but isn’t swollen. I think I did something more than just sprain it, unfortunately. I am going to be doing a lot of walking soon so I hope it feels better. Any suggestions on what I should do? I take ibiprofen, soak it in warm water and elevate.

So the itouch text number I gave people is still okay to text to even if I can’t pick up wifi on my itouch here at Shishya. The text messages still get forwarded to my email so text away please! I’m thinking on my two-week west coast India backpacking adventure that I start on Saturday, I’ll pick up wireless hopefully along the way.

Correction: there are about 550 students at Shishya. I originally said there were about 350, which isn’t right!

Kiran and Ruth, the house parents for the small boys, have been house parents for SIXTEEN years! That is incredible!! They have been such amazing people (parents) for so many boys!

On Sundays we get together for worship and we sing songs with guitars and drums. Then after singing for a while, Ken gets up and says a little something and anyone who has announcements or give thanks, says things and then if anyone wants to pray for anything, ect. Last weekend people prayed out loud what they were thankful for. I cry lots here. But they are good tears. After that the young boys go off for Sunday school and adults get together for some discussion. Some of things that Ken has talked about are pretty thought provoking. I always feel satisfied and have somewhat of a natural high after church here.

A new volunteer showed up last week and he is from England. His name is Lewis and must be in his early 20’s and his dad is a bodyguard for the Queen!! Awesome!

One of the teachers that lives on campus always says, “Hi Alaska” When he sees me. Then he asks, “How is Alaska?” I say every time, “It’s cold.” But he also means, “How is your family?!” with a big grin on his face. Deepak is so funny. I like my nickname though! The boys are starting to call me that too.

Seeing Sharon and Abby leave this week was sad. The boys going away party for them was pretty emotional and I even cried (of course). The boys made cards for them and decorated their house and they said what they were thankful for in regards to each of them. It was SO sincere and so perfect. Wherever there is music here, there is a dance party. Every time. Sharon also danced when others were. Incredible! I hope to be as rockin’ as her when I’m 64.

Shishya had their big Christmas show last weekend. After the show Rohan and I had a little battle with the prop armor. He was giggling so hard. It was the first time I heard him laugh like that. So cute! He seems to look taller every time I see him. We had two days of classes this week! On Christmas night I leave for my 2-week west coast India adventure with Liz!