It's March!

Nibha told me Shishya means “disciple” in Sanskrit.

I learned from one of the boys' Adventure Bibles that the name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. Interesting little fact.

I didn’t know that almost all of the women and girls in India have pierced noses until I got here!

I feel like my dad when I’m running around our apartment turning off lights with no people in the rooms and turning off outlets with nothing plugged in. I have always been environmentally conscious but I just feel even more compelled here to conserve energy!

Lots of visitors at Shishya lately. An old volunteer was here for a week. Her name is Anna and she is from England. Lisa’s older brother is here this week as well. Her and him made PASTA for us last week! The people that introduced the Lord to Frieda and Yip when they first met are visiting Shishya as well. Anyone who would like to come visit me still can! :)

I learned last weekend that marijuana grows wild here. You can see it growing on the side of the road sometimes. Crazy.

Shishya had a going away party for class 8 with skits, music and games last Saturday. It was fun! The picture of class 8 is below.

I will be doing devotions two times a week now with the little boys. I’m excited to interact with them in a different way! For the last couple of weeks Ratan and I have been reading Revelations together after homework time.

The Shishya boys went and played basketball again at Hope Town Girls School. Last week I went with Yip to interview some girls who were elected leaders there who are graduating high school and leaving this spring. Yip and his team from the youth center implemented some leadership structures in schools and this was kind of like the girls exit interview. I took notes. It was interesting.
The campus at Hope Town is absolutely beautiful. Apparently these girl’s parents are very well off and some even work in parliament!

We celebrated another birthday last week; Pradeep is thirteen!

It’s cricket (the game) time and all of India is so pumped up about the games! I think the Indian team is doing quite well.

Speaking of bugs, since it's getting warmer out there are a lot more in our bathroom and bedrooms! That also means snakes will be about....

I can officially say, “I leave next month” now that it is March. Insane! Time is going so so so fast. We have final exams all this week then Liz and I leave for our two week trip on the 17th. Darjeeling tea anyone?

When we went for a little walk around Shishya last week. I walked by an tall, slender old man with a stick standing in the middle of a dusty road with a cloth wrapped around his head, wearing blue. He looked old and tired and he was just standing there. I regret so much not snapping his photo when we walked past. I should have stopped! I miss so many great pictures of India….but please enjoy these!