The Beginning of the End

Hey Everyone!

Things I Have Learned:
-The best way to start a day is with no plans and the mindset of just going wherever the day takes you.
-Prayer does wonders. (Duh. I know.)
-Raw buffalo meat has the same texture as raw chicken breast.
-Putting on a saree is not a one-woman job.
-Saying goodbye is hard.

This has been a wonderful, unstructured week. I love waking up knowing there is no set schedule for the day and then looking back at the end of the day and seeing all that transpired.

Tuesday I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, baking goodies. :) One of the missionaries & I made rhubarb pie and apple crisp. We also made tacos for supper using ground chicken for the meat and homemade tortillas. We had a team meeting in the evening and then I went to bed early.

Wednesday was a quiet day. The team split up and did different things - a few went to the hospital (not because they were sick - just to visit), a few went to a village with one of the long-termers, and a few of us, myself included, stayed at the house. I spent a lot of time reading and journaling, and doing laundry. The rest of the team got back in the evening. We ate supper, did the dishes, and then went to bed early again.

On Thursday, most of the team went on a day trip to the village where we normally go camping. I stayed back with a few others, and ended up in the kitchen most of the morning. :) We made homemade pizza for lunch using leftover taco meat. Then we made a pan of rhubarb crisp, six loaves of bread, and homemade macaroni & cheese. The team got back at 6:30 and we ate supper. Then some of us watched Princess Bride (classic movie) and then went to bed.

Friday morning was quiet and uneventful. In the afternoon, one of the long-termers invited us to his house for tea (and samosas and potato pakora and trail mix and cookies). We stayed about two hours. Then half of the team walked back to the bazaar and the rest of us returned to the house and watched Freedom Writers (another good movie). Everyone else returned, and we had a team meeting after the movie. We ended up talking for two hours about the week and how we felt about going home. It was a great meeting. I love my team. (Have I mentioned that before? Because it's true.) :) After the meeting, we broke into small groups of two or three and prayed for each other. Then I journaled for a little bit and went to bed.

Saturday morning after breakfast and devotions, I went downstairs and helped in the kitchen for a couple of hours. I cubed buffalo meat and chopped tomatoes for buffalo curry. We took a break at noon and then the afternoon was fairly quiet. Around 5:30, guests started arriving for our big team party. All of the long-termers and their families came, and each family brought a different dish to share. By the time it was all assembled, we had quite the feast! After dishes were done, the guys went outside to visit and play cards, and the girls had a saree party. The women showed us how to arrange all the cloth, which was no simple task. :) But it was a lot of fun. Then we brought the guys back in and we all watched a video one of my teammates put together of pictures from the trip. Then we said goodbye to our guests, some of whom we wouldn't see again before we left, and went to bed. And so begins the process of saying goodbye. Can we skip this part?

Sunday morning, the team went to church together. The girls wore their sarees and the guys wore their Garhwali suits. Everyone looked really nice. :) After church we took group pictures, then went to Char Ducan for lunch. When we got back to the house, we all did our own thing. I spent a couple of hours just sitting on the balcony, reading and journaling. Everyone came together again after supper and we watched The Sixth Sense as a team. I went to bed after the movie.

Monday morning I got up and took a shower. After breakfast I had some quiet time. At noon, the girls went to the bazaar for lunch with the daughter of one of the long-termers. We did some shopping after lunch, and got back to the house a little after 6:00. We went to another long-termer's house for supper, then had a team Bible study afterwards. Then bed.

And today? Well today is the last day at the house. Everyone has been busy doing last-minute laundry, packing, weighing suitcases, re-packing, re-weighing. It took me two hours to get everything packed, and my suitcase weighs eight pounds lighter than when I arrived.

Tomorrow morning we get up, eat breakfast, and load onto a bus that will take us to Delhi. (We rented a bus, so it will be just us. Not a public bus.) We'll stay overnight in Delhi, then get back on the bus Thursday morning and drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Then we'll drive to Jaipur and spend the next two days there. Apparently there are some historic forts there, so that should be interesting. Then we drive back to Delhi on Sunday, stay overnight, and board a plane to Florida on Monday morning.

I'll be stateside in six days, home in nine. Wow. :)

Prayer Requests:
-Continued health and safety of my team as we travel this week and prepare to return to the States.
-Safe travels for the rest of the SOSers as they return home.
-A smooth transition into American culture, but also that we won't forget all we have learned and experienced this summer.
-Anything else God puts on your heart to pray about. :)

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Current total number of videos: 25