Friday, September 30, 2011

Update on India 1




I haven't been able to post every night I am going to post by days. I have been keeping up in my journal so this will be a reflection of my journal entries. I hope you enjoy. Our first night in Chennai we were all so exhausted but as we got off the plane it was so surreal to know that we were actually ere. We each partner up so that all the unaccompanied females are walking next To an unaccompanied Male for safety. Then we head towards customs.get our passports and visa's checked. We get out bags an as we start towards the door we see a guard there with an AK-47 standing at the door. We exit and as soon as my foot hits the outside air I start sweating. It's only 3:30 am but it's hot and humid. As we walk towards the bus we are moved down a narrow walkway with crowds of people on either side of us. You can hear them talking and yelling for people. It's pretty intimidating. You also hear horns, and traffic noises. Wager to our bus, which is very small. All our bags are loaded on the roof and we are so close to each other your practically connected. With our backpacks on our laps. Our guides from Harvest India stood infront and directed. Driving here is WILD!!! Bikes, motorbikes, little taxi's( like the one above), cars, bicycle drawn carts, and busses zip around wildly. It seems that traffic lights are just a suggestion. Once we got to the hotel we were able to rest, but I slept on both trains and I was not tired at all. Deborah, Leeanne and I were in 1 room. We reorganized luggage, showered and got ready for breakfast. After breakfast Brian T, Leeanne, Deborah and I were escorted by Keeshore( our Harvest India guide) to the mall. We got to ride in the taxi's. WoW. What a ride they are!! Again zipping around and between everything we possibly can. It's a little terrifying at first!! Lol but I figured God dis not send me all this way to let me die by taxi accident :) the mall was good too. We went o a few stores before we found what we wanted. I found the most beautiful embellished orange material for a saree!! I'm so excited I can't wait to get the tailor! Before we left we stopped at the pizza hut. We got coke! As we left go back to the the hotel hotel, there is a woman stiiting crowss legged on the ground with her infant sleeping on a mat infront of her and she was asking for money. So sad. A few feet down we see an elderly woman who is nothing but skin and bones curled up and sleeping in the dusty dirt.
We got back in the taxi and headed to the hotel. Our room isn't too bad. It has an air conditioner which is nice. We eat lunch, and repack. We head to the train station to go to Tenali. The train is very interesting. It's a sleeper train, so there are compartments and each compartment has 6 beds. 3 on the left wall an 3 on the right. Across the walkway are 2 seats on the bottom, and a bunk on top. In 1 compartment was myself, Ryan, Brian T and 2 Indians, and across the hall were Brian and Tara and Deborah. The rest of the group was in the next compartment. Me, Deborah and Ryan were on top bunks. Looking up at it I thought it would be terrible but it actually wasnt so bad. We joked and talked for awhile and and took some pictures of an adorable indian baby who came by in her mothers arms then we all fell asleep for the journey. It was supposed to be 6 hours but we had to stop for 2. Originally we thought the train had broken down, but we found out the next morning that a person had fallen on the tracks and was hit by the train. We hardly even knew we'd stopped we were all sound asleep. Kind of an awful thought to think we were all sleeping while they were digging a body if from under our train. When we arrived in tenali we were woken up and rushed off the train. Getting up and down the ladder in such a small space in a skirt is no easy task but I made it without hurting myself or anyone else lol. We got off the train and were greeted by people from Harvest India who hung beautiful strings of flowers around our necks and helped us with our bags.the flowers were heavy, but smelled amazing and that definitely helped us wake up. We got in 1 more bus which brought us to the mission house. We have beautiful little rooms. We arrived at 1:30am and I finished writing my journal entry at 3:56am. *that was our firsts at here. I have much more but it is 9:05 pm and after typing that on my iPhone my fingers are a little numb. I will post again soon! (pictures are backwards train station, us on the train little girl on train and then Jerry and I in Tenali just after we got off the train and then a pic of our room at the mission house!)




















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1 comment:

  1. You give so much detail... much appreciated! God bless you and all our team! Your room looks pretty cool. Very Indian. :)

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