Goa, India

Our last day in Pune, Trina and I visited a school that meets in a slum area, Shining Light School.  We enjoyed being in each classroom and teaching the older kids the Moose song (the school was only Preschool-3rd).  But Trina especially enjoyed her time with the littlest ones.

Snack Time

After we left the school, our day got a little crazy.  Good thing we found some sustenance first with a healthy McDonald's lunch!

We originally had a driver planned to drive us from Pune to Goa.  He backed out a couple of days before so we scrambled to get train tickets.  When we arrived at the train station, our train was delayed for a few hours.  So then the travel agent we were working with (glad we weren't navigating this on our own!) got us overnight bus tickets instead.  We arrived early in the morning, found a taxi, and by mid-morning we were settled in our place and on Benaulim Beach in Goa.

The taxi driver tried to take the girls but we rescued them when we saw Faith's cry for help

This may be one of the best beaches we've ever spent time on.  Wide, white beaches.  Perfect temperature ocean water and fun waves.  And here, if you buy one meal, the restaurant sets you up for the day with sunbeds.  Yesterday I asked the girls "How could this possibly get any better?"  Without hesitation, Celia said "Fresh water.  Free food.  And fewer old, heavy European women in bikinis"  Yup, always room for improvement :)  It appears that we are at a prime destination for European retirees.

Props for virtual school!  A little more scenic than the four walls of a classroom.  Only the restaurants have wi-fi so we "have" to sit on the beach to get work done.

Catching tons of tiny crabs and hermit crabs.  (This Indian woman in the background came over right after this, all distraught:  "Very dangerous.  Bite and blood coming out!"  Once we worked through that, she started having pictures taken of her and Trina and ended up kissing Trina on the cheek.)

After days of being on the go (and some stinkin' cold weather!), this quiet time  here has been a gift.  We're staying in an apartment that's big enough for all of us, so it's nice to be together in one room but still have room to spread out.

Celia has the job of being our budget manager.  She even has it all color coded!

We'll be here a couple more days and then we'll begin the drive over to Auroville on the SE coast of India.

Next Stop: India

On Wednesday we flew from Kathmandu back to Delhi.  We really enjoyed the people and country of Nepal, but on to new adventures.

We drove directly from the Delhi airport to Agra.  It was SO foggy the entire 4+ hour drive so we were happy to finally arrive.  It was still quite foggy the next day, but it added to the charm of seeing the Taj Mahal.

A day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal

We weren't sure what to do when we saw that there were no hands allowed!

Of course we had to do the obligatory "I'm holding the Taj" picture :)

A close up of the design on the Taj Mahal.  It's made of marble and all the decoration is inlaid stone--mother of pearl, tiger eye, etc.  The handiwork is mind boggling.

 We drove back to Delhi that evening.

Yes, we're keeping our daughters safe, but you wouldn't know it by this picture!  This was our hotel in Delhi.  A very nice hotel, but we were starting to wonder when we turned onto this little side street.

 The next day we flew from Delhi to Pune.  A business friend of Mike's lives here, so they are very graciously letting us stay with them.  We're also here to meet Shashi Rajan (pictured below) and his wife Neelam and visit some ministries they're involved with.

A classic Lanser picture.  In Pune, we visited a valve factory that gives jobs to people who live in a leper colony.  It was interesting for awhile until Mike went all technical.  Then it was time to do a few rounds of "Double double this this, double double that that".

 Mike's friend has just established a new football club in the India League, so we had the fun of attending their unveiling party this afternoon.  They had games and face painting, a huge buffet of food, and the team was circulating.  Later they introduced the team with a promotional video and had the players model each of their different uniforms.  It was all quite fascinating and we're excited to watch their first game on Indian TV this Saturday.

Introduction of the Bharat FC Lions

Finally some time to do schoolwork!

 **Thanks for your comments!  Even though I haven't taken time to respond to them, we're reading them all and appreciating some contact from home.**

Nepal in Pictures

 Well, it's a big day!  After days of no internet or weak internet or slow internet, we finally have a strong connection.  But now so much time has gone by that it's hard to know where to start.  I thought I would just post some of my favorite pictures of Nepal with captions that give you an overview.


This is Madan and Sophie Shah, their children, and Sophie's dad.  They are very involved doing community development in Tikapur and sharing the love of Jesus.  We stayed with them, and Madan spent this whole week with us, showing us their different ministries and touring us around Nepal.  We loved getting to know them!



We visited a number of schools while in Tikapur, Nepal.  This was a container school in a community of ex-bonded slaves (called "kamaiya").  In 2000 Nepal outlawed bonded slaves and set them free, but that meant they were on their own with nothing.  A few were given just a small plot of land but many didn't even get that.  This school is now educating about 120 of the children in this community.  When these containers arrived, 400 people from the community moved the containers onto the slab and posts BY HAND.



After visiting the school and walking around the community, we stopped at this little store for tea (chai).  The tea here is made with a variety of spices and the way we learned to order is to ask for "milk tea".


While having tea, we watched these hens with all of their chicks.  It was amazing to see them all tuck under her wings.  "He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge." (Psalm 91:4)




We visited another school in a different community and these kids followed us around the whole time.  The Nepalese were beautiful people--attractive, but also very smiley and friendly.




We visited Tikapur Park and came across this group of girls touring.  They asked to "take picture" with our girls.  The girls have kind of gotten the movie star treatment.  They get stared at a lot and either get asked to pose for pictures or we'll see people snapping pictures of them with their phones.  Of course the white skin stands out, but I think it's also unusual to see white kids/teens.  And Trina is our little ambassador--she builds bridges wherever we go by smiling and saying "dhanyabad" (thank you)



A street view of Tikapur as we were headed out of town.



A view as we were driving east across Nepal.  These oranges grow fresh and are like little clementines--but even sweeter and easier to peel.  As cold as the weather was, we were surprised these oranges would grow here.




Tikapur is located in the lowlands, but as we traveled east toward Kathmandu, we began to see the foothills of the Himalayas (and we finally began to see some sun!).  We took a break from driving and walked the Karnali Bridge.




We saw monkeys!  Lots and lots and lots of monkeys!  This mom and baby duo was our favorite.  We ate lunch overlooking a mountainside and we discovered them jumping through the trees, with the baby holding on to the mom the whole time.  Zoom in on the baby's face--she's pretty cute!

On our drive from Tikapur to Kathmandu, we made a stop in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha.  This building houses the rock with footprint that marks the spot where Buddha was born. In addition to this building and grounds, there was a whole "complex" that had Buddhist temples from many different countries (China, Austria, and others)

We rode elephants!  One of the more uncomfortable rides of my life, but definitely worth it for the experience.  Sadly, we saw no rhinos, but we did see some pretty deer and monkeys.  Chitwan National Forest, Nepal.

The girls went paragliding in Pokhara!  Celia was the very brave one who went first.  I think my heart stopped for a moment when she jumped off that cliff, but all four had good pilots and a smooth ride.

We chased the girls down the mountain on some crazy, hairpin turn roads and stopped to take in this view of the Himalayas.  The tall peak is known as the fishtail.  Pokhara, Nepal.  

After the exciting paragliding, we took a calm rowboat ride on Fewa Lake.  After days of feeling chilled to the bone, the sun came out and we were surrounded by these gorgeous views.

In Kathmandu, we visited The Great Buddha Stupa, one of the more important Buddhist temples.  

Many of the Buddhist monks and others would circumambulate the stupa--a ceremonial walking around--and spin these prayer wheels. 

 

After this, we headed over to Swayambhunath, better known as the monkey temple.  A "holy river" runs through here, so Hindu families often bring their dead relatives here to be burned on one of these pyres.  A family carried a body through just as we arrived and you can see the shroud being lifted onto the pyre.  Very sobering.  We've been exposed to a number of different religions, and I may share some thoughts later.  Let's just say I'm happy for the hope we have as Christians and the freedom we have through Jesus.

On our way into the temple, there were a number of vendors.  This was one of the more colorful stands with all the different colored dyes and beads.  

A traditional Nepali meal--chicken, dal (lentils), bhat (rice) and some potato and vegetable sides.  Really tasty but SO spicy for my bland taste buds :)  

 So that was Nepal in a nutshell!  Now we've moved on to India and are currently in Pune.  I'll send another update soon with what's happened since Nepal.

Nepal

OK, my wifi gets me all excited by opening a website...and then disappoints me by shutting down, but we'll give this a try!

We're now two days into our time in Nepal.  We had an uneventful drive here, despite dense fog leaving Delhi in the morning, and the frequent surprises of people, stopped vehicles, animals suddenly in front of us in the road.  Ashok, our driver, was unflappable.

We made it through customs at the Nepal border (which consisted of two men, a dusty computer, a logbook, and a very tired stamp pad).

We are staying in Tikapur, Nepal with Madan, his wife Sophie and 3 kids.  They wear many hats which all kind of fall under community development.  They oversee a couple of schools, have provided for at-risk kids, are very involved in the church community.  (My head is ready to explode right now.  There is so much to tell you about the past two days and so much more they do, but I know I need to keep it short!).

They have a really nice home with a second floor used as a guesthouse, so that's where we're staying.
We were welcomed on Wednesday night by a group of probably 50 family and friends.  They presented us with flower leis and performed 2 traditional dances (and one very western dance!) for us.  Once again I was reminded of my lameness in the area of hospitality.

Yesterday we visited their kindergarten/preschool located in their backyard.  The kids began their day lined up, singing songs and doing exercises.  After lunch (did I mention what amazing food they've provided for us?!) we visited another school a few miles from here that provides schooling for ex-bonded slave children as well as others in the community.

So many things have impacted us:
1.  The Christian faith of Madan and his family, in a country where that is not popular.  He and many others have chosen to leave family and everything they grew up with because they've said they love Jesus more.
2.  The statistics.  Teachers at these schools earn $2/day and families pay $6/month for tuition.
3.  More statistics.  Trafficking is a big issue here.  Nepali girls are taken across the border (open border) into India.  9000 girls get trafficked each year, and some are sold for as little as $600.  Madan and Sophie have taken a couple of these high-risk girls into their homes, so it makes it very real how different their lives could have been.  And it makes it very real when I look around at my 4 girls who are all similar ages.  At the border I had noticed a "storefront" with a sign in English talking about rescuing trafficked girls.  I asked Madan if they were there to help, but he told me they work WITH the rescuers.  They pretend to provide rescue, but instead are keeping an eye out for girls and are the middlemen between them and the traffickers.  And actually, many are middle-women.  It was a group of women sitting outside this place, and they are often involved because the girls will go to them and trust them.

Today we'll be heading out to see some other places that they're involved with.

Last night we were treated to a goat roast!  They invited some friends, built a fire and roasted goat kabobs over the open fire.  They do this a few times during their cold season and around the holidays.

And speaking of cold, we're not feeling too badly for all of you snowed in people.  It's down to about mid-30s here during the night and the homes are not heated.  We're piling on all the layers we brought!  But they have these amazing thick comforters, so once we go under the covers we're toasty warm.