Of traveling and Easter

Well, it has been an fun-filled 2 1/2 weeks. I'll try and give you a (brief) overview of my trip through Agra, Delhi and the desert state of Rajasthan. 

I traveled with 4 other volunteers- a married couple from Canada, Jason and Renee, a guy from Indiana, Ryan, and my roommate Lene from Germany. So it was a very interesting and multi-cultural trip.
First we went to the Taj Mahal in Agra (the only thing to really do in Agra) 

Lene and I at the Taj

It really is a magnificent building. I can see why it's one of the
7 wonders of the world.

Then we went to Delhi- I like Delhi because there are quite a few free things you can do. These are from the Ghandi museum (I should say one of the Ghandi museum. There must be at least one museum in every city he ever went to).

The last steps of Ghandi before he was killed.

I'm always a little surprised at the places you find Jesus.
This was a painting about "two of the greatest martyrs"

Then we went to Rajasthan. In Bikaner we went on a camel safari- which included one day  riding camels and sleeping in the desert. 

I got a camel kiss-the joy...

Then we went to Jodhpur, the famous city of blue, has an amazing fort. Even Christian Bale has been in it because they filmed a scene from the newest Batman movie here. 

The last city was Jaipur- the capital of Rajasthan... it's supposed to be the "pink city" but I didn't really see that. We were there on a huge festival Holi... It's kind of hard to figure out the meaning behind these festivals- I don't really know if any of the locals even know why they celebrate certain festivals. But basically you buy these colors and throw them at each other- I've heard its a party to celebrate the beginning of summer- and I guess that makes sense when you're throwing colors at one another.

The Holi colors

Elephant decorated for Holi

Elephants have always been one of my favorite animals-
They're just so amazing-hairy- but amazing.

A man was bicycling around with a bunch of chicks on the back of his cycle.
I couldn't believe I was seeing real Easter chicks. It was like a live peep. 

fat monkey

after Holi

And that was my trip. It was fun, but getting back to Shishya felt so great, it's amazing how it feels like coming home. We got back at 5am the day before Easter and Easter here was just- incredible. It was such a nice day. 

On Easter they loaded everyone up onto a bus and 2 vehicles and we went off campus to a riverbed and ate delicious food and sang worship songs and went swimming- it was a lot of fun and really special for the boys. 

Karo and Shiva were bus buddies.

They were more excited than they looked-- Mam, look! Water!!! 

the worship time

Auntie, Vijay, Ryan and Jason.

On the bus to the river! 

Well folks, I think that's it.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I wish you all a very Happy Easter!!! (even if it's a couple days late :)

Oh, and I just want to say that God is so amazing...  I was reflecting this last week about India and thinking of the present and how he's working everything out for the future and I just want to say that God is sooo good. I said that coming back to Shishya was like coming home and it's true. Traveling is nice, necessary to be able to learn about the country I'm living in and see the different places and different gifts and needs of the people... but being here in India, and being with the boys has been above and beyond what I thought it would be like. I've learned so much about people, about children, about myself and mainly about God and his relationship with us. He loves me so much and he's given me more than I ever thought I wanted and more than I deserve. I'm really enjoying these verses right now. 

Psalm 32:8; 37:4

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.