At the Beach During Ganesh Festival

According to Paige's Indian Studies teacher, Ganesh's Birthday was a week ago Sunday. Part of the celebration is to make or buy a statue of Ganesh made out of clay. Within 10 days after his birthday, a puja (prayer ceremony) is performed and Ganesh is returned to the sea, back to mother earth. This is done as a rejuvination for the coming year with hope that it will bring prosperity and good fortune.

I was hoping I could see Ganesh returned to he sea and thought I would head down to the beach on Saturday or Sunday. We had our good friends, the Klingonsmith's, over for dinner on Sunday and decided to take a walk to the beach after we ate. We were somewhat bummed when we arrived because nobody was there. After walking 15 minutes up the beach, we decided to turn around and head home. As we got closer to our lane, a lorry pulled up loaded with people and Ganesh statues - Yeah!

The following is a slide show of some of the shots I took on the beach that afternoon. Luckily, Indian people LOVE having their picture taken (they come right up to you saying "photo please") so it was no problem capturing this event.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We're Back in India

We had a WONDERFUL visit to the U.S.!!!!
Our first stop was South Carolina where we visited Corey's family for 3 days.
Then we drove 14 hours to Forsyth, Illinois where we visited our old stomping grounds. Eric and Paige had a blast seeing old friends from school and church. We even got to see a couple of baseball games at the park and buy hot dogs and popcorn at the concessions!!!! I loved seeing my friends, too, but was also frantic about purchasing certain items to take back to India, dentist and doctor appointments, and putting our food shipment order together.
After 10 days, we flew to Saratoga Springs Utah where we stayed at my parents home. Some of the things we enjoyed doing:

• Going to the movies
• Fishing
• Hiking up to Mt. Timp and exploring caves
• Shopping, shopping, shopping
• Going to the temple
• Reading (Great & Terrible series)
• Swimming
• Working Out
• Fun at Cowabunga water park
• Fun at Seven Peaks water park
• Did I mention shopping?
• Eating lots of yummy food!
• Putt Putt Golf
• Go Karts
• Playing Canasta (Kim and I still rock!)
• Triple Birthday Party
• Ice cream at Sub Zero
• Bridal Veil Falls

Anyway, you get the picture! We were sad to leave family and the comforts of the US, but glad to get home again.

Eric and Paige started school yesterday - 7th and 5th grade respectively. They are such troopers - getting over jet lag in a flash and anxiously ready to go to school without complaint. I'm so blessed and proud of them! Now if I could just get back in the swing of things. I am definitely keeping up with my work out program (I feel so much better when I do). And today I think I'm going to scrapbook after I lounge in the pool for an hour (after I work out, of course).

Give me a few more days and I'll get back into the blogger mode. Stay tuned........

Back in the USA!

After 6 months abroad, we are back in the good old U S of A!

I've had mixed feelings about coming back so soon because it feels like we just got settled into our new life in India and coming back to the US could make us feel homesick again. But we decided to come anyway. Only time will tell.

Our flight home was supposed to be simple. Fly 2 hours up to Mumbai, then 17 hours straight to Atlanta. It didn't quite work out that way. Our flight to Mumbai was late so we missed our connection to Atlanta. The Delta office told us we would have to wait 24 hours for the next flight to Atlanta. Well, Corey wasn't going to settle for that! He got us booked on a flight going East (instead of West) with Korean Air to Seoul, Korea and from Seoul to Atlanta. Total travel time was about 33 hours with 24 of those hours up in the air!!!! We were only 12 hours late getting to Atlanta. THEN, we rented a car and drove 4 hours to see Corey's family in South Carolina.

What a trip! Honestly, I can't believe we lived through it, but we did! With the exception of Corey getting a cold and Eric's allergies kicking in, I'm grateful that we were all together and nothing got lost or stolen and we are safe.

After our wonderful visit with Corey's family in South Carolina, we drove 13 hours to Forsyth, Illinois and are staying at the Hilton Homewood Suites - again! We will be here until July 10th when we fly to Salt Lake to spend a couple weeks with my family. On August 2nd, we will return to India.

I have a long list of things I want to do, eat, and shop for. I am expecting our time here to be wonderful!!! I hope I can see many of you!

Our Visit to the Madras Crocodile Bank

About 20 minutes south of our home is the Madras Crocodile Bank. It was built about 30 years ago on some land that originally was beach. They started with just a few crocs, and now they have hundreds with several different species. Plus snakes and turtles. The kids and I took an afternoon to visit.

As usual, we were the only white people there and had several friendly people introduce themselves and inquire about where we were from, etc. There was a local cable station there doing a piece on the crocodiles and ended up interviewing us about our experience and the bank, etc. Fortunately we don't have cable so we didn't get to see our hot, sweaty, insecure faces!

I don't think India has the same public property safety codes that the U.S. does. There were several questionable places just waiting for an accident. Luckily, it was so hot that the crocs seemed pretty lethargic and didn't move much or stayed in the water.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My Sunday School Class

From the left: Praveen, Mervin, Naveen, Zibiah, Rajesh, Eric

Every Sunday, I am privileged to teach the 12 and 13 year children in Sunday School. I have 6 that come on a regular basis. However, on the first Sunday of the month there are 25-30 children from an LDS-run orphanage that come. That is a busy class! We are literally bursting out of the room! But so rewarding to be able to associate with these special children. The culture and language make for an interesting class! But I love it! I hope they are learning as much from me as I am from them.

Amity Soccer Academy

Corey home teaches a family that we have become friends with. The father and one of the sons have organized a soccer camp for underprivileged children called Amity Soccer Academy. Corey made a donation to the cause and was invited to attend the final game and awards ceremony. Thinking nothing of it, we accepted the invitation and planned to attend and sit on the sidelines.

Upon arrival, we saw a platform with 4 chairs for the "chief guests" on the side of the field. How surprised we were to find out that Corey was one of the chief guests!!! Trying to be respectful and not show how awkward he really felt, he was persuaded to sit on the platform. They tried to get me to sit up there too, but I preferred to take pictures on the sidelines. However, after the game, I sat up there with him for moral support.

He was treated like a king and was even asked to say a few words to the participants. His first words were "Good Evening" in Tamil and the whole group let out a big cheer! I'm gonna say it was because they were excited to hear an American greeting them in their native tongue and not just laughing at him. He gave a brief message about teamwork which was well received. Corey was happy to be there for them, but felt all the attention was not necessary - it certainly wasn't expected.

We made it through the night and felt honored to be a part of our friends special occasion.



This is the older team getting ready to play the final match



Corey greeted them all with a handshake



He was honored to blow the starting whistle
(our branch president is standing to the left of Corey and the father of his home teaching family is standing to the right)




They played at a community park. Most of the parks do not have grass - I think because it's too difficult/expensive to maintain it. This is a shot of the goalie.

As you can see, it is very different playing on the dirt. It becomes a cloud of dust as the players run around. Plus, there are several divots in the ground - prime for spraining an ankle.

It is customary to present the honored guests with a shawl.

Here's a shot of Corey with the other chief guests and the younger children

It was a great experience. Our only regret is that we didn't bring Eric and Paige. We thought it was just going to be an awards ceremony that we could slip in and slip out of rather inconspicuously. I'm learning that I should know better than that. Because we're American, it's hard to do anything inconspicuously, in India.

Eric's Birthday Party

Eric's birthday isn't until August 7th (turning 12), but he really wanted to have a party before school was out because several of his friends were leaving India for good. And lucky for me, he wanted to have his party at our house. So we called it a "Schools Out/Birthday Party" and boy, did they have a blast!!!!

It was so nice because all the kids played together and got along perfectly. They all enjoy doing the same things - I guess that's why they're friends! Here are some pictures:



They started off playing basketball



When they got too hot and sweaty, they jumped into the pool




They didn't bother to change into swimsuits! I think it's because they started pushing each other in before they had a chance to change.




This picture is mostly to show you our gazebo. We love it!

Just wanted to show another view of our backyard. We are fortunate enough to have grass.

After swimming, they had pizza and garlic bread from Domino's. Not quite the same as in the US, but good enough. They also had papaya and mango, chips, and cake.

Now that they have refueled, time for a water balloon fight! And yes, Eric and I filled over 80 balloons (over the course of 2 days)! I was the one who tied them and my fingers were raw!

Eric is armed and ready

The 80 some water balloons didn't last long - but it was fun. Now time for cricket - a new sport for Eric to practice. They had quite a game going - I had to BEG them to come have cake!

Here's the gang! Starting from the left: Kavin from the UK, Rahul from India, Gaya from India, Divya from Sri Lanka/USA, Eric, Zach from the Philippines, Quinn from India, Zeke from Philippines (twin of Zach) and Sebastian from Germany.

It is heart warming to see these children from all over the world be accepting of each others differences, enough to realize how much they have in common so they can be friends.