Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Our Tourist Day in India





The kids had school off today after their exams yesterday so we had the day off too. We went 3+ hours on a death-defying drive to the Taj Mahal. I've been a lot of places but the driving here is by far the scariest. There's the usual weaving in and out of bikes, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians but here it's often at pretty high speeds. You're heading straight for a giant motor coach at oh 50 miles an hour and none of us can see where our little minivan is going to go in this scenario and yet, the driver whips around at the last minute to a little crack next to the thing and we go on our way and all of us get our breath back. Whew. We may have needed more prayer today for that drive than any other day. But we made it safe and sound, praise the Lord.

The Taj Mahal is beautiful but not functional. It was never even used which is kind of a waste. It's designed just to be beautiful and symmetrical and that it is. The photos almost look fake. It was so bright and sunny today and scorching hot. Thank God for shaded areas. We were sweating horribly! So if we look shiny in the pics, that's why. So glad we went and now I can say I've seen two world wonders (the other was the Great Wall of China) but I'm cool with just going once.

Afterwards, our guide had to take us on his usual stop off to this place that makes marble carvings and try to sell us stuff. Kind of reminded me of a time share pitch that you sort of have to do when you get sweet hotel deals on vacation. We sat through a short video and were shown to a gorgeous showroom. Very expensive stuff. And we were all ready for lunch and not very interested. Nevertheless, it was good to see and two small items were bought by my team members. Nothing for me - I have a little boy to bring home so no extra spending or gifts for anyone. Sorry y'all!

We found a McDonalds nearby and were so excited but it's India so they didn't have burgers. But they did have fries. Not as good as home but it was nice to be able to eat on the go and get headed back. I don't know how with all the weaving in and out but I fell asleep off and on for almost the whole way. In fact, I'm pretty sure we all did which made it a much shorter drive.

We got back to the flat about 5:45 and ordered takeout and have just been chilling for the evening.

Tomorrow we get to go back to the first school we visited and go from class to class teaching the kids music, a story and artwork to go along with the message that we did yesterday at the other school - that God created each one of them, they are special and He knows their names and loves them. Very excited to go back to this school tomorrow. Precious, precious kids. This is the elementary aged kids.

Please keep praying for us. We have 3 days in a row of teaching the kids and this is the main purpose of our trip - to teach them about God's love for them!

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