journey to India!!

At about noon on Saturday we headed out from training camp back to El Paso to have a final seminar and an AMAZING prayer walk... 2 1/2 hours of prayer is really something I should try more often. The next morning we left the church at 4:30 to head to the airport! We had a fairly long layover in Chicago but that was nice because I got to talk to my family one last time! From there we flew to Brussels, Belgium on an awesome airplane. I got to sit next to the cutest little Indian boy named Kevin! That flight was 8 hours long but with the constant good and personal tvs the time flew. Because the date changed while we were in the air we were not given our tickets from Belgium to India in the states, so we had to go through customs and security again in Brussels, and even though we were running as fast as we could to the farthest possible gate in the airport, we still arrived at our gate with not even one minute to spare!! We really didn't think we were gonna make it (ps Miriam, we forgot about the time change when we thought we had longer). We finally stepped on our plane though and from that moment on things were different... it smelled different, it looked different, the flight attendents were all Asian, and we were definitely in the minority (we saw 3 other white people). The food they gave us was definitely Indian, but, at least for the first meal, we were pleasantly surprised how much we liked it! On this flight they had tons of movies to watch, so this flight went very quickly as well.
When we got to Chennai we made it through customs (in a rather untimely manner), then made a stop at our first Indian washroom! It really wasn't bad though... working in the fields taught me well!
When we finally managed to push our way through fro our baggage we stepped outside and were greeted by a wave of heat and a mass of people behind a gate, almost like you see in Holocaust movies, except these people were all yelling and were very brightly colored. Thankfully Kingsley, our site coordinator, had a YIM sign though, and we spotted him very quickly and jumped into the 70s style air conditioned van he had rented for us! Driving in India is CRAZY. No one uses signals and they just push their way through, honking all the way. The lines mean basically nothing on the road.
After about 20 minutes of complete amazement as we drove through the city we made it to our hotel place. It was about 1:30 AM Chennai time, so we tried to go to sleep but the actual sleeping was limited at best. Thankfully the next morning we had a hot shower though, well really a shower head in the middle of the washroom, and a very American breakfast of eggs and toast (mom you would have loved it). Kingsley told us what we'll be doing here over breakfast (Jen and I will be helping at a med clinic one day a week, we'll be teaching English, and cleaning the streets with the children). He also told us that at the end of the month we get to go with him to Mumbai for district NYI, so maybe we'll get to see the Mumbai YIM team!! Kingsley shared a lot with us over breakfast, including his testimony,... he wanted to be a vet but God called him to ministry! He's only 25 and extremely nice!
After breakfast we left for St. Thomas's tomb with a local pastor and his 13 year old extremely intelligent and funny chatterbox of a son! At the tomb we had to pay to use our cameras, but it was a very neat experience... rather commercialized but neat! From there we went to get some juice at a little outdoor restaurant where the waiters all wore belt buckles with $ on them. Then we went to the zoo, but apparently animals need a day of rest, and the chosen day is Tuesday! We then went to eat lunch and we got to try all different kinds of Indian food, but it was actually really really good! We also ate with our hands for the first time, which was surprisingly successful!
From there we went to another town and got to do a little shopping, and visit some stone carvings, where some adorable little girls came up and asked us for a photo, then the whole huge family joined in with us and thanked us over and over! We also were able to walk to the beach from there! For Indians it was 20 cents to get in, but for foreigners 5.00! The beach was beautiful though... all the women wore Saris, but they still just let themselves get wet! No one really swam, but according to Sam I was not having any fun because I wouldn't let my skirt get wet! Men were racing around on horseback all over the beach, and the vendors extended clear to the water! By this time it was over 100 degrees, but it just reminded me of OK!
From there we went to watch a very sketch sea lion show, where Jen, Kingsley, and I volunteered and instead of the sea lion doing something cool it just splashed us!
When we got back to our hotel we cleaned up, ate dinner, then headed out for the train to go to Kingsley's town. The train station is really indescribable... soooo many people!! The train was actually a sleeper train though! Not quite like white Christmas, but the beds were much appreciated! However, I didn't sleep more than 2 hours, so I'm running on 16 hours of sleep in the last 4 nights... I think I will now go take a nap!! I love and miss you all!!!!!!!