oh the crocodiles

While getting ready on the morning of Jen’s birth Kingsley knocked on our door and handed in Jen’s “birthday dress”. However, it was actually a size XL bright orange chooty, and unfortunately did not quite fit 5 foot 3 inch tiny Jen… thankfully Kingsley’s parents agreed though, and later Kingsley told us it was really a gift that had planned to give to someone else but could never find! So instead Jen wore one of Kingsley’s mom’s saris while we all sang her a rousing rendition of happy birthday and ate a lovely breakfast of butterscotch cake.
We then began our first journey for the weekend… a short drive of 5 hours to see some awesome crocodiles… people might tell you crocodiles are cool… they’re not. I’ve seen hundreds, just trust me. But once again, I suppose it’s all about the experience. And I perfected my Australian accent while I was there, which is great news.
That night our “delux AC” room did not include blankets in their definition of deluxe… who knew I relied on a blanket that much to sleep? After a rather restless night we trudged next door to the hotel owner’s house to have breakfast with his extremely large family and have them help us with our saris! They were really funny though and seemed very much like American grandparents. After that we went to 2 services, one that I was blessed to get to speak at. I did not actually feel blessed at all when Kingsley told me I was speaking, because, as I’ve mentioned recently, I’ve been rather confused lately, but God totally gave me the words and I just felt extremely at peace with it.
After a quick potluck lunch we piled back in the car, still in our saris, for another 5 hour drive back up the mountain to the beautiful place we stayed last week for their 15 year church anniversary! As soon as we got to the church a plethora of children met us and led us up the steps, which were painted with all sorts of greetings in English! When we got to the church our bean picking friends were waiting inside… I wish I could describe to you how happy they were to see us and the way I’ve never felt so loved by people I’ve only known for one day!! That whole night was quite possibly my favorite night in India, but I’ll just have to explain this one further when I get home! One person I can tell you about though is Sounder, the church’s NYI president. As soon as we met him he began giving us gifts, but then he started asking where his gifts were! We came with candy, but other than that we were completely unprepared! Jen gave him her watch, because he gave her his “monado” watch, and I gave him a somewhat blurry picture of my family… we’d just cleaned out the car and everything was already in our room, I really had nothing!! We stayed there for over 3 hours, but I could have stayed so much longer… LOVE those people!!
The next morning we got up for a walk… 2 of the girls almost didn’t come, but at the last second they did. Then Jen wanted to go another way, but I’d already been that way running, so I insisted we go another way. After about 5 minutes on that road, there he was, like a beacon in the night… a white boy!!!!!!!! None of us allowed ourselves to think American, but then he spoke! And told us they were 12 more Americans and 2 Canadians in the house behind him!!!!!! It turned out they were actually leaving within that hour, but we stayed there talking to them right until they had to get on their bus. They were basically on a Jewish youth in mission trip, but they were just starting theirs! I don’t think any of us realized how much we had missed talking to people with no communication barrier, and people our own age… I’m sure we sounded waaaaayy too excited, but hey, how crazy is it that we even found them?!!
After our incredibly invigorating walk we, once again, got back in the car and traveled to Coimbatore to see Kingsley’s cousin who was in the hospital because he tried to commit suicide. He is fine, but I’m guessing he wasn’t extremely happy about the multitudes of extremely awkward family that filled his room. Almost no one talked to him, they just sat there in silence for a lot of the time, and then as more of his aunts came they began talking to each other. He was super nice though, and actually knew English very well… he’d read 6 of the Harry Potter books in fact! I’m still unsure of what his reasoning was behind drinking the poison… Kingsley said that his cousin blamed the parents, but that couldn’t possibly be the reason… I don’t know how Kingsley would know but I don’t have any other leads to the story.
After a few errands around town we finally left for home in a car that boasted “dvd! A/c”, although neither one of them worked. It delivered us safely home though and we are back in Musiri for our last week in this wonderful place called India!!