Thank God for technology

I honestly don’t think I could survive this trip if it wasn’t for the internet, and in particular my good friend Skype. Talking to friends and family makes me so happy while I’m in India and helps ease my homesickness. I’m still sticking to more traditional ways of communication as well – I’ve been sending numerous letters and postcards.

Happy Diwali!

Two days ago, we celebreated Diwali - festival of lights, which is India's biggest festival. Everything is covered in lights and the city looks absolutly beautiful, the best way to describe it would be Christmas on steroids! It is such an amazing sight. We decorated the house and did Rangoli (patterns with coloured flour) out the front, which was a lot of fun. We also lit lots of small oil lamps around the house - diya. We celebrated by going out to dinner, having a priest come to the house for the traditional prayers and of course, with lots of fireworks. It was a lovely way to end our time here in Udaipur.

Taj Mahal

Last weekend the girls and I (minus Maddy, who was with her mum, lucky thing) headed off to Agra for the weekend. We caught a 16 hour bus on Saturday night, spent all day Sunday there, visiting the Taj and Agra Fort, then caught a 12 hour train home that night. It was an amazing but exhausting weekend!

Last Days - Orphanage

Here are some photos from my last couple of days at the orphanage. It was very sad to say goodbye to them, although unlike day care, they were old enough to understand we were leaving, which made it harder because they were saying goodbye too. And although it made them extremely uncomfortable, I was able to force a couple of awkward hugs out of them. Of course I cired like a baby... again. Annie and I had a lot of fun with these boys and will miss them terribly.  

Our cheeky class

Two of my favourites Kishan (George) and Jagdish