Hi All, I haven't been in the mood to sit and type a lot lately but it has pretty much been same old Faridabad. I have been teaching English and Science at the school and also helping them make and decorate envelopes that they send out as thank you cards or they use as money envelopes for weddings. Today at about 1pm I took a taxi from Faridabad and headed to the airport. My flight was at 5pm and I landed here in Hyderabad safe and sound at about 7:10pm. So far I like it, haven't seen much but of course I'm biased to the city! But there is more to come. Lots of shopping and sight-seeing in the next week, so much to look forward to! Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season!

Greetings from Varanasi!! It is absoloutely gorgeous here. The internet is pretty expensive so I will post a longer explanation and pictures when I get back and have more time. I'm having a great time and I am wishing I didn't have to go back to Faridabad so soon! Have a great day!!

Hi everyone! I know its been awhile since my last post. There hasn't been much going on at the hospital lately so I have been working at other projects for the past two weeks. Last week I spent one day at the hospital and then I spent 3 day with the ambulance project. It is basically a traveling pharmacy for elderly people in the area. The ambulance goes to 10 different locations around Faridabad, two each day. From 9am to 4pm the patients come to the location of the ambulance and they have their blood pressure checked and have a simple check up. Then they can go to the window and the pharmacist will read their card and give them whatever medication they need. The picture of the ambulance is attached in the pictures at the top. On Friday we had the day off because it was Diwali. It is a religious holiday for Hindu's and it is celebrated similar to a combination of our Christmas and Independence Day. There are lots of lights, gifts, and fireworks. There was also a celebration at Prakash Deep (the school) celebrating Diwali. The children dressed up, if they could, and they presented dances and had an art contest and were given a meal. This week I spent two days at the hospital and then three days at Prakash Deep. Today at school we had a celebration for "children's day" which is Sunday but they wanted to include two volunteers that are leaving today. They did their normal morning prayer and then they all sat on the mats and a few classes presented songs or dances while others worked on art and others we able to help cook different types of food for everyone to try. They art they made today is for them to enter a local contest on Sunday. They were also given highlighters and crayons today as presents. Tomorrow Berit and I are traveling to Delhi, spending two nights there, and then traveling to Varanasi on Monday morning. It's going to be a 20 hour train ride but I'm sure it will be an experience. Tonight Berit and I were invited to have dinner with a family we met at church on Sunday. The family is a man named Joshua, who runs a Christian radio station here in Faridabad, his wife and two young sons. We are headed to the market to buy them a present now, I will post about the evening later! I hope you enjoy the pictures! Happy Friday!!   

Hi All, there hasn't been much going on at the hospital recently. It's festival season so a lot of people are on holiday or are just staying home. I have been doing pretty much the same thing I was before, just watching births and surgeries and checking blood pressures and weights, and helping with paper work. This Tuesday was a pretty exciting day though! It was a holiday called Karva Chauth. On this holiday all the women get Henna and wear alot of jewelery and bangles but they are fasting all day. At night, they have a pooja (prayer ceremony) and pray for their husbands to have a long life! Some men will also fast on this holiday for their wife. Dr. Kapoor invited a few of us to accompany her to the temple and see the traditional ceremony. They light candles and offer food and chant at the temple and then they go to the house of an elder relative of their husband to receive their blessing. As soon as the moon comes up, they are allowed to eat again and they generally will have a feast with a large amount of their family.  Right now I am planning trips to Shimla, Varanasi, Dharamshala, and Hyderabad (where I will be spending Christmas with family friends from the States). A friend and I were spending some time at the program coordinator's house today and he asked me if I would be interested in moving back to that house sometime soon and basically taking over their orphanage. There are a few volunteers there but they are leaving soon and there is a care taker for the children but she isn't very strict with them and she will need some help once the four other girls go home. They would need help getting up and ready for school in the morning and they need someone to cook for them and help them study. There are 6 orphans there now and they are looking into taking in additional children soon. I'm a little sad to be missing out on Halloween, but we do have a holiday coming up called Diwali, which is similar. The girls and I have planned a Halloween movie party this weekend and are looking forward to that! Have a great weekend everyone, Happy Halloween!!