Linz coming out of the bathroom in 10 pairs of panties and socks stuffed like ears on her head carrying an Easter Basket! She jumped around the room until her legs had no feeling from the circulation being cut off from the before said panties! She then dumped all her booty on the bed, of yummy treats she had been saving! So sweet of her for making that Easter memorable! Our Freakin' Rabbit as Alan had so poetically named you!
Chelle on the dilapidated plane from one of the cities in India. She would quickly stick her arm out in front of the stewardess and ask, "Are we going to be okay? What did the captain just say? I heard him say there was a problem with the plane.". In Chelle's defense that plane was so old we shouldn't have been flying in it. I had to tell Chelll stories until we landed!
I'm still that irrational when it comes to turbulence ... now I just hide it better. But I don't think I've had a plane ride like that since. There was no gradual take off and landing. They didn't waste any time getting to maximum altitude.
That Easter was the best. I'll never forget that Easter feast eating cantaloupe with our room key. From the moment we landed in Europe until we got into that Hotel room it was one giant whirlwind of transportation. Remember how we fell asleep on the ferry and the janitors woke us up when they came in to clean the room long after everyone was off the ferry?
My goodness! You remember a lot! I forgot about the cantaloupe! That was us trying to eat healthy! Like when we ate raw potatoes and parsley with those oddly huge carrots!!! Lol! I don't think any of us knew what the parsley was, just that it was green, then it had to be healthy! I can never look at parsley without laughing!
Okay Ladies. Don't read this unless you have a lot of time on your hands! Its gonna be long! And I apologize for typos ahead of time. I'm sure there will be plenty! :) 2/17/97 "We just got back from Apollo hospital and the orphanage and the convent. What a day! Our boogers are black as chimney soot from all the pollution we are breathing in while driving around in the rickshaws! Those girls at the convent were so smart! There were 5 and 6 year olds spelling out huge words and their teacher was so wonderful. She would say "Lets get crackin'!" She knew her little ones, each one of them. One time the class was getting noisy and all excited jumping up and down raising their hands and yelling out "Mam! Mam! Me Mam!" hoping she would call on them. Right in front a little girl began to say something and the teacher zoned in on her (because she was talking so softly) and at first she must have said something wrong because the teacher said "No my dear little one, thats not correct and she smoothed back her hair, and her face was inches from the little girls face and held it in her hands and gently urged her on. It was such a sweet scene to watch. That women was so kind and it was so obvious that she lobed and cared for each one of those girls. We also saw a 3rd grade class doing their physical ed finals (yoga)...." [Next I wrote in great detail about the hospital and our lunch with Sudra and Dr. Reddy's cousin who was the chief executive of the hospital and proud architect. They spoiled us for lunch and gave us the use of their driver to take us wherever we wanted!] 2nd trip to the orphanage- "We went in there and they were just as excited to see us as we were them! We ended up staying in there for 2 1/2 hours and then 1'2 hour in the two year old room which completely wore us out! They are such survivors. The only way they live is by having hope- they don't even know what hope is but you can see it when you watch them. They play and laugh and just look at each other through their crib bars and thats where they get their hope. From each other. When their little fingertips touch through the bars they send their love to the other and thats how they survive. No one can survive without love. They draw on anyone they can. I felt it so strongly when that little girl was cuddled up to my chest. She was drawing on my love and in return I totally and completely felt her love for me. It was one of the most amazing moments of this whole trip. And little Perdeep. I would take him home in a heartbeat. And that little girl Miah, (the one Chelle was holding when her new adoptive mother came in and swooped her out of Chelle's arms and into her own) is so blessed to have someone now. Its amazing how one little miracle like that can change your whole outlook on life. It makes me want to do something more."
2/20/97 6:15am "Can you believe it!?! I'm sitting here on a train ready to leave for Agra! We had an awesome day yesterday! We went to the school of Veena's grandchildren (Veena is Peggy Sood's cook) so we got to see a school where the children came from poor families. It was a public school which was founded by Gandhi himself. We walked in the gate and right away the ladies whisked us into the office. They were so nice to us! Peggy had sent a letter ahead of time announcing our arrival and they thought that we were representatives paid by the US to come study their school. We tried to explain differently but the Principal didn't care whose dime we came on he just cared that we were reps of the United States. He wanted us to send that picture we took of him and his staff and us so he could put it on his wall of important high ranked visitors. Funny. Well he had two ladies take us around to the different classrooms and covered areas but not before he poured his heart out about his belief of equal rights for education in India. He has a big heart and wants every child to have an opportunity to receive and education, even girls. It does not matter your social standing. If India was to ever break free of the cycle it was in there had to be equal opportunity. And he stressed the importance of having mothers educated so they pass the legacy on to the children in the home. If the women in their country are not strong in their good values and have a good education then thats where the problems all start. Right in the home. It was all related and one big cycle. This school was trying to get to the core of the problem and solve it one student at a time. He also fed us this sickening dessert that I wanted to throw up for fear I would be poisoned from it. We didn't want to be rude. They were being so kind so we prayed like the mother that we would not die from it. it was right up there with that icky white fatty stuff Linz and Chelle dared me to eat in Vietnam. (I got $2 for doing that! $2 will feed me an entire day!) Well we loved the kids as usual and he even had these girls come out of their classes to do a snake dance for us! It was really cool! We were trying not to make a scene but as we walked around that courtyard we caused so many disruptions- I felt bad for doing that to those teachers." [I feel bad now for leading that principal on to think that we were going to be sending funding for his school as US representatives, but I guess we tried to explain.] "When we were ready to leave and call a taxi the manager said "One moment please" and and he walked us out to his little car and drove us right around the corner where he told us they have blind students. He brought in about 10 students and we met them and shook their hands and told them we were sos pleased to meet them, and we were! It almost brought us to tears. The lady said they have 20 blind children of all different ages. This was particularly touching because Peggy said that for the most part India doesn't recognize disabilities. Her son had a form of dyslexia and they didn't help him. I don't know how universal this attitude is in India but this school obviously didn't share that attitude. It was so neat to meet these kids. As soon as they were brought in we could feel their spirits and we knew there was something special about them. Our rickshaw driver was an idiot. He tried to charge us 100 rupees (over $3 when it should have been only $1). And he went onto this one way road the WRONG way and a traffic cop almost fined him- and he had the nerve to say he saved us 100 rupees because we would have had to pay for his violation. Some people. Can you believe I'm going to see the Taj Mahal today?!!"
Linz coming out of the bathroom in 10 pairs of panties and socks stuffed like ears on her head carrying an Easter Basket! She jumped around the room until her legs had no feeling from the circulation being cut off from the before said panties! She then dumped all her booty on the bed, of yummy treats she had been saving! So sweet of her for making that Easter memorable! Our Freakin' Rabbit as Alan had so poetically named you!
ReplyDeleteChelle on the dilapidated plane from one of the cities in India. She would quickly stick her arm out in front of the stewardess and ask, "Are we going to be okay? What did the captain just say? I heard him say there was a problem with the plane.". In Chelle's defense that plane was so old we shouldn't have been flying in it. I had to tell Chelll stories until we landed!
ReplyDeleteI'm still that irrational when it comes to turbulence ... now I just hide it better. But I don't think I've had a plane ride like that since. There was no gradual take off and landing. They didn't waste any time getting to maximum altitude.
ReplyDeleteThat Easter was the best. I'll never forget that Easter feast eating cantaloupe with our room key. From the moment we landed in Europe until we got into that Hotel room it was one giant whirlwind of transportation. Remember how we fell asleep on the ferry and the janitors woke us up when they came in to clean the room long after everyone was off the ferry?
My goodness! You remember a lot! I forgot about the cantaloupe! That was us trying to eat healthy! Like when we ate raw potatoes and parsley with those oddly huge carrots!!! Lol! I don't think any of us knew what the parsley was, just that it was green, then it had to be healthy! I can never look at parsley without laughing!
ReplyDeleteOkay Ladies. Don't read this unless you have a lot of time on your hands! Its gonna be long! And I apologize for typos ahead of time. I'm sure there will be plenty! :)
ReplyDelete2/17/97
"We just got back from Apollo hospital and the orphanage and the convent. What a day! Our boogers are black as chimney soot from all the pollution we are breathing in while driving around in the rickshaws! Those girls at the convent were so smart! There were 5 and 6 year olds spelling out huge words and their teacher was so wonderful. She would say "Lets get crackin'!" She knew her little ones, each one of them. One time the class was getting noisy and all excited jumping up and down raising their hands and yelling out "Mam! Mam! Me Mam!" hoping she would call on them. Right in front a little girl began to say something and the teacher zoned in on her (because she was talking so softly) and at first she must have said something wrong because the teacher said "No my dear little one, thats not correct and she smoothed back her hair, and her face was inches from the little girls face and held it in her hands and gently urged her on. It was such a sweet scene to watch. That women was so kind and it was so obvious that she lobed and cared for each one of those girls. We also saw a 3rd grade class doing their physical ed finals (yoga)...."
[Next I wrote in great detail about the hospital and our lunch with Sudra and Dr. Reddy's cousin who was the chief executive of the hospital and proud architect. They spoiled us for lunch and gave us the use of their driver to take us wherever we wanted!]
2nd trip to the orphanage-
"We went in there and they were just as excited to see us as we were them! We ended up staying in there for 2 1/2 hours and then 1'2 hour in the two year old room which completely wore us out! They are such survivors. The only way they live is by having hope- they don't even know what hope is but you can see it when you watch them. They play and laugh and just look at each other through their crib bars and thats where they get their hope. From each other. When their little fingertips touch through the bars they send their love to the other and thats how they survive. No one can survive without love. They draw on anyone they can. I felt it so strongly when that little girl was cuddled up to my chest. She was drawing on my love and in return I totally and completely felt her love for me. It was one of the most amazing moments of this whole trip. And little Perdeep. I would take him home in a heartbeat. And that little girl Miah, (the one Chelle was holding when her new adoptive mother came in and swooped her out of Chelle's arms and into her own) is so blessed to have someone now. Its amazing how one little miracle like that can change your whole outlook on life. It makes me want to do something more."
2/20/97 6:15am
ReplyDelete"Can you believe it!?! I'm sitting here on a train ready to leave for Agra! We had an awesome day yesterday! We went to the school of Veena's grandchildren (Veena is Peggy Sood's cook) so we got to see a school where the children came from poor families. It was a public school which was founded by Gandhi himself. We walked in the gate and right away the ladies whisked us into the office. They were so nice to us! Peggy had sent a letter ahead of time announcing our arrival and they thought that we were representatives paid by the US to come study their school. We tried to explain differently but the Principal didn't care whose dime we came on he just cared that we were reps of the United States. He wanted us to send that picture we took of him and his staff and us so he could put it on his wall of important high ranked visitors. Funny. Well he had two ladies take us around to the different classrooms and covered areas but not before he poured his heart out about his belief of equal rights for education in India. He has a big heart and wants every child to have an opportunity to receive and education, even girls. It does not matter your social standing. If India was to ever break free of the cycle it was in there had to be equal opportunity. And he stressed the importance of having mothers educated so they pass the legacy on to the children in the home. If the women in their country are not strong in their good values and have a good education then thats where the problems all start. Right in the home. It was all related and one big cycle. This school was trying to get to the core of the problem and solve it one student at a time. He also fed us this sickening dessert that I wanted to throw up for fear I would be poisoned from it. We didn't want to be rude. They were being so kind so we prayed like the mother that we would not die from it. it was right up there with that icky white fatty stuff Linz and Chelle dared me to eat in Vietnam. (I got $2 for doing that! $2 will feed me an entire day!)
Well we loved the kids as usual and he even had these girls come out of their classes to do a snake dance for us! It was really cool! We were trying not to make a scene but as we walked around that courtyard we caused so many disruptions- I felt bad for doing that to those teachers."
[I feel bad now for leading that principal on to think that we were going to be sending funding for his school as US representatives, but I guess we tried to explain.]
"When we were ready to leave and call a taxi the manager said "One moment please" and and he walked us out to his little car and drove us right around the corner where he told us they have blind students. He brought in about 10 students and we met them and shook their hands and told them we were sos pleased to meet them, and we were! It almost brought us to tears. The lady said they have 20 blind children of all different ages. This was particularly touching because Peggy said that for the most part India doesn't recognize disabilities. Her son had a form of dyslexia and they didn't help him. I don't know how universal this attitude is in India but this school obviously didn't share that attitude. It was so neat to meet these kids. As soon as they were brought in we could feel their spirits and we knew there was something special about them.
Our rickshaw driver was an idiot. He tried to charge us 100 rupees (over $3 when it should have been only $1). And he went onto this one way road the WRONG way and a traffic cop almost fined him- and he had the nerve to say he saved us 100 rupees because we would have had to pay for his violation. Some people.
Can you believe I'm going to see the Taj Mahal today?!!"