We fell in love....23 times over.

After spending Christmas day with the kids from the orphanage, all Drake and I wanted to do now was spend as much time with them as possible. They do have school and homework during the week so we weren't able to stay the whole time with them. But we were able to spend a few days with them and stay a couple nights at the orphanage.
These kids are so much fun, but before I go any further, I need to make some introductions...

Wilson

Lily

Mercy

Robin

Florence

Jessica

Rachel

Reena

Michael

Rosie

Rita

Cindy

Mark

Dimni

Melody

Irene

Robert

Mary

Joyce

Ester

Felix

Henry

Philip
It truly was an awesome experience spending time with these sweet, fun, happy, loving, serving, playful, athletic, competitive kids. I wish I could take them all home with me. We played several games including Enemy at the Gates (arguably their favorite), Red Rover, Hang Man's Challenge (one of the funniest things I've ever seen), Human Battleship, Stick Pull, Dead Weight (basically every kid with all their strength carrying dead weight Drake to his room), and the Name Game. I've played a lot of games with a lot of different types of people, but I'd have to say that these were some of the most fun times I've had.
So in our very short time that we were blessed with to spend with these kids mine and Drake's hearts melted for these kids. They have been blessed and are in a good place considering the losses they've suffered losing their families. But they each have 22 brothers and sisters that love them and will do anything for them. They also have their Uncle Drake and Uncle Bo that fell in love with them right from the beginning.

Rishikesh...

Okay I got a little ahead of myself on the last post, I'm doing things out of order. This trip actually took place in 2010 before our New Year's celebration.
So Carol, Drake, and I wanted to go on a mini trip and see a bit more of India and decided to check out Rishikesh, which I'm sure you're all aware is in the state of Uttarkhand. But just in case you forgot, now you know.
We were debating about whether or not to take the bus but Raj our driver convinced us that he should drive us...cheaper, faster, more comfortable, and we get to enjoy the company of Raj, all good things. We were excited about this trip too because it would be taking us out of the city area of Delhi and through the counrty side.





Steve made all the arrangements for us to stay at this retreat type place. We had the choice of air-conditioned villas or tented huts, we went with the latter. It was pretty chilly too so the whole ac comodity would be very unnecessary.








This place was a little bit weird. Our host wasn't the most welcoming person you've ever met. And at the entire place we were the only one's staying there. I guess that means that the employees don't have anyone else to serve but us. Dinner each night was cooked over the fire. The second night it was a bit rainy so we ate inside and they skewered our bbq and cooked it right over the fire place, pretty cool. We stayed two nights and for each day we had a choice of one of 3 options: River Rafting on the Ganges River, a massage, or a hike/escursion. We went with the rafting and the massage and we cashed them both in on the same day.
We talked them in to letting Raj come raft with us too. Carol has never gone rafting before, so she was really excited about going. I'm just not excited about getting wet, its so darn cold, I hate cold. But who can pass up river rafting in the Ganges River in India? Drake and I will have rafted in Peru, in Colorado, and now in India. The rafting was just a two hour trip, but we hit some seriously awesome rapids. I didn't really expect to but they were really fun. The first rapid we hit got Drake and I soaked, so right from the beginning we were wet and cold. Also I'm not sure exactly but I'm pretty sure our guide's name was Asole (but pronouced more like....yeah you got it). So if we got mad at our guide for getting us soaked we could just yell and call him by his name and have done no wrong.
Half way down we started pulling over to the side and wondered if we were stopping for a bathroom break possibly. Nope, here's a hint: we're in India...yup, that's right we pulled over in the middle of a rafting trip down the river to stop for tea. Right there on the side of the river in the rocks was a guy with his little make shift stove boiling water to make masala tea for the rafters. Only in India.
All in all it was an awesome rafting trip. If anyone's looking to go rafting for cheap, this is the place to do it. We saw it advertised costing only $7. Which is pretty much a non-existant deal anywhere else.


When we got back we had lunch and then the massage people showed up, a woman and a man. I haven't had too many massages, the first one I had has been the best. Ones I've had since have been alright but not great. This one was probably the creepiest. Let's just say the guy was a little "handsy". Alright, moving on. All in all besides the actual river rafting the trip was a little bit too relaxing for us, more boring than anything. We need entertainment.
On the way back we pulled over to the side of the road when we saw a group of monkeys. We had some cookies in the car that we tossed out to them and by doing that we got the WHOLE family down. There were probably 50 monkeys around the car. I threw the whole package of cookies out the window and in, no joke, 10 seconds the cookies were no where to be seen.


Sugar cane is obviously big in this area because along the roads that all we saw. Loads and loads and loads of fresh sugar cane being hauled by tractors, trucks,buffalos, camels, horses, men...basically anything that could pull. We sampled the sugar cane, you would have thought that having lived in Hawaii I would have had it before but nope, this was my first time. And let me tell you what...it's good, I mean real good.


We also got a flat tire on our way back but luck was there for us and we got it right by a tire repair place. Hmmm, now that I think about it, I wonder if that tire shop chuck nails and glass and other stuff in the road like a mile before their place just to give them more business, okay maybe not. But while we were waiting for the tire to get fixed we got a few more shots...





There were also these little fruit stands set up on the side of the road. I think we got 3 plates for like $0.60. You can't beat that.




Oh and just in case you thought your job was crappy, try picking up this one as a profession. Yup that's right, they collect cow and buffalo crap and mold them into convenient patties for fire building. You gotta look at your glass half full.

Bringin in the New Year with a bang?

So just to give a quick little update about the blog, some of these posts might be a little bland as far as pictures go, but they will be coming soon. Since we've been in India we have been taking a lot of pictures but they are scattered in many cameras and will be uploaded soon...
Well we're here in India, Drake and I were thinking that celebrating New Year's in India might be pretty fun. There's bound to be some fun party to hit up and bring the New Year in right. Steve and Carol recommended a friend of their's, they also live here at the Aralias and apparently had a bunch of family in for the holidays. Carol even said that they had some cute nieces or cousins that were our age. Sounds good to us, so we decided to go cruise over and check it out.
Since we had never met them before Steve took us over to first make the introduction and then leave us there. Steve and Carol weren't going to stay up. So we knock on the door and Serge (Steve's friend) answers the door like this: (in a whisper mind you)"hey guys, happy new year, come on in." First hint that its not a hopping party, the guy answered the door whispering, WHISPERING, its a New Year's Party and he's whispering, this is going to be fun.
So Steve makes the introduction and leaves us. We walk in to find the rest of the family playing uno, they had just finished their last hand so we were just in time to be dealt in to the next game. Don't worry we've got Uno, not all hope is lost. The family the was in from out of town were all from Colombia which was cool because I got to use my Spanish and recycle my 3 hit jokes that know. They always get a laugh, if not genuine at least I'll get a few courtesy laughs anyway.
Oh yeah, and Carol wasn't lying about the cute girls, well she wasn't lying about the cute part anyway. Then there was the part about the age....Laura, super cute, was about 11 years old, and ______ (forgetting name right now but will fill in later) was I'm guess around 14, thanks Carol. So if you haven't guess by now I'll just tell you that there was no New Year's kiss, darn it, maybe next year.
After winning our game of Uno, cough cough thank you, we got up for the count down and did what they told us to be a south american tradition. We all counted out 12 grapes and when we got to 12 seconds til, you're supposed to eat a grape every second and have a wish for each of the grapes you eat. So not only did we arrive at a New Year's party greeted with a whisper but even when it came time to yell "Happy New Year" nobody did because we all had a mouth full of grapes. Hmmmm. We had a good time though.
After, Drake and I cruised down to the party down at the club house that the Aralias was putting on, maybe there we can grab some good food or something. So we get there and they ask us if we're guests and we let them know which flat we're from. Then they tell us that the buffet had just closed and we said that that was fine we just wanted to check out what was going on. Turned out the buffet was still very much serving so we thought we'd grab a quick plate before they started tossing the stuff. They had some gruuuuubb dishes. So now that I have as many dishes that I can fit on my plate one of the party managers informs us that buffet wasn't free. Well when we first arrived Carol and Steve told us that if we ever ate down at the restaurant to just sign for it. So we tell them "ok, that's fine, we'll just sign for it." So he brings me the bill and it comes to a total of 4,000 rupees for the two of us (that's about $40 a plate just in case you're not up to date with your U.S. dollars to Indian rupees current exchange). And by that time we had already starting eating, oops. The guy didn't really believe us that we were legit guests either. He kept on coming back to the table questioning us who we were. He even called our flat and woke up Carol and Steve to make sure we were really their guests. I think the real reason was the fact that Drake and I weren't really dressed for the occasion...jeans and flannels weren't really fitting in too much, the beards didn't add too well either.
So we got our fill and hit up the dessert table and did our best to get our money's worth before we bounced. On our way out we were walking by a flat that did have a legit party going on....loud music, strobe lights, lots of people, none of which were whispering. So we thought we'd just walk by and maybe someone would invite us in. Being white Americans here in India we do stand out and are often times somewhat of a celebrity so we thought an invite would likely happen. But nope...nothing. Even as we walked by the 2PAC song "California Love" featuring Dr. Dre was playing...."California....knows how to party, Califoria...knows how to party." I mean how perfect can it get, two California boys walking by a hopping Indian New Year's party right when "California Love" is playing, invite 'em up I say. Nope, nothing, so instead of "...keep it rockin" it was more like "...keep on walkin."
Happy New Year everyone! 2011 BABY!

Merry INDIAN Christmas!!!

Since the time difference between India and California is about 13 hours, jet lag is going to affect us. We both got really tired at about 7:30 pm and then woke up around 2 or 3. I haven’t woken up this early on Christmas morning since I was like 8, but for different reasons this time. All the presents got wrapped last night so Drake and I were put in charge of hanging the stocking, which were actually santa hats, and blowing up a bunch of red and white balloons before the kids from the orphanage arrived.
There are 23 kids, 15 girls and 8 boys, ranging in age from 6 to 15. Last time Drake was here he met them, but this will be my first time meeting them. So they show up and they were all super sweet and polite. They all came up to me and shook my hand, introduced themselves, and wished me a merry Christmas. Then the temptation of playing with the many many balloons scattered in the living room was too much. So for about 30 minutes we kicked, bobbled, hit, swung, head butted, and did about anything else imaginable that you can do with a balloons to create chaos. I’m going to like these kids.
We had a pancake, bacon, and egg breakfast before the kids opened their first gift, which was for each of them their very own bible. Then we went to church and had an….interesting time there. One thing is for sure, they like their electric guitar. They sang some Christmas songs, some worship songs, some dance performances were done, and then the pastor gave his Christmas message. After they had light refreshments and the creepiest santa that I’ve seen in my life.
We came back to the house and barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers. It was so funny, some of the kids had never had a hot dog before, which is understandable, they are from India. But some of the kids sat down with their plates with just a hot dog bun. They didn’t know what to do with the actual hot dog, so we had to show them it goes in the bun and generally eaten with ketchup and mustard and then eaten with your hands. I saw a few of them take out the hot dog and eat both of them separately with a fork. Which is funny because they normally eat rice and some sort of stew mixture and they use nothing but their hands. Now they’re eating an American dish and assume that they should use utensils when with hot dogs that’s not the case.


After lunch we opened gifts one at a time. It was really cool seeing the looks on their faces and seeing how excited they got after getting their own toy or a new pair of shoes or jeans.


After opening gifts we took some of the balls down to the courtyard to break them in properly. These kids are so funny, they speak 3 languages, being from Maunipur, India they speak their native dialect kuki, they also speak Hindi, and then English. When they’re playing with themselves, they usually don’t speak English, but you can tell that they’re super competitive and a lot of them are really athletic. They keep themselves in line too, if we start playing a game that has rules, they are sticklers to those rules. Drake and I also are sticklers, which is great because they play like us, hard and fair.
Raj and two other drivers took them back to the orphanage which is about an hour away. We had a great time with them, it was sad having them leave, but Drake and I are planning on spending more time with them and going there to stay the night. This experience has showed me a different side of Christmas, one that I think will change my future Christmases for the better.