The Sun and the Rain and the (India!) Family...

We are SO thankful for friends! Honestly, this is a tough place to work. It's so different from home, there are so many things that are fairly inconvenient...it's just hard. BUT, the people make those things seem insignificant, and yesterday we were reminded of how blessed we are to have friends that feel like family here at Woodstock.

Our MANY plates...we ended up having about 33 people over at our house! We made a BIG mess, but had SO MUCH FUN!

Chris was the best husband in the world, and helped all day. He even figured out how to make gravy...and it was really good!

The crowd, waiting for chow-time...

The chow. :)

No need to be modest, there's PLENTY to go around!

These are two of my favorite kids...Lily and Ella Endo. They made some SWEET origami, and gave it to me as a Christmas present! Two bracelets, 4 picture frames, a sweet "thing" (Lily's holding...don't know what it is, but it's SO COOL!). They're just adorable. And, they're from Minnesota, so we'll be able to see them back in the states when we all move back!

Since there were so many kids coming (we ended up having 5, but there was a possibility of 8), I printed out some Thanksgiving "connect-the-dots" and coloring sheets. We had a GREAT time coloring turkeys and pilgrims together!

The other craft was that we all got to make Pilgrim Hats! We used to do this when we were kids, and I thought it'd be a fun tradition to bring to India. Some of the adults got into it...and the kids made the rest of the adults get into it. :) Fun times had by all!

In all, it was a GREAT time. We had a great time with friends, ate great comfort-foods, and shared conversation and laughs. Thank you ALL, for being our India Family.

The other thing that came out of this Thanksgiving weekend was that I was forced to cook. And, since nothing is easy here, I was forced to cook from scratch. BIG NEWS: I LIKED IT! It was actually really fun, and I came up with some great recipes that I'll use many times in the future. I started a cooking blog...primarily for my benefit, so I can organize the recipes that I've tried and liked. If you want some recipes that EVEN I can make, that blog address is... http://farleyfood.blogspot.com/. Bon appetit!

Just Thankful...

I just wanted to say that I'm so thankful today. I have a wonderful husband who is also my best friend, I 'm working with kids that I love, I get to cook food today with great friends for a fun Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow (where there will be MORE great people!), and I get to come home in 2 1/2 weeks to see a family that I ADORE and friends that I love. Life is good. :)

Need to Get Creative!

Calling all creative thinkers...calling all cooks/bakers...calling all decorators!

As I'm sure you are all VERY aware, Thanksgiving/Christmas is coming up! I am an AVID decorator for the holidays, and am finding myself in a bind here in India...I have no decorations. :) So, I've decided to get creative...I've determined that this very cold house WILL feel festive!

And with that, I'm pleading for your help! I have three requests.

1. Thanksgiving Recipes: we're hosting a HUGE Thanksgiving potluck at our house, and I want to make some GREAT comfort foods. Limiting Factors: we have no turkeys in India, and we don't have an oven. Our neighbors have one that we can use, but it's small!! Any great recipes you can send me?!?!

2. Thanksgiving Games/Decorations: I want to play some games with the group that's here...or at least, have things around the house that they can do while they eat and wander...pin the feather on the turkey, write what they're thankful for on a big piece of paper, things like that. Any game ideas? My favorite other idea is to dress the Americans up like pilgrims, and the non-Americans (British, Scottish, south African, Australian, Canadian) up like Indians. Any costume ideas? And last, I want to decorate the house. Any decoration ideas? Limiting Factors: we don't have access to any colored papers...bummer, huh?!

3. Christmas Decorations: I HAVE to decorate for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, I just need fun, easy decoration ideas. ...sewing, gluing, whatever! No limiting factors, just give me what you got!

It's really interesting how important it is for me to have things "feel" like Thanksgiving or "feel" like Christmas...it's such a family time, that I somehow think that if it "feels" like the Holidays, I won't get so lonely. :) I'll let you know how it works out!

One more request...favorite Christmas music?!?!?!

*****Only 24 days 'til we get to go home!!!!!*****

Coat Made!

This is NOT an exciting post...but I got a coat made (for the equivalent of $16!) in town, and I love it! I'm thinking about getting some made as Christmas presents, so this is largely a way of letting people see what can be made so they can give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. Here you go girls!

My Favorite Baraadsar Pictures...

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. Haven't edited any of them (I'm learning how to use GIMP, slowly but surely!), this is the rawness of what we saw! Lots of pictures...hope you enjoy!

Right before starting out...we're all still clean!

BEAUTIFUL trees...

Just hanging in the field with his mama

His mama with her sickle

The first big climb. Everyone was SO tired, so fast!

A very common sight on this trip.

Tired, but happy!

We stopped in villages randomly as we passed through. The first one was SO much fun, and the people were so friendly. The boys of the village were in the middle of a cricket game when we came into the village...so we watched a while, and then our guys joined in. It was a neat commonality. :)

It's harvest time in the village

The architecture was ASTOUNDING. This was a temple built to the hindu god Shiva about 6 years ago, and everything is hand carved. If you look closely, you can see how extremely intricate all the woodwork is. It was really neat to see the pride they took in their work.

At first the kids ran away from the camera, but after I showed them their faces on the LCD screen, they all pushed to get into the picture. They were adorable!

Back on the trail

Our outdoor "kitchen". Our hands FROZE, but we made some pretty good food!

Casey Guenther, our fearless leader

Out of the woods, and onto the mountaintops for the first time!

Sometimes it really felt like we were in heaven on earth.

FREEZING in the morning!

Each student receives a grade for activity week, and part of that grade was to write in a journal about their experience. Not a bad place to journal, huh?!

Coming down from one of our campsites. It was SO steep! The porters (the guys that carried our food) just ran down it, and about 20 minutes later the rest of us inched along. It was scary!

One one of the days there was a "sheep stampede!" We were just about to this pass area, and suddenly hundreds of sheep/goats came through and were ALL AROUND US. It was actually really scary...they were running down above and below us, kicking rocks, baaing SO loud. We all made it in the end, though.

These two guys were especially scared. :)

Contemplating....

Scene from "Pride and Prejudice" anyone?!

I ended up not "summiting" with the group because a girl was sick. BUT, while we were back at camp, the rest of the group was risking their lives up in the snow! You can't see really well here, but the snow is actually covering the path, and sloping right down with the rest of the mountain. I guess it was quite scary. :)

For a lot of the kids, it was their first time seeing snow. They liked it. :)

Our guide, porters, and Casey.

Nellie...

Arsh...

The beautiful "snows".

The whole group :)

Our "down day" was quite interesting. It ended up being a REALLY long day (about 9 hours of hiking in all), and almost all down hill. This spot was interesting, as the waterfall had partially eroded the path. Below the path was straight down, so it was a little scary! I perfected the "one-foot-in-front-of-the-other" mentality.

Wash day! Looks a little different in India than in the states...

Notice anything that just "doesn't belong here?"

A real scarecrow!

Packing up our last camp. It was glorious!

The last day was only about 2 hours of hiking, and almost the whole time we got to hike right next to this BEAUTIFUL river. It was a perfect way to end the trip!

CHEESE! We're done!

Such elation!

Packing up the jeeps.

Smile boys!

Me and Mina, on our way home. :)

It was a WONDERFUL experience, and one that I won't volunteer for again for at least a good month or two. :) Like all hard experiences though, you learn SO much...and when it comes right down to it, you wouldn't trade them for the world!