Katharina's Kaleidoscope: India:::Part 1

Yea! Here I am with the long awaited pictures from India! We had a very very good trip. Except for a few last minute rushes to catch our planes, everything went pretty much as planned. I enjoyed the Indian culture...well, most things about it, and would have been happy to stay a lot longer! Probably the worst thing was all the bathroom breaks by the road. I quickly learned that the side of the road is not the greatest place to look if you want to see the sights of India. :) Everything is colorful.....from their clothes to their houses! That is one thing Americans sadly lack in; color! It makes everything really interesting. I think I laughed more that week then I ever did before.

The first place we stayed at was Lanka Das' house. Most of our time was spent visiting savings groups with our Dad, or spending time with the children from Lanka's school and orphanage that was right by the house. We even got to help teach at school a couple times! The children were adorable and very friendly. In fact, sometimes too friendly! The one class we visited swamped us trying to get either our autograph, or a chance to shake our hand. I think I gave away over 60 autographs and shook hundreds of hands. They also loved to have their pictures taken..."one more photo, just one more photo, please." And they didn't know that in order to get everyone in the picture, you have to stand back. They would crowd as close to the camera as possible, till all I could see was a nose and someone's straight white teeth.

We were treated like royalty our entire stay. The only work I did the whole time was my wash. So coming back to a family of ten where you have to work a lot was a small adjustment. :) It was a little awkward because when we went to visit a savings group or church, they had us sit up in front of everyone. And they stood up and clapped while we walked in. It was something to get used to. Oh, and I also did lots of impromptu speaking and singing. Lanka would ask me out of the blue to come up to introduce myself and say something. Haha, by the end of our stay, I had my little speech all ready and it didn't take me by surprise anymore. "Hello. My name is Katharina and I am very glad to be with you here in India......"
We got to be on India Television while we were there! Lanka is part owner of a station called Calvary Television. And he asked us to sing on it. Yeah, I was really nervous about it. The TV guys came and set up all the equipment while I nervously watched. And there were these huge blinding lights glaring right at us the whole time we sang. I felt like I was in an interrogation room or something. We didn't even get to practice all the songs the whole way through before we sang, so we just winged it! It went fairly good...later we found out that the girls microphone had actually been turned off. So the guy's bass was really really loud! Haha, it was really funny and we had great laughs over it when we saw ourselves on TV. Oh, and we girls were asked right there and then to sing a song by ourselves. "Ummmmm....sure, I guess we can. Thanks for the short notice!" So we did. And it actually turned out to be one of the best songs. :)

I took hundreds and hundreds of pictures, and sadly you will not be able to see half of them on here. {Hehe, that's an invitation to come visit me so you can see the rest!} If you have any questions about any of the pictures, feel free to drop a comment and ask me about it! All the pictures are taken by me unless I say otherwise. And of course the ones that I'm on I didn't take. :) They aren't really in any special order. Well, I may as well get started, so here we go!

{I couldn't resist buying a starbucks coffee before we left civilization}

Sunrises are totally awesome to watch from the air.

The school class rooms are on the right and middle, and on the left is where the orphan children stay.

The one day we visited some sewing shops that Lanka had helped to start for some of the Christian women and girls. It helped them to earn a little for their families and helped them to develop sewing skills that they could use later on. We also got fitted for saris {the traditional Indian women dresses} at one of the shops!