After travelling for about 36 hours, we finally arrived in India, Delhi ate 03:00 am. We spent the first four days in Delhi and then left for Kota! During our time in Delhi, we learned more about the culture and their religion. We also shopped and attended a "comedy evening' at a local church. This was such a nice time to experience India firsthand!
We were welcomed at the orphanage by flower necklaces and songs. It was nice to finally settle down! Over the next three weeks, we scraped, sanded, washed, painted the church and spent time with the kids. We tried to play cricket against them, but lost terribly! We also used this opportunity to do some of the 202 on the list in the fieldguide - we slept in the kids rooms(during which a few rats ran over me!), licked a teammate(of course Jeremy did that), drank chai on the train and ate kurkure (which burns)!
Leaving was not easy...we had really grown close to the kids. They had shown us so much love during this time. But we all know that God will bring us back to the orphanage if it is His will.
A testimony I would like to share: during the work, I had a bad fall in which I really hurt my back. We had to present a program to the kids the following night, and we wanted to do this skit about God taking your sins (and burdens) away. This skit required me to dance with scarves around my neck(that represent the sin), and then od comes and takes them away. I really didn't feel up to this, because of my injury...but as I was dancing, it was like the skit was also symbolic to me! My back gor completely healed during the dance!