We are waaaaayyyy behind...

So as the title reads, we are way behind on the blog. This is due to several factors but actually comes down to just getting lazy with it. Our apologies! This week we have vowed to get up to date with it and at the very latest get it all updated before our trip to Kashmir (Jan. 28).

Anyway, blessings to all our family and friends and thanks for following our year here on our blog, albeit not a very exciting blog as of late...

Love you all!

-J and Z

New goods up on the blog! (Nov. 20)

For those of you who are checking this blog daily to see if new stuff is up (Nana), here it is! We’ve had a good couple of weeks and I apologize for the blog drought I induced here by falling behind but I hope this will satisfy you all for a while because in 4 days Zach and I are off to Nepal for 20 days of trekking and travel! I’ll try and update as much as possible but as usual I make no promises…

Thank you for giving us feedback on if you’re enjoying the blog, it helps documenting our India experience that much easier knowing someone back home is reading. So again, thank you!

Blessings to you all and have an amazing Thanksgiving holiday! We’ll be on a 27 hour train ride while most of you are diving into your Thanksgiving feasts! Eat well for us because each of us have lost about 10 pounds already and there’s knowing what another 6 months of rice is going to do to our bodies!

Love you all and miss everyone like crazy!

Blessings,

The Brothers Gilbert

Just a day… (Nov. 17)

Zach is running a fever today. He didn’t go to work and slept most of the day. I tiptoed around the room with the lights off and made sure he was comfortable during the day by checking up on him from time to time. I was on my own for the day. Now I tell you this not to boost my ego by explaining how great I am, it’s not that at all. This was the first day since reaching India that I was truly going through the day as an individual, not as the brothers Gilbert.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love being here with my brother but walking the streets by myself while heading to the post office to buy train tickets for February I began to look around and be more aware of my surroundings. For instance, instead of constantly talking while I was walking I was looking around and seeing the bustle of the day. I was moving quicker through the crowds of people and cows and motorcycles and cars. In a way it was a sense of independence that I was experiencing. I stopped and bought a soda without seeing if anyone else wanted to stop. In a way it scared me. I think that Zach will agree with me when I say that there is a sense of security when we are both together in the streets and with that gone, there was a slight twinge of fear at being in the street by myself.

It gave me time to think and pray as I walked on to the post office. I began thinking about how amazing it was that I was walking these Indian streets with no fear of being run over by a truck. That was not the case for the first week or two; in fact the first few times walking around town were downright terrifying! Now I was comfortable with the noise, the filth, and even the stares from the shop owners even though they have seen us walking the same roads for months. I praised God for the opportunity to be here. I prayed for the struggles we face while being here and the pressures that were weighing down upon me personally. The list was long, and I needed the whole walk to the post office to get through it. It’s funny how when you say the things that are on your mind out loud in prayer how much more meaning they have. Praying silently is one thing but audibly talking to God is a whole other way of praying.

God certainly has a sense of humor because as I was rounding the last corner before hitting the straight stretch to the hospital I walked by two cows. Now normally cows just stand there and chew their cud and ignore you but this time was different. I didn’t realize one cow was a female and one a male but all of a sudden the male tried to mount the female as I was passing. I literally had to jump out the way as the female tried to buck the male off! I ran away laughing out loud before thanking God for the excitement in an otherwise normal walk. It was something I won’t easily forget!

The day went on without any other excitement. I made it a point to use this day by myself to think about why I was here in India. I went to the roof after the sun set to relax in the coolness of the evening and finish my chat with God. At times it is easy to lose sight of the reasons one comes as an SM, but as the evening on the roof continued I began the process of searching for it. I believe I found it.

As a human, our natural tendency is to take our own path. Some of us are more prone to this than others but I think everyone struggles with trusting God’s will to work in our lives. I know I have and still do and as I prayed, I began to see the value of completely trusting my path to God. I came to India to be used by God, not to build up myself. I needed to be a mirror that reflects God to those around me. I needed to stop focusing on the bad here and embrace the good, amazing, and incredible things that India and its people can be and are 99% of the time. I had forgotten that, but this evening gave me the alone time to think and pray and review my role here in India.

Mission service is not always glamorous, fun, or even enjoyable when one looks at the actual physical experience, but mix in God and his plan and all of a sudden the lens is brought back into focus and for a minute it is easy to see a picture of why things are the way they are. God is good and I pray to be a mirror and to never forget the picture that is bigger than myself.

And so, while Zach having a fever is never something I would have wished on him (he’s feeling much better now), I am thankful that he did have one for just one day because it forced me to be alone and think. It provided the opportunity to refocus, think, and pray and that was exactly what I needed to do. So thank you Zach for being sick although I’m sorry you were and thank you to God, who has a plan when even when I don’t see it.

Blessings

-J

Snakes in the street! (Nov. 14)

This last Monday was Auntie Enjati’s 75^th birthday and Uncle Enjati invited Zach and me to her birthday party at their house Monday night. It was going to be a typical India birthday party with a small service at the beginning and then a meal to follow. Zach and I get super stoked about these events because the food is always amazing! So we started over to the Enjati’s house around 7.

When we arrived we were 15 minutes late and yet still the service didn’t start until 30 minutes after we had arrived. (Typical Indian Standard Time.) There were plastic chairs arranged outside on the front porch/driveway area underneath the trestle that had vines growing all over it. The service started with Pastor Vara Jacob giving a short worship talk along with another pastor who spoke before him. After the worship there was the garlanding of Auntie and then we lit the candle on the cake and sang happy birthday to her.

Just as we finished singing there was a commotion 20 feet away at the front gate. A young kid came running back into the house yelling, “Pamu, pamu, pamu!!!” which means snake in Telugu. Zach and I had our cameras out already since we were documenting the singing and stuff so we rushed over and caught the entire killing of the viper that had been found amongst the parked motorcycles at the front gate. If the snake hadn’t been spotted we may have had someone with a snakebite at the end of the party. The snake had come from the jungle across the road and thankfully a motorcycle had been driving past when the snake crossed the road. There are no lights in front of the gate and the only way the snake had been seen was with the headlight of the motorcycle.

The viper was a “Russell’s Viper” and is one of the 4 common snakes in India. It is also an extremely poisonous snake. We were told after that they call in a “five step snake” meaning you’d be dead in 5 steps after being bitten. That may be a bit of an exaggeration since we’ve never had a viper kill someone here in Nuzvid since we arrived. We did however have a cobra kill a little boy earlier in the year but that was due to his small size and the fact that the family waited over 2 and a half hours before seeking modern medical treatment.

After the snake was good and dead Zach and I got pictures with the snake! It was huge as you can see from the photos! Anyway, it was good surprise to have at Auntie’s birthday party! Again, never a dull moment here in India!

Bangalore!!! (Nov. 5-7)

This weekend was amazing for several reasons. First, we needed to get out on our own and have a weekend to ourselves. Second, Brooke Bauer, Trevor Carstens, and Sidney Krall were meeting us there for the weekend! Needless to say we were pretty stoked about heading to Bangalore.

There were some logistical problems that we ran into though in our preparation to depart. First, we decided to go 3 days before leaving and so trains were completely booked. The only way to get tickets at the last minute is to pay about twice as much as you normally would and also you have to buy tickets through what is called “Tatkal”. Tatkal is where the railway companies save a select number of tickets that can only be purchased starting 48 hours before the time of departure. This is wonderful when you think about it but the problem with it is you must buy them within about 45 minutes of the tickets opening otherwise you won’t get them. We set up to buy our tickets at the second they opened up but we ran into internet issues and finally had to suck it up and by 2AC tickets, which is the second most expensive ticket class. It was a bit spendy but we were on our way! The second thing was a bit more stressful in reality…

I headed over to talk to him about us taking Friday off and going to Bangalore for the weekend. This is same man who had us get permission to go on any trip from our parents…so needless to say I was a bit worried. The conversation started off like normal, the usual pleasantries and such and then I dropped the fun little bomb about our trip. He cut me off halfway through my explanation with the usual “No, you can’t go, it’s not safe!”. I just kept on rolling with it though and told him we had already booked our tickets. He hummed and ha-ed for no less than 30 seconds before finally telling me that was okay but that any other travel should always be consulted with him first! I left as fast as I could simply because he wasn’t super stoked on the whole thing in spite of giving the go ahead.This second thing that I speak of was our wonderful Executive Vice President, Dr. R.N. Prabhu das. The one who thinks every single part of India is “unsafe” for us to travel to and also thinks we should be under the same supervision category as the students here. (Think boarding academy style but stricter). Anyway, we didn’t tell him until Wednesday afternoon and we were leaving late Thursday night.

So with that out of the way we headed off for Vijayawada to catch our 11:15 P.M. train to Bangalore. We jumped on the bus as it was leaving by running with our bags and all while it was literally driving away! We made it and caught our overnight train. It was really nice! Trains here are the most amazing way to travel because you have a bed and power for your computer and plenty of times to read books and watch the countryside as it flies by. I really enjoy train travel and wish the US had a better rail network. We made it to Bangalore around noon on Friday and hopped off at the platform to be assailed by a million rickshaw drivers who all wanted to take us to a hotel. We had already decided where we were staying and had called ahead to make sure they had rooms available and so we immediately found a rickshaw that could take us there. There was a ton of bargaining the price down amongst about 5 rickshaw drivers before we finally liked one guy’s price and hopped on. Bangalore streets are crazy and the ride was super fun! We arrived at our hotel after about 3 u-turns and having to stop to ask for directions twice. We booked our room and immediately called Trevor, Brooke, and Sid. Thankfully our hotel was only a block away from the main shopping street and that’s where they were.

It was easy to find them since we’re all white and it was so amazing to see some familiar faces after 2 months of not seeing someone we knew before India! It’s amazing how much strength you can gain from seeing someone who is going through the same struggles and experiences you are but in slightly different place.

To some up the next 3 days is pretty easy…free/cheap sightseeing, coffee shops, and food! We didn’t do much else. We immediately went and ate at McDonald’s, which in the US I don’t care for but here I loved it! We also ate enough 12-rupee ice cream cones for about a year in 3 days! We wondered around the shopping district for the rest of Friday seeking out used bookstores to replenish our supply of books since we all have read pretty much everything we brought over here with us… We also had more food, none of it with rice or curry! It was so good to taste things that none of us had had in a long time! Pizza Hut was dinner and then coffee after! Have I stressed the point of how amazing the food was? It was AMAZING!

Sabbath we decided to run around Bangalore and see some of the temples and parks that it had to offer. Since Brooke, Trevor, and Sid had booked the guest room at the Adventist college, Lowry Memorial College, which is about 15 minutes from downtown, we decided to meet at the ISKCON Hindu Temple the next morning around 10.

Zach and I had to get a rickshaw there so we got up and found one who was willing to take us out their for 100 rupees. This is a deal since the others were charging 200. We headed to his rickshaw and took off for the temple. As we were pulling out he yelled over shoulder that he had to take us to a shop so he could get a free gas card but he would take us to the temple right after. We agreed since he also said we didn’t have to buy anything at the shops.

We arrived at the shop and were attacked by the sales people… They follow you around asking if you want to buy something for your wife, girlfriend, mistress, etc. They also use language like, “Here you go my friend, this is perfect for you”, which in my head I’m thinking, “First, you’re not my friend and also, the last thing I need is $400 Buddha statue!” When they see you’re starting to leave they start pleading with you! “Please sir, would you buy just one small thing because you are our first customer of the day and you buying would be good luck for us!” We didn’t buy anything…it was fun to walk out after they annoyed us for 10 minutes!

We then thought we were heading to the temple…NOT! We went to 4 more stores! They were all the same and with the same annoying sales people! When we got done with the 5^th store Zach and I had had enough so we really lit into the guy about going to the temple and he gave us some story about something being broken on his rickshaw but his friend would take us from here. We made sure it was still going to cost the same, which it did and we finally made it to the temple after and hour of driving from idiotic store to the next! We didn’t get ripped off money wise but our time definitely was stolen…

ISKCON temple was really amazing. The pictures are really the only thing that does it justice but it was huge and was very ornate. It really made me appreciate being a Christian and in particular an SDA. The crazy chatting and offering bananas, coconuts, and other trinkets to the statues really showed how idol worship is still very alive in this modern world. It is crazy stuff, but pretty interesting at the same time.From there we headed to the main mall for lunch because it was rumored the food court was amazing, it did not disappoint! We found Taco Bell, Sbarro and Subway all with their own “Indian twist”. After eating and lounging at an outdoor coffee shop for a while we decided to walk to the Bangalore Palace and see what it was all about.

When we reached the Palace after about 45 minutes of walking we made it to the Palace grounds. Now this palace is actually more of a castle and was built to look like some massive royal palace in England, which I cannot remember the name of. Evidently the palace is still inhabited by the original family that built it but it now serves as an event center that has hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones and some other big name bands. It is also a popular wedding spot for the wealthy of Bangalore. When we arrived they were setting up for a huge wedding. There must have been 2,000 seats at a minimum with crazy purple and green decorations with the usual gold gaudiness that accompanies every wedding here.






It was several hundred rupees to go through the Palace so we opted for a few photos out front and then headed off towards more good food and relaxation.

As we walked away a rickshaw driver literally followed as we walked the several hundred yards to the front gate bugging us the whole time about giving us a ride. Here they seriously get in your face when they think you should use their service or buy their product. It gets really old, really fast…We finally got rid of him and found a rickshaw driver who said he would give us a “free” ride if we stopped by one shop with him so he could get his gas card. Since we made sure it was only going to be one shop before leaving, we hopped on and headed to the shop. As we pulled up Zach and I realized this was the same shop that the other driver had taken us to earlier in the day. We were definitely busting up laughing when we walked in and trying to sheepishly hide behind Trevor, Sid, and Brooke…. It didn’t work though; they recognized us as the “twins” who hadn’t given them good luck in the morning by not buying something! And we were happy to bring them more bad luck by not buying anything again! It was actually kinda fun to walk in and already know you weren’t going to buy anything.

Once we finished with the shop, we hopped back in the rickshaw (all five of us), and headed off towards the main road and our hotel. We arrived and hopped out saying thanks for the ride since he had indeed said it was free. He immediately began telling us we had to pay but we insisted he said it was free and began walking off. At this point he was torn between leaving his rickshaw in the street and chasing us down to bargain for a price. Sid put 20 rupees on the seat and it fell off in the gutter and Sid grabbed it up again but the driver thought it was in the gutter so he went looking for it and we made our escape! He said it was a “free” ride 3 or 4 times and we weren’t going to let him go back on his word! It was an awkward but fun experience for sure!

The rest of the evening was spent wandering around the Brigade road area, eating at various restaurants and finally finding another coffee shop to play card games in. It was a super good day and nothing was better than spending it eating and seeing the sights.

Sunday we all met at our hotel and then headed in to get breakfast at our favorite restaurant/coffee shop in Bangalore! Mateo is a wonderful little café that has everything from amazing donuts to tasty pasta dishes. It also has comfy couches and chairs to sit in so we planned to plant ourselves there for the entire morning and eat and play card games. While sitting there waiting to leave for Zach and my 2 o’clock train a guy walked up to us and asked us where we were from. That happens all the time but this guy was an American and we started talking with him about where we were from and what we were doing in India, the usual questions. Turns out he was touring the world as a Watson Scholar. The Watson Grant is a grant given to graduating seniors from participating colleges and universities that allows students to travel the world for 12 months following graduating from their respective institution. The grant requires that you only visit countries you’ve never been to and also requires you to research a topic that you want to learn more about. Our new friend, Manny, was researching and studying the international Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender community around the world visiting the countries of China, Australia, Brazil, India, and England. He had just arrived in Bangalore three days prior after being in London for 3 months. Did I mention that the grant gives each person $25,000 to travel the world? Also, you can’t return to the US while on this grant for entire 12 months. It sounded so amazing but WWU doesn’t offer it and I didn’t know about it until now but for all my friends who are juniors could transfer to Whitman because they are a participating school.

Anyway, it was fun to hear about Manny’s experiences so far on his 12-month trip and also talk about the struggles we’ve had while here. Zach and I left at 1 to catch our train at 2. We hopped on the train after a little difficulty finding the right platform. We still hopped on with 10 minutes to spare and settle in for the 18-hour trip back.

The weekend was absolutely amazing! It was filled with good times with amazing friends. It was really a boost after being stuck in Nuzvid for 2 months with the same scenery.

That was Bangalore and I hope that you enjoyed reading about our trip.

Blessings, J

Murder in Nuzvid… (Oct. 27)

Now the title may be a little bit startling but you may have also noticed that this entry is talking about an event that occurred while we were in Narsapur so don’t worry too much all our female family members out there! Also keep in mind I’m telling this as it was told to me.

It seems that the interesting things happen while we’re gone and this is one of those times. Thursday evening a man stumbled into the ER with his throat cut from ear to ear. Of course blood was everywhere as well as a blood trail following him from the door so the ER went to work on him right away.

Now lets rewind a little bit and talk about how this happened. The man who was murdered was a local politician who was known to be quite corrupt. He had a reputation for telling people he would get them a good job since he knew everyone and was very important but only if they paid him 100,000 rupees. Now this had happened several times between this corrupt dude and a friend of his and the friend had had enough. The corrupt politician and his friend were riding on the corrupt politician’s motorcycle down a street that borders the hospital compound when the friend pulled out a sickle and sliced open the throat of the politician. This happened no more than 150 feet from the main hospital gate (and no more than 100 ft from our room) and since the politician wasn’t dead he kept his chin down and walked himself into the ER.

When he reached the ER he couldn’t talk since his throat was slit but he was able to write down the name and address of the man who had attacked him. This was fortunate for the police because they had the victim right there telling them who did it. Since one, and maybe both of his jugulars had been severed there wasn’t much the doctors and hospital staff could do. He died within 15 minutes of reaching the hospital.

We did see pictures of the guy after he had died and been cleaned up a bit and even then it was not pretty… The cut was deep enough to go all the way through his trachea and was probably 8 to 10 inches long and was gaping open 6 inches wide. There really was no way to save him but he did provide valuable information so the police could catch the killer.

While this story is definitely not a happy story it certainly shows the shocking things that can happen unexpectedly here in India. This really was an isolated incident and was caused by special circumstances but it is shocking nonetheless.

Just another day in India for most, but we should all pray for the family of the corrupt politician, he and his family need Jesus too

Narsapur Volleyball Tournament (Oct 27-30)

We left bright and early Thursday, October 27^th for the trip to Narsupor. Uncle William Moses Enjati in his SUV picked up Zach and me at the hospital gate and we struck out to our destination 3 hours away. Zach and I had unwisely stayed up too late the night before so we quickly fell asleep in the back seat in spite of the honking and curvy roads. Our driver was the same driver we had had on the way to Machilipatnam a few weeks earlier so it was good to see a trusted driver behind the wheel.

We sped along back roads for the first half of our trip. This was the part where we were napping in the back. All of a sudden though we pulled onto an on ramp that looked very similar to one in the US. Evidently the fastest route to Narsapur is to drive on small country roads and then get on the Chennai-Kolkata highway and follow that north along the coast to Narsapur. The Chennai-Kolkata highway is 4 wide and is extremely well maintained. It was really a sweet surprise to be driving along at 60 mph with little honking and hardly any swerving. The road was still open to everything from herds of cattle to huge trucks so it wasn’t exactly like an American highway but still quite close! We turned off the highway about 20 km away from Narsapur and drove along a river all the way to the school. Uncle was telling us that when he went to school here back in the 50’s and 60’s the only way to travel up and down this stretch of river was by boat but now roads crisscrossed all over India and the use for the boats was obsolete.

We finally arrived at the school around noon and first went the dorm where the rest of the guys from Nuzvid were staying. We noticed right off the bat a plaque on the new girls dorm with the names of Ron and Janet Wilkinson. It was pretty cool to see names we recognized! Right after that we went to the main area where the tournament was going to be held. There was a huge multi-colored tent next to the dirt court with flags on 10-foot poles encircling the court. Evidently they take this tournament very seriously!

When we arrived there were a few people milling about, messing with the sound system and chatting. We got out and realized we knew a few people there including our friend Vara Jacob. It was nice to hang out and chat to people while we waited to head over to George Kaligithi’s house for lunch.

Around 12 we headed over to Uncle George’s house to eat lunch. We sat down in plastic chairs under the palm trees and were served coconut water straight from his trees. It was nice to relax and sip on a coconut in the shade. Lunch was served right after we finished introductions and our coconuts at a table that had been brought out where we were sitting. It was nice and cool since it had rained earlier in the day, which was a welcome change from the squelching heat of Nuzvid!

Lunch was the usually rice and curry but this time most of the curries were fish curries…Now I haven’t ever liked the taste of fish, but this meal was prepared specially for us and I didn’t have the heart to say I didn’t like fish in front of our hosts so Zach and I begin picking through the pieces of fish looking for bones. It was probably my least favorite meal we’ve had here in India so far but the vegetarian dhal was quite tasty! I ate a lot of that and graciously took the smallest portions I could of the fish curries. It was a memorable meal for sure!

Now the games were supposed to start around 2 with the first game starting at 3 so we walked back over to the school. In fine India time frame the opening ceremony didn’t start until 2:45… But once it did start it was quite the ordeal. All the teams were lined up in front of the large tent with all the players in matching jerseys and flags. Nuzvid’s jersey baby blue and for the first time I was kinda happy not to be playing for them…Kidding, but we definitely didn’t not get lucky with the color for our team’s jerseys.

The opening ceremony lasted over an hour since every important person had to be honored with garlands and everyone who had even the slightest importance had to say a few words. The teams stayed standing throughout the ceremony with their flags. Also, it had rained quite heavily since lunch and so the court was soaked. There were a few ladies with buckets and sponges attempting to dry the court, which we found to be pretty hilarious!

The ceremony ended with all the teams gathering together in front of the table with all the trophies and having a prayer and right after the first game got underway.

The obvious favorite with the crowd watching was the local Narsapur team since they had the support of all the students who had the tournament days off. All the students watched the games and it was fun to get to know some of the kids while the games were going on. The questions they asked us never changed…”what is your name? Where are you from? and How long are you here for?” We eventually did have so

These children have been there at the school with few vacations or visits home so it was cool to hear about their homes and families. One kid I will always remember was Abushek. He was one of those kids who just wanted to hang out and chat and joke as much as possible. His smile is forever imprinted in my memory! He was from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which a state in India located east of the mainland in the Bay of Bengal. It was fun to hear about his home and family and all sorts of other things.me really fun conversations with some of the younger kids who were super friendly, which was really fun.

Now since we couldn’t play in the tournament Zach and I played a couple exhibition games but it wasn’t the same as competing. However, the next day that all changed when the father of Ravi came up and asked us to play on his team. Now Ravi was a younger guy we met from Spicer College who was an incredible hitter on the Spicer team. His dad (who’s name I can’t remember) works in Kuwait drilling oil and was back in India on leave. We jumped at the chance to play competitively in the tournament but we didn’t realize the other 4 guys on our team couldn’t play to save their lives…Needless to say we lost every game we played on Friday, badly. It was fun but also very frustrating, but more about that later.

That evening we headed to vespers where Zach was asked last minute to do closing prayer. He tried to pawn it off on me but I’ve spoken 3 times for stuff and he’s sneaked on by, so I was able to get off the hook this time. He did a good job and the service was actually pretty good.The games continued all day Friday up to sundown and then we had dinner in the café. The food there was positively amazing! They had some of the best curries and dhals I’ve had from a cafeteria anywhere. I think it was one of those times where they make extra good food when there are guests, but hey, I was totally down with it!

The next day we headed to the Kesanapalli church about an hour and a half away from Narsapur. We rode with Uncle William Moses in his SUV and got there around 10 when we thought Sabbath school was just finishing. Turns out it was just starting! Church ran until 3…longest church service of my life! But on a positive note all the seats in the main part of the church were full so Zach and I sat in the balcony and caught a little nap. It was a good service though and they called us up and garlanded us along with Uncle William and his wife who coincidently donated all the money to build the church. It was a nice service but I was definitely ready for lunch!

Lunch was at the estate of a church member next door. And when I say “estate” I really mean it. He had two huge houses in the middle of a coconut grove on a pretty big piece of land. This guy worked in Abu Dhabi working for a construction company. He was on leave for a few months and he was a really gracious host. It seems like there are a lot of people who work in the Middle East either drilling oil or as construction workers. Also at lunch were most of the volleyball players from Lowry Memorial College, which is the Adventist college outside Bangalore.

After lunch we headed out to the beach, which was only 10 minutes away. We didn’t do much there. Here in India going to the beach is exciting in itself so everyone basically walked around a bit and then we headed back to the estate for fresh coconut water! The owner served us all coconuts on the front porch by using his sickle to put little holes in each one for us to drink straight from the shell. It was a good way to end the Sabbath before heading back to Narsapur and the volleyball craziness that awaited us there.

We hopped in a different car going back to Narsapur since Mrs. Enjati had come from Nuzvid and met us at the church so she road with Uncle in their SUV. We made it back to Narsapur around 7 and watched the rest of the evening’s games until it was our turn to play. Now like I mentioned above, Zach and I had been placed on a team with guys who meant well but couldn’t play at all. Also, our next game was supposed to be against the best team at the tournament, Spicer College. It was going to be an absolute decimation but Zach and I were looking forward to it. Evidently the rest of our team wasn’t feeling the fun vibes because they informed us they were all quitting and we wouldn’t play our last game. We objected and argued we shouldn’t just quit but the rest of the team had made up their minds.

With that in mind Zach and I were determined to still play and so we set out finding new players among the new group of friends we had met over the last few days. Vara agreed to play with us as well as Pamu, a guy whose parents live in Nuzvid and we had met at the hospital. Pamu had a friend from Hyderabad join us also. When it was all said and done we actually had a fairly good team!

We started off against Spicer with a lot of enthusiasm but little team cohesiveness since we’d never played together before but we quickly remedied that. We barely lost the first game of the three game set but came back and actually beat Spicer in game two! It was quite fun to see the fear in their eyes at the thought losing to a team of misfits! During the second game the Spicer team began getting angry with the ref and with each other and we simply let them bring themselves down. It was a great win for us and the crowd certainly loved a good match!

Unfortunately for us, the Spicer team rallied in the last game and beat us. But for us it was still a win because we didn’t even think we were going to score 15 points per game! In the end we all were still friends with the Spicer guys and it turned out to be a great competition!

We finished the evening out with an exhibition game before heading back to our guest room. The guest room we stayed in was actually supposed to be for another bigwig who didn’t end coming to the tournament after all so we took it. It was in the same apartment that Vara was staying in so it was nice to be right next door to him. Also, an optometrist who worked in Nuzvid for 35 years stayed on the extra bed in the living room of our apartment. His name is Dr. Rani Gy and he is a pretty hilarious guy! He carries his video camera and still camera with him everywhere videoing and taking pictures constantly. He is also the nicest guy and we really enjoyed having him stay in the guest apartment with us.

The only downside to the weekend were the mosquitoes…they were awful! We actually had to put up our mosquito nets in the room with some plastic twine Dr. Rani Gy had with him. We hadn’t put them up the first night and that turned out pretty bad, but after that I slept great! Zach on the other hand didn’t tuck his net in completely and he woke up with three amigos that had enjoyed his tasty blood all night. Finally on the third night we both slept well and were mosquito free.

Sunday we slept in and still made it to the semi finals and finals since everything in India runs about an hour and a half late, except for trains buses and church services…those start on time, most of the time. Anyway, we watched Lowry Memorial College beat Spicer College and then we watched our home team from Nuzvid win the finals in their league against the Kadapa team, which ironically is where Brooke, Trevor, and Sid are teaching this year, sorry guys… The games ended with the usual jumping around and cheering and all that fun stuff but Zach and I slipped away with Mrs. Lillie Kaligithi to see the “Sweet Home” orphanage.

Sweet Home truly lives up to its name. It is everything an orphanage should be and more. As we walked down the road through the campus it was truly beautiful and you could tell the kids who were their enjoyed there “sweet” home! After we toured the entire campus and met many of the children we headed to Mrs. Kaligithi’s home for lunch. It was fantastic! All the food we’ve had at people’s houses has been amazing and I actually get excited when we get invited over because you know the food will be tasty. We ate with her and then it was time to head back to Nuzvid.

We crammed into Uncle Enjati’s SUV and set out for Nuzvid. We actually ended up catching the bus and switching over to that because Uncle had to meet someone in a nearby village. It was fun to ride back with our friends who had won the cup and for a bit the bus was pretty crazy but eventually we all fell asleep or road along listening to music or reading. We were all pretty exhausted but it was good because the weekend was amazing!

This weekend was great for so many reasons. We were able to get away from Nuzvid and see another amazing school and orphanage that has so many amazing people running it. Also the students were really fun to get to know and I would love to go back! I think we both would love to return to Narsapur and the Sweet Home Orphanage.

It was a weekend of good times!