Salem... Not the One in Oregon.

குட் மோர்னிங் ... apparently 'good morning' in Tamil, which we recently discovered has over 250 letters in its alphabet. It's proving slightly more difficult to learn then Spanish, French, or Swahili.

On Wednesday we found Matilda's white face in a sea of dark ones at Chennai's central station; SO good to be around her again. Thursday we took the train 5 hours southwest to ICMC in Salem. We're staying in a huge 6-story cement building with amazing views, smells, and sounds from every direction. ICMC, run by former orphan Dr. Jay, cares for over 1500 orphans; 200 of them live across the street in 2 girls and boys hostels, and the remaining are an hour away at "Promised Land" in the foothills of the Yercaud mountains. We went out last night for a visit and were greeted by 1300 kids, all lined up in the courtyard, sitting cross-legged, clapping for us. It was insane.

Here at the base in town, we are mostly on our own so we've been walking around town getting stared at, playing games with the kids nearby, and visiting the elementary school.

Some pictures to save me a couple thousand words..

Matilda buying bananas.

Note the ravanous monkeys overhead.

Meat on the street.

After studying this for 5 minutes,

we still have no idea what it is. Dog..?

For Isaac and Leah: the local ice cream shop.

Their motto is "Each is one type ya!"

Anyone want a local STD?? (phone shop)

The drains running down each side of the street.

Who knows what horrific bacteria lurks in these murky waters..

For Maren: the enormous base dog, Brownie.

The boys hostel across the street.

Matilda, Nat, and some of the Promised Land kids.

The PL kitchen, where they cook for 1,300 kids..

The rice fields at PL during sunset.

Madras/Chennai.

Some pictures of our 3 days in Chennai:










High-rises next to ruins.










I think this shot speaks for itself..










Nat & I on the Indian Ocean.
A month ago I was on the other side of it..

Yes, the sun in India really is orange.


Anyone for some prowns? Maybe a bread omlet?

Children's masks at the beach.

Near our hotel.

From a rooftop.

Mothballs.

That is what it smells like here. The scent of them is so pungent in our hotel room, Nat and I woke up this morning with mothball breath. That's a first...

As we walked through security at Sea-Tac on Sunday, a guard looked at us, checked our boarding passes and said 'Backpacking in Paris, hey?" (Our first stop was Paris.) I said "No, India" to which he responded ever-so-sweetly: "India?! Ouch. Have fun with THAT. Don't stay in any big hotels!" Some people need sensitivity training.

Our two 10-hour flights were bum-numbing but bearable, thanks to flying Air France and thus feeling like we were in Paris the whole time. With Nat's Euro look and my basic French vocabulary, I think most of the flight attendents actually thought we were French... YES. Merci beacoup.

After an hour at immigration in the Chennai airport, we found Tami in the mob of taxi drivers outside, and she very sweetly got us to our hotel by 3am. We are wandering around the streets near our hotel now, waiting until she gets off work to explore the 'real Chennai'. Tomorrow my friend Matilda arrives here via train (yay!) and the next day we all take off for this place -- www.icmcindia.org -- also via train. Stoked!

People honk their horns here SO much.

Over and out!

Here Goes Nothing!

Those are my general feelings after being told numerous times how inexplicably crowded and dirty India is, and how we will inevitably spend the majority of our visit suffering the effects of severe food poisoning from one bodily orifice or the other.

That said, Natalie and I are still somehow quite enthusiastic about leaving. Having been home from Africa for 3 weeks, I'm ready to get back into a simpler, dustier, warmer culture again. Also, spending a mere 24 hours on Air France planes to get to the other side of the world feels like a small price to pay after nearly 40 hours trying to return from Kenya.

We fly into Chennai, where we meet up with my dear Aussie/Finnish friend Matilda, and hope to travel on to Salem, Bangalore, Goa, Pune, Hyderabad, and Pondicherry within the month.

We have at least one contact and a potential volunteer opportunity in each city.

More from the other side of the world!

Last Days.

Nothing like being home for Christmas when you were a 2-minute gate sprint away from spending the holiday in the Minneapolis airport (nothing against Minneapolis). It is mostly good and a little weird to be home.


The last few days in Kitale..


Beautiful faces at Oasis school..


Eating sugar cane with the ladies..

Goofing off with the the Nema girls..

With Nema's latest addition, Loise, who is

lovely and thriving!

Baby Dan & Patrick dancing and singing..

Snuggling with Stell & Linda.

For obvious reasons, the departure was difficult.