My 21st with a DIFFERENCE!

Hey everyone :o) As most of you will know, my 21st has been something I have looked forward to and have planned since I was a little girl. . .little did I know I would be celebrating it in a saree and and in the middle of the loudest Hindu festival in India! God sure does surprise us doesn't He? I cannot express how special this day was to me and it is definately one which I will NEVER forget. God answered the desires of my heart in ways I least expected and I could not have imagined a more perfect day (except of course you all weren't there). I could not believe just how much people cared and HOW MUCH they gave - I needed a trolley to cart everything home in. These darling, sweet girls scraped together everything they had to make 'Heidi Didi's' birthday a truly memorable occasion. I was so overwhelmed I can't even begin to tell you - you just had to be here to feel it :o) I hope you can catch at least a small glimpse of the events of the day in the following photos:

Above is during the morning staff devotions where I happened to be leading the worship that day :o) Venubai (Superintendent) giving a little speech and then to my astonishment everybody STOOD to sing me Happy Birthday with all three verses. . .May God bless you & Happy long life to you etc! At the last Rev. Justin prayed a blessing over me and they presented me with flowers which was another sweet surprise :o) After this everyone expects you to give them cake - so Mum kept the candle burning and made enough for around 500 staff, women and of course the children - she did an amazing job.

 Next comes my darling special needs family! They were SO excited to receive chocolate cake and had a big surprise waiting for me here too - they had decorated our little school room with balloons and flowers gallore - wow! And of course everyone had to give a hand shake and a hug - so sweet they all were. Now everyday since then they are asking me for more cake! I suppose it's worth a try ;o)

My sweet, young co-workers Meera and Sunanda who are girls who didn't do well in school but had dedicated their lives to help these special children. They dressed up in sarees too for the occasion. I feel like Goliath in that pic!

Susan, one of my dear friends and a matron mother in one of the special families feeds me more cake - by the end of the day I didn't want to SEE any more cake :o)

                                                   Giving cake to an excited Pooja and Seema.

And next come the beautiful, caring, sweethearts - the older blind ladies. Sometimes I go and visit them to sing or have prayer with them and I couldn't believe how generous they were. They all put some of their hard earned savings together for me and gifted me with Rs. 700/- which is equal to about NZ $20. It doesn't sound like much but believe me you can buy a lot with that over here - I was so overwhelmed here - they all had tears streaming down their faces as they sung to me - I cannot explain how touching that was.

This is a lady from the Old Folks home 'Home of Joy' who presented me with a bouquet of flowers made by her and she is blind! Wow I couldn't even make that and I can SEE! So special. . .

Two of my 300 friends (!!), Vishakha and Shanti giving me a garland made out of Christmas tinsil (a little ichy!) but oh well it's the thought that counts! Girls kept giving me little surprises like this all day - so sweet :o)

As I said before, Mum made enough cake for everyone so in the afternoon we went around and gave each family some cake each. The boys and Dad were my pack horses and the families were delighted! There are 15 families in all and EACH one sung me the three verses of Happy Birthday went I went in!! Just to add some more drama to the day, while we were in the middle of handing out the cake one of those unexpected monsoon showers hit!! Man it really poured down - imagine soggy cake! So this is the last photo of us looking decent - we ended up just leaving our shoes and wading through the pools with umbrellas - it all adds to the memories :o)

Lunch time was also a very memoriable time! I walked into a beautifully decorated dining room - balloons, decorations, candles, ribbon etc everywhere! Aunty Lorraine (who I work with) is lighting the candle in this picture - she was responsible for all this and took time out of her busy schedule to do this for me - I was so blest. You can see Moushi sitting at the end of the table. She has been serving here for 52 years and is like our adopted grandmother. The kitchen staff made me my favourite Indian meal for lunch - chicken curry and puri. . .mmmmnnn.

The PARTY!!!! I had arranged with a 'village' hairdresser to CURL my hair at 5 and she said yes she could do it in two hours and had had experience. Okay so I trusted her to do what she said. . .wellll 3 hours later with matted hair I arrived at my party with all the guests already arrived 30 mins before. Arhhhh what a way to start into adulthood! Anyway I was a little disappointed but it's the inside that counts right?! And the moral of this story is - don't trust a village "hairdresser"!!!!!!

                                                                   The massive cake!

My three really good friends - Jyoti, Vandana and Chhaya. These girls are only a little older than me and they are matron mothers to about 22 girls EACH!!!!! An amazing job they do.

Our really good friends - the Dass's. Joy, Jubel, Ishwar and Sharmila. Sharmila is like my second mum and lets me borrow all her sarees since she always wanted a girl to pamper and dress up :o)

                                                No comment needed ;o) - please note the 'curls'!

Sorry I have tons more photos but no time to post them. We leave for our North India tour on Friday @ 10 am for 15 days! Am REALLY excited - Taj Mahal, Mt. Everest etc - will be the trip of a lifetime. BTW Mum and Dad gave me a white gold necklace for my birthday - it's beautiful - will put pics later. Thanks so much for praying - we still really need it!

Heidi

Hey everyone – sorry it’s been a little while since I’ve updated. . .life is moving by so fast at the moment and I’m loving every minute of the ride! We are feeling so refreshed after our wonderful 10 day holiday in the cooler climates of Bangalore and Coonoor.

Arhhhhh this is the life. . .well until about two seconds after this photo was taken then mitch and jamie swung the hammock so hard that it did a 360 and I ended up in the sand - didn't know where I was for a minute!!

 Though now coming back to Mukti we are feeling the heat more than ever! We travelled to Bangalore on the bus overnight which took 16 hours – we froze with the AC on then found at about 2 am that there were blankets above our seats! lol that was a relief! Spent the first 6 days in Bangalore with Sharon (pic below) 

(the daughter of a staff couple who we get on really well with at Mukti) her and her brother Praveen took us touring all around Bangalore to a Science and Technology Museum that was really interesting – it had everything from the intricate details of how the ball point pen was created to a life size model of the first ever built aeroplane by the Wright brothers. So full of info on everything you could ever want to know that it took us 6 hours to complete the five floors! Visited lots of people we had met at Mukti and met an NZ family upstairs from where we were staying who have been in India for 10 years translating the Bible for a small tribe in Andhra Pradesh. They have adopted a little Indian girl and have three other small children including a 6 week old baby so I enjoyed that! One day we went on an all day safari tour that was so bumpy you spent half of your time trying to stay out of the person’s seat next to you! It was great though and we saw close up – tigers (white and orange!), sleepy lions, big black bears that were so dozy from the heat, elephants with their big babies, creepy snakes, monkeys (my favourite!) that were roaming around wherever they wanted and loved to see me jump by pretending to hit me and baring their teeth at me! It was a huge place  with miles and miles of bush – it was so neat to be able to see the animals in their natural environment just going wherever they pleased. You could stay in these really neat safari huts in the jungle that were really cleverly made but slightly expensive for us! Lunch was provided for us where we ate under this African looking pagoda thing with the cool jungle breeze blowing in our faces.

The slimy, creepy snakes. . .the last one is a MASSIVE pithon - I was so glad it was in a cage and not face to face with me!

                  Elephants. . .the things in the background I mean!!!!

A cute little bear with real teddy bear looking fluffy ears that came up to our safari bus and yes my favourite the monkeys! So funny I could watch them all day :o)

These tigrs were literally about 3 meters from our bus and so sleepy looking but at the same time very majestic with their massive paws and frame.

                                The hut where we ate lunch. . .

Mum and Sharon playing air hockey in one of the malls in Bangalore and the chocolate shop - where you could eat as much of this fountain as you wanted for about NZ 50c!

Jamie and I enjoying our coffees at Barista a coffee shop kind of like Starbucks though much tastier and about a quarter of the price! :o)

Mum, Mitch and Dad in an autorickshaw (took took) - opps the poor driver looks a little sleepy! We were ride beside them in another took took - it was always fun to have races to see who would get there first :o)

After an activity packed 5 days in Bangalore, we took the bus to Coonoor which is up in the beautiful cool mountains further south near to Chennai. We travelled during the night and the road is only half sealed so once again spent most of the time trying to stay out of the person’s lap next to you! Mitch at one stage was fast asleep and we went over this HUGE bump – next thing he found himself planted on the handle of the seat next to him – lol and he had no idea where he was – the guy next to him soon put him back in his place though!

We stayed in a very old YWCA building at Coonoor where it was so cold that we needed 2 thick blankets each to keep warm at night – such a strange concept after having NO blankets for 3 months!

                                              Mitch and the tea plants

This was a beautiful place that is full of mountains covered in lush green jungle and rolling hills that are covered in tea plants. It reminded me a little of home and I was even able to take my shoes off and walk on lush green grass!! Arh such luxury! ;o)

These are a few shots of some gardens in Ooty - the bottom one is of an Elephant Leg tree. . .it really did look like one!

No comment on these bottom two - I think the poor people of Ooty were wondering what had come to town!

We rode the ‘toy’ train to Ooty and went to the annual flower show and did some shopping for home made Ooty chocolates, rosewood creations (so cheap!) and you could get your name printed on ONE piece of rice and made into a key chain – the guy was amazing how small he could write!

Shots of Ooty and the flower show. . .mitch and I enjoying pineapple and strawberry candyfloss then bottom pics are of vegetable novelties - INCREDIBLE aye! The rose one is made from a watermelon - so clever and artistic.

                        A small village girl drinking tea on a cold morning.

Then we went to Mysore about 5 hours from Coonoor and saw the Mysore palace which was INCREDIBLE!! So majestic and so well crafted. We wished we could have seen it at night as it was covered literally in thousands of light bulbs that light up at night! I have a few pics of it but we soon found out that we were meant to leave our cameras at the beginning and if we wanted pics we had to buy theirs! Whoops!

 Inside the place grounds, we had the opportunity to have elephant and camel rides! Mum, Mitch and Dad rode the poor elephant as Jamie and I already have (it cost them NZ $3 each!) (sorry I don't have any pics of the elephant ride they are all on dads camera) then Jim and I rode the hilarious looking camel – poor thing he didn’t have much going for him looks wise but it’s the inside that counts right?! :o) I gave Jamie the seat on the hump – which after the ride he was walking a little funny! This only cost us Rs. 10 each which is equal to 30c NZ!

The walkway behind the palace walls that had palm trees lining the side walk - so cool I just love them! And dad and I sick of walking but thoroughly enjoyed our day!

Jamie and Mitch bartering for some old coins and some silver bangles I bought at the palace. 

 Then it was back to Bangalore where we did a little more sight-seeing and shopping and I went to get my haircut by a Chinese lady who cut it kinda short but at least it’s a lot cooler!

Was hard to leave Sharon as her and I have become good friends and all of us get on really well together but she is hoping to come back and visit us at Mukti soon plus she is hoping to come to NZ to visit! So we are excited about that! Although it was hard to leave after such a fun, action packed 10 days, I missed Mukti a lot and it is so good to be back to home sweet home! :o)

A shot of the sunset from out roof top the first night we arrived home. . .I just love sunsets - they are like a painting in the sky from God to us and every night it is different but just as beautiful as before - they never cease to amaze me!

Hope that gives you a small peep hole into our first trip out of Maharashtra?! My next post will be full of pictures of a traditional Mukti wedding that we attended today, complete with the ‘hens night’ (dunno what they call it in Marathi!!) and everything – let me tell you they have slightly different traditions to us!! But a fun experience to be a part of! May God bless you all so much and ENJOY serving your GOD as it such a blessed privilege that we have been so mercifully and graciously given!