Month 4: Hyderabad, India (city)
Dates: December 5, 2015 – January 2, 2016
Team: Liora
Local Currency: Rupee 66 rupees = $1
Local Language: Telugu
Ministry Partner: Sarah’s Covenant Homes
Ministry Partner Contacts: KayLynn
What ministry looked like: SCH is foster care for children with disabilities who have been abandoned by their parents. In the mornings, Ashley and I helped in KayLynn’s preschool class. We had about 11 children ages 2-5, and they were ADORABLE. Other members of my team helped in other classes. In the afternoons, we were paired up with kids for one-on-ones. We worked with the same kids for our one-on-ones each day. I had two little girls. One was a five-year-old with cerebral palsy. She had no way to communicate. I would hold her, rock her, read to her, and sing to her. The other was a high-energy 2-year-old. She had been born with her intestines on the outside, but surgery had fixed the problem and now she was like any other 2-year-old. We played with ALL the things, but her favorite thing to do was play in shaving cream!
Living situation: The five of us, plus our squad leader Megan, were in one room in Joy House. We had four beds. Hannah slept on the windowsill and Megan slept on her sleeping pad. We had our own bathroom with a Western toilet and a shower. This was the first place for me that had warm showers. We had access to the kitchen where we could cook our own food. We also had Wifi in the house, another first.
Joy House with Christmas lights
(from Jennifer Tillett)
Adventures: We helped take a group of the kids to a Christmas Carnival. They had crafts, a Christmas tree, a Santa, and even horseback rides! I also went to Shilparamam, a giant craft market, three times, bought a saree, went to Inorbit Mall, and shopped for kurtas.
One word to sum up this month: Kindness
Read more:
India – Sarah’s Covenant Homes
Tears and Fears and Fears of Tears
Month 5: Nepal (Kathmandu, Sunkhani, Urlabari, Dungedunge)
Dates: January 3, 2016 – January 31, 2016
Team: Machaceh (Kris and James Fraser, Alex Gwidt, Shannon Connolley, Jocelyn Medina, Dylan Ledford). We also dubbed this month “Squad.5” because we had three teams working together with the same host for the majority of the month.
Local Currency: Rupee 100 rupees = $1
Local Language: Nepali
Ministry Partner Contacts: Reuben Rai, Alisha Pradhan
What ministry looked like: Ministry this month took place at three different locations. For the first part of the month, Machaceh stayed in a very small village way up in the mountains called Sunkhani. We spent time with our host, Alisha, and her family. In the evenings, we went to house fellowships and worshipped with other believers. We helped with the youth group, including a campfire night. We also got to witness the distribution of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. For the second part of the month, we helped construct an orphanage in the town of Urlabari and a school in Dungedunge, another very small mountain village.
Living situation: In Sunkhani, we stayed in a one-room church. We set up our tents inside the church. It was unheated and got very cold at night. Our bathroom was a squatty outhouse. Alisha and her family cooked our meals, which usually consisted of a rice dish called dhal bhat, a bit of chicken, tomatoes & cucumbers, sometimes potatoes, and always tea! In Urlabari, all the girls on the 3 teams slept in a room together on our sleeping pads in the under-construction orphanage. The boys had a room and our married couple had a room. We had two indoor squatty potties and one shower (but nobody really liked to shower because it was so cold.) In Reuben’s village where we were building the school, we tented. We had a squatty outhouse. We also stayed at Reuben’s home in Kathmandu in between travel days. It was a nice home, but unheated, so we wore our warmest clothes and cuddled in sleeping bags.
Dhal bhat, chicken, fries, and veggies
Adventures: This entire month was an adventure! We had a long hike to Reuben’s village up the mountain wearing our packs, and a long hike back, trekking through 12 different river crossings.
Me in front of the Kathmandu valley (before paragliding)
One word to sum up this month: Glory
Read more:
The Day I Crashed into a Tree While Paragliding in Nepal
