The facts: It takes approximately 24 hours to travel from NYC to India. If you are an American you will stick out in India. There are approximately 8.3 billion mosquitos in India. The only deterrant for the 8.3 billion mosquitos is 100% deet bug spray. Okay…so I may have made a couple of those up…but the first three are legit!!! My first week in India was spent in a convent; which was actually quite fabulous. We were fed three times a day, had our own individual beds (which did not require a sleeping pad or even sleeping bag) and had delighfully cold showers at our expense. What more could a world Racer ask for?! Our entire squad spent about 4 days in the convent, during which time we entertained ourselves by playing frogger in traffic. ***Note that it is not at all normal to RUN across the lanes of traffic. This only attracts more attention from the locals*** As a team we explored Hydrabad and learned that it is indeed possible to fit six people in an “auto”. (For those of you who have been to India, you know how impressive an accomplishment this is!) We took an overnight bus to the city of Ongole, which is located in the Southern part of the state of Andhra Pradesh, where we will be doing our ministry for the month. Ministry will be very diverse this month as we have the opportunity to not only work with 83 special needs orphans, but we could be going out to villages to evangelize, helping with construction projects, multimedia projects, and other adventurous errands and outreaches. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support to get me to launch! Everything is still very much setting in at this point, but as we begin ministry I cannot stress enough how I need your continued prayers and support. Be in prayer for the people of India more than anything..it is evident that there is much oppression here. If you would still like to support me financially, I have a long way to go and would welcome your support. I have about $8500 yet to raise. By March I need to have reached $10,000 (which is about $4,000 more than I currently have). I must be fully funded ($14,300) by June/July.
It takes 48+ hours to recover from the jetlag from travelling from NYC to India.
Picture a 6sf box on top of a lawn mower engine you will have a pretty accurate image! I’ve already decided I that love the crazy driving as long as I don’t have to actually drive myself, and the food has been a total adventure as well!
Keep checking in for more stories, pictures, praises and prayers!
