Lovely Goa

Our Trip to Goa

Hello all! We hope this update finds you all happy, healthy and enjoying the holiday season. We are just back from our extremely refreshing trip to Goa, where we vacationed with our dear friends Andy and Emma and their kids Erik and Mycha. Goa is located on the western coast of India on the Arabian Sea. We started out early in the morning last Saturday. Once in Goa, we drove around for quite some time looking for our hotel and finally the guys hopped into a rickshaw and we followed behind in the cars. The Vila Goesa Beach Resort on the Calangute-Baga stretch of North Goa beach is a lovely place with a pool and semi-private beach access. I say semi-private because there were plenty of people hawking a variety of local items. The following day we went on to Villa Salmona, a quaint Portuguese-style villa in Saligoa. A friend of Andy and Emma’s recommended the place and it was perfect. The drive to a very-public area of the Calangute beach Monday morning took only a few minutes. After eating fresh fruit from a vendor and playing hard in the sun, we returned to the villa for an outdoor lunch prepared by the caretaker/cook and a dip in the pool. We spent the evening relaxing and turned in early. On Tuesday we drove north about forty-five minutes to the very-private Morjim beach. It was so quiet, the only other people there were either lying in the sun or swimming in the ocean. Although it is December, it does get extremely hot in Goa so our trips to the beach were limited to mid-morning and early afternoon. We did some shopping Tuesday evening and then enjoyed a fantastic seafood dinner. We headed back to Pune early Wednesday morning. We cannot express how relaxing this trip was in the wake of what happened in Mumbai last week. Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas early with our friends from Servant’s Heart International. We arrived early to help the kids prepare for the show which included two skits and several dances. Chris played Santa again, much to our friend Preety’s delight. All-in-all, about two hundred gifts were distributed to many very happy children. It does the heart good to see such joy in such a turbulent time. We are now frantically packing for our trip to the US this weekend. We are beside ourselves with anticipation. We hope to see as many of you as possible while we are home. If we miss you, please know that we are thinking of you and wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Tidbit Pictures

India Tidbits

Greetings from across the world! Since I don’t have much in the exciting and new category, I will regale you with a few things we found interesting about attending a movie in India. Chris and I and our driver Kiran attended the new James Bonds movie last week. Instead of first-come first-serve, seats are assigned here. This means that in most cases you end up waiting in line for quite some time while people choose where they want to sit based upon availability. You also usually end up sitting next to a total stranger. While this might seem like no big deal, cell phones go off in big numbers during most movies and people generally answer and hold a conversation. Before the movie starts, a disclaimer is given that if the power fails during the first forty-five minutes of the film, a refund will be given. If the power fails more than forty-five minutes in, you are out of luck. I will now fast forward to the end of Quantum of Solace. There is a key scene at the very end with what I presume is the “punch line” for the entire movie. Coincidentally, the sound failed at that very moment and we were left in bewilderment. We are not sure, but we think James Bond lives to see another day. Early in November Chris’s department moved to a new building and he now has an office with a door and a window. What a lucky guy! The following week Anna somehow got her hair all tangled up and after an hour of tedious combing, we decided that cutting was the only option. My friend Lucinda was kind enough to fix the damage that our scissors caused. Considering that this was only the second haircut of her life, Anna did pretty well. Chris had a party with his department on Saturday the 16th at a disco tech shaped like a space ship. It was an interesting experience that included dinner, games (thus the straws in our hair) and a talent/variety show. Anna sang her heart out in front of two hundred people, making her mom and dad as proud as either has ever been. Check out the video! The following weekend we went antique shopping and purchased a neat old cabinet that needs a lot of repair work. We’ll include a picture when it is finished. On the way home, Chris spotted a man doing auto body repair on the dirty, dusty street and had to take a picture. A bit further down was the mutton shop, which I refuse to elaborate on. Yuck! That Sunday we accompanied our friends Preety and Suresh and some of the Servant’s Heart kids on a picnic for one of their birthdays. We picked up two of their girls who attend St. Andrew’s school on the way. St. Andrews is a one hundred year old boarding/day school in the Pune Cantonment area. It’s a nice place, but the classrooms looked pretty bleak to me, considering the classrooms I have had the privilege of using. The picnic was fantastic, complete with lunch and a pony cart ride. We got a kick out of the sign that we saw near the entrance. We weren’t sure what was funnier, the message or the misspelling. This week was spent making plans for our trip to Goa this weekend. We were all jolted on Thursday with the madness in Bombay/Mumbai that I’m sure most of you have heard about, but our plans to Goa remain unchanged. We will update you on that adventure next time. Until next time, please keep us and the people of India in your thoughts and prayers.

Holiday Pictures

Diwali and Halloween

Greetings once again from the India Davison’s! With the busy festival season winding down, I hope to have more time to keep you all updated on our comings and goings. Most schools are closed for a few weeks to celebrate Diwali, much like Christmas in the U.S. Like last year, I agreed to help my friends at Servant’s Heart International children’s ministry with vacation bible school. I was, however, unaware that the format this year was an overnight camping trip. Last year was two hours each day, Monday through Friday. Needless to say, I went camping, in India! After getting past my anxiety over killer mosquitoes, I had a fantastic time. The kids enjoyed bible verses, crafts, dancing, singing, skits, and swimming at a local waterfall. Chris and I decided early on that camping with the kids here is a bit too risky, so Anna and Max got to spend a weekend home alone with Dad. They made chocolate cupcakes and a mess and had a wonderful time. October 28th was Diwali and everyone had the day off, including our driver. We were sure that we would be stuck at home all day, but our friends Andy and Emma and their kids came to the rescue and we all went to brunch at a local hotel. Later that evening, Subbu, a man that works for Chris came to our flat to help us celebrate Diwali in the traditional way. He brought with him Pascal, a John Deere employee from France. Subbu and Anna lit twenty-five Diwali pots and placed them around our balcony. We then ate sweets and watched the fireworks, which are huge here and last well into the night. Friday was Halloween and we were invited to our friends the Paulson’s for pizza and treats. Anna dressed up as a ballerina and Max was a skeleton. On Saturday we had a party at our house with almost thirty guests. The kids all dressed up as did a few adults. Anna dressed up as a ballerina, a butterfly, a duck, and a skeleton. She just couldn’t decide on just one costume. Max started out as a pumpkin, but decided on the skeleton again after about three minutes. Unfortunately, our camera was set to the wrong focus and none of our pictures came out. Regardless, a good time was had by all! Next up for our family is a trip to Goa, then Thanksgiving, and then we’ll be home for Christmas. The countdown has begun! Please take care and drop us a line whenever possible.

Lots To Look At

It's Been Too Long!

I am embarrassed to say that about a month has passed since our last update. So much has happened that I hope this does not end up sounding like a jumbled mess. At any rate, here goes. Soon after our return from the U.S., the Ganapati festival occurred. Each year for Ganapati, a large number of idols are made of clay or metal in all possible sizes, from one to twenty feet tall. People buy idols of Lord Ganesh (see photo) and install them in their homes and worship the idol for one to ten days, depending on their family tradition. Afterward the idols are taken out ceremoniously through the streets of the town, like a mini parade with singing and dancing. The idols are then immersed into the river, sea or well, depending on what you have access to (see photo). Every Ganesh statue is immersed in the river and you can imagine the toll this is taking on the local water sources. The local government understands this and has made an effort to provide mini emersion tanks for the ceremony. Chris and Anna witnessed the event and did not see one family using the tanks next to the river. I suppose if people travel to the river, they feel compelled to use the river and not the tanks. The following evening Chris and I attended a Bollywood premier with some friends. The movie was titled “Saas Bahu Aur Sensex” and was about women investing in the stock market. It was similar to attending a Hollywood premier, only on a much smaller scale. We could not understand much of the film since the language was unfamiliar, but the film setting was in the city where Chris works so we could relate to the restaurants and the backdrop of the movie. We had a good time and felt a little bit like high society. A Hard Rock Café is in the process of being built here in Pune. It is about four blocks from our apartment and it has been nearly finished for almost a year. It is not yet open to the public due to an unobtainable liquor license. We got word that a concert was to be held there and we couldn’t resist. The performer was Jay Sean, a hip-hop style rapper from the U.K. As most of you probably know, this type of music is not on our list of favorites and it was loud and crowded, but the place was nice and we had a good time. We hope to go there to eat someday, if their license ever comes through. Chris had October 1st off for Id Ul Fitr, a Muslim holiday, and October 2nd off for Gandhi’s birthday. We took this rare two-day break as a vacation to the beautiful Mahabaleshwar hill station. We checked out Kate’s Point, Lodwick Point, and Elephant’s Head Point on the first day. The fresh air and the views were spectacular and a much needed respite from the city life we lead. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for a quick spin around the go-cart track. Anna and Chris had a blast driving fast while Max and I cheered them on. The following morning we spent in the pool watching Anna wear out the water-slide. She went up and down at least fifty times. We hit the race track again and a road side café/garden on the way home. It was a wonderful family vacation here in India. On Sunday, Anna attended a classmate’s birthday party at none other than Papa John’s Pizza. It was really fun watching Anna interact with the other children. She is much more outgoing with her classmates than she was last school year and it is fun to watch her in action. The following week a couple from John Deere, Rene and Deve Detloff arrived for a two-week visit. This allowed me to see a few new places while playing tour guide. The first was Shaniwarwada, which in the past served as the palace and the seat of political power. Today it serves as a cultural attraction and a facility for plays and music programs. The other new spot was a beautiful garden/park called Sarasbaug. We got caught in a late monsoon rain, but had a good time none the less. October 9th was Dussehra, which marks the Hindu New Year. It is a time when good over evil is celebrated and things start fresh. Our driver, Kiran performed an elaborate puja on our car (see photo). He removed his shoes and used lemons, a coconut, flowers, incense, and red and yellow powder to conduct this ceremony. He placed flowers on the front of the car and lemons under the wheels and then smashed a coconut in front of the car and painted the hood with the red and yellow paint. A puja ceremony is performed at dwellings and on automobiles asking for safety throughout the coming year. A puja is a religious ritual that Hindus perform on a variety of occasions to pray or show respect to the Gods. A puja also serves as a means of offering love, praise, thanks, and supplication to the Gods. Most workers perform a puja on their tools and machines during this time to show the tools and machines that they respect and appreciate what they provide. Some of the people at Chris’s work also performed pujas on their computers. Last week we discovered a putt-putt golf course near our house and Anna and Chris braved the heat for a match last Sunday (see photo). Saturday was Anna’s Diwali party at school. There were crafts, games, snacks, and a puppet show. Anna and I went while Max and Dad stayed home. Max was down with an ear infection this weekend. Diwali is actually on October 28th and I’ll write about that next time. Today we went to brunch with friends. There was really good live music and the kids loved it. Anna had a great time singing and dancing to the music. We have included a picture of the lawn mowers they sell here in India. We saw this display while shopping last weekend and could not resist the photo. The photo is only funny because these really are the tools used to cut the grass in India. There is one woman that is employed at our apartment complex to cut the grass and pick up the leaves every day and she uses tools like these to do the work. I also threw in a picture of a five legged cow that I saw while shopping on Laxmi Road. Only in India! Well, I hope I didn’t turn too many circles with this update. I will try to do better next time. Until then, take care and enjoy another video of the kids enjoying their dessert!

U. S. Fun!

Our Trip to the U.S.

Hello family and friends! As we are nearing our one year anniversary in India on October 1st, our Visas recently needed renewing. We left for the U.S. on August 13th and arrived in Chicago on Thursday the 14th, exhausted but excited. From there we drove to Moline where we met up with Grammy and Gramps. Aunt Pat and Uncle Tom joined us for the weekend and we celebrated Aunt Pat’s birthday with pizza and cake at our hotel. Our stay in Moline lasted almost two weeks and was filled with playing, shopping, swimming, visiting friends, and letting Grammy and Gramps soak up as much of the kids as possible. We especially had fun going to a carnival, the park, the zoo and the Painted Penguin. Shortly before returning to India, Chris was able to drive to Nebraska with his friend Rob via borrowed motorcycle (Thanks Pastor Jerry!) to see the farm we purchased back in January. It was killing him that he hadn’t been able to see it in person. As a bonus, Chris’s brother Spencer met him in Omaha. He had the time of his life on the twelve hour ride and his overwhelming desire to see our farm was satisfied, for the time being. Our stay in the Quad Cities was completely relaxing until Grammy and Gramps left for Arizona and Chris left for India. At that point, the kids and I descended on our friends, the Longs, for another few days. Anna and Max had a blast catching up with Payton, Sheridan, and the rest of the Winding Creek gang. On Friday the 29th we headed to Michigan to visit my family. The next week and a half was spent visiting family and friends we haven’t seen in a while. During the days we played with Grandma Sally and the triplets she watches. A boat ride, swimming, and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s were among the highlights. Most evenings were spent visiting at my Dad’s. Anna and Max couldn’t get enough of Grandpa Richard and Grandma Joni’s hot tub, trampoline, and tree house. Other things we enjoyed in Michigan were Mema and Papa’s tractor show, a football game at my high school alma mater, Max’s first hair cut, and dinner with Aunt Angela and Emma. Mom drove us to the airport on Wednesday the 10th and we arrived in Mumbai at midnight on the 12th. The kids and I spent the night in Mumbai before heading to Pune the next morning. We arrived late in the afternoon and soaked up some much needed time with Daddy. After being back for a week, the kids are finally back to normal sleep schedules, thank goodness! We are now looking forward to our Halloween party, Thanksgiving, then Christmas when we will head back to the U.S. We hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you. Take care!

Delhi and Agra

Grandma Sally's Visit

I will start with an apology for taking so long between updates. Since we’ve been in the U.S. for almost three weeks, it’s about time I wrote about Grandma Sally’s visit to India. As I said in my last update, she and Chris met up in Frankfurt and travelled together to Mumbai. They arrived in Pune on July 28th and the fun began. While Anna was at school and Max was upstairs playing with Kai, Mom and I spent our days doing a lot of local shopping. We bought groceries at Dorabjee’s and at Shivaji market, souvenirs at Clover Center, and clothes on Laxmi Road. By the time it was time to pick up Anna each day, we were beat! Evenings were spent at home playing with the kids. Mom and I left the kids with Chris on Friday, August 1st and headed to Delhi. We arrived late afternoon and took a nice sight-seeing trip with a very helpful driver. Among our favorite stops were the parliament buildings, the president’s home, the India Gate, Humayun’s and Isa Khan’s Tomb, and the Lotus Temple. After an obligatory stop at a handicraft store, we had a quiet dinner at our hotel and left early Saturday morning for Agra. I can only describe the four hour drive as a white knuckle experience. The starting and stopping, the quick lane changes, and the wait at the border were almost too much. By the time we arrived at our hotel, we were glad that there were only two stops on the day’s agenda. We set out with a tour guide for the Taj Mahal. Words cannot describe the overwhelming beauty of this structure. Built by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his late wife, the Taj Mahal took 20,000 workers seventeen years to complete at an estimated cost of one million dollars. Although this might not sound like much, remember it was built in the 1600s. Our next stop was at the Agra Fort which operates mainly as a military institution. The twenty-five percent that is open to tourists consists of the historic home of the Taj Mahal creator and several generations of his family. Surrounded by a moat to keep attackers at bay, the fort offers a stunning view of the Taj Mahal and the surrounding area. Our final stops of the day consisted of souvenir shopping and a quiet dinner at our hotel. The return trip to Delhi the next day was even more nerve racking than the previous day, cutting an hour off the total drive time. We arrived back in Pune late Sunday afternoon and visited with Chris and the kids. Monday was spent touring Sangam, one of the four world centers for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. This was lots of fun as my family has always been active in scouting. Tuesday was spent running around getting things ready for Mom’s trip home. She and I left Tuesday afternoon and spent the night in Mumbai before she left around 10:00am on Wednesday. Overall, she had a great time. She was amazed by the traffic, which she adequately described as four lanes of traffic heading down a two lane road. She also really enjoyed seeing how Indian people live and work. We were sad to see her go, but we were grateful for the opportunity to share this chapter of our lives. We hope that my Mom’s visit will encourage you to come for a visit if the opportunity presents itself. We have plenty of room and our doors are always open. Until next time, take care!

Various Photos

A Busy Time

Hello again family and friends! After recovering from our whirlwind trip to Australia, we hit the ground running in July. We celebrated Independence Day (USA) with sparklers, flower cones and a few really big fireworks that we never could have scored in the US. After battling some slight wind, we all had a great time. That same weekend we created a one-of-a-kind fort/playhouse for Anna in her bathroom shower. I know this sounds a bit odd, but the playhouse she wanted sells for about $1,000 here in India. We covered the three doors with pink and white flowered fabric, cut a rug to fit, and decorated the inside with Anna’s artwork. Now she has a place all of her own and she loves it. We celebrated our driver Kiran’s birthday on the 9th with a chocolate cake and singing. On the 11th we attended the traditional Indian wedding of one of Chris’s employees. Wow, what an event! This was a grand-scale event that rivaled anything I ever saw at Leawood Country Club. The wedding hall was beautifully decorated and the food was plentiful and varied. They had everything from traditional Indian food to pizza, roasted corn, and ice cream. Anna made several new friends and Max spent the evening wooing the ladies. The following evening, Chris and I went to dinner and a movie to celebrate his birthday, which was on Sunday. After letting the birthday boy sleep in on Sunday morning, we all went to the German Bakery for a late breakfast then did some shopping. Monday we saw Chris off to Hyderabad for a two-day conference. He will return Wednesday night only to leave again Sunday for a week in France and Germany. Fortunately, Chris was able to coordinate his travel plans with my mom’s arrival. They will meet up in Frankfurt and will travel back to Mumbai together. My mom will be here until August 6th and we’ve got a lot planned during her visit. On our agenda are the Taj Mahal and the Sangam World Centre for Girl Scouts, among other things. We are all eagerly awaiting her arrival. Shortly after my mom’s departure we will leave for the US for a few weeks. Chris has some meetings and we are anxious to catch up with our friends and family. We will all be in the Quad City area for a few weeks and then the kids and I will head to Michigan for the remainder of the trip. During all of this craziness, Anna continues to do well in school and is growing emotionally and socially every day. Max is getting big; most of you won’t recognize him. He is a talker, although most of the time we don’t know what he’s saying. Maybe it’s Hindi. Well, I’d better sign off for now. Please take care and keep us in your prayers.

Australia Pictures

Our Trip Down Under

After a late start in Mumbai and a quick stop in Sydney, we arrived in Brisbane late Saturday night. Our friends, the Perry’s are just finishing up a one-year assignment in Australia. Early the next morning we all flew to Hamilton Island for a four-day trip to the Whitsundays. We stayed at Daydream Island Resort & Spa, one of the islands located in the Whitsundays. It was a beautiful place with an incredible living coral reef aquarium full of tropical fish, live coral species, sharks, sting rays, anemones, sea cucumbers and star fish. We were able to watch the barramundi and shark feedings after breakfast each day. We also enjoyed several of the lagoon style pools, hiking through the rainforest, and the outdoor movie screen that the island had to offer. The highlight of our trip was taking a day-long cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. As such a trip is not very kid-friendly, we booked the kids into the Skipper Club for the day, which they loved. We adults travelled to Knuckle Reef via the Seaflight, operated by Cruise Whitsundays. On our way to the reef we were fortunate to get a quick glimpse of a humpback whale migrating north. Once we docked at the reef, we all went snorkeling. It was fun, but we decided that the views might be better if we tried scuba diving. This was a new experience to us all and it was incredible! It took a while to get used to breathing under water without panicking, but we managed and had a great time. Bryan, Shawna, and I enjoyed our first dive so much that we decided to go for a second dive later in the afternoon. Chris was suffering from an ear infection again and chose to sit the second dive out. We went further down on the second dive and were able to gently touch a few parts of the reef. It was an experience none of us will ever forget. We returned to Brisbane on Wednesday, caught our breath and then headed to Byron Bay on Friday. We stayed at Sandcastles Resort where lorikeets come to the patios each morning to eat. We saw seven at one point. Friday we checked out Surfer’s Paradise, a beautiful beach area. The guys took a jet boat ride while Shawna and I took the kids on an Adventure Duck ride. Adventure Duck is this bus/boat thing that the kids each got to drive. Very fun! The following day we went to Minyon Falls then hiked to the eastern most point of Australia. After a long walk up many, many steps we came to a stunning lighthouse. The views were spectacular. Sunday was Father’s Day and we went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. It was great fun. Anna got her picture taken with a koala bear and the sanctuary asked if they could use her picture in their new advertising display. We were so proud. It was the perfect Father’s Day gift for Chris. We also got to feed emus, kangaroos, and wallabies. The kids enjoyed the train ride and the playground before we left. On Monday we rode the City Cat into Brisbane for souvenir shopping and spent the afternoon playing in a really cool tree. The City Cat is like a bus system only it uses large catamarans on the river that runs through downtown Brisbane. Check out the pictures. Our last day in Australia was spent hiking the rainforest to Springbrook Falls. It was really beautiful and great exercise. Later that night Shawna and I went to dinner and a show. We left early the next morning and made it back home around 11:00pm. It was exhausting, but we had the time of our lives and are so thankful to Bryan, Shawna, Evan, and Kaden for providing us with this experience. Until next time, take care!

Bricks and Jaggery

A Sunday Afternoon

This past Sunday we were invited by our friends from Servant’s Heart International, Suresh and Preety, to take a drive to see some land they are looking to buy for their ministry. We started out around noon and stopped along the way for lunch. The restaurant we chose is frequented by Punjabi drivers who take their meals sitting on cots. So there were literally beds in the open-air establishment. This proved beneficial for us as Max was napping when we arrived. Our waiter pulled a bed up right next to our table. The lunch was delicious and Anna was enthralled with the tiny kitten that apparently lives at the restaurant. Once we were back on the road, Chris noticed several places where bricks were being made. His curiosity was rewarded and this is his account of his experience. The bricks are made using a mixture of water sifted clay/red dirt and straw. It is mixed in a tub on the ground that is made out of clay. The mixture is then packed into molds that have replaceable numbers so they know what batch they made and how long they need to wait for them to dry and bake. Once molded, the bricks are laid out in the sun to dry. Once dry they are stacked very neatly in rows. Every few rows they pack in charcoal and some straw. The bottom has skip rows that only have charcoal in them so the wind can blow the air into the middle and provide oxygen to the fire. They stack the bricks using this method into a very large stack that has chambers of charcoal throughout. They seal the outside with mud so the heat stays in, then they do a ritual for the gods before they light fire to the mound and bake it for at least eight days. The stacks are a true work of art with rows and rows of straw and charcoal labyrinths. There are hours and hours of work in each stack. If the process is not done correctly and the fire gets too hot, the bricks will literally melt. If it is not hot enough, the bricks do not cure and you essentially have dirt bricks that crumble when moved. It is an amazing skill that requires very hard work and patience. They sell each large brick for 5 rupees, or about 12¢. They were very happy to show us how it was done and they were very excited to have their pictures taken. They did not speak English, so I was glad to have Suresh as a translator. After they explained the entire process there was a moment of silence; it was then that I realized it was my turn to tell them how we make bricks in the US. I did not have a clue and I felt bad, so I offered to purchase a brick as a souvenir. They spent about five minutes searching for the perfect brick and found two of them so I took them both and they insisted I take them without paying. After looking at three parcels of land, we stopped at a place where jaggery was being made. Jaggery is a traditional unrefined sugar made by condensing sugarcane juice into a brown paste. The process is extremely hot and quite dangerous, but the samples we had were delicious. Our last stop of the day was at the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission. This mission provides Christ centered homes where destitute women and children are accepted, cared for, transformed and empowered, irrespective of their background. It is truly amazing to see people give so much of themselves for others. On our way home we passed a family of five on a motorcycle, which is not uncommon here in India. We thought you might enjoy the picture. The day was long, but enjoyable even with the heat. We are now making plans for our Australia trip next week. Keep us in your prayers and we’ll share that experience when we return. Take care!

Vacation Pictures

Our Trip East

May 1st was Maharashtra Day, the day in 1960 when the state we live in obtained statehood. Chris had a rare day off and this allowed us to travel east to visit Chris’s friend Ramanan whom he met at a class late last year. We flew from Pune to Chennai on Wednesday afternoon and drove about thirty-five miles south to Mamallapuram where our friend’s family owns the Mamalla Beach Resort. It’s a nice place on the Bay of Bengal. We checked in and had a delicious dinner before retiring for the night. The next morning we had breakfast and went for a swim in the pool. After lunch we headed out for some very hot (108°F) sightseeing. Our first stop was the Crocodile Bank where about 5,000 crocodiles are kept in their natural surroundings in open pools. We also saw many turtles and a really interesting iguana. From there we went to the Five Rathas, which are monolith, Indian rock-cut structures dating from the late seventh century. Each shrine was carved from a single large piece of stone, pretty amazing. The next stop was Arjuna’s Penance, an open air bas-relief measuring ninety-six feet long by forty-three feet high. We also saw Krishna’s Butterball, a giant natural rock perched on a hillside. It may sound like a strange thing to check out while sightseeing, but it was Anna’s favorite thing after the Crocodile Bank. There was a smooth area under the rock that allowed kids to slide down. It was great fun! The following day we headed south to the former French colony of Pondicherry. On the way we stopped at Auroville, an experimental township whose stated purpose is to realize human unity in diversity. It was a lovely place that Chris described as the closest thing to a commune that he’s ever seen. Later that evening, we checked out a famous temple that had a huge elephant hanging around outside. Anna was quite taken with the elephant and actually sat on it for a few minutes. While in Pondicherry we stayed at the Dumas Guest House which is located about one hundred yards from the beach. It had cozy rooms and an open air balcony on the top floor. Chris could have spent our entire stay up on the balcony. The morning we left Chris and Anna went for a ride in an actual rickshaw, not like the auto rickshaws we have here in Pune. This one was powered by a very small Indian man on a bicycle. It was truly a sight to behold. We also visited the Sri Aburobindo Ashram, an institution that provides charitable benefits to the area, including free medical facilities. We spent our last day of the trip back at our friend’s resort searching for seashells and being knocked around by the large ocean waves. We returned to Pune Sunday afternoon and spent the remainder of the day resting up for the coming week. Please check out the pictures, it really was a beautiful trip. We had a small celebration for my birthday yesterday and Chris and I actually managed a night out. Our next big event is our trip to Australia in June. Keep your eyes open for more details. Take care and we hope to hear from you all soon!

Fun Pictures

Not Much Going On

Hello all! We hope this update finds you all healthy and enjoying the long awaited spring. It has been hot, hot, hot here in Pune and will be for some time to come. I am sad to have to admit that we have nothing exciting to report at this time, but we do have a few things coming up. Chris returned from Germany on April 5th and is currently in Mahabaleshwar attending a three-day program on entrepreneurial leadership. Mahabaleshwar is a popular tourist hill station that is about a two and a half hour drive from Pune. On April 30th we all leave for Chennai (formerly Madras) for four days. Chennai is located on the south-eastern coast of India on the Bay of Bengal. Chris has a friend that owns a hotel there, which has air conditioning and a pool. We are really looking forward to this getaway trip. Anna will start school again in June and shortly thereafter we are going to Australia to visit our good friends from Moline, Bryan and Shawna Perry and their boys Evan and Kaden. We will be there from June 6th to June 18th and so far our itinerary includes a trip to the Whitsundays (Hamilton Island) for snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. We are beside ourselves with anticipation. My mom is coming to India the end of July for almost two weeks. I hope to take her to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The rest of her trip will be spent spoiling the kids and exploring Pune. We can’t wait! The slide show includes a few pictures of the Aga Kahn Palace here in Pune. This is where Gandhi and his wife Kasturba were imprisoned during the Quit India movement, from August 1942 to May 1944. It is a really nice memorial to Gandhi and his life. Anna and I visited Empress Garden a few weeks ago. It’s a decent botanical garden with some playground equipment and a nice place to splash in the water. The kids in the photo were having such a great time. Max has become quite a good eater lately and I’m having visions of him as a teenager eating us out of house and home! Well, that’s about all I have this time. Please stay tuned for information about our upcoming trips. Until next time, take care and we hope to hear from you soon. Much Love!

Holiday Celebrations

Back in India

Greetings once again from India! After a very long trip, the kids and I made it back to Pune on March 12th. It took about a week to get back on schedule and things have returned to what we call normal here. Easter weekend was busy with various holiday celebrations. The Muslims celebrated Prophet Mohammed’s birthday on Friday and the Hindus celebrated Holi on Saturday. Holi is a celebration of spring in which Hindu people spray each with colored powders and water. It was a lot of fun seeing people covered from head to toe in bright colors. We played Holi with our friends Jeff, Jena, and Kai. Of course Anna loves any opportunity to cover her brother in something messy. Our Easter celebration was great fun. The Easter bunny hid eggs on our balcony and Anna helped Max during the hunt. We attended a service at St. Xavier’s Church. It was in English, but still a bit difficult to follow. Later we had friends over for dinner. Chris made a fantastic beef stew with some of our canned beef. The following Wednesday Chris left for a ten day stay in Germany. Such long trips are difficult, especially over the weekends. The kids and I spent Saturday swimming with friends, which was nice. Anna is in her last week of school before summer vacation. She gets her first report card this Friday! She will attend a week of summer camp and then we are on our own for the rest of April and May. I am searching for activities that can be done in extreme temperatures. It has been near 100° most every day since our return. Max continues to amaze us with his good disposition and intelligence. He can say quite a few words, his newest are bye-bye and uh-oh. He is also adventurous and loves to climb. There is never a dull moment here! Chris had twenty new people start in his department on March 10th, so he’s been quite busy with that. I am planning to help our friends at Servant’s Heart during the summer vacation. The kids there crave the English language, so I’m hoping to incorporate that into our activities. I have attached a few pictures that Chris took of the area around our flat. This is truly what we see around us every day. Well, we hope you enjoy hearing from us as much as we enjoy hearing from you. Please call or write when you can. Take care!

Our Trip to Phoenix

Rest and Relaxation

Greetings from Phoenix! Our trip was long, but well worth the effort. After a four hour ride to the airport, sixteen hours in the air, and five hours at London’s Heathrow Airport, we arrived in Phoenix exhausted but elated. Not surprisingly, our first stop on the way to our rental house was for hamburgers. Our first week here was a flurry of visitors, including my mom, Chris’s brother and grandpa, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. We celebrated Chris’s grandma’s ninety-first birthday with a lotus flower candle from India. They are a bit frightening, but a lot of fun. Chris spent the second week here in John Deere meetings while the kids and I rested and spent time with Gramps and Grammy. Chris and I squeezed in a date night at the end of his conference, which was great fun. We took Anna and Max to a local fair before Chris headed back to India on the 24th. His trip was uneventful and he made it back safely. Our third week here was spent going to the dentist, the doctor, and the photographer. Sadly we are into our fourth and final week here in Phoenix, but we are making the most of every minute. Anna and Grammy went to the Arizona Museum for Youth today while Max and I did some shopping. Tomorrow we are having a belated birthday pizza-party for the kids and we are having a girls’ tea on Friday. It will be so hard to say goodbye on Monday, but Daddy is waiting in India, so that should make the long trip bearable. We do have a nine hour layover in London, so keep us in your prayers! We would like to thank everyone who came to visit us in Phoenix and send our regrets to those who could not make it. We missed you! Our upcoming plans include a trip to Germany for Chris the first week in April and hopefully a trip to see our friends, the Perry’s, in Australia in June. Our next trip home will probably be this Christmas, which seems like a terribly long time from now. I will post new information once we return to India. Until then, take care and know that we are thinking of you.

Birthday Fun

Max's Birthday

Namaste family and friends! Last week we celebrated Max’s first birthday. Check out the video! Wow, were did the time go? Since the big day fell on a Tuesday, we had a small celebration here with our family and our friend Jena and her son Kai. There were lots of presents and a blue cake with green M&Ms and Easter sprinkles. Here in India, you do what you can with minimal decorations. Max now has five teeth and chooses to walk rather than crawl. With the hard tile floors here, his knees are thankful for the time off. He’s also starting to solve problems on his own. Check out the picture where he is standing on the toy drum to reach the top shelf of the bookcase. For Max, nothing is unreachable now! We spent Republic Day, January 26th, with our friends Suresh and Preety from the Servant’s Heart ministry. We drove forever to a lovely picnic spot and had delicious barbeque chicken, dal, rice, and chapatti. A great time was had by all! Our group of friends from England is growing and we now participate in a weekly play group and sporadic weekend family activities. Anna has her first parent-teacher conferences this Friday. I’m sure the report will be glowing. There is a John Deere family day this Saturday which we know nothing about yet, but I’m sure it will be spectacular. Most excitingly, we have been counting the days until our first R&R trip, which is now only five days away. We all leave for Phoenix this Monday at 2:40am. We have a five hour layover in London and then fly directly to Phoenix. The kids and I will stay with Grammy and Gramps in a rental house for four weeks and Chris will stay for two, including five days of conference. He will spend one week in Moline before heading back to India. We are so excited to see everyone! I am not too excited about flying back with the kids by myself, but we’ll make it. Thanks again to those of you who keep in touch via email, snail mail, or telephone. All correspondence is cherished. Until next time, take care and we’ll see some of you very soon! Love to You!

Diveagar & The Circus

Our Trip to Diveagar

Last weekend, Chris took us and his team to a place called Diveagar for teambuilding activities. The TIAC team left at 8:00am on a bus and we left in our car around 10:00am. After a very long, windy ride, we arrived around 2:30pm. Upon arrival, I felt very queasy and thought it was car sickness. We checked into our room and had a bit of lunch. We then walked about three blocks to the beach on the Arabian Sea. It was a beautiful beach and the water was nice and warm. It didn’t take Anna and Max long to get wet. Anna scouted for shells while Max crawled/plowed through the water. We decided to head back to our room to change into bathing suits. Just after we entered the gate, my “car sickness” got the better of me. I will not gross you out with details, but I spent the rest of the afternoon and all night in a very sick condition. Chris took the kids back to the beach and they had a great time. We did manage to get some great pictures and we visited a Ganesh temple on Sunday afternoon before we left. Several years ago a Ganesh idol made of pure gold was discovered in one of the supari baghs (gardens) in the village, making it a bit of a tourist attraction. Max went to the doctor for the second time in a week on Monday for a cough that he cannot seem to kick. Anna and I went to a circus on Tuesday, which was a first for both of us. It was two and a half hours of acrobats, animals, ice skaters, and numerous other sights. Chris and I also celebrated our eighth anniversary on Tuesday with dinner out. We attended a John Deere party on Saturday and went to the pool near our flat on Sunday. While it seems that we a constantly busy here, life is pretty routine now that we are all settled in. Today was Max’s first birthday. We cannot believe that the big guy is one already! Time sure flies when you are moving half way across the world. Since the pictures and video are not yet downloaded, I will save the party details for the next update. Please take care and feel free to drop us a line or give us a call. Until next time!

Birthday Pictures

Anna's Birthday & Max's Milestone

Greetings once again from India! Chris’s TIAC team made it to the finals in the John Deere cricket tournament and their game happened to be on December 29th, Anna’s fourth birthday. We went to watch and Anna told everyone who would listen that it was her birthday. After the TIAC team beat out the IT team, they secretly went out and bought Anna a cake and sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It was really sweet and unexpected. When we returned home, our driver Kiran gave Anna a beautiful blue party dress which she absolutely adored. We had her “Dora the Explorer” party on Sunday with about eight kids and their parents. We had Papa John’s pizza and it was fantastic. The party was really fun and of course, there were too many gifts. It took a while for all of the Christmas and birthday excitement to subside, but life is slowly getting back to normal. We didn’t do much of anything for New Year’s, since Chris had to work on New Year’s Day. School resumed for Anna on January 3rd and she seems to be enjoying it. She has a friend Zoya that she speaks of often, but I think she’s in another the other class. Max’s big news is that he now has four teeth and is a full-fledged walker! Please check out the short video at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csh4Ow7eMtA. Although it is hard for us to see, his grandparents think he is huge compared to when we left. We are planning our first trip to the U.S. in February. Chris has a conference in Phoenix and Anna, Max, and I are spending a month there with Gramps and Grammy. Grandma Sally is coming for a week, as are numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. We cannot express how excited we are. We are also looking forward to our eighth anniversary on January 15th and Max’s first birthday is on January 22nd. Never a dull moment! Well, until next time, please continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers and remember that you are always in ours. Take Care!