Email to Herd, my Indian friends.

Hello Herdies!!!!!

I realized it’s been a while since I sent out an update and a lot has happened!!!!

Trisha’s aur Rahul ki Shaddi:
I took two trains and a rickshaw to their town this past week and had a wonderful time with Trisha and Rahul at their wedding! A few memories:
* Dancing at the sangeet (“koi ee ka hai”- what does that mean?)
* The entire Kesar family coming in to wake Trisha, her sister and me up, the morning of the wedding
* Eating wonderful paneer dishes at each event
* Dancing at the bajhun (spelling?)
* Watching Trisha and Rahul eat ludoo after ludoo
* Dancing with Trish and Rahul
* Sitting with Trisha while she got her makeup and hair done
* Wearing a sari one night, and a lengha the next- dancing in both!
* Watching Rahul ride a horse!
* Dancing at the wedding with Rahul’s family
* Staying up ALL night for the shadi ceremony
* Crying as they left- tears of joy because they are now married, tears of sorrow realizing I won’t see them again for a while….
* Talking in my broken Hindi with Trisha’s family as they tried to get me to stay another day
*Oh yeah, did I mention dancing yet?

Life Here
My life here is going well- we’ve started learning the language that we’ll be working in- Kahani. We are going to move to a village in January most likely. Where we are right now isn’t much different from the village in that last week we didn’t have water for 5 days, today our gas cylinder ran out and apparently there isn’t much gas in the city- or something…we may be building a fire soon! Bucket baths- which are few and far between because it’s so cold and our bathroom is outside our house. I will say that I’ve been using the sleeping bag you all gave me- it’s been keeping me quite warm, and I’m so thankful for it!!!- And of course think of you every night when I crawl in it!! For the next two months we are language learning and studying the culture in preparation for telling Bible stories later on.

I hope you are all doing well. I would love to hear from you…and appreciate those who have kept in touch!!! You are my best friends, and I do miss you lots. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

Aapka dost, (your friend)
~ Liz