Jorhat/Kaziranga Trip

Walking around on Diwali night

Elephant Ride!

Mrs Mohantas (Sikha) & I

At Jorhat Christian Medical Center

My first Indian motorbike ride!

Eryen & I on our early morning elephant ride!

Some thoughts from the journal I took with me on my mini trip combined with my current thoughts and memories from the experience...

Oct 27 - Man whenever I think I have settled into a routine or live a somewhat predictable not very exciting life God throws a new adventure or excitement my way. Today we spent the day travelling to Jorhat in the sumo. I got a pretty bad headache and wasn't feeling too well by the time we got here. We (the group from Texas, Kuldip & I) arrived to a warm welcome from Dr Mohantas & his wife Sikha and daughter Mamata. On the way to Jorhat the Texans got the true Indian experience (bathrooms, traffic, roads and food) we stopped at a little roadside restaurant and snack stand(not nearly as quaint as it sounds. Very UN-north american) and while the Texans were buying bottled water and pop I saw an Indian man flipping flatbreads on a grill thing and I was like hey that looks good so I ended up getting one and the Texans, although more cautious, got some too. It was a deal - 3 flatbreads for 9 rupees (less than 25 cents CDN) As we got closer to Kaziranga we saw elephants walking along the side of the road carrying stalks of bamboo. It was pretty neat. Anyways we got to Jorhat and spent the evening with the Mohantas. They are such a wonderful family. Very hospitable and kind. Sikha didn't speak very much english but she was fluent in the universal language of love. My latest reading recommendation is Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It's quite a short book and well worth your time I think.

Oct 28 - We had breakfast at the Mohantas. It was a typical Indian meal served to guests. Soooo good. I think I must have drank at least twice as much tea during those three days as I typically do here in Guwahati. After breakfast, Linda, Eryen, Sikha, Mamata and I went shopping and the men (Jerry, Gary, Barry & Dr Mohantas) stayed at the house to talk about the work Dr Mohantas is doing in Jorhat. In the afternoon we all went to 'christian' the "Gary Tate Medical Dispensary" Gary Tate is one of the Texans. He's an 83 year old WW II veteran who has actively supported NE India mission work financially since helping to build a railroad there during the war. He's very popular among the many people he supports and has made several trips back to visit and see what's happening. Anyways the sumo was full so Dr Mohantas had to take his motorbike to get to the dispensary and I got to ride with him! I've been waiting 2 months for my first Indian motorcycle ride. So fun! Dr Mohantas is someone whose respect you want to earn and I believe I have. Remind me to tell you more about him when I come back to Canada, he has a fascinating testimony. It amazes me how Jorhat and Guwahati and NE India in general are included in tourist books geared to white people cause you never see any. Anyways back to my day-to-day account. So after we celebrated the grand opening of the dispensary we stopped and saw the beginnings of a church some missionaries are building then we went to a bit of a celebration that Dr Mohantas had planned in honor of the American visitors. We got some awesome embroidered scarves and a bunch of cute Indian kids sat on my lap. After that we went to Crazy Hut for pizza. (a couple of the Texans really got a kick out of it and even stole the menu, don't tell anyone :P) Then we went and walked around town and looked at all the lights and saw fireworks and heard the firecrackers in honor of Diwali (the Hindu Festival of Lights) It's kind of like a combination of Christmas and Halloween. By the time we got back to the hotel we were dead tired and fell asleep quickly.

Oct 29 - We had tea and a lovely breakfast at the Mohantas house then we went to the Jorhat Christian Medical Center and saw what Dr Mohanatas and many others are doing there. Remember the hospital in Pearl Harbor for those of you who have seen the movie? Think a tiny bit less clean and organized and you'll have an accurate picture of what the Jorhat Christian Medical Center looks like. On our way to Mariani Junction (after visiting the JCMC) we passed the Jorhat Prison (not the official name but close enough) Just saw the outside as we were driving by but is definately not on my list of experiences I want to have. Mariani Junction was one of the places Gary Tate was 60some years ago during WW II. He actually worked mostly at a place 100 miles away building the railroad but I think he really enjoyed being back at one of the places he remembers from long ago. That night when we got to our hotel at Kaziranga he told us a bunch of stories of the war and his trips back to NE India. In 1994 he actually saw Mother Theresa at the Calcutta Airport and got close enough to take a fairly good recogizable picture of her. It was quite interesting.

Oct 30 - Woke up at 4am so we could go ride the elephants at 5 am. The Texans (still suffering from jet lag) only had to wake up an hour earlier than usual so I was the one that was dead tired for once. I would definately recommend the elephant ride. It was very peaceful and the view of Indian nature at sunrise is something you can never fully explain the beauty of , you just have to experience it yourself. We weren't able to get an elephant ride in the park cause it didn't officially open until November. So if we would have gone the next day we could have gone. The joys of legalism huh? Mom - remind me to tell you of my elephant ride revelation someday. Well we got in a whole day worth of sightseeing in about 3 hours. We went to Kaziranga Park, the Tea Gardens, a model of a traditional tribal village which officially opens in January and ended up at a tea store and souvenir shop on the way back so I am now the proud owner of my first Indian souvenirs. Mom - I'm going to try and send stuff home for Christmas with a couple from Regina when they go back in the middle of December. They should get here next week unless circumstances change. I bought you something useful- native Indian green tea. Aren't you happy? Plus I haven't even died yet. How much better of a christmas present could you ask for? :). Wouldn't it be ironic if something happened to me tomorrow, that would be eerily creepy for all of you reading this then. I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that we haven't seen the end of the violence yet and I'm not a doom and gloom person but if it's my time to go it's my time to go and God has a reason in everything that happens and He uses every situation for His glory and honor. Ok, that's the end of that. Back to my account of October 30. We ate a wonderful breakfast at the hotel and then started our journey back to Guwahati. It was about 3:00 pm when we stopped fora bathroom break and got the news about the bombing in Guwahati. Kuldip even said he was scared to go back. We didn't know any details and since bombs and political violence isn't all that uncommon here I didn't think too much of it. Definately didn't think it was going to be among the worst attacks in the Northeast in years or that it would make International headlines. So I did my best to reassure the Texans that it was all just normal for India and that it wasn't really a big deal. Well we got back to Guwahati and heard the news. Over 60 dead and 300 injured in Ganeshguri and Pan Bazaar and other parts of Guwahati and area. Let me tell you a bit about Ganeshguri to put it into perspective -it's about a 10 minute walk from our house. It's where we buy many household and groccery items. We are there almost everyday. On our way to Jorhat on Monday, we had stopped there to buy a tarp. In fact, the day of the bombing, Ray, Autumn and Andrew were parked under the flyover (the exact same area that was bombed) 30 minutes before it went off. Talk about God still having a purpose in wanting you to stick around for awhile huh? oh and Pan Bazaar is where we took the Texas ladies shopping on Saturday. There had been a big crowd and angry voices there but we didn't think too much of it until 5 days later. Well the Texas people left today to go back to the States (they were supposed to leave next Tuesday).

Today I went to the eye clinic to have my last check up before my surgery on Monday. The optomotrist guy is really neat. He might even be going to the University of Waterloo to finish his education sometime in the near future. It's neat to think of the culture shock he will experience having lived in India his entire life. The bandh was on again today and tomorrow will be as well. Kind of like house arrest but it's usually over by late afternoon or early evening. Anyways I'll try and keep you updated. I'm sure I'm missing something that I find interesting and exciting but I guess I'll just have to keep some stories so you'll have something different to hear about when I get home. Oh, here's something funny before I end, so Samuel (Uncle Shyam's late 20's-early 30's year old son) took Ellen and I to the eye place today (because Ray was at the airport dropping off the Texans) and out of nowhere he tells me his landlord's son is getting married on Friday and wants to know if I'll go with him. So at supper Ray and Autumn were talking about some Indian wedding they went to a few years ago and Ellen pipes up with "Nadine has a date on Friday" and so I had to quickly correct her. I don't think I did a very good job of defending myself since I didn't have a chance to think up something clever. Ray just started laughing at me...I'm really glad Auntie Peggy (Samuel's mom) is going too cause that will make it a bit less awkward. I always seem to get myself into all kinds of unusual circumstances but usually end up having alot of fun and becoming a "good times, good times" (as Autumn would say) moment so hopefully that will ring true. Anyways there's the latest random adventure from your favorite person on the other side of the world :)

Love,
Nadine

Life's Great, I'm fine, No Worries!

Since my lovely city of residence has made international headlines Ellen thought it would be a good idea that I let everyone back home know that I'm safe and sound and all that. So this is the last thing I need to update and I think I've taken care of it all that way (Facebook, Email, Phone the family, Blog) man even when nothing happens you gotta let people know. It kind of felt like 9-11 last night except it happened 10 minutes away and not across a continent. Intense but nothing really to worry about as far as we know. Well I plan to write more about my trip to Jorhat/Kaziranga and all my experiences but I'll do that later.
Love,
Nadine

So I decided to write a bit more now...while I wait for pictures to upload which aren' uploading and it's really frustrating me but anways... Today was science experiment day and so we were working and Autumn and Andrew like to get off topic or to make "deals" with me such as "I promise I'll do it tomorrow" and the like. This is how our conversation went tonight.

Andrew: Can I please do questions 4 and 5 tomorrow. I promise I'll do them.

Me: Sorry Andrew, but no.

Andrew: Please, I'll pinky swear and I never break a pinky swear, Right Autumn?

Autumn: um...yah you do Andrew.

(Andrew, Autumn and I all burst out laughing because we know it's true. )

I'm not sure if this story was funny or not but Autumn, Andrew and I sure thought it was.

As promised in a much older blog, Here is your "Meet Andrew" section. He's not quite so into this as Autumn was so it will likely be much shorter. In Andrew's words but typed by me.." I had a good day. That's all and I have a massive cut on my ankle." See, I told you it would be short. Don't you all feel as if you know him so much better now :) He is a fairly typical 11 year old boy and reminds me of my brother in some ways. Andrew and Autumn are both very unique and wonderful children who can be very frustrating at times. Doesn't this describe 99.9% of all children in the world. I'm sure my parents would use those same words to describe both my brother and I, right Mom and Dad? I say 99.9% because as I have learned throughout many math and english classes there is always an exception to every rule or generalization. Anyways, so Autumn and I were exploring around Kalipani today. It's become our new daily ritual. We needed something to replace our daily afternoon walks with. So today we were trying to find the waterfall. We like the variety of options that Kalipani has to offer so we tend to rotate through the jungle, the mountain, going down the hill, or trying to find new things to discover and explore. Everyone says there is a waterfall and sometimes we can hear the water running but we've never actually seen it. David and Raja and Timothy always tell us that they will take us someday but we haven't gotten around to it yet. but on with the story, while we were trying to find the elusive waterfall (in our 30 minute deadline before class started) Autumn saw a snake and I got to experience her reaction to them. She said she would cry but she didnt which was good. But she did freak out a bit. I didn't see it (which I am very thankful for) so I remained calm saying "Hey Autumn, don't freak out. It's really not that bad." (See, I'm totally the most compassionate and understanding person ever...:) so she made me go in front of her on the way back down and I was like fine but I'm not going back to save you...although if a cobra actually came out in mid daylight and bit my dear Autumn's ankle I probably would go back and try to save her. Hopefully I never have to find out though. Well I'm going to write you a nice long blog today and then I will leave you all alone until next Friday. Deal? well too bad for you because you aren't here to disagree so you'll just have to say ok....it doesn't look like you are going to get pictures in this blog as the internet is not being very cooperative in that department. Anyways I thought I would give you a bit of an idea of what my life here in India is like. A typical weekday includes:

7-7:30 - Wake up/Breakfast

8:00 - School starts

11:00 - leave for Kalipani

12:00 - Arrive at Kalipani

12:30- Lunch. After lunch I go exploring with Autumn, or talk to Serat and Timothy or play with Simon or visit with Kalito.

1:30 - Bible Class starts

3:30 - Bible Class ends

5:30 - Get back home

6:30 - Eat supper/Do dishes

7:30 - Science or Social class

8:30 - Devotions

10:00 - Bedtime

That is just a general timeline of what happens in a day in my life. And in case any of you are new to reading my blog I will now write a bit of a description of some of the people I tend to mention in this blog...

Ray and Ellen McMillan - these are the missionaries that I live with here in Guwahati. Ray teaches the bible classes and Ellen takes care of all of us, feeding us delicious meals every night and being the warm, friendly, loving grandmotherly type.

Autumn -Ray and Ellen's 13 year old granddaughter. She is in grade 8 and I try to help her with her school work as best I can. She's alot of fun most of the time and I really enjoy her. She's a typical 13 year old in that she is the self proclaimed coolest person in the world and everyone else could only dream of being more like her but besides her cockiness she is a warm, sweet and friendly girl.

Andrew- Ray and Ellen's 11 year old grandson. He's in grade 6. He is very mischevious and talkative. He asks lots of questions and has a fantastic memory when he wants to (as in he will remember everything you would rather him forget and convieniently 'forget' to do school work, chores, make his bed etc.). He can be very charming and sweet as well...when he wants to be.

Becky - She's a very beautiful 23 year old Mizo girl who works very hard around the house helping Ellen out with lots of different chores. She's really kind, sweet and wonderful and I really like her alot.

Well that's everyone I live with. Maybe some other day I will write more about the rest of the people I dearly love here in India. But it's time for bed. Hope this gives you a bit more of an idea how life goes here.

You'd think something exciting would have happened in the past 5 days since I last updated this blog, living in India and being the adventurous sort that I am but nothing really noteworthy has happened. Some people from back home emailed me. I love hearing from you. Thanks...My pictures won't upload. The internet hasn't been working very well lately. My Facebook profile picture has stayed the same for the past week or so..Time feels so different here. It seems like a month has gone by in a week somedays and other days it seems like a week can take a month. I guess it feels that way occasionally in Canada too but I notice it more here. So Autumn, Meera, Nayomi & I had to sing a song in front of the odd and even boys at Kalipani today. We did a better job than the boys but we definately aren't cut out for Canadian Idol. Kalito came back from Nagaland last night. She was gone for a week but it seemed like a month (that time thing again) we weren't sure if she was ever coming back so we were very happy to see her again. Raja isn't going to the hostel until January!!!! this is very good news cause Raja is the funniest kid in the world. The other day Ray was teaching about music and notes and he pointed to line G (it was labelled G too) and asks Raja "what line is this Raja?" and Raja answers "C"...and yesterday Meera and Raja were having more trouble learning the musical notes. It's really kind of funny actually. The Kalipani kids are starting to feel more comfortable around us and a couple of them will hug me when i come and when they leave. alot of them will cling to me or try and grab my hand when we are singing or playing games.there will be like 4 of them all trying for one arm. they are really aggressive kids too. when we first got here there was this one little kid "nyin" who just slapped this other kid "banoo" in the face. it's really intense. parents will just slap a kid when they need to punish them or whatever without even thinking about it. very different from canada that's for sure. the texans are coming on friday afternoon. i'm getting really excited to see them and to go to jorhat next week. we went to the zoo last saturday - much different from your canadian/american zoos. Basically what I got from the zoo was a "how to identify the animals you are warned to watch out for in the wild 101" course. We went to the snake house and the two most dangerous snakes they had were the cobra and the python...and Andrew said they used to have a well with a glass lid full of cobras they had just caught in the wild. The tiger in the zoo was captured in the wild just 6 hours away from Guwahati. It's much different than knowing all the animals were imported from halfway across the world and there is no way you will run into any of them unless they escape from the zoo and even then the odds of you being attacked by one are very small indeed. At Kalipani whenever we go up the mountain or go hiking in the jungle David, Raja and Timothy always tell us to watch out for the tigers, leopards and snakes..well i'm tired so i'm off to bed...as you can tell this blog is pretty random and all over the place. i just spent like 2 hours reading the archived posts of someone else's blog so i didn't put any effort into my own tonight...sorry. Maybe I'll write more on Saturday after the Texan's get here or on Sunday before I head to Jorhat on Monday...Bye!

Swimming in India & the Life of William Carey

Swimming in Canada is very different from swimming in India. When you want to go to swimming in Canada, you go to the pool, pay the admission, get changed, shower and jump in. When you want to go swimming in India, you go to the pool, ask if you can swim, they give you a long time consuming application to fill out (which includes needing a doctors signature, passport photos etc.) then you go back to the pool and they tell you the hours of admission when you can come. Then when you actually get to go to the pool to swim you first get changed, shower then someone leads about 10 minutes of exercises for everyone who wants to swim then finally you get to go swimming but before and after you are actually swimming everyone just stares at you like you are some strange person and they all ask if you are new and we are like yes, we are new, thanks for asking. Last night we watched "A Candle in the Dark" the story of William Carey who was a missionary to India and together with a wealthy Indian man abolished the Hindu practice of Sati. He faced many obstacles and trials and yet kept on trusting God that he was where God wanted him to be. It was a really inspiring movie to watch. I loved it. It really encouraged me. I love going to Kalipani. I know I talk about it alot but if you ever went there you would totally fall in love with it too. Yesterday Autumn and I gave shoulder rides to a bunch of the little boys who go to the elementary school there. It was so fun and they were so happy. They laughed so hard. Anyways back to what I was going to say. I think I'm going to need to get married someday...bet you never thought you'd hear me say that huh? Well let me furthur explain. My current dream is to build a little bamboo hut near Kalipani and live there and eat rice, dhaal and bananas and play football with the Indian boys and play games and sing songs and with the little Indian children and teach them about Jesus and climb the mountain every afternoon and learn to play the guitar every evening. I just figure I'm going to need someone to talk to and teach me how to play the guitar, So if you know any boy who loves God first, whose first lanugage is english, who is adventurous, plays guitar, is a good friend, can hold a conversation and would love the kind of life I have just described, send him my way :)...Raja left for the hostel yesterday (but he's coming back for one day before he leaves for good). We are all sad. Everybody loves Raja. He's the greatest kid in the world and we are going to miss him so much. On Monday we are going to meet with the guy in charge of the World Vision project to find out if we can help at all with what they are doing here in Guwahati. I'm looking forward to that.
Love,
Nadine

So on Sunday I found out there was going to be an federal election in Canada this week. I forgot about it again until breakfast today when Ray mentioned it. Conservative minority again? Well that seems like a big waste of time and money now doesn't it? Not that I would know since I wasn't really affected by it. So it was +30 again today. It felt a bit cooler though so that was nice. I'm getting LASIK surgery on November 3rd. It's going to be about $200 more than I thought so I will pay Santa the extra when I get back to Canada through a few days of free manual labor okay Daddykins? Today I played football with Serat, Timothy, Simon and Banu. It was so fun. They are my bestest friends in India. We have fun together. Autumn and Andrew will take off with Raja and then I hang out with the other guys. All the pictures I have posted in the last few days have been taken in the last few days. I just like rubbing it in that I am still able to wear capris and flip flops on a daily basis. I'm getting really excited for the Texans to get here next Friday. It will be wonderful to have white people here again and be able to easily understand them. Anyways I almost saw a snake yesterday...It's been kind of disappointing really. I figured I would have seen one already for all the warnings I get to be careful cause there is snakes. The only snake I have seen in India so far is the toy one I got Andrew for his birthday last month. Maybe next time. Not that I am too saddened cause the chances of me being bitten by a snake would be greatly increased by an actual encounter with one. So on Monday afternoon I spent like 5 hours in an Indian eye hospital. I was the only white person in the place. I took an auto rickshaw all by myself (for the first time) back from the hospital. I was kind of nervous but there was really no need for me to be. Yesterday Autumn and I got so scared cause we were sitting on the deck and Andrew came around the side making angry cat noises...(there is a vicious cat that sometimes gets into our house...but mostly it just comes right to the window and makes scary noises)...and we got so freaked out that we screamed and jumped up and ran. We even caught it on video cause we were making a video to post on the blog. I think I'm definately going to edit it before posting. Who knows if it will ever even make it's way on here. Don't worry I'll include the Autumn and Nadine screaming their heads off part if it ever gets on here. Have you read the Shack yet cause you sure haven't posted comments. Makes me wonder if anyone actually reads this thing. But I know a couple do because they email me...Thank you!...Anyways take care and God Bless. I'll write more next time something exciting enough happens that consititutes a writing of a blog. Until then...

~Nadine :)

Picture Time Again

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today Timothy, Serat and I were talking about always wanting more and how we always want to be like someone else or have something else and it's rare to find a truly contented person. So today I am writing a blog about the things I am thankful for...It doesn't hurt that it's also the season of thankfulness too...so without furthur adieu...

Some things I am thankful for...

Opportunities - God has given me so many wonderful opportunities to travel and see and do so many different things and serve Him in many different countries.

Family - I have the most wonderful family in the entire world. Probaby because it is made up of people from all over the world. I love my Peruvian family (The Funks and Pradas), my Indian family (The McMillan's & Salam's) and my Canadian family (The Steiners & Mom, Dad & Mark)

Friends - I am so blessed in this area. Maybe it's why I am spend so much time on that addictive social networking site (Facebook)...It's pretty much impossible to keep up to date with all of my 520 friends. I would definately consider myself to be a fairly social person and am always meeting new people thus I have many wonderful friends from all around the world. I am so grateful for your friendship and each of you has a special place in my heart.

Weather - I live in the best climate ever!!!! It's still +35 :) and it's October. You poor Saskatchewonians must be loving the -4 huh??? My dad sure sounds like he is anyways..Right Dad? :) I love the heat but I must admit I am looking forward to the cooler weather come December and January (+10-25 C :) Just thought I would rub it in a bit more :)

Rice- I am the luckiest girl in the world cause I get to eat rice just about everyday. Sometimes twice a day and sometimes with my fingers. I love rice. Maybe not as much as I did before I moved to India but it's still great. Remember when I told you I bet I could eat rice everyday for a month eating it everyday without getting sick of it Mom? I'm not sure that I actually could :). I love it here and wouldn't trade it for anything but you Canadians should be thankful for the vast variety of food you are able to enjoy.

Ketchup - We have the best ketchup here. It's way better than Canada's. It's called Maggai and it's amazing.

Senses - I am so grateful for the ability to see, hear, touch, feel and smell. There are so many things to experience everywhere we look and God has given me so much by being able to easily be able to enjoy them without handicap. Guwahati is surrounded by beautiful green mountains and tropical vegetation and horns beeping and people walking and rickshaws driving by and it's very busy pace of life but yet so relaxed at the same time.

Kalipani- it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The Bread of Life Academy is on the top of the hill and there is a mountain above it and it's surrounded by a combination of beautiful shades of green vegetation and mountains and a clear blue sky and pure red dirt. It's incredible. And the view from the top of the mountain is amazing. which brings me to the fact that i am thankful i have legs with which to climb and walk and jump and run with.

Skype - despite the bad connection I got to hear my parents and brother's voice for the first time in 5 weeks!


There is so much more I am thankful for but I'm in the middle of writing my email update and thus I will conclude this post with this thought. I changed the comment settings on my blog so now anyone can post comments so feel free to let me know what you think, how you are doing, what you are up to, or any random thing you think i should know...i'd love to hear from ya...plus i have no idea who reads this blog...maybe i only write it to here myself think...and the two or three people who have sent me comments to let me know they read it...so POST COMMENTS and let me know if this blog could use any improvements or changes. I am open to suggestions...plus if you are so interested in my crazy, exciting, adventurous (ya right...well actually it kind of is...at least I think so) life it probably goes to say that i am interested in yours too so ya...POST COMMENTS...I think that's the only point I am trying to make in the midst of this long paragraph of utterly useless information...Take Care & Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Nadine


God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder

We Saw White People Today!!!!

It was pretty amazing. All the Indian people were staring at them and Autumn and I were too. I often wondered what would happen when we saw other white people. So we watched them go into a store then we walked around somewhere else for a bit then decided we would go to that store and try to see them again since we still had 10 minutes before we were supposed to meet up with Ellen. So we walked into the mall type building they had gone into and walked past the store they were in, and then turned around after awhile and walked past again, all the while Autumn and I were talking (well mostly she was I was just listening to her) about how weird and cool it was to see white people again and after awhile I was like "you know Autumn, they're white which means they speak english too!" :) and she was like "oh ya...i forgot.." then we started laughing cause we are so used to just talking about everyone and everything and whatever pops into our mind knowing that no one will understand what we are saying and so it throws us for a loop when there are actually people whose first language is english. So we met up with Ellen and it turned out she wanted to go into the store where the white people were, by that time the white people were on the street and they saw us and were like "hey" and we were like "hi" and so we met them and talked for a little while. turns out they were heading back to the states today...it was their 3rd time in Guwahati and they had been here for 2 weeks already. We always seem to see white people just when they are about to leave. A couple of weeks ago we saw a bunch of white people in a sumo - heading to the airport - oh well, in a couple of weeks we will have our first visitors and will continue to have some right up until the week before Christmas so that should be lots of fun. It looks like I will be able to go to Jorhat and Kaziranga National Park in upper Assam at the end of October with Gary Tate (a man from Texas) and the group he is bringing here. Should be great. Anyways we had a rather exciting morning, aside from seeing white people which could have in itself justified a writing of a blog, Autumn and I got totally lost while we were shopping today. So we decided that we should pay to take a rickshaw to the Baptist Guest House which is where Kuldip dropped us off and then we would walk to where we were supposed to meet Ellen. So we walked up to the first rickshaw driver we saw and Autumn was like "Baptist Guest House" and the driver nods his head up and down like he knows what we are talking about and so we were like how much? and he said twenty and so we were like ok...20 rupees is good for a ride + figuring out where we are. Turns out he didn't know what we were talking about but assumed we were tourists so dropped us off at the most logical place he could probably think of - Gov't of India Tourism- so we gave him 40 rupees thanked him for the ride and started walking down the street. We stopped and asked a couple guys running a street stand who ended up speaking some english if they knew where the police station was...they did it was just the wrong one so we crossed the street and found an auto rickshaw driver who looked like he knew what we were talking about so we got in and I was like "Autumn if we don't get to the police station i am going to cry" and she was like "me too" but thankfully he did know where we wanted to go and got us there, it was a bit of a drive (about 6-7 minutes in the auto)...we must have done a pretty good job of getting ourselves lost but we made it to the Baptist Guest House (across the street from the police station but none of the Indians would have known where the Guest House was) and walked to meet Ellen with plenty of time to spare which is when Autumn spotted the white people...It was very fun. Oh and Dad - LASIK eye surgery should be about $500 so you will save 50 bucks. Isn't that great news? Not sure when I'll get it done in between travelling and all cause we will probably be going to Manipur from November 15-25th...so maybe after that...Til next time,
Love.
Nadine

$10 Grapes, Climbing Kalipani Mountain and other such happenings

Autumn, Joshua, Serat, Andrew, Raja & Timothy at the
top of Kalipani Mountain


One of the many beautiful views although pictures
could never truly capture the beauty of being there
I guess you'll just have to come and check it out for yourself :)

The Bag...This bag is pretty much Autumn & I's most valuable possession
because it carries all of our valuable possessions...It is like a cherished old friend who we could live without but we definately wouldn't want to.

Hello from Guwahati,
Today we climbed Kalipani Mountain. It was so much fun. Yesterday Ellen, Autumn and I were walking past the fruit stand on the way back to our house and I spotted something rare and delicious...A bunch of beautiful green grapes (right now the only fruits available are apples and bananas) and I was like "Hey Ellen, look, they have grapes!" so she went to ask how much they were and the guy was like 450 rupees (which is like $11 CDN) and we were like "no,no" and we walked away laughing. Isn't that ridiculous?. A medium sized bunch of grapes for 11 bucks... Anyways the view from the top of the mountain was incredible. Autumn and I decided that if we climbed it every day we would totally own all of you in a fitness test when we get back to Canada. Too bad that ain't going to happen...Serat and Timothy and Raja are crazy. They can hoof it up the mountain like nobody's business in flip flops. Indian people are so in shape they would show up Canadians any day. Autumn and I have been making friendship braclets out of the yarn Pamela left us (thanks Pamela). I'm exhausted and I am just trying to stay up thinking up something useful and informative to say so I will stop now and try to write something more exciting next time. Take Care and God Bless,
Love,
Nadine

Flat Tires and Birthday Parties :)

Waiting for the tire to be fixed




Andrew, Becky, Autumn and I


Me and Joshua- he's visiting from Manipur and teaching at the Bible college at Kalipani this week. He brings his son Lulu to class sometimes and Lulu will fall asleep in one of the chairs at the back of the classroom. It's super cute. I really like talking to him cause he speaks good english and we have interesting conversations.


They have Bollywood. Who knew they would have their own version of People Magazine too?

Hey there. Hope you enjoyed the blog from Autumn as much as she enjoyed writing it. These last few days have been really exhausting but alot of fun. Autumn comes and crawls into bed with me so we have these late night discussions about boys and life in general and then she just sleeps over in my bed so neither of us get very comfortable (its a single bed) and results in two very sleepy teenage girls in the morning. This is not a habit we will be continuing :) Today was Betty's birthday (Uncle Shyam and Auntie Peggy's oldest daughter who is visiting from Manipur) and so we went over there this evening to celebrate. It was lots of fun and I got to have a good discussion with Joshua (Uncle Shyam and Auntie Peggy's oldest son who is also visiting from Manipur) about Canadian education vs Indian education and some of the other differences between Canada and India and I also got some good travel tips about where to go if I get the chance to do some backpacking of the subcontinent...who knows. I think we have about a month off at Christmas so maybe I'll be able to do a bit of travelling then. I would love to take a train trip if I could find a travel partner perhaps. I don't think solo travelling would be very highly reccomended by anyone so anybody going to be in India in the middle of December I'd love to hear from you :) Who knows though. We had banana cake today for Betty's birthday and it was really really good. I have lots of really bad mosquito bites but I haven't gotten many more since and they are clearing up a little bit (or maybe this is just positive thinking :) Today when we were driving in the sumo to Kalipani and back I tried to catch a few minutes of sleep so I wouldn't be so exhausted and Joshua and Autumn thought it would be fun to take pictures of me so there are now about 10 pictures floating around somewhere of me sleeping. Not sure what purpose they will serve anyone but hey I'm glad me sleeping could be so interesting for you Autumn. Anyways I'm bushed and its way past my bed time so until next time. I'm sure I've missed telling you about some random detail that I find interesting about my life but that means there will be more things to tell you in my next blog. Take Care and God Bless.
Love, Nadine

The following are the lyrics to Andrew's favorite devotional song. Every night we have devotions and everyone gets to choose a song. Autumn picks 718 -We Shall Assemble and Andrew picks 948 - I am Resolved. So every night we sing it. After we stop laughing about it I usually come back to thinking about what the lyrics mean and what a commitment and challenge it is to constantly be trying to live out this resolution. I really love devotions. It seems the book we read from always has exactly what we need to hear. Our breakfast devotional book does the same thing. Very challenging and very inspirational that's for sure. I'm really glad that Ray and Ellen make it a priority to start and end the day with a focus on Jesus.
"I Am Resolved
I am resolved no longer to linger,Charmed by the world's delight,Things that are higher, things that are nobler,These have allured my sight.
I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to go to the Savior,Leaving my sin and strife;He is the true One, He is the just One,He hath the words of life.
I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to follow the Savior,Faithful and true each day;Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,He is the living Way.
I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to enter the kingdomLeaving the paths of sin;Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me,Still will I enter in.
I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;Jesus, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee."

Hello from Autumn!!!!!

hello there people how are you today??you might or might not have heard of me i am autumn whitley mcmillan nadines not friend!!lol...you might've gotten an email but might not have soo if you dont lets just say thats a good thing ok?touche?thank you
but for those of you who did thats a different story well just to let you know i'm not usually that crazii ok well maybe i am but i am a pretty good person i would say just like everybody else!!hahaha hey guess what today i went to kalapnai(a small vellage and went for bible class it was pretty awesome!!)and for supper tonigh we had pastaaa!(italian food for those who dont know though i'm pretty sure you do know and i hope so)but yah it's pasta!oh and i had apple cinammon tea it was great and pommagranite(but maybe not the right spelling but i'm sure you all know what i'm talking about!!) Ohh and we got a flat tire it was great all of a sudden we were in a crashh(well maybe thats a little exaggerated! sorry)but it was like boom so yah)
you people should tell me some funny storys oh and hii pamela stonehouse!!lol
yah i'm soo hyperrr! yah theres this really cool kid at kalapani(where i go almost everyday)and he has this great way of talking like when he doesnt understand heres one of our conversations:
autumn:Raja have you finished the chapters 8 to nine yet?
Raja: I doesnt understand could you say again?
yah thats it he is just a really cool kid that everyone loves!
then theres nadine(also know is that other girl or autumns friend)well theres too much thing to say about her and you probably all know about mosquito soo then thers becky who is a beautiful,funny mean person well maybe not mean but we like to wrestle and stuff and throw stuff at each other and stuff yah its pretty great! so when we have school nadine and i will be doing a question and shell be like why like heres an example: autumn 2+2=4...nadine:why?
autmn: ahhhhhh...nadine:sorry but why, thats nadine for you she askes you too explain it to her so she can understand it!!
well have a good day

Autumn.Whitley.McMillan(Fall.Winter.May)!!

Kalito & Me

This picture captures Autumn & I's relationship perfectly :)

A sweet bug we saw at Kalipani. It makes hissing noises and flares up. Kind of scary.


Timothy and Serat (2 of the boys that go to the Bread of Life bible school)





Hello Everyone,


Thanks for those of you that leave comments. I love hearing from you. Here are a few pictures from today at Kalipani. I hadn't been to Kalipani for a few days so it was nice to see people again. I really love going out there. It's nice to be able to hang out with kids my own age. Supper dishes are always so much fun too because Becky and I talk about the culture differences between Mizoram (the state in NE India that she is from) and Canada. There are quite a few differences especially with food. I won't give any details for those of you with weak stomachs but I wouldn't mind going to Mizoram and trying some of the things she was telling me about just to add some things to my list of things I've tried. I've been reading a book called "The Shack" lately. Still not quite through it but I would definately recommend it to anyone wanting to discover God in a new way. It's very challenging. One of those books that you can't just sit down and read but that you have to read in sections and take a few days to think about and ponder before reading some more. Definately worth your time though, in my opinion. Today Autumn and I were just hanging out in our room and we heard a cat sounding like it was trapped or something. It was hissing a bit and making scary noises. Autumn and I jumped, opened our door, ran out to the kitchen and Ellen laughed at us and told us to go get Ray to save us so Ray and Andrew come into our room and the cat noise was gone. We think it must have been just outside our window and not actually in our room. The reason the cat noise scared us so much is that one morning last week a cat got into our house and was running around and it was a scary looking cat. It was mangy and thin and just didn't give off very good vibes :P. I am getting so much better at eating with my fingers. I got so many mosquito bites last week that my skin looks like I got chicken pox everywhere. It's pretty gross but I haven't gotten many new ones in the last few days. I just soak myself in mosquito spray before i go to bed under my mosquito netting and it usually gives me pretty good protection. It's getting cooler here...as in it's +29 instead of +35. I'm enjoying being able to wear jeans again. I hear it's getting cooler in Canada too. Though I'm sure your version of cool is very different from my new one. I was looking on my igoogle page at Saskatchewan weather. Looks like you guys are enjoying some +7 C weather. Lucky you :). I never thought I would be one of those people who talked about the weather. Used to be such a boring topic. I guess I am maturing :(. School is really working much better with the new schedule so I am thankful for that. It's still a struggle to keep them on task but I think it seems less overwhelming for them and definately makes my job alot easier. Autumn and I have been talking about the Mosquito alot lately. We've come to the conclusion that M + LC= weird child. (Inside joke...you don't wanna know) ("It helps that most people here don't speak english so they don't know what we're saying which is pretty much a good thing hahahahaha"- Autumn McMillan - she proofreads my blog posts so you get the Autumn approved/edited version.) And now you have no idea what we are talking about either and neither do we which is the whole point of the story so I will just leave it at that. Have a good day.
Love,
Nadine

Funny Stories from India...at least I think they are funny :)

So most of the comments I've gotten from people who read my blog say that I make them laugh :) So I decided that I would actually try to add something purposely funny instead of the normal natural kind that just flows into what I write :).

Story #1

A few days ago Autumn and I went on a long walk back from the Hub. It was Gandhi's birthday (this is one of those really insignificant facts and there is really no purpose in me mentioning it except that I just wasted 30 seconds of your time that you could have done something more useful with :). Anyhows we were getting pretty tired and just about to get an auto rickshaw to take us the rest of the way home when we walked past a black car and saw two guys staring at us through the window. When we walked by they leaned toward us (the window was tinted but you could tell they had moved a bit) and we were like well they are kind of creepy so we kept walking and they yelled stop stop and we were like "um" then we looked back and Autumn was like "hey it's Kuldip" (our driver) and Uncle Shyam and so they gave us a ride home. It was such perfect timing but it was pretty funny. Autumn was like "I called Uncle Shyam a creep" and we laughed. Maybe this story was one of those "you had to be there" kind of things. Who knows. I have a very unique style of writing (as my father says)

Story #2

We were at afternoon church today and since we've had something to celebrate the last 3 weekends (Andrew's birthday the weekend after we got here, then Uncle Shyam & Auntie Peggy's anniversary last weekend and Ray and Ellen's anniversary today) so Uncle Shyam was like "Well what are we celebrating next weekend? A wedding? " he looked straight at me when he said this and all I could do was laugh. At least once a week he will make some comment about me getting married in India or something along those lines and I always have to explain to him "No Uncle Shyam I'm not getting married...at least not for a long time" yet he still seems to enjoy making those kinds of comments. oh well..maybe one day I will get through to him. :)

Well on to the other stuff that I will try to ramble on about that may or may not interest you but you will probably continue to read anyways in hopes of a tidbit of interesting information. People always think living overseas is one big adventure and exciting things are always happening. But really it's just a different kind of normal. After awhile everything becomes kind of routine and the ordinary everyday things don't really seem worth mentioning because they just seem...well...normal. But anyhow I'm thinking about getting LASIK surgery (it's going to be about $550 I think...Christmas gift Mom & Dad? :-) . The woman downstairs is an optomotrist so I think I will talk to her about maybe getting it done. It rained for like 3 hours this morning so we didn't get to go to Kalipani for church which was kind of disappointing. I downloaded skype so if anyone wants to add me I'd love to chat with you. Our first visitors come in about 3 weeks. World Vision has a project here in Guwahati so I am in the process of trying to get their address so I can maybe go and volunteer a couple of afternoons a week..we'll see...It's crazy it's already October 5th. Most of the time it feels much longer just cause so much has happened over the past couple of months that it seems like it was five years ago I graduated when it was only a few months ago. But I know when I look back on this year of my life it will feel like it flew by. Becky got here a few days ago. I'm not sure if I mentioned that or not yet. Becky is Ellen's helper around the house and stuff. She's really nice and sweet and speaks very good english. Autumn, Andrew, Becky and I went bowling at Pantaloons on Saturday. It was lots of fun. I got 3rd but bowling is great so it was fun anyways. I'm not a sore loser except in a family game of mini golf...right Mom and Dad? Anyways take care and God Bless.

Love, Nadine

Surprise...

No I'm not engaged...YET!!! :P (hahaha..just kidding Don't freak out Dad, I put the pictures right at the top so you wouldn't be misled for more than a second) I haven't done anything drastic just got rid of a bit of my hair.

Well what do you think of the change? I figured I better do it now so it has 7 months to grow back before I see any of you again. As most of you know, I'm not one to do things halfway (the whole moving halfway across the world five weeks after I had no idea what I was going to do next year comes to mind) so I decided I might as well get rid of it all and donate it to cancer while I'm at it. Well it's time for bed and since I've been talking to a friend on MSN this post definately didn't get as much attention (writing) as it usually does. I guess I will write more some other time. Maybe tomorrow. Have a great day.

Blessings,

Nadine