June 23...A LONG day!

Tonight I am finally sitting in the "hotel" room in India!  We arrived safely after about 26 hours of travel (including layovers).  We left on Thursday around 5pm from Norfolk International.  After we got all 12 bags of luggage checked in, we made it to our terminal in plenty of time.

We then flew from Norfolk to Washington Dulles.  When we landed, I was greeted with a great surprise.  My dear friends, the Nalls, live close to Dulles and said they were going to drive out to the airport to meet me and Mary and pray with us before we took off.  Our meeting was short, but I am so blessed that I was able to see them!

Once back at the terminal, we admired the size of our plane to Doha, Qatar.  Mary and I also busied ourselves with taking pictures (well, her more than me!)

At the Dulles airport, you ride a train to get from terminal to terminal...

(This picture is for Thomas...its the train tracks at Dulles airport!)

We finally boarded our flight for Qatar a few minutes late.  The flight, though long (12 hours long) was a nice flight.  They served dinner as soon as we got to "cruising altitude" and then served breakfast right before the descent into Doha.  There was a personal TV screen in the back of each each on which you could choose from movies or TV shows to watch, or music to listen to.  I watched The Vow while we ate dinner and then tried to sleep some.  I won't lie...it was hard to sleep!  So, after a while I was awake again.  Then I read a book.  Before we knew it...or before we couldn't handle any more time on the plane... we landed.  Our flight was about 30 minutes late landing and we only had about 30 minutes to make our connecting flight.  We ran...scratch that!  We walked quickly through the airport to get to our next flight.  Thankfully Qatar airlines held the flight until we had all boarded and on our way to India we were!  This flight also served a dinner meal (may I just say here that international flights are great!).  Then I tried to nap again, and was more successful this time.  And finally...we landed in India!  Once our friend A. got there, we loaded things up and headed to our accommodations at the guest house.  Riding in a car in India is a thing to experience.  Since we landed early in the morning there was almost no traffic (a blessing), so no one paid any attention to traffic signs/lights.  When driving, you just find where your car fits and go...no traffic lanes, crosswalks, etc.  When we got to the guest house, we got checked in and had about 4 hours for resting.  I tried to sleep, but it just wasn't happening.  So, I finally gave up and took a shower.  Then I sat on my bed and read a devotion book, then my Bible, and finally the book I started on the airplane.  I also ate my breakfast (a pop tart brought from home!).   At 10 we had a team meeting to go over everything we needed to know (like cultural differences, our schedule for the week, etc).  Then it was time time for lunch.  After another experience of riding in the car, we came to the mall.  Its 3 stories with the food court at the top (I think we are eating there again tomorrow, so I will try to get some pictures).  I had KFC for lunch, but it tastes totally different than in the US.  Its more spicy...yum!  And then we headed to the market to go shopping.  The 5 ladies met 2 of A's friends and went shopping for some traditional Indian clothing.  I bought 2 salawar kameez and one kurta.  

Traffic in Kolkata

The grounds here at the guest house

The key to our room at the guest house

The market where we shopped for handiworks. 

Two of my Kurtas (tops)

After staying up a VERY long time, we headed back to the guest house, ordered pizza and then headed to bed.  Up tomorrow, 2 house churches and planning for our days at the slum school!

*For the record, I started typing this yesterday, but fell asleep while doing so.  Then I couldn't get Internet this morning to finish it, so here it is now!