Oh oh oh, woke up today with a headache! (from June 4)

So I'm back from the east coast, and I don't know where to begin to talk about it. I had such a fun time--withholding riding, seemingly, invisibly in the backseat whilst my parents bickered. We saw all kinds of monuments and parks and memorials and shows and stuff. I say "stuff" because there's was just too much to see and all became something of a blur after awhile.

We flew to DC last Monday and set out from our hotel to the Mall to take in the monuments at night. Saw the Washington obelisk, a new memorial to WWII, and the Lincoln memorial--all of which look really cool at night. (I'll post pics eventually, don't worry.)

The next day we took in the Holocaust Memorial during the early afternoon. WWII has always been a fascinating period in world history for me, and I'm especially drawn in to the Holocaust. It might be because our family has Jewish ties or at least because my mother emphasized the tragedy to my sister and me growing up. Maybe it's because I have an overly developed sense of justice and am very sensitive. Maybe it's just because I'm human. Whatever the reason, the Holocaust always affects and intrigues me.

Now, I've been to Dachau in Germany and seen firsthand the gas chambers and the cremation ovens. I've walked between where all the barracks were. I've heard the stories from concentration camps, and I've read about the Nazis' inhumane scientific experiments, tortures, and various cruelties. I was very impressed by the Holocaust Museum/Memorial's approach to the subject at hand and how it synthesized information from before Hitler took power to after the war was over, showing step by step how his regime affected the Jews, the Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, evangelicals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Russians, Poles, mentally and physically handicapped individuals, and so on.

What I did not like about the memorial was the school groups. Teenagers--particularly ones who are incapable and/or unwilling of grasping the concept of the Holocaust--should not be taken to this museum/memorial because they did not respect the memories of the dead or the experiences of the other museum goers who were--very often--personally affected in one way or another by what they saw. However, I can only hope that one day those teenagers will be able to get a clue.

Other sights seen in Washington, DC, include: the Capitol building, the Library of Congress, the Museum of Flight, and Arlington Cemetery. I had no idea how large Arlington was. Once you're standing in one of the lots, you look as far as you can in any direction and you see rows and rows of white headstones. We went to Arlington to pay respects to a young man who used to be in my parents' youth group before they were missionaries. He was killed in Afghanistan last year.



Ok, this is a long enough blog, and I have "stuff" that I need to get done today. I'll write about the rest of the trip later. Maybe I'll throw in a blog about India again--just to mess with you, gentle reader. ;)

Badlapur, May 7, 2008, midafternoon

[BLOG WRITTEN IN RETROSPECT]

The first time I saw him, I thought he was a small one year old. With medium brown skin, big brown eyes, and sitting up, Sandeep had thin arms and legs--little more than skin and bone--limply attached to a small torso. Sitting on the bottom mattress of a bunk bed in Jubilee 4--one of four homes in Badlapur where Bombay Teen Challenge houses orphans and children rescued from the streets and/or the red light district--Sandeep looked very tiny and somewhat overwhelmed at the sight of eight white people standing around and looking at him.

Then Timothy--our guide for the day--told us that Sandeep was four and a half years old.

I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around that. When I first saw him, I knew that he was undernourished, but I had no idea by how much until Timothy told us more about him. Four and a half years old, rescued from the streets the previous week, brought to Jubilee 4 just in time to save his life--all of these details silenced me into thought. My heart hurt and my head reeled.

As we got to know the other children at Jubilee 4 over the next week and a half--or so--we found out that the other children at this home ranged from Sandeep's age up to about nine or ten. Both girls and boys live at Jubilee 4, and about half of those children are HIV positive. Some of their mothers were/are prostitutes, and some of them were simply brought to BTC (Bombay Teen Challenge) because their parents had found out that they would be cared for at BTC.

Because of their health concerns, Jubilee 4 has a nurse assigned to them and every night, the children obediently go through nightly medicinal regimes. They receive good healthcare combined with a clean environment, nutritious food prepared by Daniel the cook, filtered water. Educated on site, these children also have daily devotionals where they sing, pray, and study the Bible.

These children put my faith to shame with their intensity and perseverence, but the fact of the matter is, most of these children already have seen the dark side of humanity firsthand. They know that God makes the difference in life, and their faith is rock solid. I am very excited to see how their lives continue to shape up as they grow and mature. They're going to be movers and shakers when, or if, they grow up.

Please, remember these children. They have so much promise, and they are definitely better off than they were, but the fact of the matter is that with half of them HIV positive, we really don't know how long they will live. (There are so many variables with HIV/AIDS.) They are precious, sweet children who love automatically and blessed my heart.

Amsterdam, May 6, 2008, [time...?]

I just spent an unholy amount of money on a disappointingly small amount of food in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport--the Euro equivalent to $14 on a small quiche lorraine and an iced tea drink made with sparkling water, a detail I unfortunately overlooked until after the first swallow. *gags* Still, it's probably my last taste of western food for the next two weeks, so I try to enjoy it. The quiche redeemed the "meal" even if it wasn't very filling. That's ok--they'll probably feed us twelve more times on the next 9-hour leg of our journey.

To be honest, I'm trying to be thrilled about this trip to India. When I first applied and was accepted, I was jumping for joy. FINALLY, an opportunity to physically make a difference in the fight to stop human trafficking. But that was five and a half months ago before my final semester of college, before a play production with a taxing practice schedule, before pages and pages of papers and projects and finals and oh-my-gosh-my-family-is-coming-for-graduation-so-I-need-to-find-them-housing-and-I'm-graduating! Almost needless to say, but I was so overwhelmed before heading off to India that I confessed to my sister, "Y'know, I really don't want to go on this trip now."

So here in Amsterdam, eating with the team leader (aka Shoshana), I feign excitement. Maybe forcing a positive attitude will change my attitude for real. If not, I'll fake it for the entire trip. There's no need to drag down the rest of the team when I'm just not feeling it. Not really knowing the other members of the team, I'm already out of my comfort zone, and I haven't even arrived in Mumbai yet. How very promising... All that aside, I also feel like I way overpacked which, for an mk accustomed to global travel, is a BIG deal. (At least my baggage weight tied with another team member's.)

As usual, international travel leaves me feeling very gross. I REALLY want a shower and/or a change of clothes. I'm tired and insecure, and I don't want to hop on the next flight to Mumbai. I really want to go the opposite direction, but I bite my tongue, put on a smile, and stick it out. After all, if there's anything that I've learned about missions, it's that you just have to grin and bear it. God knows what He's doing, and even if I don't like it, I should still follow along.