More pictures ...

Ok, a few pictures to share while we still have a good internet connection.

Here is the bathroom sink on the train:

Beautiful, eh? HA! All those black marks under the mirror are bugs or the remains of what used to be a bug. eck ... by looking at this sink you can imagine what the bathroom was like. I only used it once the whole entire 29 hours. I can be a camel when I need to be!!! I knew that would come in handy once we got here.

Here's a picture of a little boy I saw looking out the window of the train:


He was so cute. He was just watching everything go by. He was smiling and waving like he knew everyone!


Right now we are at a hotel in an area that has a very high population of the people group that we have been lead too. Just being here has been good for us. There is a lot less English spoken here, so it's been hard to communicate. For instance, when I checked in (the rest of the family was still on the way here from the airport) I asked if the room had 2 beds and they said yes. I get checked in and go up to our room and there is one bed. I call the front desk and explain who is coming again and what kind of room we need, so they send me to another room. I walk in and there are 2 beds, but they are both twin beds! hmpf. I call again. Explain again ... finally walk into the room we have now that has 2 double beds! Success! Here is a picture out the window of our hotel room right now:


We see people walking on the top of their roofs and children playing. It's still just very surreal to be here. We are learning everyday and as one day leads to the next, pretty soon we will feel even more settled. We have to remind ourselves that it's only been 1 week!!!

For dinner, we tried to go to Pizza Hut ... unsuccessfully. We had seen one not far from the hotel on our way in. So we go outside and talk to several baby taxi drivers and none of them have a clue what we are talking about. So we finally give up and go inside to the restaurant in the hotel. Our oldest loves hamburgers. There are not hamburgers available (made of beef) in the areas that we have been in at least, so our oldest decided to be brave and try a chicken burger! It was good! Here's a picture of it (don't know why it's turned, it's not like that in windows media!):

So we are trying new things every meal. I do long for a deep dish pizza, and I came close to getting one tonight ... although I suspicion it probably wouldn't be the same as what I am used to ... and we long for some 'comfort foods' but we are doing well. There is definitely more available here than what we thought. It just takes a lot of effort to get it!

The fam is getting over their illnesses a little bit today I think. They have all been on antibiotics for 24 hours now, so that is helping. Thank you for lifting us up, we certainly don't want to be set back with illness right now. We are finally getting over our jetlag and we would just like a few days of feeling 'normal' for a while.

Tomorrow we will be going to Bangalore to meet with some others that are here with us... so it's been really good to get to see other parts of India so quickly. It really has helped us put the area that we are at in perspective as to how that part compares to the rest of the country. We heard that there is a bowling alley there ... wow ... we've never been so excited about a bowling alley! Our kids love to bowl and they always were excited to go in the States, but now it's a whole other level of excitement. It's amazing how quickly seemingly simple things can bring great joy ... yeah!