We're back!

coconutgrove
Originally uploaded by waterlooHildreds.

The first thing that I noticed about Goa, was a nice orderly road. It was much cleaner as well than Delhi, without the apparent disparity between rich and poor. When we got to the hotel, Dianne and I headed to the beach. Ben and Joel the hotel pool (pictured) for an endless game of water polo.

The boys quickly zeroed in on chicken masala as their staple their with plain nan. Chicken in spicy gravy, with a flat bread eaten fresh. Tuesday we also spent at the beach and the pool with a siesta after lunch. Dianne and I discovered a beach restaurant and bar a little further along the beach that we watched the sunset from Tuesday night. The sun sets about 6:30 here.

Wednesday we went into Panjim. We saw 400 year old St. Francis church there. Older than the Taj Mahal. We also went into a magic carpet shop, with a beautiful green carpet. The sales guy just wanted us to take "one more look at it" and we arrived for our boat trip just in the nick of too late. Once again we got to watch the sunset by boat.

Before the boat trip we went in a public restroom and had our first experience with floor mount toilets that you don't actually sit on. The boat trip was on the river Mandovi past some beautiful sights. Just like a Bollywood movie there was unexpected singing and dancing.

On the way back to Coconut Grove I noticed that Dlink and Siemens are here. Why oh why couldn't HCL be in Goa?

On Thursday we went in to Margao. We had already found a beach hut where we bought some t-shirts. In Margao we were looking for cds and shorts and tshirts. One of the music stores that we checked out turned out to be upstairs over the market. It was right next to the leprosy clinic and there were a few men that looked very ill on pallets on the landing. It was a music store with instruments instead of cds. They had drums, and a bunch of guitars. I didn't play any guitars as my family was eager to get going. The market itself was quite neat. It was indoors, with a maze of aisles and lots of tiny shops. A lot of it was food, but there was a fair amount of flea market type stuff as well.

Friday we played in the ocean for 2 whole hours. The locals couldn't believe that we stayed in so long. There was a live band at the resort Friday night. They played "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes", without the acapella introduction. They also played something from Eric Clapton's unplugged that I liked. Ben and Joel and I watched from the restaurant balcony for a while. Saturday we went back to reality. Lokesh met us and took us home, and Dianne and I went to the local grocery store and picked up a little food.

Off to Goa

It is a school holiday this week, so Dianne, Ben, Joel and I are headed off for a tropical beach vacation. We will be staying at:
Coconut Grove,
Ranwaddo, Betalbatim Beach,
Betalbatim, Salcete, Goa 403 713, India.
The phone number is +91-22-55551101, but that might just be for bookings.

Saturday Dianne and I went to the boy's school to meet their teachers. It seemed exactly like meet the teacher night at home. We met Ben's business teacher and we really liked him as well. He is probably a few years older than Dianne and I and has had a career in business first. Joel's math teacher and he really seem to like one another and we met him as well. We had met the principal the previous week and thought that she was quite good. There is much about the kid's school experience that seemes good, and they still seem to be determined to profit from the experience on their part.

We all went to the Delhi International Christian Fellowship this morning as Ben didn't have soccer this week. We also listened to Brook preach in Waterloo about prayer while we had our supper tonight. We will take lots of pictures in Goa and hope to have another post with pictures when we return on Saturday.

Women's Bible Study

Thanks to some awesome driving and finding by our driver Lokesh, Dianne made it to ladies bible study yesterday morning. She was still happy when she went to bed last night.
Today is our wedding anniversary. Happy 21st wedding anniversary Dianne! I am very proud to be your husband!
love Rich

Hi from Australia

Tim in Australia
Originally uploaded by waterlooHildreds.

The picture is of Tim and Christine at the ex after both of them worked as camp counsellors for the summer. I am including a snip of a mail that Tim sent me yesterday. Hopefully Tim will post his own entry soon.

"right now i'm staying with jen in newcastle, she rang me the day you did, and i came down here the next night... i was talking to a fellow who runs an outdoor centre and he is going to give me an interview and a trial. i heard you went to the canadian club. thats kinda cool, musta made life a little better. i've made a couple friends even, jenns neighbours are really cool ... i'm not so scared maybe as i was. take care tim"

happy thanks giving from joel

today was fun we went church but this one was filled with white people and some black ones so it was funny when mister said this is what haven is like.then later on some people form the church ask us if we wanted to go out for dinner we said yes right away so thats fun ben had a soccer game so he had to miss church he lost that game but he had fun.

Happy Thanksgiving!

IM000086.JPG
Originally uploaded by waterlooHildreds.

Saturday morning I spoke to Tim on the phone in Sydney. He is staying in a hostel there, feeling a little overwhelmed (I guess that Sydney is huge) but otherwise fine. I hope that he reads this and makes his own post soon.
Saturday evening we had Lianne over for dinner and celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. It was fantastic that she was here for our first month. She and Dianne went out shopping a number of times. It made my heart happy to see them giggling like schoolgirls over things. Dianne is my best friend and we have been known to have the whole family giggling like schoolgirls at dinner, but there is something about same sex friendship that is truly sustaining as well. We said our good-byes and she and her driver dropped Ben on the way at a soccer teammates house so that he could be at his 10:00 am soccer game and we could go to church.
We went to the Delhi International Christian Fellowship this week. This is a non-denominational congregation made up primarily of foreigners living in Delhi. They meet in the gym of the British school, just like Heritage Green did when we went there. No basketball nets though. There were other Canadians there who asked us to Thanksgiving Dinner during the passing of the peace. Turned out that the Ann the Canadian lady plays a rocking "He's got the whole world in his hands," on the piano. They had leavened baked goods after the service as well as tea and coffee that you could put your own cream and sugar in. We left with the minister after agreeing to meet at 6:00 at the gate to the Canada Club at the consulate.
The traffic was bad on the way back to Delhi, so we got there about 6:10. Barry Mackey, the Regional Program Manager for Habitat for Humanity and our host met us at the security guards office, and signed us in to the consulate. The dinner was awesome! Easy conversation, chicken instead of turkey but wonderful stuffing and pumpkin pie. Barry knows the McLeans from Knox Waterloo. The consular general also sends her regards to the McLeans. At the end of the dinner we went around the table saying what we are thankful for. Canada, the most blessed country on earth, my Grandma's good progress to recovery from her broken hip, the love of Dianne, Ben and Joel that they would accompany me half way around the world and the love of family and friends at home.

Nature As Learning

Nature As Learning
Originally uploaded by waterlooHildreds.

hey guys,
it's me again ,i'm still enjoying my university experience and i'm still meeting new friends .tonight i went to a thanksgiving dinner hosted by the lucf and that was an awesome time of fellowship as well as a great home cooked meal . i enjoyed it a lot . there isn't a lot of news to tell other than i have begun to go out with a boy named matt landry ,who's a third year rec student .we have been going out for little more than a week and it's been a lot of fun. on saturday we saw the movie friday night lights which is a greatmovie
happy thanksgiving and lots of love
christine

Our apartment

Apartment View
Originally uploaded by waterlooHildreds.

Thanks to Jamie and Bhakta who got me a way to get pictures from my camera. This is a picture from the landing by the elevator for our 8th floor apartment. The landings are open to the outdoors, which I like quite a bit. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms a kitchen and a living/dining area. The cars in the picture are parked against a wall. Just over the wall is another world. A bit above the center of the photograph is a village of tents. One of the first buildings that we really noticed coming from the airport is the DLF Gateway building. What we didn't see at night coming from the airport, is that in the shadow of this building is a stagnant looking pond and more tents.
DLF built quite a bit of Gurgaon, including our apartment. The villagers continue to live among the new buildings. They drive their sheep at the intersection of the main road between Delhi and Bombay and the road with all of the Gurgaon malls. Presumably we buy the mutton from these sheep at the butcher's shop. I don't feel very equipped to understand this, coming from a sparsely populated land like Canada.

Elephant Spotting

A pachyderm is an animal with a very thick skin! I saw 2 elephant examples and bought a couple of shirts to celebrate. Dianne and I also saw monkeys and a tree full of parrots. We also saw the seventh wonder of the world, all in one day. Sunday our driver Lokesh picked us ap at 6:00 am in a Toyota Qualis. We picked up Sushil and Shilpa and Lianne and headed for Agra. We had 3 lovely meals, but the main event was the Taj Mahal. It is made of marble, with inlays of semi precious stones. Somehow 350 years ago they got stone from Chili to make water lilly pictures from. The actual monument itself was packed with people from all over the world. We had to take our shoes off and line up for a few minutes to go inside. We lined up outside with still a good view. There were eagles riding thermals over the towers which lean outwards slightly so that if there was an accident they wouldn't fall in to the tomb. Inside the tomb was this marvelous inlay work. After our guide took us to a store where they were still making inlays completely by hand. On the way back we walked along the side of this lovely shaded garden. It was like a different world. There was only the seven of us. We were by the area where the band played when the Mogul was in town. There was a tree that must have had 40 bright green parrots in it.
At the same time Dianne and I were in Agra, Ben and Joel were on a school trip in the Himalayas. Joel got to go white water rafting, and was bursting with stories when I drove out with another new driver to get them.