It's Just the Beginning

I'll start this post with stating the facts: I've been a terrible blogger thus far. However, in my defense, I have been in India for the past two months. It was a life-changing trip and I have so many stories, both heartbreaking and happy. I'm going to share these stories over time on this blog.

My friend Amanda and I are all ready to start our adventure in India.

The first location we arrived to was Chennai, where we rested  and adjusted to the time difference and pick out our punjabis that we would be wearing for the next 2 months. We went to a huge mall that had thousands of different punjabis for us to choose from. It was all a bit overwhelming.

Amanda and I at the mall with our bags of punjabis

It was so exciting to get new punjabis and I even thought wearing them would be fun, but after about a week I realized I had fooled myself.

After getting past jet-lag, we took a flight to Calcutta. We arrived late at night and took taxis to our hotel, which was our home for the next 2 weeks. We were all in shock when we arrived and saw where we would be living. It was a very dirty hotel with rock hard beds, and it was not uncommon the see a family of rats run by.There were more girls than beds in the room, so I volunteered to share and spent  very uncomfortable nights on a smaller than twin size bed with Amanda. Despite the conditions and circumstances, Calcutta was my very favorite city we stayed in. The ministry we had the opportunity of being a part of was amazing. Among our team we were split into different groups working with different ministries in Calcutta. Some worked with kids with addictions, street kids, HIV/AIDS hospice patients, and I got the opportunity to minister to women in the red light district and also street kids. It was such a wonderful opportunity and my heart was broken for these beautiful people of India. Within the next few days and weeks I will begin to share the stories of the people I met and how they changed my life. 

A Thompson Photography