redfort

Ramnagar and the "Delux" Bus

This last weekend we had the chance to go to Ramnagar to visit the Jim Corbet national tiger preserve. We spent a grueling 8 hours overnight ride on a "delux" bus that turned out to be a stinky sweat hole that was overcrowded and not airconditioned. It made for a great night, rachel and i got approxamatly no sleep. Afterwards we hired a taxi and went on a trek through the jungle to an old temple. Then we went to the tiger reserve and saw some awesome tigers. Afterwards we got dinner and then caught the night train back to Delhi. All in all it was one killer weekend. Also Ben and Naman went with us, it was a party all day. Good times with good people!

Thank you everyone...

First off, thanks to all of you who are praying for us. Rachel and i are being blessed way more than we ever would have warranted on our own. As you all may or may not know indians think americans are rich. Even nice well intentioned indians think we're loaded. So the lady rachel works with here in delhi at the WHO that was gracious enough to let us stay at her place is charging us 50$ a night. That's right, she is charging us approxamtly 4 times more than we were paying in the states for our own appartment. Needless to say my greatest desire was to abandon that place as quickly as possible. So rachel and i both fasted for a place we could actually afford, and that day at church we met the smith family. They offered us a place to stay for free- as if it was no big deal, like the miracle that they had just preformed for us was small change. Anywho things are great in derek and rachel land, just thought i would let you all know.

ALSO: Just to let you all know you can leave comments, if you have questions or comments about blog posts please comment and we will respond quickly. I feel kinda of bad that this blog is more like an infomercial and less like family bonding. In addition to that notice, i am sorry but pictures may decrease, due to the fact that it is stupid to roam the streets with a 1000$ camera. Anywho, i hope you all will still read.. Love Derek and Rachel!

In India... finally.

Since the last post, we have left Singapore behind and started our adventure in India. Times were tough for the terrific two-some. Tiger airways, our supposed “budget” airline forced us to abandon 13+ kg of our possessions to be picked up upon our return to Singapore. Included in these beloved possessions was Derek’s famous satchel, which he has been depressed and moody about since. After a 4.5 hr flight from Singapore to Bangalore, we found out that we’d be forced to journey far, far into the heart of Bangalore in order to find acceptable lodging. (We landed in a new airport, just 2 weeks old that was far from the city.) The next day we explored Bangalore and were nearly trodden/run over a plethora of times. Bangalore is swell; the temperature was fantastic, the people were nice, and the food was great. That evening, we caught another flight to New Delhi on a much more pleasant budget airline, IndiGo. We arrived around midnight and found a taxi driver waiting with our names on a crumpled piece of paper, which he was holding up. After an hour and a half drive and a search for the house of a WHO employee in the dark, we found the house of Ms. Madhu Sareen. We will be staying with her for the next week and then possibly moving in closer to the city. In the morning we started our first day in New Delhi; Rachel going to work at the WHO and Derek exploring the city. Work at the WHO was pleasant. Rachel’s boss is a nice man from the Maldives who will be guiding her on creating a document to evaluate the Healthy Settings program in Southeast Asia. In order to complete this task, Rachel will need to make calls and send e-mails to all the country offices around SE Asia to ask them for progress reports and then compile them into a document. There are many other interns working with her, from places such as the US, Nepal, Myanmar, and many other countries. We are hoping to travel with them on the weekends to sites around India. While Rachel was at work, Derek wandered aimlessly throughout the greater New Delhi area. After making 3 or 4 new friends and hours of searching, he finally arrived at the mission home. He will probably be trying to work with the missionaries and a humanitarian aid couple, as well as possibly teaching institute. THE END.

last days of the Sing-Era

The last few days of our stay in Singapore were spent seeing a few sights that we had not yet gotten around to. One of these was the famous Singapore botanical gardens, which included a 150 yr old tree and incalculable numbers of orchid species. Singapore has one of the best orchid hybrid production facilities, and it was fascinating to see how they created hybrids and how many beautiful orchids there are. We also spent this time practicing our nature photography skills, and Rachel tutored me (Derek) on photographic technique. We also celebrated our smallest cousin Jonathan’s birthday. One of the highlights of the evening was throwing Derek into the pool. The whole family came together to participate in this warm and loving activity, wherein Derek practiced being a dead weight and the family practiced dragging dead weight 100 m across cement to a pool. We also went to Chinatown with Rachel’s mom and attended a cool Hindu ritual at a local temple. We really enjoyed our time with the family, it was amazing getting to know them again after so many years and we are hoping to come back through Singapore for a week or two before going back to the States.

Singapore to Malaysia and back again...

One of the many places we were able to go with the Suresh family was on a super cool trip to Malaysia to Melaka and Kota Tinggi. We left early Sunday morning and drove up to historic Melaka, the original home of the Southeast Asian Peranakan, or in other words, half Malaysian, half Chinese people. The town is riddled with historic sites from conquerors and colonizers, including the Dutch, the French, and the English. After a brief but informative visit, we got back into the car and traveled to the Eastern coast of Malaysia to a small town named Kota Tinggi. Auntie Evelyn was fantastic enough to reserve a cabin in the rainforest reserve just outside of the city. We had a great time playing cards, table tennis, and “throw pears at the tree” games. Also, the entire area was infested with birds that made really super-neato sounds. Some of them would mimic you, and this caused us and the kids to spend countless hours trying to convince the birds to say something interesting. That night, we chartered a boat to go up the Kota Tinggi River to see the fireflies along the banks in the mangrove trees. The fireflies were beautiful; they hovered in the branches of trees in large numbers trying to imitate Christmas lights. The person steering the boat, wanting to give the passengers a memorable experience, drove the boat into the mangroves, where Derek was able to capture several fireflies for the enjoyment of the kids onboard. The next morning we got up and went to the Kota Tinggi waterfalls, where they have built several super cool water slides. (See pictures). It was a neat place because there were no tourists, only the native Malaysians, including fully garbed Muslim women, playing in the water. We returned that evening to await the arrival of Rachel’s mom, who would be flying in around midnight.

Picture Commentary

Shona and her new malaysian hat, she so cute it hurts to look at her. And she is popular too. Really Popular.

We couldn't help but snap a photo of these two monks touring an old british fort that had once been a dutch church.

the beautiful waterfalls of Kota Tinggi