In Delhi now
It is Friday morning and we arrived in New Delhi late last night. We had a great two days with the girls and spent way more time than usual and took 500 pictures if you can believe that, actually the girls loved the camera so much the were snapping away like crazy. We met them wednesday morning and it was Nisha, Kanti and Lakshmi and went to lunch and hung out for a bit than we took a boat ride to Elephant Island where we spent a few hours. The island was full of loose monkeys and they were all over. We went back to the hotel for an hour and showered and changed and went to dinner. It is amazing how much we love the food here, it is so tasty and we seem to pig out every meal.
Thursday Morning we woke up and worked out and had a great breakfast at the Taj with so much fruit and fresh stuff. We went out of the hotel and met the girls again and actually this time the two youngest ones were there. We met the two youngest 3 years ago and they were so tiny and cute and because of the help we have given the family they are both in school. They actually came to meet us in their school uniforms and were so big and grown up. They remembered us from the previous trips and how much we like the chai tea and they greeted us with hugs and screaming Chai Chai. I can't begin to share the sweetness and warmth we share with the whole family, with the little bit of help we have given, it has truly changed their lives and they are so grateful and it really feels great to spend time with them. We went to lunch and then took a taxi to a market area near the airport, we were actually heading to a beach to play and relax but after an hour in a little taxi with 7 of us plus the driver PJ and I had enough and we decided to go shopping with them instead. Since our other trips we took the older girls shopping we wanted to take the little ones for some new shoes and nice outfits. After a bit of shopping we went to nice cafe and ate and had Dessert and Coffee and relaxed for a while. We brought them a ATM card and to take out money once a month to simplify getting them money each month. We used to fedex them cash and then for a while they picked up money once a month at my friends office in Mumbai but he closed it and I figured this would be the best way to get them money once a month. You should have seen Nisha's face when i was teaching her how to use the ATM. It was like a magic machine, stick this card in and it spits out cash.
It was a great couple days and I am glad we came, the little ones really wore us out spending the day with them and we have new respect for all you moms and dads out there.
I will be posting some Galleries but since we took so many pictures I uploaded them to my Mac Gallery at http://gallery.mac.com/jake72 if anyone wants to take a look at the full range of 500 unedited pics.
We are going to be in Delhi for a few days and will be spending time with Navneet at the office and I am sure pigging out on more local food. Delhi seems to have more of a Chinese influence so the restaurants are both Indian and Chinese food. We are off to another day and I will hopefully keep updating the site and documenting our travels.