I Voted!!!!

This is just a random pic. I don't really have any new ones from this week.

YAY!!!!!! I went to America today to vote. Well...I went to the embassy to vote! I was so happy because I didn't meet the absentee requirements before I left, but then I found out I could vote at the embassy. Now I feel a little bit better about myself.

We've been in language learning this week. Yesterday I learned how to count. My tutor asked me to count the tires on a car and I counted them out loud in Spanish. She looked at me crazy. Just a minute ago, we rode an autoricksaw home from a friends house and got lost. Once we finally found the house, the driver said "Saat." I thought he was trying to say sorry for getting us lost. I said, "It's ok, don't worry about it." Well, he was saying 70 which is 20 more rupees than we had agreed on. My friend looked at me like I was stupid. I'm getting crazy looks from locals and my own friends.

Hopefully by this time next week, we'll be in our flat and we'll also know who the next President will be. I'm so excited about both events.


There are a few verses that talking about praying and submitting to those in authority, but I'm going to quote two different version of this verse: 1 Timothy 2:1-3

"I urge, then, first of all, that request, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for
everyone--for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quite lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior." (NIV version)


"The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live." (The Message; it's a paraphrase not a translation)


Pray and Vote. It's more that just a duty. I'm so glad I was able to vote, b/c if I didn't I couldn't have said that.

Yeah, I know this pic. is crooked. I still like it.


Health update: Ankle isn't swollen anymore. My boogers are not longer black from the pollution, but they are green b/c I'm sick. It's weird that I have a cold w/ a runny nose, sore throat, and cough when it's 80 degrees outside. Yeah, I said it...Boogers. What else do you call them?

Thanks Guys!!!

We signed a lease last night!!!!!!!!!!!! Our landlords called us back, and we worked everything out. Thanks for your prayers.

The Taj, Jesus, and Japan

As you can see from the pic., we visited the Taj Mahal today. Yeap, it's pretty much one of the 7 wonders of the world. It didn't look real. We got to go inside and see the actual tomb. The guy who built it had two other wives buried on the property, but their tombs looked like dog houses compared to this.

The best part of the trip wasn't seeing the actual Taj, but watching and talking to people.

We had a lot of fun trying to seek pics of people without them knowing it. We think this guy resembled Jesus. The funnier thing was that we started to realize people were doing the same thing to us. They would walk by us and have their camera under their arm and we would hear it click.

One guy just walked between us and posed while his friend took the picture. Then his friend came up to me and asked if I was Japanese!!!!!!! My family is probably laughing b/c we always talk about our little squinty eyes. I wasn't wearing sunglasses and I was squinting, but clearly, for many reasons this man is confused.

#1) I look like a Sumo wrestler compared to any Japanese person, male or female. They are tiny. #2) My hair is brown w/ tons of poof. Their hair is black and flat.
#3) I have blue eyes. They typically don't.

This is a picture of a women scooping up with her hands fresh...well just look closely and you can tell. They gather it, dry it, and use it for fuel for fires.

Let me add a little disclaimer about this pic. I didn't walk up to her and take it. I rode past her in an cycle rickshaw and turned back in my seat to take the pic. I'm surprised it turned out.

Cats go through our garbage...Cows go through theirs.

These are cute little kids riding home from school in an auto rickshaw.

Also, our lease fell through with our landlords. As of right now, we don't have anywhere to move into once our training is over. Please pray that something will open up and we'll be able to start our work. I'm getting a little tired of this tourist stage.

I'll post again next week.

Gracias...Si, Por Favor!!!

Those are the words that try to come out of my mouth each time I talk to a national. Today I answered a rickshaw driver by saying, "Si." Speaking Spanish would be great if I were living in South America, but I'm in South Asia. Also, I can't speak Spanish. I don't even know what "Gracias...Si, Por Favor" means.

Ankle update: Still Swollen and beautiful.

I'll probably be updating the blog once a week, not daily. Check back next week. We're doing a little traveling over the next few days, so I'm sure I'll have some more stories.

Jet Lag Ain't No Joke

Clearly the Jet Lag is talking. Although, I hail from South Carolina I try to abstain from saying "ain't." However I cannot sleep at night and I'm going crazy. So please ignore any typos and anything that doesn't make sense. Actually when I'm not jet lagged I don't make sense. My friends named my language "Allisonese." If you understand me, you're one of the fortunate ones.

This picture was taken by a friend at the rebar accident site. Of course, I didn't see the sign. I think they should use my picture instead of the stickman on the sign.

Here are some pics of my future apartment. We'll make the move in a few weeks.
This is from the balcony looking into the main room.

The above pic is one of the bedrooms, and the pic below is of our first pet. They eat mosquitoes, so he's a keeper.

This is our first day out in our salwar kameezes. You can't see the pants in the picture. The style is a bad combination of Aladdin and MC Hammer pants. My pants matched my dupatta (my scarf) which made me look like a piece of asparagus. If anyone would like to borrow it for Halloween, you could be a giant leprechaun.

I'm about to fall out from exhaustion. We were extremely busy today. We visited temples of four different religions. I've never witnessed lostness and oppression to that magnitude until today. Pray for the darkness that plagues South Asia. All we can do is pray and be obedient to His leading.

Phone Numbers and Rebar

I truly believe everyday of my life has been an adventure. At the end of the day when I write in my journal, I can usually recap an odd occurance that defined the day. So, when I signed up for this "trip" I knew I would have a story or two to tell.

That's the final farewell picture.

The tales begin now and forgive me if I bore you. I understand that my momma will most likely be the only person to read the entire post.

On my third connection flight, I sat next to a Sikh. A Sikh follows the teachings of 10 gurus. Sikh's are often distinguished by wearing turbans which cover their hair that has never been cut.

On the 8 hour flight, I sat in between the Sikh(named Gurpreet) and another older local man. At the beginning of the flight I told Gurpreet that I didn't sleep on planes. After the flight took off, I took out my iPod to listen and he stopped me. He told me it would cause the pilot to crash the plane. Of course, I knew iPods were allowed, but I was too shy to tell him otherwise. At this point I prayed for God to knock me out b/c I didn't think I could make it without music. God granted that request. I was practically naraleptic. If it weren't for Gurpreet who continually poked me to tell me something, I would have slept the entire time. I fell asleep a few times while he was talking to me. The end of the story is that this guy asked me to move back to Canada with him and his wife. He told me that he could find me a good job, and then he gave me his son's phone number.


Day 1 was eventful to say the least. One thing I've realized that this city is absolutely insane, so this will be the first of many eventful days. The day began with our supervisors giving us a tour of the market. While she was leading us, she was hit by a car. It didn't knock her down; it just bent the car's mirror backwards. I screamed like my arm had just been chopped off and everyone turned to look. Great start to the day.


He's a little video clip of my first ride in an autorickshaw. I thought we were going to take out the man walking when we turned.





I've always liked Romans 10:14-15 which says, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"


I love that passage, but the beautiful feet part always bothered me b/c I think feet are gross. The below pictures are my battlewounds from my first day here.

Are these the beautiful feet that Paul's talking about?


I'm still not sure what made my ankle swell so much, but I thought I would have to cut my foot out of my sandal.

The event that resulted in this picture happened as I was attempting to cross the insanely busy road. I was stepping up onto a curb and avoiding a big hole when my pant leg got caught on some rusty rebar that was sticking out. Since my pant leg was stuck, I began hopping to keep my balance which in turn caused me to teeter back and forth over the road. Anyways the result was a ripped pant leg, a bloody ankle, and laughter from all my friends.

Pretty much, my left foot has caused more stress than any other factor since the move.

The first pic. is an Indian all vegetarian meal. The second picture is an attempt to redeem our lunch w/ some pizza.

The pizza had this glue-like cheese oozing from it. This is their version of stuffed crust. Also, this pic. doesn't do the oozing justice.

The last two days have been full of learning things the hard way.

The main lessons learned have been:

1) Don't sit next to a man on a plane that's trying to marry off his son.

2) Cars don't stop for people.

3) Don't cuff your pants when rebar is around.

4) Don't order stuffed crust pizza.

Stay tuned for more post. I'll load pics of me in my new outfits next.