My time is up

Tomorrow is our last day of Teacher Academy. We head home after the academy. We will be back in Amarillo on Wednesday. We have all thoroughly enjoyed our time here - we've enjoyed each other and have bonded with the teachers here. I have never been in a situation where 16 of us are living under one roof and not a cross word has been spoken. I don't even think we had situations that would cause cross words. It has truly been your prayers that have helped us through this. Some things that I didn't expect: all of Dehi is slum area - today we saw the only part that was not which was around the parliment (or something like that) I cannot tell one neighborhood from another - they all look the same. There is poverty all around. At the stop light this morning two men came up to 'autos' - those are the sort of open air go cart things used for transportation - with pythons in their hands. they were shoving them in the faces of the people in the 'autos' and wanted money to go away. Thankfully we were in real autos and we quickly locked the doors. Almost at every stop light there are deformed people, very poor people, people selling things etc at your window trying to get your attention to give them money.. I was expecting Delhi to have a poor section and a "Hunsley Hills" section and a middle class section... I wasn't expecting poverty to be everywhere. Plus the poverty is far worse than I anticipated. Another thing is I wasn't prepared for the friendliness and openness of the Indian people. We have been the recipient of kindness everywhere we go. I didn't expect and can't get used to the stares we get. 16 white people in a third world country will always get a look! The Indian people jerk their head to one side and that means "ok" or "yes". I have had a horrible time getting used to that - I don't know if they're shaking their head "no" or saying "it's ok" :) Plus, I never realized how much I shake my head when I talk. I'm sure they are totally confused about what I'm saying :) I'm probably jerking my head and saying "ok" or "yes" in Hindi but meaning something different. Oh, boy! We take our shoes off when we enter a house or classroom. I love going barefoot but my feet need a pedicure. Since the various attacks they have had in India they have stepped up security. I cannot get used to the soldiers everywhere with machine guns! We're not talking security guards - we talking fully armed soldiers. In the Metro there is a sandbag circle where the soldiers stand guard inside the circle. The food has been tremendous - not too much curry - but then I've been careful what I select. The cafeteria at school found out one of our team members is allergic to curry and they have not put it in since day one. They have been sooo nice. The cafeteria manager wears a turban and can hardly wait every day for us to come down and greet him. He stands by while we taste the food to make sure we like it. We especially like a dessert he prepared one day last week - so he is fixing it for us again tomorrow before we leave. That is the kind of service we have received everywhere - on the Metro, at the markets, in the restaurants etc. I cannot tell you how wonderful the people here have been. Not for one minute have I been fearful since the first day. The first day it really struck me that I was not in Kansas anymore and I got fearful that day. Since then I have been fine. I think even if I had to get myself to school I could do it. I feel totally safe - except when the snake guy comes to the window :) We leave shortly after the Academy tomorrow so I won't be able to blog until I get home. By then, though I will have time to post pics. If you are on Facebook many of our team members have posted pics on my facebook.
Next blog will be from Texas,
jane