"that tasted like alka seltzer"

So today we had a bit of a touristy day...we had our breakfast and then went to the IJM office for master game and devotion.  Julia made the master game and separated the teams and of course my team won.  Kelly led the devotion in the office and that was really good to spend that time in prayer with the office and to continue sharing experiences with them.  After we left there we went to the mother house (the sisters of charity where mother Theresa lived. We went there last year as well but it was still really nice to go there and its just such a peaceful place within the city.  Also when we went there last year it was really crowded because there was a mass going on so it pretty empty there this year and easier to walk around and experience the place. 

From there we went to see the Victoria Memorial and St. Johns cathedral just to take some pictures.  I’m not exactly a “touristy” person, it was cool to see all the things but definitely not a highlight of the trip.  Julia and I wanted to have some sweet lime soda from the street so we got this man to make us some.  Let’s just say that it was not up to par with any of the places that we had previously had it.  It had some masala spices in it and it kind of tasted like spicy alka seltzer.  It was really bad and although I was trying to be nice and drink most of it, I really just couldn’t handle it.  Julia was smarter and tried to pour some out behind a tree but she ended up pouring a lot of it on her feet so they were sticky for a while after we left.     

We headed back to the hotel after that and then went to meet Rupa for lunch at Udipi.  Rupa is Nepali and does ministry work with professional people about leadership as Christians.  She also does aftercare things with girls from Nepal and working to do prevention work in Nepal.  She is such an amazing woman and has an incredible story of her faith journey.   It was really nice to get to visit with her and hear about what she has been doing and keep up with her life. 

When we left lunch we went to fabindia to do some shopping, followed by going to Dakshinapan.  Last year we went to this team room called Dolly’s and I had this chai tea sundae essentially.  It was so delicious and I had been looking forward to getting another one in this year.  I had not hyped it up and it was just as delicious as I remembered.  I really like chai, even though I used to think that it tasted like insence in my mouth. 

Biju and Ana invited us to dinner at their house that night and so after we left there we went for dinner with them and some of the interns.  They got take out from Tamarind (a place we had eaten at a few days before) and it was delicious.  It was nice to get to hang out and spend more time with the interns and converse with them some about life and all that.   We had the idea to do a prank on Mahdu while we were there because we heard that she really liked pranks and so we had a faux group photo op and had Gabriel pick her up (because she is tiny) like she was simba in the Lion King.  It was hilarious and she was so mad about it.  Well she wasn’t really mad but only kind of mad. 

It was pretty late at that point so Biju walked us to the cab and was telling us about an operation that had just happened that was successful and how the girl had run away to the police station and the man at the police station had been at the training that James did when he was in India.  To be able to see something that was tangible and evident of how important it is for the training and just seeing an example of how it really is working was awesome.  After we left we pretty much all just crashed after our devotion time.  

Last day in the office

Mother Theresa's tomb

Victoria memorial

Our "yummy" sweet lime soda

My delish chai float