The Trip

So here are some more details on the Trip. We(Cleveland, Doug, Lu and I) fly out of SeaTac Thanksgiving night. We'll have to be at the airport no later then 4:30pm for our 6:00 flight. We will arrive in London Friday around 11:00am local time, 3:00am PST. We have a 9 hour layover and we will be heading into London to spend the day. Leave London around 8:00pm. Fly all night again and arrive Mumbai Saturday morning. But our traveling has not yet ended. We then will meet up some people in Mumbai who will drive all of us 8 hours up north on the new "superhighway" to a small town called Vyara. We will check into a hotel and most likely just crash. Sunday we will be going to a church there. While in Vyara we will be visiting surrounding neighborhoods and families for a few days. When we do head for Lasina we will take a 10 hour train and will be picked up by Kiron in Nagpur. That 10 hour train ride will be topped of with a 4 hour car ride to Lasina, our final destination.

I can't wait to get to the home and be immersed in the atmosphere and culture. I look forward to so many things; the kids, the food, learning Hindi, learning a new culture, chasing cobras and becoming the Cricket Master, or CM for short. During my 4 1/2 month stay I will be helping the children with English, computer skills and any other educational problem the kids may have. Learning this different culture is very important to me. Since I'll be over there during December, I will be celebrating my birthday and Christmas there. I would assume they have their own way of celebrating both of these holidays and I am looking forward to learning their traditions.

I now have all my medicine taken care of. I have 164 malaria pills, one pill for every day I'm there and for a month after I leave. All I need to do now is pack my clothes, get some bug spray and make sure I have enough other medicine like Tums and Pepto Bismal in case I get sick. I can't wait for this trip to finally happen.

So I will be in India from November 29th through April 9th, but I still won't be back in the States yet. I added a pit stop on my return flight home. My plane leaves Mumbai Thursday, April 9th at 2:45am. I will then fly back to London where I will board another plane headed for Amsterdam. I will hang out in Amsterdam until my buddy Preston comes in from Groningen in the late afternoon. We will expierence all that Amsterdam has to offer, Anne Frank museum, Heineken Brewery, Van Gogh Museum and of course the partying. We'll party hearty through Sunday when we will head back to Groningen for an FC Groningen match on April 12th. I will stay with him in Groningen at the university till April 16th, when I will then make my final flight home.

While in India I will have limited internet access. I will keep updates on both facebook and my blog. I will most likely only update my blog bi-monthly. I will keep everyone informed of what is going on and what I'm doing. My time to leave is almost here and I have been waiting for that moment for the last 4 months. It's now time for Conquistador to get out and spread his wings.