On our second day of teaching, we were introduced to a new girl at our school. Her name is Shivani, and she is 6 or 7 years old. At the beginning of our day, we took notice of her because she was new and looked a bit different from the rest of our kids.  She had a very skinny face and darkness surrounded her eyes. The most noticeable thing was the amount of dirt on her clothes, face, and her hair. Her hair was in a ponytail, the back was matted, and her hair was so dry it stuck straight up. I don’t think any of us thought much of it at first until later in the day. Her slim face made her ..read more

I can’t believe that we are already on day four! Time really does fly when you’re having fun and playing countless games of red light green light, down by the banks and singing every nursery song you can think of. I have been in awe at how amazing the teens have been! There couldn’t be a more different place than Utah to be and they are not only adjusting well but also appreciating this amazing place we are in. As an adult leader it is so fun to watch these teens embrace a culture and place so different than their own. Our day started off in our school where they do their morning prayers, medi ..read more

The past few days have been the craziest and best days of my life. The first few days were extremely tiring. We boarded our first flight and flew for 10 hours. I got the middle seat so that was not ideal but I sat next to Talli and Lizzie so it was still super fun. The flight felt so long and barely slept. For dinner on the flight I had mushroom pasta and it was actually not too bad. For breakfast we had a breakfast sandwich which tasted a little like cardboard but I still ate it cuz I was super hungry. We also had fruit which was super good. After we landed in London we had a 10 hour layover ..read more

  We’re finally here! After way too many hours spent on planes, in security lines, and squished in back seats, we made it to our lovely lodge. I have been blessed with Liam, Noah, and Holland as roommates in the only room with a loft. Score! We wasted no time after getting to the lodge and woke up at 7am sharp, to have time for the water heater to warm up. Unfortunately, most of us were still subject to the polar plunge instead of a hot shower. Nevertheless we were ready to embark on the bumpy ride to the school, weaving in and out of traffic the entire way. Today I went into the school w ..read more

I <3 Micro Indians We finally made it to India after about 3 days of travel! The first 10-hour plane ride was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. We then had a 10-hour layover in London. London was so cool! All the building were so awesome. They had so many birds in London. The next long plane ride went by so fast. I slept the whole 10 hours. The car ride was easily the worst part of the travel. The roads are very bumpy and windy. Every time I would try and sleep, I would bang my head against the window. We got to the hotel at about 12 at night. The next day we got to the schools. O ..read more

Pain And Gains Beginning with our travel, our 40-hour day of pain was full of delights, and not so delights, which has left us simply of utterly exhausted. We relaxed in the Salt Lake airport for a few hours, where most of us purchased food. The flight itself was quite long and dreary, despite our access to movies and music. Upon our arrival in London, we took a train to Paddington, and walked, taking in sights such as Big Ben and a glimpse of Buckingham Palace. We got assorted meals at an English Whole Foods, then took the train back to the airport, on which we all slept for a delightful 15 m ..read more

This has been a total vibe. We had a lot of travel but my tiny mp3 bumping was pumping the taylor so everything was chill. I saw this guy at the airport who was literally mr durham. The only visual difference to the naked eye was that his hairline was like 1 mm away from his glasses (which immediately told me it wasn’t mr durham). I bought a lego winnie the pooh keychain at the airport and it may or may not be my favorite thing on this planet (he’s so adorable). I watched minions (slept through it) and the thirteenth ghost of scooby doo (it was low key not that good). I have finally learned wh ..read more

Today was dank. Our village group’s drive is the longest of all the groups, we had about 20 min down the canyon then up into the mountains. The long drive is actually pretty nice because we get to see a lot more of the village. We’ve seen some monkeys, skinned chickens, goat heads, and a boat load of dogs and cows. Our school has somewhere around 25 people from ages 8-3. They are split into 4 groups of about 6 people. Each group gets their own room. It is so nice having a small school. We get to know each of the kids better and we don’t have to teach our lessons as many times. My favorite grou ..read more

Finally in INDIA! After some long travel days we have had the most special day with the kids at the school. It was all worth it! Our time in London was a very nice break from an airplane seat and getting to walk around a little bit. We got to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, but I think most would agree that the best part of London was the Whole Foods pizza. Then another two flights and a car ride, we got to our hotel in Kullu well into the night. To explain my title, we could not stop talking about how nice it was going to be to sleep actually lying down and not in a fully upright position ..read more

This Sunday meeting was one of our last! We are beginning to complete and perfect our lessons and are working with our village groups to do so. We started off the meeting by having people practice teaching to their village groups and receive feedback. We also spent much of the meeting going over packing. Given that the trip is coming up, it is important to start compiling your packing list! We also learned about how to respectfully conduct ourselves in India. Their culture is very different from ours, and we want to show the utmost respect for them and their customs. We practiced our songs an ..read more