Yesterday, we visited our first orphanage. It was amazing.

We started the day by driving through some of the worst slums I have ever seen in my life. It's almost impossible to believe that people live in these conditions. Squat brick buildings, trashbag and tarpaulin huts, and the occasional tin and wood shack. Even the high rises that stood in the middle of these mini-towns looked like something out of an apocolyptic movie.

Break that up with a couple small towns and some rural landscape reminiscent of Hawaii, and you've got this part of India in a nutshell. I must admit that the Indian techno that the driver was listening to made it all the much better. (;

So after driving about an hour and a half (40km....), we arrived at AM Matthew's orphanage/school. School was actually in when we arrived, so there were about 180-200 kids on site as well as the teaching staff. There was also a government social worker there as well. We are unsure as to whether his arrival was coincidence or if he was there to observe us. Fortunately, he seemed to be a good guy and we did not get the impression that he had a hostile agenda. Veer says this observation is correct.

We got to spend time with the students, speaking to them and answering questions. Most of these kids are not orphans, but their parents pay for their education, in turn helping support the other operations. It's pretty funny when you realize that from culture to culture, the adults are different, but the kids aren't all that much different. Much like young american kids, once they warm up to you, they're pretty energetic...throw in them being extremely curious about us, and it gets pretty crazy. My tongue ring was a huge hit. They all think I'm crazy for having done it. I tend to agree.

Eric, myself and Kelly went with AM and his wife into town to do the shopping. We spent a bit of time running around buying sleeping mats, cooking utensils, a new computer (Less than $400 and it's better than what I have at home!), and a manual washing machine for the orphans (AM's wife actually refused the automatic as she was afraid the kids would break it). All in all, we were able to get an amazing amount of needed items for a very small amount of money and got to spend some time running around town.

Crossing a street here is an exercise in faith. No traffic rules, no crosswalks and tons and tons of traffic. You have to kindof slide between cars while counting on them to actually stop. Note to future volunteers: Look LEFT before crossing, not right. Yeah, I almost got hit by a bus. A BUS.

After returning from that, school was out so we were able to actually play with the children. We answered their questions, did a bible story presentation (others told all about it) and played football (soccer) in the courtyard area...Despite the extreme smallness of the area, I couldn't keep up! Boundless Energy...I was exhausted when I got back to the hotel. I gotta start working out or something!

It took me a while to warm up, to be honest. Children have never been a group I can mesh with easily, but once they get going, it's pretty hard not to let them pull you along. They were authentically excited to see us and to have us involved in things. I can't even begin to communicate what it's like to have a mob of kids wanting you to come play and you know you have to do something else, even for a moment. You hate every second of it.

In the space of a couple hours, you can't help but see why these pastors and their families sacrifice so much to make this happen. It's not just the kids they teach or care for, even the kids in the surrounding area were coming around to check us out, watch the "play" from the wall (they wouldn't come in) and piling into groups whenever they saw a camera. It's heart-wrenching.

I could do this forever.

Today, we have some unplanned downtime as the leper colony is out due to some persecution issues. We're going to knock out the admin stuff that we weren't able to do and go check out some touristy type locations. It will be good, but annoying at the same time. I'm not sure I like "wasted" time as it's less time to actually devote to what we came for.

As a team, we've started doing the daily devotionals from "My Utmost for his Highest" (thanks, mom). The ones for this trip are amazingly relevant and it's giving us a chance to keep our focus on God. It's proving so far to be a great idea.

PS. "Jesus is a winner man" has got to be the greatest kids song ever.