Rest day and Kalavai!!

In the middle of the week, we took a bit of a rest day from the construction and kids programming. We were able to go to a nice hotel just a 12 minute rickshaw ride away from pastor's home.

This was a delightful day where we were able to swim a bit and enjoy a few western food items like pancakes, but there was no syrup :-). Several of the team members took advantage of the wifi as well! After lunch we started to trek to Kalavai (over 2 hours), and stopped at the "placenta tree" - you can ask a team member why it is called that when they get home!

A few of the team members are not feeling the best (Abby - throat - no more voice, Rick cut open his hand when it accidentally hit a fan, and Frank is having some stomach issues) - please join with us in praying for them.

Kalavai was amazing and it was so great to see all the progress that has been made since I was personally here in the beginning of 2011. The new KC3, playground, and gardens looked great. The villagers were so welcoming to us, and the kids ran up to us with HUGE hugs of love and excitement!! They also put on a bit of a dance show for us. We toured the village and many of the first time members on our team were inspired by how many homes had the GCC plaques on them - we are truly standing on the shoulders of those that have gone before us!

It was raining while we were there a bit, but that did not stop Jay, Frank, Bruce, and I from getting a little cricket in (a game similar to baseball).

The local missionaries to Kalavai (Jayen and Jencie seen with Raj) are also doing well!!

I can say confidently that Raj is back to 100% - as he did his whole "live rat in his hand as He shook someone else's hand" trick . . . Yep, it worked on Andrew. The end of that rat's story will be told in the next post by Dawn Payne.

As if that was not enough, Raj put a big lizard on the back of Jay (and then later on Andrew), that was later to become dinner for a local family. Raj told me this was just a "baby" because they can get up to 6ft long!! Traditionally he said that builders would tie a rope onto their back leg and then throw them up to a higher story floor of a building. The lizard's talons are so strong that the builder would then climb the rope to that higher floor as the lizard held onto the bricks with its talons . . . Yes, . . . That's AWESOME, and jay and I wanted to try it!! - couldn't though - this one too small.

More will be coming soon as stories are starting to come out from some villagers.

Please continue to pray for us to finish strong - we are soooo grateful.

Ted