This morning was very special as we made our first journey to Udayan; we were warmly welcomed by James and everyone. James firstly introduced us to some of his main helpers telling us a bit about them. Many of them are former boys of Udayan who have returned as workers.
This morning we attended a service given by the Reverend James Stevens (founder of Udayan) at St Andrews Church. As we write this message we are sitting in the tropical courtyard under the palm trees at the Fairlawn chatting to James and his wife Lallita. We are discussing plans for our time at Udayan and […]
Last night we travelled on the overnight train from Varanasi to Kolkata, an experience we won’t forget! We arrived at 9.30am and were greeted by our porters – it’s amazing how they can balance two of our heavy suitcases on their heads! You’ll be pleased to know the sun was back, which brightened our spirits even more.
We finally had a much needed lie-in this morning, before setting off to meet the Little Sisters of Jesus. We travelled there on motorised rickshaws and explored Varanasi along the way.rnrnrnrnWe were welcomed by Sister Lourdumary with chai and biscuits at the Jesu Ashram fraternity which overlooks the Ganges. Kathryn Spink, Mother Teresa’s biographer, gave […]
After enduring another traumatic 5am wake up call this morning, we met our new guide and the coach took us down to the River Ganges where we had a boat ride at dawn.rnrnrnrnUnfortunately the weather was overcast and foggy which meant we couldn’t see the sunrise. However, we were able to get a feel of […]
Today has been a rather interesting and eventful day with plenty of laughter along the way. We made our way back to Delhi from Agra and we arrived at the airport to find that our plane had been slightly delayed and we would have to wait for our internal flight to Varanasi. However we were […]
Our apologies for the delay in getting this entry to you; unfortunately the hotel in Agra did not have an internet connection for us to upload our diary onto the website and today’s travelling has be rather hectic.rn rnThis morning was a challenge as we had to be out of the hotel by 5 am […]
After our first day we were all still in awe and wonderment but had an early start Monday morning, approx 9am (3.30am GMT). Our guide Sanjeev took us on a tour of Old Delhi; firstly we visited Mother Teresa’s Shishu Bhavan Home for abandoned Children. It was an emotional experience however we all enjoyed interacting and playing with the children. We left 50 of our teddy bears that we had brought from England at the home as gifts for the little ones and they were very excited.
We finally arrived in India during the early hours of Sunday morning (11pm GMT). Journey wasn’t too bad, plane food was rubbish but we had TVs with movies and games, which helped pass the time. Weather is nice; warm and comfortable. Got to hotel at 4 o’clock in the morning (local time) after some minor plane delays at Delhi airport waiting to park and disembark. Coach journey from airport to hotel was more like a roller coaster ride with all the bumps and humps (we saw an elephant and Neal bashed his head).