Today was another crazy day. I think as things are winding down, we are trying to get our “one last time” activities in, or at least the “we need to do that before we leave”.

We started out the day at Mounikas house so her mom could wrap my saree. It only took about 20 minutes of tugging and pulling and tucking and straightening and the only thing I could think of was, “how in the world am I ever going to do this again?” My answer was simply, a lot of safety pins, patience and ‘you tube’!

After I was all dressed up perfectly for the school party, and every piece of material was in place, I had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to get to school and everything ended up a mess again. Regardless of how well I did or didn’t look, the teachers were all pleased to see me in the gift they had given me and I was happy to wear it. After about an hour, all the teachers went upstairs, and the boys and I followed suite as they presented me with flowers and more flowers and showed so much gratitude. It was such a great experience for us and a blessing for my family to be able to get to know so many wonderful people in this little area of India. My kids and I will all walk away with our own unique experiences, but all will be positive and we will be better people for it. We ate spicy potato chips, bland crackers and a sweet little treat. I’m just glad there was no cake to be found!

Mounikas mom and I after the initial saree wrapping

At the school with my two favorite people there, Victoria and Nazarina

with the nursery class

We left the school in a bit of a hurry to get back down to the port. We were late (but who isn’t around here), and then we waited for about an hour and a half to get paperwork signed and filled out. We went to a foreign vessel, they kicked us off, and so we went to another Indian vessel. It was fun for the kids to see the inside of such a large ship. We even got to eat lunch on it.

at the shipyard

Tonight we went to a place called ‘Vuda Park’. Why did nobody tell me about this place weeks ago? So much fun for the kids to run and play, even paddle boat rides.

funny statue at Vuda Park

boat ride

Mounikas parents

Mounikas brother and Brayden

We’ve had such a great experience here, met some wonderful people, made new friends and will take back memories that can never be duplicated.

my new favorite sign

first one to solve the puzzles gets 100 rupees!

 We leave on Friday for Bangalore, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to update between here and there, but I will definitely wrap the trip up (and our Bangalore experiences) when we get back to the states. Now we just pray for on-time flights, no customs delays and safe travels!