My Ragamuffin Family: Saying Goodbye to Landour

Saying Goodbye is hard to do, but we take pleasure in knowing that the Lord is good all the time and that maybe someday He will bring us back to Landour again! As for the next few days we will be saying our good-bye's to the friends we have made....

Nate hanging out with the school kids.

This is our wonderful school--Landour Language School--where we have been for 3 months. It doubles as a school and a church. The church is Kellogg Church where Nathan's grandma Ruth and grandpa Sam Beckdahl were married!! We had a wonderful time checking out Woodstock school where g'ma Ruth and Beth (Nate's mom) went to boarding school, and walking the same streets as they did!!

These are the teachers who gave us lessons five days a week for 3 months--we think they are probably smiling because we are leaving! They were wonderful teachers and have been a huge help to us in learning Hindi. We were very blessed to have them for our teachers. The lady standing next to me is a believer, and a great friend of ours now---she helped us with translation work a lot!

This is Parul, a friend of ours up the road. She owns a handicraft store. We had many wonderful walks and talks with her. We will miss her greatly!

Nate's little India buddies. Every time we pass them on the street they smile really big and stick out their hand to shake Nate's barda hath (big hand). The one in the blue is Anup--talk about a handful!! He is our chokidar's son--at any point in time that our door is open he walks right in to have a look at what we are doing.

This is Changesh, our property dog. He is a great dog--however in this picture it looks like he might've chase too many monkeys because he has stickers all over him. There are dogs like him all over Mussourie--they say that the two blonde dots between their eyes is for protection against leopards. They (Mussourrie people) say that it makes a leopard think the dog's eyes are open when they are really asleep---we have no idea if this is true, but it sounds pretty logical! : )

Nate spent a whole month when we first arrived here trying to get this little guy to smile. Everytime we would pass his families house he would scowl at us. After about a month Nate and I decided to scowl back at him to see what he would do--after a week of doing this he finally started to smile. Now he loves Nate, but won't even let me get near him.

Barda vs. Chotta (Big vs. Small)

In the land of small people, Nathan is a giant! The lady standing next to Nathan is a strong believer--faithful in all things!!! She has been a great encouragement to us, as well as the many other believers in this hill station!

We eat with our chokidar (watchman) and his family most nights of the week. This is Beana (his wife) and Charisma, their little girl. We have fallen in love with this family and will miss them very much! However, we must say that even though Beana's cooking is fanatastic...Nate and I are beginning to think that these "holy" cows roaming around here are looking pretty tasty! We have been practically vegetarian since being here--eating mostly dal (lentils) and chawal (rice). We are definitely looking forward to some Western food when we get to Thailand!

Two squirrels....those are the words to describe Anup and Charisma. We wake up nearly every morning to Anup picking on his sister, and Charisma crying at the top of her lungs. Once their through picking on each other, it makes for a BEAUTIFUL morning! : )