These are going to be in no order...sorry
this is one of my favorite pics from the taj. I wanted to take a picture of this doorway (it leads up to the ground level of the taj) and as I was taking it this Muslim man walked out...perfect!
A woman praying on the ghats at the river. It was really heartbreaking to see them pouring their lives into the river of death.
this picture is a great image of what life is like there, the daily struggles to get even the smallest things (like crossing the street) accomplished. There were moments of stillness and quietness which were cherished. It was so quiet one night that someone dropping a metal bowl outside our hotel woke me up, but the next morning the noise of daily life started right back up.
to orient us the city we played the Amazing Race. It was just like the real one. Teams of two were given an envelope with clues and some money and set off racing from clue to clue. I've always thought being on the amazing race would be cool, and I still would love to do it, but I cannot imagine being under an adrenaline rush for as long as they race. Holy cow! I was on a team with l-dub and we quickly fell into last place when our rickshaw driver took us to a completely different place (this was the first of many stressful and crazy rickshaw rides with l-dub). We started out as separate teams, but eventually with the help of a monsoon we finished the race together. The last hour was spent in a colossal downpour, not really knowing where we were much less where we were going, pushing stalled out rickshaws through 2 feet of oh so clean water, walking through that water and trying to not think about what just brushed our leg...it was awesome. This pic doesn't quite do it justice, but it's all I got.
h-diggity, k dawg and I spent one afternoon with the intent of pr walking the university there. Within about 2 min of being on campus and pring, I see these three girls and just go up to them and start talking. We talk for a few minutes and then continue on with our "task" of pring. The whole time I'm thinking man, we should go back and talk more to those girls, and regretting my decision to continue walking. Not 30 seconds later they come running after us hollering my name. It was pretty sweet. They showed us around and then did the obligatory "come to my dorm to meet all my friends". I even got to share Truth with them through my tattoo. Small seeds, but seeds none the less. So here we are in front of the technology building.
so I didn't take this last picture, and it's kind of random, but its about the closest one I've found to the image from India that will stick with me forever. During the amazing race, on one of the rickshaw rides, l-dub and I ended up in the Muslim part of town. I had never been in a mus. culture, so it was all new to me. Every thing captured my attention and my heart kept filling up with awe and joy and love, and burden. I felt like it was about to burst. The kids were just getting out of school so all the moms were out picking them up (the women usually don't go out on the street unless it's to get their kids from school). There was this one girl/woman in a burka on a rickshaw coming toward us. Our eyes met and, man, it's so hard to describe, but there was just this huge depth of hopeful longing in her eyes. I wondered how many people had actually looked her in the eyes, and told her they loved her and that she was beautiful. Even now she grips my heart.
I'm sure I'll put up more pictures as I process more. It was an amazing trip, completely different from what I expected. Who knows where I'm supposed to end up, but I sure wouldn't mind if it were there....
