Asia and Africa

Asia and Africa

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

 We Made it to the Taj Mahal!!!
 Beautiful Buildings!

 Loads of monkeys walking around the Taj Mahal!
 They gave us these blue booties to go inside the Taj Mahal.

 It took a little while for the light to hit the Taj Mahal and light it up so first it was a little dark. We were very excited to be there!
 Group photo!!
 First Glimpse coming in to the Taj!

 Walking around the Ghost City. This city was abandoned and we got a tour of it. Pretty neat to see how things were in 1500's there.



 The Ruins were great! This is the Elephant gate in the city. Going down to the Elephant water tower. 

 There were a lot of people with touristy things everywhere.. Yes we got sucked in too.. :D


 I Love Goats! They were everywhere!
 Our Tour guide with Jay and Julie.  He was pretty funny and was able to sneak us in a lot of back doors here and there on our tour. :)
 Amber Fort in Jaipur





 View of the Amber Fort in Jaipur. We rode the Elephants up into the Fort. :)
 Jal Mahal. Which is translated into Water Palace. :)
 Camels everywhere!

 View of Jaipur at sunset.
 Monkeys would pop up in random places.. We stayed away from them because they are pretty mean..

Beautiful sights in the Amber Fort!
 Our  Chai Tea and Butter chicken in Agra! :)
 Riding up to the Amber Forton our cute Elephant! :) Named Lechme sp?
 The views from the fort were beautiful all around!


Friday, February 20, 2015

Arrived in Madagascar!

We arrived in Madagascar on Saturday and already time is FLYING by!
We had an 8 hour drive by bus through winding mountain roads to get to the ship.
This country is GORGEOUS!
Very green and lush. And we all have been impressed with how the natives are so neat! They really seem to strive to keep things very clean.
The Tamatave port is the cleanest port I've ever seen with Mercy ships.
And the Malagasy people are so nice here as well!
Being back on the ship is great! It was like coming home after a long trip. I'm already not wanting to leave!
There is a chance I can extend a few extra weeks here. Hoping it works out!
I started up right away at the dental clinic on Monday.
One of the dentists I worked with in Congo was here again so I was able to work with him for this week.
Our dental team is a great one again this year! Lots of familiar faces with the long term staff but then of course new Translators from Madagascar. And they are wonderful!
The language they speak here is Malagasy. And our translators speak that or French. But the French is not  so common here as I thought it would be.. That's ok because my French still is VERY bad.
In the next weeks the goal is to learn dental Malagasy. :)
Our Clinic is beautiful! We have a wonderful location right next to the Hope Center(temporary home for patients recovering from surgeries on board the ship) again. And it's right next to the water where you can see our house( Mercy ships). 
We start off each morning with devotions in the dental clinic. Singing and prayers for the day.
It's a great way to start the morning!
Our Screening days for patients are Monday and Thursday. Our team leader goes  out to select our patients for the following days. I've seen the lines outside and it is very impressive how many people come hoping to get picked.
It breaks my heart that we can't just see all of them..
The dental problems here are far worse than I've ever seen in Congo or Togo.
A lot of patients that we see need pretty much all of their teeth removed. Children come in with bombed out 6 year molars.. This REALLY stinks. :(
Being real passionate about healthy teeth, it's a little much to think about for me..  Makes me very happy for the dental care we have at home.. Even though real expensive at least we have the option to go and get help. Especially if there is a bad infection.. We can go get antibiotics easily.
The option is not so easy here.. There are so few dentists and people can't afford it most of the time.
Mercy ships sends people around to schools to educate the children on Oral hygiene. I might go on one of these trips eventually. The sugar consumption is VERY large here.. We have heard about how much the Malagasy people love their sugar.
Well, the work week is over and now it's the weekend!
First week was super!
And this weekend shall be exciting! Going to see the lemurs tomorrow morning!!
Photos will come soon of all the lemurs and dental clinic!

Photos from India!

 We visited a lot of churches with Pastor MP and met Pastors wives and other women helping with the churches. The woman I'm standing next to greeted us with flowers! :)
 Women worshiping at church.
 I taught a few kids in one of village church services  thumb wars and I came back to find more kids playing thumb wars. :)
 Everyone wants to be in the photos!

 Our full Team!
 pig from pig farmer!

 This guy was driving by and let me take a photo! Beautiful people in India!

 Precious children!

 Some of the boys in the home!
 Some of the boys walking to school!




I loved seeing all the different ways people got around and transported their goods! Such an amazing Country!
 Water buffalo bath time!
Beach day with the kids from the ALC Home













 Tooth Brush delivery for the kids! There was a hysterical presentation with this too!