You have captured my heart.

The children of India have captured my heart.

After christmas we went out to walk around Coxtown and give out some food and things like that for christmas. And man the kids were cute :) Giving makes your heart so full of joy and love and it just is the coolest feeling ever, especially when you give to those who really are in need. The children that we gave some stuff too were the cutest kids in the world. Their smiles lite up the streets. Even though they don't have much they were still smiling and happy, glad to be given something. Although when we gave them something, the cheeky little monkeys hid the food under their clothes and asked for more. When we checked under there top, they smiled even bigger than before :)


The thing I'll miss the most more than anything, I definitely think will be all the kids that you meet, on the side of the road, where ever you go. They have captured my heart forever. Children everywhere capture my heart.
<3

Christmas in India.

Well Christmas is finally here, and it is my first christmas away from home. I skyped my family last night (midnight our time, 7.30am their time) and watched them open up gifts and I opened some of mine, was really fun.
When we woke up in the morning opened gifts with the Czepanski family and felt like just a normal christmas! Had a delicious roast chicken, beans, carrots and potatoes for lunch was yummy as.

So on this christmas day I have officially been here for 2months! It's crazy how fast time flies. I will be on a plane in 26 days! Headed back to Aotaeroa, back home.
Can't wait to get home, see friends, hangout, have heaps of sleepovers and everything. At the same time I will be sad to leave India, I have been here for 2 months and have grown attached to this beautiful country. But I know I will be back sometime in the future.

So next up is New Year's Eve and then it will be 2011 already! Wow. This past year has gone so fast. But its been an amazing year, filled with great memories.
Been filled with laughter with friends and memories that will stick forever. Tears that have been shed, but friends were always there. Prays answered. Met some amazing people this year aswell. People that have impacted my life and that I will never forget. And people that im glad to have met, and sad to have let go. Life moves on though. Can't wait to see whats instore next year.

:)

Dreams.

Learning to be happy with what I have, learning the difference between what I need and what I can live without. Learning not to complain. Learning not to gossip. Are all lessons that I am learning.

I love my life at the moment. I have amazing friends. A great family. Im living my dream of travelling and seeing the world and at the same time finding out who I am and drawing closer to God.

Dreams are precious things that live inside of us. Our passions inside of our dreams, God's wants us to work with our passions to pursue our dreams and live passionately for Him, giving Him glory for all the amazing stuff that happens in our lives.

I have huge dreams and smalls dreams, all which are possible with God. Learning to be patient, learning to listen. Dreams do come true.

Life is precious. Live it whole heartedly. Live it to the max.

I love New Zealand. I love Mangere it's so cultural and mixed and different. I love India aswell it is so colourful and different and amazing and loud and great.

My parents are finishing up their Eldership at Horizon Church. Im really excited for them and for what's instore for them, and for us as a family. I remember just before they started their eldership I had a dream, a dream that Tim and Xenia were going to ask them to be Elders, the next day they were asked. Shows that God can show us things at any ages, I was 11. I can't wait to see their dreams come true in the future.

 Dreams do come true.  

Halfway there.

6 weeks down. 6 weeks to go. Can't believe time has gone this fast. Im so happy to be going home soon, cause I miss all my family and friends and stuff. But at the same time I really really like India. After living here for 6 weeks it does feel like home. There is this one jewellrey shop down the road, and I do plan on buying the whole store out before I leave :)

A few of us are sick at the moment which is not cool at all. But its only a cold so hopefully it goes away soon. No-one wants to be sick!!

It doesn't really feel like its christmas soon to me, apart from the fact theres a billion presents under the christmas tree.

But aside from that, I really am having fun and I like Coxtown alot. Looking forward to going home. Seeing my sisters and brothers, parents and best friends :)

6weeks to go. Halfway there.

Weekend away.

Daya and I went with Ben and Vinu to Dharwad and Hubli. Twin cities 8 hours from Bangalore.

So first off was an 8hour train ride in the day. Was fun to start with, but after a few hours it did start to get boring. Its a good thing I had my camera, mp3 and a good book! Walking up and the down the train was lots of fun aswell, the staring never ceases. Standing on the edge of the train because the doors are wide open was also really fun, I didn't get to close to the edge though.

Arrived at Dharwad station at 10pm-ish, waited for the hotel people to pick us up and arrived at a very very nice hotel. Dharwad was really different to Bangalore, theres heaps of people, heaps more buses aswell! I really enjoyed it though.

We went to a school of music which was just out of Hubli, in a village. Driving through the village was an eye opener, this is India. The children are such gorgeous children, I love them. Women walking fetching water, carrying it on their heads, living in small hut-like houses. Makes you super grateful for what you have.

At the school it was so cool. The children all ran up to the car when we arrived saying 'Namaste' and asking our names, they were too cute. The school had a whole heap of huts and little houses. They learnt Indian instruments and music, and also did academic studies, its like all of the children were homeschooled. It was so cool. I absolutely loved it. Music and children are my passion, so sticking them both together like that was cool :)

The real experience was also taking a sleeper train back to Bangalore. There were these little booths all down the train. In each little booth there were 3 bunks on each side, and 2 across from the booth. It was actually really comfortable to sleep and it was quite fun. I really enjoyed it and would do it again anytime.

India has captured the other half of my heart (NZ will permanently own half :)

I love it.

Monkey buisness.

Well yesterday there were 2 monkeys in the house. I was doing Levi's schoolwork with him at the dining table. Caleb then runs in and says 'There's monkeys in the house!!!!' Didn't even look at them, grabbed Levi and we ran up the stairs. We went into Samara's room and locked the door and waited. Levi prayed for God to come and kill the monkeys :)
After a while Danielle came up asking if it was either Levi or Caleb who made the mess in the kitchen, we told her that there were monkeys in the house and she ran in and we locked the door again. After waiting for Jodi to check the house for any monkeys, she said they were all gone. So we went downstairs and the kitchen was a mess, potatos eaten, peppercorns opened, they took an egg and a papaya and left their mess. Daya had a bit of a scary ordeal, she was on top of the roof doing her schoolwork and the monkeys came up and cornered her, she pulled her blanket over her and they started poking her and hissing. I can only imagine how scary that would of been :)


I don't really like monkeys.