India - this time for reals!
So, it is actually happening. My visa application was finally approved on the second time around. Don't ask me how and don't ask me why. I have no idea what happened and I am not going to ask questions. All I know is that my passport now includes a ten-year, multi-entry visa for India. On Friday I received my flight information. I leave Louisville on Saturday, January 31st and arrive in Delhi late in the evening on February 1st, after stops in Atlanta and Paris. I will spend a few days in Delhi visiting tourist and mission sights, including missions in the slums and red light district, and Asha Kiran where the Sisters provide education and skills traing for the children of women in the sex trade. Then, I fly to Patna and visit the province offices and more mission sites, including one of our hospitals and the leper clinic. After a day or two in Patna, we drive to Mokama, with a stop in Baktiaphur on the way. When I get to Mokama, I will have a chance to put my feet in the Ganges before settling in to survey the archives there for about a week. I will be working in the north of India, in the shadow of the Himalayas. I will have the chance to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Mokama and visit the cemetery where many of the pioneers of the India mission are buried. On the 14th or so I will drive back to Patna and fly back to Delhi. On the 15th I head home, this time via Amsterdam and Detroit. I like traveling by myself - the actual traveling part, not as much the being there part - and this will be my longest adventure yet (I need to check actual mileage vs. New Zealand, but I did have my partner in crime on that trip). I am still in a state of disbelief that this thrip is actually going to happen. It's been a great year for travel, including two trips to Alaska, and trips to DC, Chicago, Indianapolis, NYC, Baltimore, Minnieapolis, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Erie, South Bend, Lexington, Nashville, Cincinatti, and even a few hours in the airport in Seattle for old times sake. I am probably missing something, but some of these trips start to blur together. Next year includes India, Boston (for Pax East, even though I'm not actually going to the con, lol), Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Lexington, Erie, South Bend, and DC that I know of right now. After India, I am particularly excited about Boston, because it's a leisure trip with friends, and Scott has never been to Boston. I can't wait, even if I will only be there three or four days. And in October we plan to go back to Alaska together for the first time in years. I am starting to plan that one already, so we don't have a chance to decide not to go. Hopefully, after all these trips, I will have enough miles to finally take that trip to Europe in 2016. We shall see. But for now, I should probably brush up on my Hindi. Thank goodness I already have all my shots, lol.