passport fever // part I

if you know me well, you know that

i have the travelin’ bug

ALL THE TIME.

literally, all the time.

im always craving an excuse

to whip out my trusty

passport, hop on a plane,

and fly to some new culture.

i have been extremely blessed to have been able to

go on four different mission trips to

india,

uganda,

the dominican republic,

and mexico.

i figured i would take this opportunity to share some

of my experiences.

to kick it off, lets start with india.

alright, so there i was, standing in the

medford airport at 4 am

waiting to leave the united states for the

very first time.

to be honest, i was scared to death.

india seemed so foreign.

{which i quickly learned to be true}

new food.
new smells. 
{not the good kind}

new clothes.

new people.

new lifestyle.

new experiences.

it was back in 2008, so i was only

11 years old.

india... oh india. 

i remember landing in chennai,

 a city consisting of 

 4.3 million people.

and apparently they were all at the airport

that night.

as soon as i stepped off the plane

i felt like i had entered a sauna.

it was around 11 o’clock at night,

95 degrees farenheiht,

100% humidity.

i felt like i was going to faint.

{okayyy... i may have been slightly over reacting}

right then and there my dad introduced me

to the phenomenon called

red bull.

oh yes. it was a life saver.

 this was taken on an all-night-sleeper-train that we rode for 12 hours before reaching the compound.

after the first night, i felt fine.i actually felt great!i enjoyed every second of it.the children at the orphanage we helped at were adorable.  i would walk downto the infant houseand hold babies all day. one would fall asleep,so i would pick up another. and so on and so forth. 

i fell in love with this little girl. her name is ruth.

**on a side note...

 if you aren't a fan of curry, i wouldn't recommend 

visiting india. 

while there you eat curry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

being the huge curry junkie i am, i loved it!**

for the second week of our time in india,

we spent our time traveling the rain forests visiting

remote villages. 

{remote meaning some had never even seen white people before}

our method of traveling was what i would call a bit...

rustic. 

we crammed thirty people into the back 

of an old cattle truck, and drove for hours on end

under the hot indian sun. 

it sure wasn't a relaxing drive. 

wherever you looked there were spiders that looked 

like they came out of some horror movie. 

{we are talking the size of dinner plates, people!}

we also had someone playing a drum at all times

so the elephants wouldn't come and trample our truck.

lets just say, it was an interesting experience. 

the infamous cattle truck.

Some village men we ran across on one of our treks. 

i really could go on forever talking about the 
different foods, smells, and people we
encountered on this trip... but i hope 
this gave you a small peek into the world
of india, and all the craziness it holds! 
overall, it was an incredible trip and 
i would do it all over again if i could!

happy blogging. xo.