India May 19th-20th

We arrived late that night at our hotel in New Delhi. We checked in at the front lobby, they held our passports at the front desk and didn’t have computerized check in. I had to sign by my room number in a really large notebook. Our room was huge, actually 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms with a small kitchen area, living room, and a balcony overlooking the street. You had to have the key in this box on the wall to have electricity on in the room.
In the bathroom, I soon discovered a smell that came home with me in my suitcase. A moth ball is placed in all the drains to prevent odors from sewage with a plastic pitcher near the drain for cleaning oneself. With the heat, the bathroom was not cooled, the moth ball smell becomes intense. This occurred in both places we stayed!
We had 4 ladies rooming together for the night in Delhi, 3 to start and then one that got in from Brazil during the night. We crashed and then had to get up fairly early to get our luggage downstairs and eat breakfast because we had to catch a flight from New Delhi to Guwahati. 2 of my roomies got up early for a run and by the time I was up, they were all chatting on the couch! Even in India, I had a hard time with early mornings! I ate my first taste of fresh naan for breakfast, with toast and fruit jam, fried looking doughnut type things, and ½ of an omelet. The hotel reminded me of something from an Indian Jones movie with all of the decorations, textures, and colors. We all met in the lobby after breakfast, where many people who had been on a mission with Op Smile started trying to remember the names of all the team members. This is where I first heard rumors of the top secret, so called “Name Game”. (More elaboration to follow on this anxiety causing but super funny and fun game that had us all laughing out loud). We hopped on the buses that took us to the airport.
The airport had all kinds of cool food, lots of vegetarian snacks and sandwiches! When we went through security, all of us women had a separate, covered stall that looked like a shower with a female to search us. The airplanes were parked in rows with names that amused me….IndiGo & SpiceJet. The plane we boarded was out on a runway and just like in the movies, we had to walk across the concrete and go up a little covered staircase to board! The King Fisher plane was only air conditioned when it was running so it was fairly hot while we waited to leave. The flight attendants were beautiful and it reminded me of what the chubby Indian man told me on the plane from the US. He had said Indian airlines only hire single, young, beautiful people to work and that they have really clean, new airplanes and great service. All of which seemed to be true! We had another full, Indian meal on the plane ride and landed at around 5pm in Guwahati where once again I noticed all of the military presence.
Once we landed, we all gathered our luggage and headed to bus/van type vehicles. We took an approximately one hour drive to our final destination. We had to dodge many a people, cars, bikes, cows, goats and even tiny baby goats on a main road going at fairly high speeds without traffic lights or many signs. There was a lot of honking, a lot of stop and go and alot of poverty that could be seen as we made our way deeper into Guwahati.
We arrived at the hotel, got settled in and then headed to our first team dinner and meeting. At the team dinner there was more whispered mention of “The Name Game“. Our food options were amazing, we had a huge, fresh, Indian buffet. I had the pleasure of listening to the founder of Operation Smile, Bill Magee. Both he and his wife Kathy had come on this mission! He gave a very inspiring message that brought tears to my eyes. It was such an honor to listen to him as he talked to us about Operation Smile and said that when you have a dream, even when people say it isn’t possible, that there is a way that just hasn’t been thought of yet. It is so true! We all got to introduce ourselves and heard from each of our team leaders about the schedule and how things would run. Then we headed back to our rooms to get some sleep.
My roommate was a hysterically funny gal named Sharon who had been on 17 missions. We soon realized that the electricity was going to be intermittently off and on. It lasted only a few seconds and did make for some super exciting elevators rides during the rest of the mission. Our beds had small, flat mattresses that turned out to be very comfortable. I placed some drops of eucalyptus citriodora around our mattress to keep any bugs away, rubbed in some DEET and we hit the hay with breakfast starting a 630 am the next morning. Game On!

Full album can be seen here!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024493&id=1034451463&l=7f1d9f3457

My trip to India with Operation Smile

India Day 1- May 18th

Departure. My flight left on May 18th , Monday morning. I had to have my friend Shawna take me, Jesse was at work, my brother rode with us. I had packed the night before, one full suitcase holding over 170 bars of soap and a second large suitcase (I would later realize I had WAY OVER packed). On the way to DFW, we had to make a pit stop for a cheapo watch at Target, I had left mine and needed the second hand to count heart rate and respiration the kiddos. My bubba set it for me because it was crazy hard and I couldn’t figure it out. They dropped me off at the curb and off I went.
The gate area at DFW had a couple of cute little birds that had gotten stuck inside, they were hopping around on the carpet. A lady beside me at the gate was heading with her family to Ireland. The flight to Chicago was great, I chatted most of the way to the stewardess who snuck me some crackers and cheese after I told her how I was going to India and had forgotten to request a vegetarian meal. She was so kind she said, “take this, you may need it, it will be a long flight” as she stuffed it my hands.
In Chicago, I grabbed a veggie plate and headed to the International terminal. Standing there, I looked at the terminal monitor that said DFW to Delhi. The gate was full of many types of people. Hippies, Indians, the yoga types, business men in suits, women dressed in saris, men with head wraps. I could hear many languages being spoken & there was particular smell of curry and body odor. Not a bad smell, just unique. I talked with a younger college guy that was traveling around India for a month alone. They called us for boarding. The plane was huge! 3 rows, I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat which was great for most of the trip except for the cranky flight attendant that would run her carts in to my feet if I put them out to far into the aisle while sleeping.

I had a short, stocky, chubby Indian man that would be my neighbor for the next 12+ hours. He was so nice and told me about some of India’s politics, wars and about his life. He was headed home after a long stay in the US and was looking forward to seeing his children. The man beside him was a tall business man, heading to India for a quick trip. During the night, the tall guy got on the floor in front of him and used his seat like a pillow, cramming his long legs under he seat in front of him, I wished I had a pic of that! My little neighbor said the funniest thing, he points at his neighbor sleeping in the floor and said “See…that long-man problem. Short man like me no problem on plane.” It cracked me up. The food, well, I didn’t have anything to worry about. I didn’t really think about the fact that there are alot of Hindu peeps in India and they don’t eat meat. I found this to be true the entire time I was in India, I was never worried about finding vegetarian options! It was so great! When the attendant brought us food, they asked, “veg or non-veg.”
We had a great traditional India meal…I was so excited! I was able to sleep and watched a movie. Right before we landed, a little girl in front of me started vomiting, she was maybe 6 or 7. I had my essential oils on the plane so I gave her some peppermint. He mother at first declined but the grandmother told her to try it. She did and was able to make the landing without continuing to vomit.
I stepped off the plane and as I walked down the hanger, I realized that I was in India. It was like stepping into a oven. 104, no ac. I was alone. There were lots of big men in camo with big guns all over the place. But, I was actually in freaking India! I was so grateful to meet up with an amazing lady, Tina RN, that had been with Operation Smile to Guwahaiti before. She was in line in front of me as we went into customs and I stuck close to her. She mentioned to me that there were recent bombings in December which made me a tad nervous. I thought to myself that I should have read more about what and where I had signed up to go. I had joined the team so last minute that I didn’t research anything except for buying the Lonely Traveler book about India to read on the plane (which I didn’t). I stopped to use the restroom and a restroom attendant wiped of the toilet seat for me in exchange for a tip, the restroom was spotless., she was wearing a sari. We gathered up our suit cases and headed to the exit of the terminal after changing some dollars to rupees…47 rupees to one dollar. As I walked out the door, above us was a sign that said “Namaste, Welcome to India”.
Operation Smile folks were waiting for us to arrive, they were full of warm smiles and helped to make me feel safe and comfortable. We waited in a large group for others to join us from incoming flights, introducing ourselves and then quickly made our way outside to a couple awaiting buses. The street was noisy, hot, humid, full of honking and people, it was dark, night time, alive. Men would attempt to take our bags from right out of our hands, demanding tips. Our team leader was there and helped make sure we all got on board the buses with our bags. At one point, a street man actually tried to reach into his wallet for money after grabbing at our bags. We headed to our hotel, where we would spend one night and then depart in the am for the airport to fly to Guwahaiti.

My Raw Vegan Flax Crackers

The day before yesterday I made organic almost-raw (I used canned tomatoes...r they considered raw?) flax seed crackers. They were ready to eat last night! Quick & easy & very tasty with some hummus I might add. I got the recipe and adapted from RAWSOME by Brigitte Mars.

2 cups golden flax seeds
2-4 cups water (I used tomato paste and small amount of water)
chia seeds
dried of fresh herbs (I used pizza herbs)

You want to add everything in a bowl and add water/juice until the flax mixture becomes thick, not liquid pourable, but saturated and spoonable. Soak for about 20 minutes or so then spread on dehydrator sheets. Dehydrate on low for about 12 hours then flip and go for another 12 hours or so. If you use chunky veggies you may need dry longer. Dehydrate until crispy then break into pieces!