Goodbye Guntur, and Goodnight

Tonight is our last night in Guntur.

There is a big celebration planned, with many people arriving from nearby villages. Mostly, this is for congregations who were not visited to have a chance to see baby Rachel, who is clearly the star of the show on this trip.

Tomorrow we will leave at obnoxious-o'clock (4:30am, I think) to catch a train (Telugu: railu) back to Hydrabad. We will have the afternoon and eventhing there to explore a bit before our flight to Amsterdam leaves at 1am on the 21st. In case I am not able to blog any more today (things get crazy on the last day), I will leave with these thoughts:

Some Things I Will Not Say Back In America

"Oh, I see that the monkey is back on the front veranda."
"Is this extremely spicy or just very spicy?"
"Excuse me, can you translate this into Telugu for me?"
"$1100 to build a house sounds like a lot of money...."
"Are those rice paddys or just wet lentl fields?"
"You can drop me off at the camera store, past that herd of goats and right next to that cow."
"I hope this Pepsi isn't too cool for you. Let me find one that's been sitting out."
"Now that is one fancy rickshaw."

I will miss Guntur and the people here, I know that already. But as soon as I am on that train, I know my full thoughts will be about seeing my wonderful wife, who always throws her full support behind these trips that I take, and my 3 terrific kids, who I can't believe I haven't seen for two weeks.

I'll see you all in Columbus.