Jetlag

I'm back in Ohio. And I'm up at 3am.

We had a couple of changes to the plan for our trip back. Late Thursday night (Friday AM, actually) we decided that since we could not get a hotel room in Hyderabad due to a huge political convention there, we would just take a later train that left at 1pm. This turned out to be a great decision, since we were able to sleep in and enjoy one more morning in Guntur.

Mike and I headed over to the seminary to visit with the pastors and take some pictures of Paul's grandmother with Rachel. After lunch, we headed to the train station. Shalem and Peter went with us to help with translation and transportation arrangements.

Jennifer visiting Paul's grandmother with the help of a translator.

We arrived in Hyderabad at around 7pm, with hours to kill before our 3am flight. So we got something to eat, then did a little shopping. But by about 10:30 everything was closing, so just decided to head to the airport and kill time there.

We had to say goodbye to Shalem and Peter at the airport, because they could not even come in the front area without an airline ticket. Shalem and many of the other pastors have been absolutely invaluable on this and every trip to Guntur. They have been our guides, our translators, our source of any information about the church, and above all else, our trusted friends. I will probably never meet people closer to the heart of Christ.

I'll tell you what, arriving 4.5 hours before your flight provides for in a very relaxed check-in process. We were through security before midnight, so we headed to an airport lounge for first-class ticket holders that permitted us lowly coach travelers in for a fee, which we gladly paid.

Our flight to Amsterdam featured an interesting Indian movie with English subtitles called Parineeta. It was a strange musical that seemed to make no sense, but was beautifully made nonetheless.

In Amsterdam, we had just enough time for a quick train ride into town, where we did a little gift shopping, had a coffee-and-croissant lunch (very European), and even managed to get separated and lost for a bit. High adventure!

We said goodbye to the Dasaris at the airport -- our flights left 5 minutes apart and from adjacent gates, how convenient! -- and Mike and I took off for our connection in Memphis. Although Memphis isn't in hillybilly country, I still couldn't resist a few dueling-banjo jokes after hearing all the good ole' boy accents from the Tennessee-based flight crew.

The in-flight movie was -- what else? -- The Dukes of Hazzard.

We arrived in Columbus by about 9pm EST, about 42 hours after we left Guntur by train. Seeing Tally and the boys again was incredible! We spent Sunday celebrating Baxter's birthday and relaxing. Tomorrow I head to work, and life must resume.

I've been home for exactly 9 of the last 32 days. Starting tomorrow, this long, strange month of travel will be over.

I know there are huge portions of the trip that I've said nothing about so far, so I will be continuing this blog for a few weeks for those that care to read it.