Arrival In Kerala!!!

Packing the donated library books in the

front lobby of Riverdale High School.

Hello from Kerala it's Ellie and Annie!

Today we traveled from Jaipur to Kerala, India. After waking up around 6:30 am and battling Chinese tourists for the elevator, we hopped on our bus to the Jaipur airport. Upon arrival we were all surprised to see that the airport was brand new. Also, a friend of a friend of a Riverdale parent knew a Jet Air pilot, so we got quite the special treatment--they escorted us throughout our connecting flights (Jaipur to Mumbai to Cochi), and we each got two seats to ourselves, pens and matching hats. The Jet Air airline was very pleasant. Natalie got very excited over the petite waterbottles and the bright blue airsick bags. Upon arrival from cooler Jaipur to steamy Mumbai, we were hit with the heat waves and humidity while getting off of the plane. It was cool and kind of disturbing when we flew into Mumbai because we saw HUGE slums covering large amounts of land. It was kind of like a scene from Slumdog Millionare for those who have seen the movie. Finally we arrived at the Cochi airport. All of our bags had to be loaded and tied down to the top of a van (30 bags is a hassle to travel with, apparently) and loaded into a separate car. We were told by the driver it would be a two hour drive to Hope Charities, where we are staying, and Karl told us to expect three hours. However, our ride ended up being an unexpected 3+ hours. The bumpy and start and stop motions of the car, as well as the heat, took its toll on some of our stomachs. When we finally reached the house we were greeted by Daisy and Mrs. Laly, who performed a common Hindu greeting ritual to the group (we all got red bindis!). The house is incredible. Once we arrived we got fresh lemon juice and pineapple-absolutely delicious. Later, we also got home-made french fries. The ketchup here is surprisingly good as well. After assembling into our rooms and setting up our bug nets, we lugged our 15, 50 pound bags of books to the library at the clinic and organized all of the books by reading level. It was a very sweaty journey but it's rewarding to see all these books in the library.

P.S: Kerala is very jungle-y with lots of palm, rubber and coconut trees. We also saw the backwaters while driving to Hope Charities. People drive on the left side of the road here and they pass each other by beeping their horns and swerving around. It is also significantly cleaner than the larger cities like Delhi. Well, that's all for now! We all arrived safe and in one piece. Annie says hi to her "family and friends" and Ellie says hello to Dad and Lucie--Hope you are having a blast in Hawaii! (p.s. Ellis, we miss you if you are reading this!)