Ahh, vacation!

Greetings to all from the lovely state of Kerala! After 7 weeks of hard work, we get 2 weeks vacation! It was needed..but i miss those kids already! I think i may have to figure out some way to smuggle 135 kids into the country..any ideas?
Everything has been going very well, and we are certainly keeping busy!! Ok, let's rewind:
Here are some highlights from the past few weeks:
We had a sleepover at the girls home this past week. They were all very excited that we were going to spend extra time with them. We were equally excited. We ate dinner with them, then they practiced their dances for the annual Christmas show that they put on for their families, friends and guests. After the dance, it was prayer and Bible study time. This was so special to be a part of! They sang songs in Tamil, read a section of scripture, and had a short time of prayer. It was really cool to see the young girls, distracted at times, but still had their hearts on God. One girl, Priya, prayed, and she prayed for a couple minutes out loud and it was a very heartfelt prayer (although i didn't understand it since it was in tamil..i could still see her heart shining through) It was a great time. In the morning after breakfast was another equally great time of prayer. It was definitely a blessing.
We've definitely grown a lot closer to the girls in the past couple weeks. It's easier to get closer with each one of them since there is only 15 of them, compared to the 120 boys. They heard me sing a song from Monsters Inc. the movie, and now every time i go, they make me sing it a billion times, while they laugh hysterically and try to learn the words. For those curious, the song is when Mike sings to Celia in a silly voice: "You and meee, me and youuu, both of us togetheeerrrr!" It's very funny. It's been good to see the different girls' personalities come out. My Tamil is slowly improving, and they always like it when i speak Tamil to them. They are also very eager to learn more english.
At the boys home, we are continuing work on our projects. The vegetable garden is growing pretty quickly and it getting quite green! the boys seems to take pride in it too, since they've worked hard on it! We are going to be getting in some workout equipment soon for the boys gym! It will be very exciting to see them learn how to use the elliptical, and free weights. I think they will enjoy it very much. Another exciting thing: Gabby, one of the other girls with me, is working on the gym/ sports projects, and noticed that the boys didn't have any sneakers. So, she was able to raise the funds to buy 117 boys each a pair of nice sneakers! They made a big ceremony out of it, (like they do for pretty much everything! It's very exciting to see how big of a deal even the small things are!) After a very long process of measuring each boys foot, making sure we didn't miss anyone, and going to the store and picking them all out, we had them! they had all the boys sit in the auditorium and gave a short speech, and begun the process of handing out the shoes to each boy. The smile on the kids' faces were priceless! they were all sooo excited to have a comfy pair of shoes that they could run around and jump in. All the boys instantly put on their shoes and started running around, jumping, etc,. to see how the shoes felt. It was very funny! Every boy insisted on getting his picture taken with his new hip pair of shoes! I'm still working to load pictures up, so i will try my very hardest to get them!!! I also got to talk to some of the boys that are Christians about starting a Bible study, since they don't have the opportunity to go to church. They seemed very interested!
A couple Sunday's ago, we got to go into a village for a church service. It was a very different experience! I really enjoyed the service, although it was in Tamil, our friend translated for us. There were only about 20 people there, including kids. they welcomed us in with big smiles and wanted us to sing for them. Afterwards, the pastor prayed for us each individually and it was translated into english. it was very cool. Afterwards, a few of us from the church went walking through a coconut grove, and went swimming in a well! That's right, a well where you get water from. Apparently, people swim in them all the time! it was pretty wide and very deep. It was an exciting experience!
that brings me to vacation break so far! On saturday night, we took an overnight train to Kerala. We boarded a houseboat on the backwaters at about 10 am. From there, we cruised along the waters, and got some good relaxing time. Upon boarding, we got flowers and a nice green coconut with a straw to drink the Delicious young coconut water. All our meals were prepared for us and they were delicious!!! Keralan food is definitely my favorite. they use a lot of coconut, so it's not very spicy. It was certainly 24 hours of luxury! the next day, we spent in Kochi, going shopping, exploring the town, etc. On tuesday morning, I pout Gabby on the train, where she went back to Vellore and will be travelling back to the u.s from there! Her sister is pregnant, and very sick, so she had to cut her trip short. We were all very sad to see her leave and i miss her already!
Please pray for my safe travels!
I think that's all the excitement going on lately! I'll be posting again very soon!

As always, comments are greatly appreciated. :)
Love,
Delia