- Savannah used her birthday money and purchased a TV, DVD player and teaching supplies for the Home of Hope Boy's Home orphanage where she's been volunteering. She's been able to work with the boys on their conversational English a couple times this month, after a hiatus due to some nasty political issues that resulted in some Molotov bombs into civilian buses on the road to the home. She's happy to be spending time there again.
- Savannah got braces mid-month. They are called lingual and are behind her teeth instead of in the front. The cost is amazingly less here than in the US, and with some help from insurance, we decided this was a good option for her. She got her top teeth done two weeks ago and goes back for her bottom on Tuesday. She was in a lot of pain the first week, so would appreciate some prayers for her over the coming week to deal with the pain that will surely come. She's a lot like her momma, in that she is pretty wimpy and has a very low tolerance for pain.
- The last of Savannah's big month is that she has joined the worship team at our Word of Life church and has played violin twice now. She has always been shy about her violin, only playing in school functions, so this is a big step for my girl. She has received lots of appreciation and praise from the church members after her first time playing, so it was good encouragement for her to play again. She was great again tonight, but I might be a little biased.
- Our last highlight of June was going to be kept under wraps... a little memento for us to take home and share with family and close friends, a fun memory of our time in Chennai. A friend from church asked me to do an interview with her friend at a local paper. They do a weekly profile on an expat in the area. I am all about helping someone out, so I agreed without hesitation. I assumed it was a small, community paper like the Houston Press or the insert like the "Spring/Woodlands" section of the Houston Chronicle. I chatted with the friend, answered some interview questions, and send him a few pictures of Savannah and I during our time in Chennai. Then I forgot about it because it wasn't going to run for over a week and my memory, as many of you know, is much shorter than that. Fast forward to last Friday, June 21. I wake up to a text (SMS, for my Indian friends) from my friend, Gideon, at ML Admin saying, "What Nikki? you're in the paper... you didn't tell me." OK - no biggee. Gideon reads all the expat stuff, nothing strange there. When I got into the office, though, my email box was full of notes from friends in India and Houston, who had all read the article. Seems the paper was a bit bigger than I assumed. And Indians read the papers a lot more than Americans. So........ since it's already out there, enjoy. *The one thing I will note is that I mentioned the reason I am here is because I am following God's directive and that we would not be as acclimated and successful as we are without our church family and my American co-workers. These things are important to me and I am a bit disappointed they weren't included.
So that's our month of June. The month of July will be filled with mixed emotions. I can already tell because they have been sneaking up for the past couple weeks. The highs and the lows have come creeping into the memory bank and been a bit consuming. I am sure the next blog will include all these things going through my head... Lucky you guys!
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| Savannah playing the violin at Word of Life church |
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| Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and Happy Independence Day to my American friends and family! |
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