Merry Christmas! Love Ashley :)

Sorry for the long overdue posts! It was hard trying to get everything to work before but we're here now :)

This trip ha already been such an amazing experience. Just driving around India has been...incredible. I expected poverty of course but the amount of people living in India and the amount of poverty is inescapable. Once we started heading out to Mota Fofalia, the town we are working in, I expected less people meaning less poverty. But everywhere we go there are tents and houses made of twigs lined up. Its hard to see the amount of pollution everywhere. The cities are filled with smoke and its definitely harder to breathe for us. But having the chance to see this all in person is really an eye opening experience.

The first day we got here was long because of the time change but for the first time ever we got to see a babies birth! The women giving birth was possibly the strongest person i've seen. She was so young and little but the whole time she didnt even make a sound. We might get to visit her in the slums on Monday or Tuesday. The presentation went so well. After some technical difficulties we were able to teach the kids about chewing tobacco and bidis which they really seemed interested in. A little girl came up to us and asked us how to get her uncle to stop chewing tobacco, she said she was trying but it was so hard. It was really heart breaking to see how much chewing tobacco is seen around the whole country. They sell it at every little stand or store we pass.

The Taj Mahal was breathtaking. It really looks exactly like pictures and was somewhat surreal to be there even after we traveled so long it was worth 2 nights in the car!

I know this is rushed but we are at a cafe and are pressed for time! So we'll probably get back on here sometime tomorrow! Merry Christmas Everyone, miss you all so much <3