Happy 4th of July

In honor of the 4th of July I have decided to make a couple lists.

The first is a list of things I love about America:

• my beautiful home in Vegas
• my beautiful family in Vegas
• my awesome friends in Provo and Vegas (and wherever else they have scattered to)
• traffic lights/some semblance of order while driving
• the plethora of food options at your fingertips any day at any given time
• free education available to all (and a pretty good one at that)
• that I can walk to church in 10 min.
• that I can go to whatever church I choose
• the fact that you can get basically anything you want in a matter of minutes
• the general cleanliness and upkeep of all public places
• freedom to love/marry anyone you choose
• reliable power and air conditioning
• having a pool in my backyard
• hot showers in the morning
• Starbucks
• washers AND dryers in your house/apartment
• all water is drinkable
• freedom to be and do whatever you want with your life

I love America so much and feel so blessed to have been born in such a wonderful country. The more time I spend away from America the more I realize that it truly is a blessed land and country. We definitely have our problems, but they are nothing compared to those that trouble many places in the world. I am and will be forever grateful for the sacrifices our fore-fathers made so that we could live in such an amazing place. I LOVE AMERICA!!!!

......ok.....I just had to get that out. Now, because I don't want you all to think that I am hating life over here, I have decided to make my second list.

This is a list of things I love about India:

• beautiful sunsets and sunrises
• walking through Thottanaval village and waving to all the people as we pass
• going to house dedication ceremonies where everyone is invited and they play music over loudspeakers throughout the entire village
• cramming 30 kindergarten and 1st graders and 7 adults in a 12 seater van to take said kids to get blood-typing done
• water fights with 160 indian children
• dancing with Christraj and Rosemary
• stroking her hair and singing Revathi to sleep her first night at Rising Star and away from her parents
• watching and dancing with LifeDance (the dance team at Rising Star)
• Sagayamary's kisses before bed (one on each cheek, one on the forehead and one on the chin) always followed by a big hug
• Mahalakshmi's smile
• kissing all the kids goodnight and telling them I love them
• chatting with Rajakumari, Vikram, Vel, Saraswathi, Vannila Mary, and Kala
• Christraj's sleepy eyes as his says goodnight to me
• Kids who come to the principal's office just to see me and say hello
• Parota
• the EXTREMELY LOW cost of living
• how cheap everything is
• the want of people to give when they themselves have so little
• Rising Star Outreach

Vanakkam