Friday, June 15, 2007

greetings from kolkata, india - june 15

Sarah and Clint Baldwin are the leaders of Courtney's trip to India. Sarah is the Campus Pastor at George Fox University. She just sent this email out...

Dear friends and family:

Greetings from Kolkata! After 28 hours of travel (with no problems or delays), we made our way to the YWCA hostel that we are staying. We are all well and overall in good spirits. Thanks for all your prayers.

Yesterday we took a four hour walking tour of the city. We were very much immersed in the sights and sounds (and smells) of Kolkata. Last night as we were debriefing several students mentioned that what most struck them was the sheer amount of people that were everywhere that we looked. Over 16 million people flow through the streets of Kolkata every day in a city the size of the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. Amazing! We crossed the Howrah bridge on foot--it's the busiest bridge in the world with over a million people crossing it every day. We truly were sucked into a sea of people like we have never been in before. We took every kind of transportation possible yesterday (almost!). We took taxis, ferry, bus, subway and autorickshaw. But the end of the day, we truly were exhausted.

Stock photo of the Howra Bridge.

This morning we visited the Assemblies of God hospital and were super impressed with its facilities. It's just a 5 minute taxi ride from our hostel, so parents, you can breathe easier. We have good medical care practically in our backyard.

In an hour we are going to register at the Mother House so that we can begin work this Monday. Tomorrow we will visit a Friends' Orphanage and continue our acclimation process to this crazy city we are living in. Sunday we will worship with the church that meets in our hostel.

Please pray for our team's continued health. The climate is tough here and disease is everywhere you look--but we are consuming vasts amounts of anti-bacterial gel on our hands. Also, please pray for those of us who are suffering with jet lag. It's hard to manage this city on not a lot of sleep. And pray for us as we prepare to work in the homes.

Thanks so much for your prayers!
every blessing to you,
Sarah & Clint

Posted by Curt Sell at 8:22 AM

Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Uganda Photos (click on photo to change)

welcome to our blog!

We're not exactly sure what we'll be writing about, but we're sure it will be interesting... TO US!

Our newest posts will always be located at the top of the "Table of Contents" to the right, but you can also find posts by topic in the section below it.

want to leave a comment for us?

Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the post you'd like to respond to, and follow the directions.

Your comments are always appreciated.

___________________________________________________________

the latest on the sells

As of May 27, 2009...

Wow, it's been almost a year since we've updated this. Our family had a wonderful experience traveling to Uganda two summers ago, which prompted us to keep a journal on this blog. You can read our daily journal from our month long trip here.

This year brings new adventures. Our eldest daughter, Courtney, after graduating from George Fox University with honors, left for her third trip to India to spend nearly a YEAR to work at Happy Home for the Handicapped in Shimoga, India. You can read about her first trip to India and the impact it had on her life here. She'll also give us new updates from her current trip on this site (here). As of this writing, she is just starting to settle in and is very excited to be there. She has been looking forward to this for a long time!

Meanwhile, Hillary spent all of last year touring the western U.S. with Matsiko, the choir of children we grew to love as our own in Uganda. She journalled about her experiences in Uganda if you'd like to see what that was like. At some point during this tour, she felt led to join the U.S. Army. Quite a big decision, and one she didn't take lightly. After moving through Basic Training with flying colors, she is now at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio training to become a combat medic. It's a very intense training, but we're sure she'll do well. Our whole family was able to travel to South Carolina to watch her graduate from Basic Training. What an awe inspiring experience!

Leslie is having a great year of teaching 5th graders. She's also in a Master's program, which takes a good chunk of her time. She's still finds time to read a TON of books. Literally, a ton!

Curt was overwhelmed by his experience as a first time overseas traveler and kept up his journal here (you can also read his random posts on everyday life here). The busyness of life and keeping track of his traveling kids has slowed down his writing, but he hopes to begin writing on a regular basis again soon.