Namaste

India is everything I thought it would and more. This place is fantastic. So full of life and color. It took me 32 hours to get here and settled. let me just say that any bed that allows you to get vertical, feels great! yesterday was jam packed full of goodness. it involved a city tour, visiting the monument that lays over the place Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, the largest mosque in India, and a rickshaw ride through old delhi. We were 12 rickshaws going down a wide blvd, which then turned to a small street, then to a shadowy canyon-like small alley where 4 story bldgs almost touch at the top. Our rickshaws are no longer together, we've been swallowed up by the river of people, motor scooters, honking horns.

Absolute wall to wall people, your elbow bumps others in rickshaws, pedestrians hang on behind you and follow, others wedge between and step over the front wheel, motor scooters constantly honk horns, and there is this feeling of a sea of humanity. You struggle to take it all in, look to the right and see vendors with gold, the left they're selling rugs, then you're confronted with awful smells where they are slaughtering chickens, then selling car parts, then small herds of goats, then book stores, make-shift hardware stores, boxes of electronic gadgets with made up names (Pana-Sonik, Sunni, etc), children gestering with their hands to give them something to eat, and in the middle of it all are dozens and dozens of these little 4-table restaurants frying-frying-frying something....

You stare not wanting to miss anything, they stare at you, you are so close to each other you can easily reach out and take something as the rickshaw goes by, or others can touch you and sometimes do by accident. The people are in rags, others with cell phones and leather attache cases, women are either dressed in bright colors (orange, purple, pink) and their mid-drift is completely exposed, or they are covered from head to toe in black and you see the gauze like material move as they breath.

The senses are overwhelmed. Ten minutes seems like an hour, 30 minutes seems like all afternoon. When you finally reach the mosque you are to visit and you dismount the rickshaw you feel exhausted, and realize it all took about 45 minutes.

After removing your shoes, pay someone for a little tag that allows you to take photos, climb the many stairs, and from the top of this very high stairway you look back, see the 1000's of people flowing down the streets and realize, I will never be able to find the words to describe this experience.

But the highlight for today.... visiting Mother Theresa's Orphanage, "The Sisters of Charity Orphanage for the Mentally and Physically Handicapped". What a treat! Those cute kids were so excited to see us and to touch us. Reaching out crippled hands to touch white skin, smiles exploding in their eyes and on their faces. We are all God's children, and he loves us all. I felt God's love for these dear children, and for me. It is amazing what we learn through suffering, and watching the suffering of others. We see the charity, the love, the peace of the experience.

I am now in Varanasi, the holiest city in Hinduism. Tomorrow we break the day on the holy Ganges River, visit the place of Buddha's first sermon, and then end the day by sending a prayer candle down the holy river.