Ruins and Finale

Our amazing visit to India would not be complete without showing you some pictures of the ruins that we saw the night we left.  After the visit to the leprosy affected colony and the Art School, we came back to RSO and packed our bags, said our fond good byes and tied to freeze the memory of being in our minds forever. Through the generosity of Ron and Joyce, we packed two cars with our favorite people and went off to see the incredible ruins from a civilization long ago near the beach of the beautiful Indian Ocean. 

Just as we got out of the car, we saw this sign, which is pretty amusing because there must be quite a lot of evil that has slipped in the door at India (actually there is some truth to that)!  We simply could not believe the rubbish and rubble everywhere we went (with a few exceptions), including at the base of this sign. 

Without an interpreter (because we couldn’t understand them anyway) we marveled at who the expert carvers were and how these remarkable rocks get there. Were these amazing rocks washed up on the shore or were they placed there by some ingenious civilization centuries ago? Take a look:

 

The girls found their new best friend:

And Charity, of course, just couldn’t contain her delight in living her dream of being in India!

We took a walk to the beach amidst a stream of beach shops and hawkers and enjoyed the waves crashing in for a few minutes before spending our last meal together at a nice restaurant where we celebrated Tal and Anita’s collective birthdays!

Tal’s birthday was the following day and Anita’s the following Wednesday.  We shared what we loved about those two and remembered the fun and funny times, not only from the trip but also from Tal’s childhood.  The capstone of the dinner was when (because we had sung happy birthday to both of them together) the waiter came and asked Tal and Anita if they were twins!  Now that was hilarious! 

The nurses, the girls and Tal and Anita headed back to their work at Rising Star and Dad and I headed for the airport with our very nice driver who spoke no English. We were dropped off at about 10 p.m. and our flight was at 3:40 a.m. so it was an eventful night in the dirtiest airport we’ve ever seen and a grumbling tummy.  You don’t want to know the details on that!

As we floated in to LA 14 1/2 hours later,  having flown over the North Pole, we knew that we had just had the experience of a lifetime.  A treasure that will be a jewel in our memories forever!