Alex Park February Update

Whoa! Well a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Nick and I are now in Chamba, where we went for our first expedition when we were in India a little more than a year ago. We have been staying with a Mr. Dahmi. He is a very wise man and Nick and I have loved the opportunity to get to know him better. We are very grateful for his hospitality and how he has treated us like family. Nick and I are here to set up everything for Utah County YMAD when they are here in March. It has been raining nonstop for the past 4 days, so we have been unable to meet with the schools and orphanages. So we’ve been stuck inside reading all day and talking about video games we wish we had. 2 Sundays ago Nick and I had all of the girls over to our house and we had our first Annual Pancake Fest 2010!
And our pancakes were amazing. Our secret? Lots and lots of butter. Actually Nick did most of the cooking while I sat there and cheered him on. I did set the table though. Pretty important stuff. I even had a nice little centerpiece. It really tied the room together. Our Pancake Fest 2010 was a great success and all the girls loved them. After breakfast Nick and I went up to see mother to give her some pancakes. Mother is a woman from Switzerland who has lived in India for the past 25 years. Her name really isn’t Mother. I actually have no idea what it is. She just likes going by mother. She is one of the Shastra Society board members. Ymad has had a lot of success these past few months and the Baird’s and all the previous interns have done a great job in this part of the world. James and Nefi found all these wonderful girls to fill our orphanage and Reshma started teaching in the elementary school and even got desks for the school there. Nick and I have continued to teach and we even got into the high school to teach a couple classes a day. But it feels as if Mother is trying to stop all of our progress. We don’t know what her plan is but it is clear that she doesn’t realize all of the blessing that have been occurring around her. But we know it is because of her that we are now in Chamba and it looks like we will be traveling to Calcutta. But Nick and I fully intend on going back to the Home for Peace before the end of our adventure and to be with our wonderful girls. And we totally forgot our hot chocolate mix in Kullu too. Now we have to go back.