Thanksgiving

November 27, 2008

Today is Thanksgiving, but I don’t really feel like celebrating.  I’m too worried to feel like celebrating.  Last night there were bomb blasts in Mumbai targeted at westerners.  The blasts killed a whole bunch of people.  The numbers are not confirmed yet.  People like me.  People like me are the targets in this whole thing.  We have three weeks left in this country and I’m terrified.  We were told that we are safe where we are but I still don’t feel safe.  In fact, I have never been this scared in my whole life.  Visthar is trying to make us feel better about the situation but I just don’t feel any better.  I guess that we really shouldn’t worry but I just can’t help it.  I want to enjoy Thanksgiving but I don’t know how to right now.  Maybe I just need to get out and do something fun, or watch a movie or something. 

I’m writing this entry after dinner.  We had a Thanksgiving dinner tonight and it was amazing.  Carolyn, Jonathan’s wife, did so much to make dinner special for us.  I am so thankful that she is here.  We ate really awesome food.  I think that I ate more tonight than I have at any point in India.  I’m writing this entry about 3 hours after dinner and I’m still so full.  It’s really an awesome feeling.  I thought that tonight was going to be really hard for me but it has actually turned out to be pretty amazing.  I think that this is the happiest I have been in India so far.  This group of people amazes me.  I have truly come to love some of them.  We have been able to share so much with each other and we will carry these memories with us for the rest of our lives.  We may not stay in contact with each other, but the memory of these days will always remind me of what awesome people have come into my life and how blessed I really am.  God has given me so much to be thankful for and now this experience in India is on my thankful list.  If you had asked me two months ago if I was thankful to be in India I would have thought you were crazy.  My thoughts have changed significantly.  I don’t think that I could be any happier about this experience than I am right now.  I still miss my family but it is different now.  I know that it may sound cliché but I have some family right here with me in India.  I just feel so content right now and it is so awesome.