12/30 6:25pm Day 1 part 2

So our morning was supposed to have started off at 7:45am so we could meet for prayer at 8:15am and eat breakfast together. Instead, we wake up to someone knocking on our door at 9am. It was Dee. In a matter of 5 min. (I'm not even joking) we were dressed, semi-make-uped, and downstairs. I was so embarrassed! Then after a quick breacky (we did have to take our malaria pills) we went in the van to go to the beach, St. Thomas' shrine/church, the Snake Museum/Zoo (there were other reptiles present as well), and the place where St. Thomas last preached. The beach was a wonderful and short experience. There was at least a mile of sand to the beach and then it was a mild drop-off to the water. People live on the beach here. It was so humid and many of them were laying under these plank "beds" that were on stilts. There are 4 pictures that I will take away from that experience. There was a wall type thing on stilts  |----| and a man with his toddler were just sitting in the shade, trying to keep cool. A group of younger Indian men who started off in identical athletic wear stripped down to their underwear and as soon as they saw us they switched  from playing where they, to where we were. It was quite entertaining (Becca got a pic or 2 of it). As we traveled further down the beach there was a man curled up in the sand with a blue cloth covering his face/head. And as we were driving away we saw the fishing boats sitting in the sand. According to Dee, when the typhoon came all of those people (who were living on the beach) lost their homes.

At one point, when we were on our way to St. Thomas' church/museum we stopped in front of a giant Hindu temple.The spot we got out at was located in front of a fruit stand, run by a mother and her two daughters. Right before we got back on the van, a  few older women had started asking us for alms. We came back for lunch and then got to take naps. That was the deepest/hardest I think I've ever slept in my entire life! After dinner tonight we'll have a debriefing and then tomorrow morning it's train (7hrs.) and bus (2hrs). Then, for the first time this trip, we'll be on the compound!!