Freak Out!!!

Today Samuel took us (Autumn, Andrew, Raysha , myself and Ray's students who are living at Kalapani) on a bit of an adventure. We squeezed all of us, 14 in total, into Samson the Sumo and off we went. We planned to go to a nearby wildlife preserve. It turned out to be a bird sanctuary, although I didn't see a whole lot of birds. I think the ones I did see were some kind of crane. Apparently during the monsoon season wild elephants pass through there regularly. Some fishermen told Samuel that there had been elephants there the day before...they must have smelled the Canadians coming and took off. :)

This was a view from a tower that we climbed. It was really windy!

Some of the men out fishing.

Samuel found a fisherman to take us out on his little boat. We didn't squeeze all 14 of us in this time. I think there were 9 plus the fisherman totalling 10. The boat was more like a big canoe. By the time there were 10 of us in the boat we were sitting pretty low. The gunnel was maybe an inch or two above the water. By the look of the other people out on the water, the boat is really only intended for one person. The fisherman kindly took us on a little ride. We were on the water for about 20 minutes or maybe a little longer. I was frustrated with Samuel who insisted on standing up over and over again which of course rocked the boat. The water, although full of plants and insects, was only about waste deep and so even if you couldn't swim it wouldn't have been a problem if you fell in. I was not very keen on having my camera go for a swim though.

Five people in front of me.

And four people behind me. (you can't really see the fisherman who is doing all the work at the back)

I don't think you could have paid me to put my legs in the water like that. Too many bugs and slimy plants!

The "men only" picture in front of the bird sanctuary. From left to right, Samuel (Timothy's brother), Jiten, Samuel, Timothy, Ray and Chhuanga.

Left to right, Chhuanga, Timothy, Samuel, Samuel, Andrew, Zingte, Dimte, Kimte, Kimi, Raysha, Jiten, Autumn and Ray.

After our bird sanctuary adventure we piled back into the Sumo and Samuel took us to the other side of the Brahma Putra River. Because rainy season has not yet arrived the water level is VERY low. We were able to walk out on the beach, which is actually the dry river bed. We had fun just walking around and being in the fresh air. We got pretty wind blown and extremely full of sand! Good times were had by all.

A portion of our group. Kimi, Autumn, Raysha (nice tongue), Jiten, Ray, Chhuanga, Samuel, Timothy and Andrew.

Writing in the sand.

I really like this picture of Andrew and Jiten. I think the light reflecting off the water is beautiful.

Some of them got brave and started walking in the water.

Such a relaxing time. Autumn, Raysha, Jiten, Ray, Samuel and Andrew.

As we were walking back to the Sumo, Ray, one of the Bible students said to me, "It is very nice and good for us to freak out like this on Saturday. We should do this every Saturday." He meant to say "go out" not "freak out." I kinda like it though. I really enjoyed freaking out with my new friends. I hope that we get to freak out together more often.