Message from Guwahati, India

Bethal English School in the Darjeerling District was a school that we visited and we had to cross a bamboo bridge to enter the school compound. The first house was actually the original school that is now a residence. The bike that Ray is on will hold up to 8 school children to bring them to school. The next picture is Joseph and his wife Suvha; he is a local minister.
Around Bogdagra are extensive tea fields and this picture is of some women picking tea leaves that will go into the famous Darjeeling tea packages.
Ray demonstrates how to use a broom to help keep the environment clean. India can certainly use the help!
The next picture is leaving Bogdagra and you can see the tea plantations from the air.
From Guwahati we had a four hour drive mostly at night to the Little Flower school where we spent two nights. Yesterday we spent visiting the homes of people who had requested that we drop by and I think that I had six cups of tea. Fortunately, they were small cups and they were always sweetened and sometimes milk was added too.
The road trip there and back to Guwahati is almost impossible to describe. Cows, dogs, goats, sheep all think that the road belongs to them and will often plunk themselves down wherever they feel like on the road and watch the traffic flow around them. The funniest sight was of two white bulls that locked horns and the larger bull started to push the smaller one backwards down the center of the highway as traffic swerved past them from both directions. I didn't get a picture but the image is emblazoned in my head...even the sound of Laura and Shelby laughing at the sight won't be forgotten. (They were trying to sing at the time.)
We had an excellent, careful driver and the trip back toRay Guwahati was uneventful and we made it back in three hours instead of the four that it took us at night to get there.