Early on the 1st of August, Joseph Thomas of Joshua Mercy Centre arrived to escort us to Faridabad, Haryana, one of the states in northern India. Joseph lives there with his lovely wife and two children, pouring his energy and resources into multiple ministries. He was very hospitable and treated us as family.

The kids all leave their shoes in one area during class. It’s sorta cute with all the little sandals in a pile.

According to Joseph, as we visited the schools, the children expected us to bring something…so most of the time we brought a snack of some sort: bananas, cookies, or pears.

The ratio of students to teachers would make most of us cringe I’m sure. Even more humbling is the small dwelling they called a school: concrete walls, few windows, no air conditioning and little air flow.

And this was the bathroom…

In this region of India, like the majority of the country, you can’t go far without passing cows. This was one of those super touristy moments where Jenna and I just about jumped out of the car to get pictures. I think our driver Sunil thought we were ridiculous.

We stopped at this small roadside…station (market, cart?) to purchase bananas for the slum tent camp that we would be visiting next.

Even with her smile and hand gestures, I’m still not sure what she was trying to tell me…probably wanting me to buy the flowers and garlands.