Oaklands Cottage View -- November 10

We're living in an apartment at Oaklands Cottage in the small community of Landour, which is just above larger city of Mussoorie. Oaklands Cottage is situated almost at the highest point in Mussoorie, at an elevation of over 7,000' (2,100 metres), We are right on the top of the ridge, and the views from our yard, to the north and to the south are spectacular. This morning dawned crystal clear, and we took some pictures before breakfast.

Looking south and down to Dehradun and the Doon Valley at 2200' or 670 metres.

Mussoorie's bazaars along the top of the Mussoorie Ridge.

Looking north and up to Bandarpunch ("Tail of the Monkey") at an elevation of 20,722' (6316 meters). Bandarpunch is a defining landmark, and we get a marvelous view from our yard when the air is clear. We've used an image of Bandarpunch we took on an earlier visit to Landour in the header of our blog. Here are three more photos of this beautiful mountain that we took from our yard this morning.

This final shot, showing Bandarpunch in its context, was taken from the road just below Oaklands Cottage.

GEMS is a True Gem

GEMS is an aptly named school. It's truly a gem of a school in the Indian Himalayas. Over 200 village children are receiving a high quality education. Today was Paul's first opportunity to visit this special school, and he was impressed. He's more than delighted that he'll have a chance to help out here while we're in India!

GEMS stands for Garhwal English Medium School. The school was founded 4 years ago by Lori and Kunwar Chauhan in order to "...offer a world class education so [the children of their area] might pull themselves out of poverty, and in turn help their communities...". The challenges are daunting, but GEMS is already making a significant difference in the lives of the children and families it serves.

As illustrated by these images taken yesterday morning, the children of GEMS are beautiful, and they are without doubt engaged and enthusiastic learners!

Here are the children of GEMS singing the Indian national anthem, and then a verse of the English hymn 'Amazing Grace' during opening exercises.

At Home in India Again

Paul has always felt as though he's come "home" upon arriving in India. Almost everything feels, sounds, smells and tastes somehow "better". Much has changed in the 23 years since we last lived here, but It still feels like home! There's a big part of Lynn's heart that is at home here, too. We've been back "home" for a little over a week now, and it's been a very full week!

Getting to India from Canada went smoothly, but the trip was not without adventure. After a delightful few days with Paul's parents and the rest of his Ontario family, we boarded a Jet Airways flight from Toronto to Delhi on Oct. 28th. It was 18 hours from the time we took off in Toronto until we landed in Delhi, but there was a brief stop in Brussels. That's what led to our little adventure. We were required to go through Brussels Airport security, and Paul neglected to return his laptop to his computer bag after the security check!

It was a bit of a shock to discover there was no laptop when Paul opened his computer bag in Delhi. Thanks to the brilliant efforts of Jet Airways staff, the missing laptop was located in Brussels Airport security's lost-and-found, put on a flight to Delhi, and then on another flight to Dehradun, where Paul picked it up. Jet Airways could not have done a better job for us!

After 3 busy days taking care of business in Delhi--changing money, establishing new cell phone connections, shopping to set up our apartment, etc.--we hired a car to drive us and our piles of luggage to Mussoorie. In the clips below, we share typical traffic conditions along the road between Delhi and Mussoorie--in a small town, and then in the country.

Since arriving in Mussoorie, we've spent time connecting with longtime friends and establishing connections with new friends. We've made a start on cleaning and setting up our apartment. We've also picked up our new motorbike. Tomorrow, we'll have our first major bike challenge as we navigate traffic to visit friends in Selaqui, which is about 50 km from where we're staying.

Today, Paul will do some final preparation of laptops that will be delivered soon to GEMS, the nearby school where he will spend some time be helping out. 

Til next time...