A Scare in Imphal

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Hi everybody...we thought of another story that we forgot to tell about our time in Imphal, Manipur. And, we are at a good computer, in someone's home in Bangladesh, so we thought we'd also send a picture!

One night, after returning from Lydia Children's Home after a great night with the kids, we were hanging out in our hotel room. Actually, we were watching TV in our room, which had cable, and we were catching a funny episode of Seinfeld. Go figure...Seinfeld in remote parts of India. Just another example that globalization is real! About halfway through the show, we all of a sudden heard very loud, thunderous, echoing, rapid explosions happening just outside our window. They continued sporadically for the next thirty minutes. Thus simulating the effect of gunfire, and answering gunfire. Thinking that possibly the insurgents of Manipur had made a frontal attack on downtown Imphal, Alison told Trevor to go out and see what was happening. So Trevor put on his war shoes...flipflops...and wandered out to see what was going on. While he was gone, Alison had visions of him being kidnapped and never reappearing...she started planning what move she should make in that situation... She also began flipping channels to see if anything was on the news that would explain the noise. That is when the light bulb came on in her head...and it was just when Trevor walked back into the room. What was all the noise for?! After living in Chicago when the Bulls won the Championship, we should have known. India had successfully beaten Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup, and people were out in the streets celebrating...safely, with firecrackers. (If you didn't know, there is a "small" rivalry in things besides just cricket between these two countries. It's probably a good thing that India did not lose this match...who knows what would have been happening in the streets of Imphal that night!!!) We endured the loud firecrackers for about 10 more minutes, and then they finally faded! And we lived safely through it!

Now for the picture: This is us with our 4 Lydia Home boys...you can probably tell which are the two brothers (the older boys). Aren't they so cute?!

We are safely in Bangladesh...and may not have email access for about a week, as we travel out of the capital tomorrow to a more remote place. So if you don't hear from us, we will be back, with our news before too long!

Love, Ali and Trevor