Day 7-Playing tour guide

·        My camera came back to life!!!

·        David’s excitement about the knives in the market

·        All the questions I was able to answer about the market and Ooty. Though I definitely couldn’t answer them all.

·        Talking about camp, and the great things that happened, and changes that could be made to improve it.

·        Realizing that I am actually staff here. I have been involved with other Freedom Firm events, and helped to make a difference here, but now I am staff. I feel more ownership in the work that happens here. It is a powerful thing.

·        Hanging out at the Malsteads’ while we waited for the Americans to arrive.

·        Talking about books and movies and boys and all sorts of other things with Kavi and Rachael.

·        Going to Willy’s for a late dinner

·        “It’s a hard flavour to describe, but it’s definitely blue.”

·        All of the laughter

·        The looks the guys at Willy’s gave us when we were all laughing so hard

·        David’s story about peeing on the roof. 

Day 6-Leaving camp

·        Kayaking with Madeline, Pradeep, David, and Sylvia

·        Seeing Langurs by the water

·        Upma for breakfast

·        Helping to tear down tents with Pradeep and the Americans

·        Firefighting.

·        The gorge walk.

·        Climbing a tree with Chocolate

·        Helping girls cross the stream with Ben. So much for my last dry pair of jeans. :~)

·        Footwashing. The things Ben said when he washed my feet, about how special I am to God, and that God dances over me because I bring him joy.

·        Holding hands with Madeline while we walked back to camp.

·        The ride back to Ooty in the truck

·        Sharing camp jokes a few more times before we parted ways.

·        Hearing how a message I sent a couple of months ago was something that really made a difference in a friend’s life, and was prompted by the Holy Spirit, not just something I wrote.

·        The American guys talking about how they would be more refreshed going home, in spite of the lack of sleep and everything we did.

·        Diagnosing my injured foot with Madeline. Neither of us like doctors, so we determined I didn’t need one :~)

Day 5-2nd (and last :~( ) full day at camp.

·        Tri-lingual jokes during the bonfire. Hilarious, even when you can’t understand the first 2 languages they’re told in.

·        Convincing Mitu to kayak and abseil.

·        Having Madeline come up randomly and give me a hug when we were all standing around.

·        Sharing blankets and body heat to keep myself and the girls from freezing our butts off.

·        Hearing how just a few minutes of horse riding made an impact.

·        Towing Soni in from kayaking when she was pretending she couldn’t kayak.

·        Finding just how much I can come to love people in just a few days when I may never see them again.

·        “We all have the same heart to feel another’s pain.”

·        “Shadow of Heaven”

·        Seeing how happy Mala was in the kayak

·        Going for a stroll with Deep in the moonlight, and seeing deer bounding through the brush.

·        Talking with Sylvia when neither of us wanted to sleep.

·        Being the last person awake in the camp. 

·        Hearing how Avalanche impacts the girls.

·        Having girls come up and hold my hand as we’re walking. 

Day 4-1st full day at camp

·        Sleeping in a hammock. As well as I could sleep with a terribly cough and the cold.

·        Walking out to get photos of the water buffalo.

·        Lesson and small group time in the pine grove.

·        Human knot and partners tag

·        Reading Pilgrim’s Regress and chatting with Pradeep during free time.

·        How amazing it felt to stick my head under the faucet after running around in the blazing sun.

·        Hearing monkeys hooting in the morning, and crows jawing all day, and pinecones popping in the heat of the day, and the laughter and singing of all the girls. Such beautiful sounds.

·        Learning new things about God. The lessons were a bit simplified for girls who know nothing about God, but God still moves through them.

·        “Light Didi!”

·        People watching, and listening to conversations, whether I understand them or not.

·        Foot washing at the falls. Especially when the girls prayed for us.

·        Climbing the waterfall and getting photos with the girls.

·        Swimming with the girls in the falls, even though I got so cold that I couldn’t stop shaking.

·        Basking on the warm rocks

·        Getting Elfreeda (one of the other leaders, who has a water phobia) into the water.

·        Swimming with the kayak group. Especially Razia. (the water was a heck of a lot warmer in the lake than the falls)

·        Attempting to teach Deep to float.

·        Chilling (literally, as we were so cold despite the blankets) in the hammock with Madeline.

·        Talking with Richard on the night hike.

·        Where do I get by saying I’m not worth anything when I see all the wonder around me, and know that God loves me more than all of the great things in my life?

·        Taking matters into our own hands and building the fire with Pradeep, Madeline, and Razia (and with an ever-growing audience).

·        The girls singing worship songs in Hindi, English, Kannada, and who knows what other languages.

·        Staying up til midnight with Pradeep, talking about the girls, and camp, and life in general.

·        Biscuit (Madeline), Chocolate (Razia), and Roll (me) :~)

Day 3-strolling through the woods and more.

Walking into Avalanche after a long bus ride. Ice breaker games and first day at camp.

·        The fact that Shadow is healthy enough that I’m able to leave Ooty. Praise the Lord!

·        The bus ride, and seeing again what an amazing part of the world I am living in.

·        Walking barefoot through the woods and all the time at camp.

·        Hearing a girl scold the others for calling me Auntie, and giving them a lecture on how I am Didi.

·        Chatting with Mala on the hike in

·        Raji and Joyti insisting that I sit with them. Even though they made fun of me the whole time, they really made an effort to connect.

·        Figuring out ways to connect with girls who don’t have any language in common with me.

·        Listening to girls and staff singing “God is so good” in all of the languages represented here.

·        Trying to join in with goofy dances with all of the girls.

·        Going for a walk with Lygia and David, two of the people from the American team.

·        Learning about myself, that I see the world in photos. Whether I have a camera or not, I have the angles and pictures in my mind. It’s not deliberate, but it’s probably why I’m so obsessed with photography.

·        Playing icebreaker games with the girls and staff.

·        When a girl stood by me in the line for cocoa, and suddenly said, “Didi, God is so good.”

·        Photographing butterflies on the walk.

·        Being told that I should move to a village in Andhra Pradesh, because Ooty is too big of a town for me.

·        Everything I’ve started to work through in my life. Things I said I would never do that I am now considering if it turns out that’s what God wants for me.   

·        Scaring the heck out of the girls in the tent I was going to stay in. That’s why I wound up sleeping in a hammock…

Day 2-A taste of Ooty

Girls went to the boathouse and botanical garden, and came to have an intro horse therapy session.

·        Hearing girls in their teens and up, belly laugh like little kids as they trotted for the first time.

·        Seeing terror and nervousness turn into joy as they made their first circuit of the ring on horseback

·        One girl who barely spoke english was on the horse. She was very quiet and serious, but she suddenly started petting Shadow, and said, “I am so happy now.” So simple, so quiet and calm, but so moving.

·         Shadow was trying to be lazy and find someone who would let him stop and stand for a bit. He made a beeline for Deep, who of course let him stop, and gave him a cuddle. I made Shadow continue, and Deep’s face was lit up as he told me that Shadow likes him and chose to come to him. Neat to see that excitement about horses from a guy his age.

·        Photos with the girls at the botanical garden

·         Having Raji, one of our Ooty girls, ride for the first time.

·        Many of the girls don’t speak or understand English. To teach them to steer the horse, I’d put the reins in a girl’s hand, and put my hand over hers, turning the horse with her. The look on a girl’s face when she realized what I was showing her, and that she could do it on her own, was so neat. 

·        ·Lily being excited to see me even when she was in a snit with the group. She saw that I was ok, and someone she knows and trusts.

·         Getting a humourous call from Pradeep, telling how he sent the guys from the American team to get chai and snacks, and how funny it was, and he just needed to tell someone else who would appreciate it.

·        Riding Shadow for a bit in the rain to show the group how it looked when I rode.

·        Seeing the way therapy can work in just a one-time thing, even just for a few minutes.

·        Girls who made me run around the soccer pitch loads of times, because they were enjoying trotting so much.

Day 1: Welcome to Ooty, meal together, etc…

    I'll be posting some blogs over the next few days about our Avalanche camp we just had. It was an amazing experience for all involved, and each day, I would write down highlights of the day. Mostly just little things, things people might not even notice to write down in a journal. But put together, it is these little things that made Avalanche what it was. Some of these might not make sense to anyone who was not at camp, some might not make sense to any but me. I tried to make them so they would make sense to anyone, but I'm not sure if I succeeded. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have about them.

    This is from the first day. The girls came in, and we spent the evening with them. It's a pretty short one, because we didn't really do that much with the girls. But it was still a wonderful night, and a great time to spend with the girls and with each other.

·        Seeing the way that our Ooty girls determined that we were “theirs”, and they were going to let everyone know. It seemed to give our friendship a bit of a kickstart.

·        Seeing staff I had only met at the staff retreat.

·        Watching everyone step out of their comfort zones and start to make friends.

·        Meeting the American team, though they were terribly jet-lagged, and discussing what would be happening at camp.

·        The excitement of girls and staff both.

·        Having a very amusing discussion with Mala and Pradeep about the downfalls of not using toilet paper. Especially for a woman. Pradeep didn't really understand...