okay… i think i’ve gone a little over to the weird but hey… i’m excited that my big bag is found. i’m wondering if i should peer out my window for the delivery and run towards it as it is coming. hehehe.

hmmm… i think there’s something in the good Book about lost items being found. Luke 15 has a series about it.

i realized that my small one was among the small bags and thought that maybe the big bag will be with the other big bags. makes sense, right? so i patiently waited till a series of big bags came and were taken by their respective owners. one by one they disappeared until the two doors of the carousel closed and the baggage track stopped. hmmm… maybe i missed it as it went around and one of the attendants placed it at the unclaimed baggage area. so i checked, hoping that it would be there… but it wasn’t.

i then went into Southwest Airlines Central Baggage Services counter to inform and inquire about my missing big bag. the service representative took the details and told me that it “should” eventually arrive at Tampa (TPA) later this evening… worse case scenario, by tomorrow morning… before my ship leaves port! in our conversation her words at times seemed to give a glimmer of hope that i will get it tonight… but it hasn’t.

the way that my big bag will eventually reunite with me will be revealed at the time and circumstances God sees fit for me to experience. the basic choices that i have currently is to either worry and stress over my big bag which has about 90% of my clothes and my ukulele. OR, i can relax, pray, and have faith that God is taking care of it… even to the worse of the worse case scenario should i never see my big bag and its contents again.

still it is quite the challenge to look at the time and NOT wonder, “why hasn’t Baggage Services called me yet?” faith… i have so much to learn.

in the afternoon, Lea, my dad, Daniel, and i had the opportunity to go into the town of Jeypore to look around. it was nice to be able to see a little more of the area besides the school compound. it was also rather interesting see how they use the middle of the road to park their bicycles and motorcycles. i guess the division it creates saves the town money so that they don’t have to build a center divide.

we walked around the town and found ourselves in the town’s marketplace where many people were selling everything from live animals to vegetables to curry powder. speaking of curry power, we also found in the corner of the market a curry powder “factory”. the fine powder was in the air and one can feel in breathing it in and in the eyes.

everywhere you looked you will find chili in its various varieties and forms. i wish i had the time to take a picture of all of them. but while we were at the market, there were two boys following me around. it wasn’t that i was scared that something would happen to me. it was just a bit annoying and bothersome to have someone follow your every move. also i like to take my time setting up my shots and i knew that if i didn’t keep on moving that the two boys will begin to press me for some money and/or offer to take my picture for money. so the pictures that i was able to take were quick to avoid all that.

as we were leaving the open market, this sign was on the right wall of the gate which i found to be quite the oxymoron. from the looks of the parlour itself it didn’t appear to be still in business. and from the looks of the sign, i have doubts that if i stepped in i would feel any change.

not too far from the market was a new building being worked on. although it may look like someone slapped ghetto up against its side, it is actually the scaffolding. i’m glad the scaffolding we used to get up on the roofs for painting were solidly constructed and metal.

we didn’t spend that much more time in town and when we got back we helped out the others by getting the kids ready for the Christmas pageant. in-between taking pictures of everyone’s involvement, i managed to get my hands working by attaching these sheep faces to the boys that were assigned to be… uh… sheep.

the finished process of wardrobe and costume.

this is the final scene of the pageant with all the cast together. i took a lot of photos throughout the scenes so you can view them at your leisure in my Photo Gallery.