Siera Stokes

I’m Happy Here

Good news.. I am all better! No more strep throat or body aches! Everyone else is getting sick though.. Haha so I’ve been taking care of them.

The girls here in Kullu were much more outgoing from the get go than the girls in Jibhi but aren’t as advanced so it changed the dynamics quite a bit! We have a range of girls here. Since they come from many different areas and especially poor areas, we were expecting to have some girls who would need some more one-on-one time. One of the girls named Nisha wouldn’t even talk the first day and we were working on the alphabet with her. She has now opened up and talks more and can spell words if you point out each letter and spell it for her. Huge steps for her! And then there are many more advanced girls such as Muskan, Anu, and Geetanjali who are able to put together full sentences and have small conversations with you. Today in Advanced English though the girls were doing great! I was really proud and happy to see the girls catching on. I have bonded quite a bit with a girl name Geetanjali but I call her G.T. for short. She is 14 and is super smart so I am able to learn more about her each day. She loves seeing pictures of my family at home and wants to meet Saylor. She doesn’t understand that Boston is my little brother since he is so much taller than me and says my mom is “sunder” which means “beautiful.” It will be hardest to say goodbye to her tomorrow. I have bonded with so many other girls too and today Aarti made me a paper rose with a note in it saying “I love C.C.” which a heart and arrow going through it. She is shy and was nervous to give it to me and was so excited when I said I loved her too! I love Pinki, both Muskan’s, Iklesh, Jiya, and tons of the other girls!

My lessons went super well every day I taught so I’m super happy about that and absolutely love teaching the girls! Even when I don’t teach I love being able to sit with the girls and help them.

Two days ago we went to Manali for dinner and had the most incredible food called “MoMo’s.” They are Indian pot stickers with sheep meat inside and actually taste amazing! We ordered 20 plates.. HAHAHA and we finished almost all of them! Each plate came with 12 MoMo’s and obviously we were starving! We are hopefully eating at that shack again on Tuesday before we drive 16 hours back to Delhi and catch our plane to Nepal. Oh and I am SO EXCITED FOR NEPAL!!!  I have absolutely no idea what to expect.. actually no one knows what we’re getting ourselves into which makes it more exciting! I know that we’re going on a four hour hike though so pretty much I’ll be in heaven!

I’m extremely happy here, but definitely do miss my family!  I hope that everyone’s practices are going well and you’re all having fun! Krew- I’m super excited for your baptism and can’t wait to here all about it! Have fun in Bear Lake! Bozzy- I hope football is still fun and that you’re having a blast with the boys! I still have made sure to look at the moon every single night! I can’t wait to see you all when I get home! One week and your favorite oldest daughter will be home! Hahaha! Tannie- I can’t wait to see you and tell you all about this trip! It’s so weird to not have you here on this trip and it’s odd to not talk to you every single day! Family, Tannie, and Rick.. I miss you all like crazy and love you to C.C.’s moon and back!

XOXO.. C.C.