"village" visit

When I arrived 3 months ago, I was told that we would be going out to a village to help start a Storying group... and I was so excited! When I was in South Asia two years ago, one of my most favorite trips was our village visit. So as we get ready to go out to start this Storying group, in my mind, I'm picturing (hoping for) this:

However, what they were calling a village is really on the outskirts of our city and is just like a community or small town:

I very much enjoyed our first visit there and love going back every two weeks. The people there are so sweet, and I always leave blessed and with a huge smile on my face! However, I was still hanging on for a visit to a real village. So, just a couple of weeks ago, my roommate's language helper invited us to her village to meet some young girls and share a Story with them... and I'm hoping it's going to be like the first picture above... but again it turns out it's really more like this:

Doesn't seem very village-y does it? So... needless to say, I'm still waiting on this:

Hopefully the opportunity will come one day! Still, I got some pretty fun pictures of our last "village" visit, and here they are!

a toys salesman riding behind us on our way out to the village

sharing the road :)

making our way out to the village in a rickshaw

gathering trash 

that's our rickshaw driver in yellow... we had to stop and ask for directions... the man in pink is getting his hair dyed with the same stuff we use to draw the designs on the ladies' hands! Men and women will often do this to dye their hair orange.

while visiting my roommate's language helper we met these little girls... we were able to tell them, and quite a few more ladies, a Story and then we drew a Mehndi design on their hands that goes with the story....

on the roof with the girls 

walking back to the road to find a rickshaw, this little girl passed us... I  didn't realize her little hiney was showing until I looked at my pictures later! bless!

this man needs a mini-van!

kids climbing a window :)

Our "village" visit was really great! We met some wonderful people and definitely got to see a different side of the city that we don't see on a daily basis. It was a fun little adventure and a precious opportunity to Share!