| Goodbye America |

April 11th, 7:00 AM Operation Shaanti has started their many hours of travels after singing One Day in the airport for everyone to hear!

After 52 hours of travel from the Salt Lake Airport to Jibhi Camp, we FINALLY arrived here at 11:20 p.m. Sunday night! Here’s a few thoughts from almost everyone about our memorable travel experience…

Lisa: 1) RUNNING through the San Francisco Airport at full speed carrying a 20 pound backpack! (You know you’re really going to miss your flight when the airport worker in high heels is running you to the gate!) 2) Waving “Hi” to my missionary son as we flew over Taiwan.

Daniel: 1) Scaring sophie as she was the only one awake on the red eye flight. She must have jumped 4 feet out of her chair. 2) Pushing Sam at the end of the line of teens at full speed from behind through the san fran airport

Tanner: 1) Playing around on all of the moving sidewalk thingies with Debrowski. 2) Running around the airport franticly trying to get to our plane. It has been great getting to know everyone as well.

Emily P: A highlight for sure was running to catch our Singapore flight in the San Francisco airport. I felt like some sort of James Bond hero. People were cheering us on and everything. It gave me some much-needed adrenaline and exercise before the next long flight!

Jordyn S: 1. So when they said we were going to be running through the airport i didn’t think it would be literal, but hello i’m a clutz, i tripped and rolled my ankle first injury and hopefully only injury of the trip! 2. Word to the wise, don’t eat the airplane food, its not only nasty but will make you throw up multiple times. But my bad for the trip is out of the way and I’m good to go now!! Love you mom!

Ruby Parkin: holy cow. hello to the homies! im super grateful as well as extremely blessed to be on this journey… let me tell you it isnt exactly easy traveling, but i know this will be well worth it. i believe i ran my fastest mile from one terminal through customs and back onto another plane, yes dad be proud. and quickly realized i should’ve packed more snacks because airplane food is definitely a no go… but i cant wait for whats to come! XOXO

Sophia Wilson: Obviously running through the airport, trying to catch our plane was a high point in our journey so far. It totally took me by surprise thought because i was just strolling through the airport and then all of the sudden everyone runs past me! and in all honesty I didn’t know why we were running haha

Another memorable moment of the trip was helping Tanner give birth in the back of our bus! clearly being stuck in a bus for eight hours or maybe the fact that we have been traveling for two days straight makes people do some pretty weird things!

Blakus Maximus The Son of Mr. and Mrs. Sykes:

Wow planes. I’m safe.

Jacob Van Skyhawk: The driving is insane. Our bus driver passes everyone even when it seems impossible. I don’t understand how he makes it since the roads are so narrow. But that’s India for ya.

Samantha Child: Running through airports trying to catch flights is exhilarating, airplane food smells worse than it tastes, India is beautiful. xoxo

Brigham Hedman: Don’t eat the airplane food and pretty sure we’re gonna drive off a cliff in the bus. That is all.

Jordan Nash: Um, how about the 5k we ran through the airport while being led by 2 of the quickest moving asians in the world. Indians do not care for traffic laws, or rules, or regulations. Its normal to get sideswiped every 2-3 passes. and the airplane food tastes like what i imagine dragon throw up is like.

Chandler Paulsen:  India is nice and unlike the others I kinda like the bus drive.  It’s kinda cool to see off the edge of cliffs from the bus windows but then again we don’t have belts…  so we all done if we go down.  I hope that we can get some dece rest soon though as I’ve been up fo bout like 48 hours straight.

Steven Boyce: Holy cats man. Not half bad so far. standouts so far are hauling through the airport and making our plane by like 2 minutes. That was an adventure to say the least. Another would be the sketchy as heck drops off the edge of cliffs while driving in these huge buses through the mountains. And every India male just flat out stares at us.     Especially the girls.

Ellie Fuller: So I guess we’re in India now! It’s super beautiful so far. Totally worth the hours in planes. Also Lindsey tried to eat her earphone on the plane thinking it was candy…a reference for the level of functioning.

Kayley Cheminant: well hello, please excuse me as im currently barfing because bus rides through the mountains dont make you car sick at all. just kidding, not throwing up but almost. on a positive note, i love it here. i love the detachment from technology and i absolutely cannot wait to be with the kids! the 3 days of traveling is so worth the prize.

Emily Clark: Incredible. This experience has been incredible so far. From sprinting through the airport, to becoming friends with an Indian with an Aussie accent, trying to get some sleep between two snoring men on a five hour flight, and finally getting to this magnificent country, it’s all been fantastic. I love our YMAD fam, and all that we have donw together. Also, the amount of staring from Indian locals is unreal, but everyone is really friendly and waves to us. There is an incredible amount of marijuana lining the roads fyi… and I am strangely coming to trust our bus driver sheerly because of the number of close-calls we came out of unscathed. Love it!

Andrea Cook: It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen. Everything is simple and old yet beautiful because of the nature around it. I think my favorite memory so far would have to be when we were all sprinting behind these two Asian airport workers who were directing us to our next flight that we were late for. As we were running and yelling we would pass families scared and confused by us because they didn’t know what was going on! The looks were priceless.

Tim Scanlan:  The excitement of getting here was really high. And then it got even higher sitting in the front row of the bus. Our driver…hmmm…how to describe him and our adventure in 10 hours of riding…unreal. What we know as sheer insanity is commonplace to him. He took chances in passing anything going slower that would not even be a thought in America. Fascinating experience.

Kaleb….Kaleb Loftus:  MOM (and dad and madison and anyone else worrying about my physical health), I’m fantastic!! India is dope! I’ve had quite a few good experiences. I was exhausted the flight from Seoul to Singapore and I went to the bathroom, and well, forgot to lock it…and this little flight attendant opens the door and I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard a human hit that high of an octave! “EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” I feel like we had a moment.

Other than that, mcnuggets are about the same, we have a flushable toilet which my bowels rejoiced over! Love you all!! Life is great! #DrawstringPantsRuuuuule

Andrew…… Wait For it…… Dobrowolski:  Traveling was an interesting experience to say the least. Flying took a lot longer then I thought and was really uncomfortable, mostly due to the fact that all of my seats were the isle seat so I had to move when ever someone had to get up.  Riding on the bus was a scary ordeal.  I now realize that Dante forgot a circle of hell in the Inferno, he forgot the tenth circle of riding in the back of a bus on an Indian mountain pass going 40 miles an hour on all the curves.  I thought I was going to have a heart attack before we even reached Jibhi. I am really excited to finally be here and to start working in the school to help these kids.  Hopefully the traveling won’t be as bad as it was on the way there, but I still fear for my life for when we take that bus ride again. And sorry to both my mom and dad for not calling you guys from San Francisco, I was distracted and forgot until partway over the Pacific.

Austin Big Boy Berminham:  Those planes though dull in comparison to the enormity of myself…  haha.  The greatest compliment given to me on this trip so far is “wow bunk, your a really good pillow!”  I know it must be true, because ive been told that from several homosapiens of the female gender.  The most impact from a tragedy was when I was sold out on the plane, to be traded spots with a women in our group…  understandable, but still upsetting.  Well, all is well, and the night is young, super stoked to finally meet the kids in our village group… may the odds be ever in my favor….

P.S.   Dont pet the stray dogs

Brookie Cookie Noel:  Well travel was an experience. I’m sure most everyone has talked about it already, but running through the San Fran airport in a dead sprint was the funniest part about travel. But then it got sour and jordyn went down. haha! But let’s just say there were many ups and downs about travel, but no matter how many negative parts there were, it was amazing to travel with my team, and NOW WE ARE FINALLY IN INDIA!! So it was all worth it. Love and miss everyone. GO SHAANTI

Kayley: Its so beautiful and green here! still havent been to the schools yet, but soon, soon, soon, and i cant wait! so happy to finally be here!!!!

Emma: WE”RE HERE!!!!! oh my goodness we made it!! well i sat next to a few sketchy men on the airplanes, but IM ALIVE!! So excited to go to our schools now, its so beautiful here. Love you all!!!!

Ashleigh: We finally made it!! It was SO much travel, but SO worth it! The bus and jeep rides were crazy and beautiful at the same time. Jibhi camp is beautiful. We woke up to the sound of a river and birds in the forest! It is so amazing and i cannot wait to go meet our kids! I LOVE INDIA!!  hugs and kisses to my friends and family at home!! XOXO

Atalee: Ahhh after about 52 hours, WE MADE IT! It was such an adventure. Everybody here stares at us. It’s so different, but it’s so beautiful. I cannot wait to meet the kids! I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world right now.

Ms. Embly Clark… an Indian man just couldn’t manage to say ‘Emily’ to me earlier, so this has stuck;) Having so much fun, and so grateful to be here!! VIVA YMAD! It is incredibly green and our village clothes are sick!

Audrey: So far India is a beautiful country! I love the lush vegetation and flowering trees, also the cows that sit by the side of the road! Our camp is nestled in the top of a valley in a forest and it feels like camping! I seriously can’t wait for this adventure.

Lindsey: Oh my heck, I love India! It’s super duper pretty and everyone is so nice and cute here. I can’t wait to see what India has in store for us for the next two weeks. :)

The teens just left for their first day of teaching at the village schools. We are so excited for them and can’t wait to hear about their first day!