Spark of Hope

Hello everyone,

We haven't been able to communicate with anyone, or have any outside contact, its like we are not part of this world. We are situated in a small village called goharabad, population 350, there are no phones, internet, cell phones (now i know how dependent we are on them) newspapers, oh ya or decent bathrooms (squatting) or all other luxurys we take for granted!!!!.

We have limited electricity in the day time. To use the phone you have to travel about one and a half hour to the city on a very bumpy road. We were situated within the mountains. It was beautiful. The school is really nice. There are obstacles in teaching in a place where electricity is not reliable, we tried to play games using a cd player, but in the middle the electricity would go away. we have learned that to survive you need very little and you need to improvise a lot!!!.

The villagers became our family. We were so loved by everyone. Everyone was always available to give a helping hand, and had time for each other. (no one in the village has a watch!!!). Sleeping was another bizarre experience ...i have so many different bug bites that i have stopped counting them! Actually its quite an eye opener. (pardon the pun!!!!).

Having said all that i wouldn't trade this experience, its been an amazing journey. we learnt so much about the people and about ourselves. We have made some life time friends.

Salim and Shelina