Hello Hello From GOA!!

So far my favorite part was the mystical train ride into this province at 6:00am yesterday morning. There was a low mist that covered everything outside of 50 feet from the train and the quiet beaches on the perimeter of the tourist areas were serene and cool. Peaceful actually and the perfect way to enjoy them was from the doorway of the traincar with Luke by my side. Moving in a bit more to the town - as in most of the outskirts of the cities we have seen in Both Africa and India - lies the lower income/no income areas - I find these to be some of the most beautiful parts of the countries we've had the privilege of visiting. Houses ... Homes really to those who live there ... made from mud, rusting tin, hay, beer bottles, garbage bags OR sticks ... and if they are really lucky a combination of any of the afforementioned. I haven't asked Luke to post any of the pics of the shanty townsships or ghettos that we have come across because I can't even describe in a blurb at the bottom what they are about - yet somehow I keep asking the boys to drive by them numerous times over just so that I can get a shot of the intricacies that weave those fragile, yet hostile, communities. The lesson I have learned is that no photo will do any justice to the aura that hangs so precariously among the residents of these places. The best way to describe them was spray painted across the common latrines on the outskirts of one of them in Cape Town which read ... "GHETTO BEAUTY". I find them intriguing - as I suppose most people find that which they cannot touch and struggle to understand ...

Whoa! Sorry I got caught up in my constant wonderment of what I would have to say is my most favorite part of our travels so far ...

So Goa - yes - My thoughts on it so far is that (shhh ...) "this is not India" ... but don't tell all the people here who are so dead set in the idea that they can stay here for ages and then go home and tell people they have travelled in India. I feel a little like I have falen out of India into a Hippie Psychadelic Drug Induced version of Banff .... tourists, tourists, tourists as far as the eye can see. At one point yesterday we counted more foreigners on the street than Locals ... HUH???Anyways - It is nice here I suppose. Very thankful for the opportunity to have visited such a world renowned place in my lifetime - I just feel like I got here a couple decades too late. Many of the towns are overrun with Tourists and people who like to take advantage of tourists ... I might have set my expectations a tad high and sadly, to my family, I would have to say that this is not the Goa you all remember from your childhoods.

One thing that I do think is very cool are the names of shops and places that I am seeing which bear the names of people we know so well at home. LOBO Restaurant, BRAGANZA Cashews, ALMEIDA Curios and FERNANDES, FERNANDEZ, FERNANDES ... Ha ha ha!! It's great - like the CanOrients Homeland!!

Today Luke and I rented a Scooter and headed inland to check out - and we both agreed on my Familys behalf (so this ones for you guys ...) the mortal remains of a Patron Saint who has played an important role to my family for decades now. We scooted over to Old Goa to visit the Bom Jesus Basilica and were able to visit two very beautiful churches there. The first housed the tomb of St. Francis Xavier and was ridden with ... you guessed it ... Tourists so it was a little frustrating but we managed to get some time in nonetheless. The second Church that we went to was the Church and Convent of St. Francis of Assisi. He is the Saint who means (of the two) the most to me as his prayer has been taught to me my whole life and he was the named Saint of my high school. Anyways ... I consider myself very lucky because as we entered the Church ... it was silent. One visitor was exiting the building and I (we I think) were in awe at the beauty held within its walls - and we were alone. The tiled archway and the intricate gold interior was nothing less than marvelous augmented only by the gravestone floor. It was quite. It was peaceful and it was prayerful. Two wishes for the day according to my Daddy - I knew I was a lucky girl when I knelt down as the only one, in this church of my familys Patron Saint. It was perfect really ...

Oh my goodness I just realized how long I've been writing for and thank those of you who have read this far. I'll go now - but just wanted to say it was a magical day filled with meaning in a place where so much is unfamiliear all the time that I struggle daily to find the meaning in things ... All my love and peace - -