This January will mark the 20th anniversary of my first visit to the Philippines. I traveled there as part of the entourage traveling with Mylon & Broken Heart, a Grammy Award winning band from the U.S. who did a series of free concerts in Manila and Olongapo City. It was quite a thrill as we […]

This will be quick since the night is very late – I will try to finish this in a few days. Here are some of our latest pictures…. Sarah A. Smith

A lovely evening breeze is billowing in through the double doors opening to the terrace balcony here in Gurgaon Haryana, India. Sarah B. & I settled in here on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 twenty-four hours after deciding to change our itinerary.  The home belongs to a young Indian couple in their mid-thirties. Until six days […]

Hello friends and family and blog-followers near ‘n far! Tonight is Sunday, October 11, 2009 and we are marking eleven days since our departure from home and Ulster County. We’ve been staying in Bangalore for five complete days and we’ve experienced comfortable sleeping arrangements, delicious Indian food, and good times spent with old friends, new […]

To the right is a partial shot of the “welcome tray” sitting on the table in our newest room on our journey throughout India.  It is late in the night here in India; we are 10 1/2 hours ahead in time zones. I am tired but I wanted to let everyone know that we arrived […]

A few last words about our time spent in Coventry are in order. On Saturday afternoon we attended the Coventry City Mission’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. For more than twenty years our friends have been recognizing the needs of the elderly, unemployed, and teens struggling with unexpected parenthood. Listing all the services they provide is not […]

After riding Adirondack Trailways bus from Kingston, NY to Port Authority, New York City, on Thursday, October 1, 2009 Sarah Bird and I made our way through the bustling terminal with the help of a Trailways luggage porter to the Airport Shuttle pick-up on 42nd Street which transported us to JFK International Airport. Our Korean driver navigated […]

Sarah is returning to India and Nagaland.  At this same time last year Sarah traveled with Jacinta Vondell to India and Nagaland.  This year Sarah, my wife, will be traveling with a young woman, Sarah Bird, who I am sure is going to be an excellent, fun and inspirational travel partner. I won’t attempt to […]

I cannot answer that question in one blog posting but I will tell you that my heart has been enlarged to embrace the women of India. Look at the faces of these women. I met them in October, 2008 and listened (through an interpreter) to some of their personal accounts of both dealing with hardship […]

                                                     NEWS THAT HAS COME TO US: CHRISTIANA GIDEON – (Arusha, Tanzania) died from malaria Sept. 21, 2009. Christiana was a 4th grade student who was preparing for her national exams in one of the schools that we are helping sponsor in Tanzania. She was excelling in her studies. Sadly, like over ten million others in developing nations she […]