Our family taken at the Pushkar Camel Festival.Introduction:
As 2007 comes to an end, I am trying a new way to communicate our yearly news. I hope that by publishing on the web, we will be able to get our information out in a more timely manner and to be able to get feedback on it in real time. In addition, it saves resources by not printing and mailing 75 color letters. This yeaar my Chrstmas e-mail list includes over 250 people, so this format will increase my ability to stay in touch with friends near and far.
Our second year in India has been great, as we have continued to explore this dynamic and diverse country. In addition, I have stepped up the tempo of my birding, which has yielded a bunch of lifers. In addition, we've had a lot of visitors, including my brother Reed and his family who came through in the end of November and my brother John and his family who arrived December 22.
Travel:
We made trips to Corbett Park, Ladakh, Agra, Kerala, Ranthambore Park, and Pushkar ths year. At Corbett, we had a fun time looking (unsuccessfully) for Tiger and seeing lots of birds. The highlight was a ride on an elephant through the dense forest.
Our shadow on a cliff in Corbett Park.
Taj Mahal
One of the most interesting trips of the year was one that Kimberly missed. The girls and I went to Ladakh, a part of the Tibetan plateau that is politically part of India. While the main reason for going was to see some Tibetan birds (see my bird blog), but we were not prepared for the stark beauty of the landscape. In some ways it reminded us of Namibia, where the dry climate allows you to see right through the geology of the earth.
Photos from Ladakh.
Tibetan Asses watch me from afar.
Our camp at 15,000 feet
Ladakh's stunning geology.
Our travel to Kerala over the Indian holiday of Diwali was nice, but we ended up biting off more that we could chew. We did a four-day visit that included a tour of the historical district of Kochi, a trip up into the high mountains of the Western Ghats, and a night on a houseboat plying the famed backwaters. We might have pulled off the ambitious trip, but for our driver. Thomas (yes, 40% of Kerala is Christian) was a particularly safe driver, and as a result, he drove with an agonizing deliberativeness. As we drove from the coast up to Periyar Park, our car was being passed by every manner of wheeled conveyance, even motor rickshaws and dump trucks full of rocks. While the mountains were beautiful, we mostly saw them from the frustrating vantage of our snail-car.
One of the goals of the trip was to see animals, and we did find the commensal Bonnet Macaque, the striking Nilgiri Langur, and the impressive Indian Giant Squirrel. Kimberly, Laurel, and I were -- after a long and acimonious negotiation -- able to go on a short walk in the forest at Periyar, where we saw a small black snake and hundreds of land leechs.
The highlight of the trip was a trip on the backwaters of Kerala, a delightfully tranquil area of canals, palm trees and tropical villages. We had a whole boat to ourselves, which was a real treat.
The tranquil backwaters of Kerala.
Our last family trip was a visit to see my brother Reed and his family at the Pushkar Camel Festival. The town is located on the fringe of the Thar Desert, and is the center of a massive festival of camel trading, religious devotion, and general revelerie. Hundreds of thousands of people congregate in the area, making it a perfect place for photographers.
A Rajasthani Dancer at Pushkar.
Kimberly --on camel back -- surveys the Pushkar crowd.
People's News:
Laurel is doing well, and is enjoying her junior year. This year, a family from Cairo that we knew well came to Delhi and Laurel was reunited with one of her friends from Egypt. Her big news, however, was that she finally got her left knee fixed, when she had surgery for an unstable patela in November. While the recuperation will be a challenge, she is excited about being able to finally do sports. Notwithstanding her bad knee, Laurel led the Kaestner women as stalwarts of the American Embassy School's women's softball team. Finally, she continued her claranet play, filling theschool's second seat this year.
Katie this year has been leading up to her college applications, three of which are still pending today. This past summer we did a marathon college visit trip, seeing schools in Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan. She ended up applying to three schools, Washington, Hillsdale, and Hope Colleges. Right now, she is waiting for word from her early action applications. Katie was a real sport as she learned how to play softball with Laurel and Kimberly. She also worked on her photography, and is now published.
Kimberly had an eventful year, as she was re-assigned to the systems office of the Embassy effective in the summer of 2008. She also was one of the solid performers on the AES women's softball team, that placed fourth in the league. Finally, she joined the polo club so that she and Katie could ride through the forest of Delhi's ridge. This year, we ran (walked) with the HASH less than in the past, but had some memorable outings.
Peter has had a memorable year, with a productive time at work and lots of brding opportunities. His year culminated in his promotion to Minister Counselor. This means that he will have nine more years of work in the State Department, if he decides to. Since the girls will both be in college when the assignment in New Delhi ends in the summer of 2009, at least one more tour is likely.
I hope that you have ejoyed our Christmas letter blog. I trust that it will improve with age and become as informative as our letters of old. Please send me your comments so that I can improve it.
We wish you a very memorable Christmas and a wonderful New Year, full of fun and fulfillment.
Love,
Peter, Kimberly, Katie, Laurel, and Rocky
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