Week 4 (part 2) - Alleppey

After Munnar we headed back towards the coast to the town of Alleppey.  We stayed at a really great homestay in Alleppey.  Motty and Lali's house! AND OH MY GOSH! They had a PUPPY!!!!! I LOVE puppies – freak out about them really – and I have seriously missed being around animals I can pet (David usually forbids me to touch any dog we see when we are in Kenya – and here in India too - not cause he's mean - because they have worms, mange, and God only knows what else). But when I stepped onto their front porch and saw him – I was in love. David knew I wouldn’t be dragged away and he went in and took care of signing in while I stayed and played with the pup! ;)

They didn’t have a name for him yet, they’d only had him for 3 days. We took a nap after playing with the pup, and then walked to their beach, talked to a group of guys in their early/mid 20s about Nuru and our lives, and then went to dinner. It was awesome to see David encourage one of these guys in his faith and to serve God with his life. Really cool. We watched the sun set and ate at a beach side place that night. 

The next morning when we woke to have breakfast, we ate with another couple staying there at Motty and Lali’s. They were from Leeds, England and were so nice to talk with. Lali had made a nice breakfast, and after eating I asked if I could play with the puppy. So David and I did – for like 2 hrs. During that time we spoke with another couple staying there from London. They were very nice too.

Before David and I left to go have our 4 hr Houseboat tour on the backwaters of Allephy, Motty invited us all to have cocktails with them that night and to have a puppy naming ceremony. He asked me to be in charge. OH MAN! 

Allepey is famous for the "backwater tours" that are available.  There are a number of canals, lakes and other water bodies that you can cruise around on, aboard a luxurious houseboat.    It was super laid-back and very relaxing.  And the food!!!!!! ;) YUM!

These are some other houseboats on the water that is like the one we are on.

Everything was Delicious!

Even though the houseboat was relaxing, my mind was racing. I was thinking so much – how will we name this puppy? What kind of game can we play? What questions should I ask to get names out there? Should we all vote? Should only Lali and Motty vote? Motty said he'd invited his friends who knew nothing about the dog so not to say anything. ;) I came up with a plan: I’d do some type of intro – talking about the way we name things and then I’d get everyone to give some name ideas and then we’d vote. ;) I’d need a few things – like a collar and name tag and a gift ;) I wanted a squeaky toy. So, I had my plan!

David and I returned from the houseboat tour and went on a walking tour to get the things I needed – not as easy as running to Wal-mart. We ended up finding a toy that did in fact squeak. It was a Dalmatian dog ;) perfect. And I bought a small cake. We returned to Motty and Lali’s and started the 

Puppy Naming Ceremony! 

 

We had the most WONDERFUL night! There were 16 of us, 8 of us were guests of the homestay, and Motty and Lali and 6 of their closest friends. We had an AWESOME puppy naming party. We introduced the puppy to Motty’s friends – who didn’t even know he existed – and then we started the night. We had drinks, and rounds of puppy naming fun like passing the puppy around and offering up options, then having musical interludes and more drinks, then voting to narrow down the names, then more drinks and musical interludes and laughing and talking, then the final vote complete with singing happy birthday to JACK (with a huge candle in the cake) and giving him his collar, name tag, and squeaky toy ;) Motty and Lali had gone ALL OUT! Providing food and drinks all night. And it was so much fun. They named me God Mother to Jack, and gave me a beautiful golden gift ;) and asked me to give a speech.

I can’t remember it exactly, but I said something along the lines of…. “Thank you for allowing me to be God Mother to Jack. But thank you so much more for tonight. I’m so excited to have been a part of this night. Motty and Lali, you took something that could have been mundane – like naming a puppy – and created an event to bring friends together and celebrate life. It reminds me of a book I’ve read called “A million miles and a thousand years” by Donald Miller – and in the book he talks about making a good story with your life. And I think that’s exactly what we’ve done tonight. I would encourage all of you to do that with your lives. Tonight has been an amazing night and you have allowed us to be a part of it, and I’m so grateful. Thank you.”

At one point in the night, they said that I should just pick the name since I was the God Mother, but instead I asked that they would celebrate Jack’s birthday on January 8^th in remembrance of the puppy naming ceremony! They agreed. ;)

We were so blessed to be at Motty’s and Lali’s home for a few nights. It was a fantastic experience and so many new friendships were forged. We were grateful for the experience. 

Here's pictures from our night! Enjoy!

Paul and Clare from Leeds, England. This is the puppy being passed around to everyone there so they could look at him and give their ideas for his name. 

The puppy was named JACK! And he was soooo pooped out from his party!

David and I are with Jack standing next to his parents Motty and Lali, and then 3 of the 6 friends that came to the party!

Sophie and Matt from London! (with Motty)

The guy with the camera was AWESOME! He has such a love of photography and he and David talked for a long time about photos. He also has one of the BEST laughs ever! He is so full of joy. 

Motty with Arnold and Meryl from South Africa!

These guys have been friends for 20 years. Truly awesome. They sang a song together for one of our musical interludes.