Global family

We Eichers are pretty far-flung - and today we are even more far-flung than normal. Including the Rajans we now have someone on every continent except for South America (and Antarctica).

Lets roll the credits (in alphabetical order of inhabited continents):

Africa: Sheba's brother Peter, Yashmeet and little Anmol tell us that things have settled down somewhat in Kenya, where they live in Nairobi. Peter and Yashmeet have just started a house-fellowship in their home last night!

Asia: Most of us are in India. We 4 are here in Thane, while our co-brother Victor and Amma and his daughter Joanna are in Delhi. Appa is travelling down South and should be visiting his aged sister in Trichi now. My brother Stefan, Neeru and Ashish are in Delhi - I think. Once when I was unable to reach Stefan on his mobile for sometime I called up Dad - and was told that Stefan had gone to Thailand! Stefan once did all 6 inhabited continents in a single year!

Australia: Sheba's sister Sarah is in Oz for 2 months as part of a special training she and her colleagues from EHA are taking in data analysis and programme planning. She is especially focussing on TB programmes. Hence Amma in Delhi helping to look after her daughter Joanna.

Europe: Mum and Dad should be in Austria now - a brief stop-over on their way back to India from the last 2 months of travelling around the US.

North America: Another raft-full. Sheba's sister Daisy, Ramesh and their daughter Frankie are in Arizona. My sister Premila is in Idaho and our brother Rudy Gomez and his wife Aneng are in Virginia. Their kids are all over - Kimmi and Timmy have both been to China with YWAM (Timmy is heading over to Hawaii for communications training at the U. of Nations there) and their youngest Renata is about to do her final year in high school.

All of this has been made possible by the wonder of flight. It still gives me goose-bumps to know that you can get in an aircraft and be 1/2 way around the world in 1/2 a day!

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The one regret is how far we all are from each other spatially. It is sad that our kids grow up seeing so little of their cousins - esp. for me since I did not have cousins in the first place. At the same time, there are so many precious people in our own city that we do not find time to visit....