Alright, so I skipped a few (many) weeks in my blog posting, and I'm WAY behind. What have I been up to since DT week? Well, instead of writing a post that's ten miles long, I'll hit the highlights!
The other American and I got our visas, and on November 4th we headed out on a 34 hour journey to Delhi, India. That was the calmest part of the entire trip. From the Delhi airport we took a taxi trip to the next town.
Now, we were tired after our trip, and looking forward to a nice, quiet car ride so we could rest before arriving.
Silly western people. This is India.
India traffic is the farthest thing possible from American traffic. I thought Indy traffic was crazy.
For starters, there isn't really a designated side of the road to drive on. "Generally on the left" is as close as we got. Bikes and pedestrians do not have to wait for a gap in traffic, they just go. It is not unusual to see a couple with their two or three children and all of the day's shopping crammed on one very small motorcycle. I'm nervous riding a bike, let alone in a draping Sari with four kids in my lap...
Turn signals are rarely used. To merge into traffic, you honk your horn and push your way into traffic. If you are really polite, you'll honk before you merge.
The funny thing was, nobody EVER got upset. In the states, if someone cuts someone else off, horns honk, people shout and it ruins the whole day. Not in India. That's just the way people drive.
At one point, there was a massive boulder in the road (who knows why), but instead of slowing down or going around it, our driver went OVER the median and drove on the other side of the highway for a while. No one really got stressed except for all of us tourists in the back.
This town is about a ten hour drive away. Our driver made it in eight. That's including getting lost and changing direction a few times. This is how fast people in India drive.
For my mother's sake I'll stop there. And for my mother's sake I will say that once we got used to it, we felt very safe because our driver seemed to know what he was doing, even if didn't speak enough English to reassure us.
We were definitely a novelty wherever we went. One white person is a rare thing in the areas we visited, let alone a whole crowd of them. People stared at us absolutely everywhere we went. When we were walking in a market, one woman just reached for my hand and held it before giving me this huge smile and a hug, then walking away. Interesting.
It was strange getting used to the staring and being a practice dummy for people wanting to work on their English. People would go out of their way to come up to us, shake our hands and say "Hello, from where you come from?" and then not know enough English to continue the conversation. It was especially cute when it was a whole herd of small children.
While we were in the first city, we were able to visit a church and participate in the service. I absolutely fell in love with it. Never have I felt more welcome and loved while visiting a church. It was really encouraging to see such a strong Christian church in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim city. We got to spend some more time with people from the church when we led a cell group/bible study for some of them. We went to the home of some of the members and got to talk to them for a long time and get to know them. Again, really encouraging to see God moving in India!
After the first city we moved on to the second, (where I'll be doing my placement!). It was an interesting twelve-hour overnight train journey to get there. We were crammed to the car with many, many other people, on bunks stacked three high and listening to the chai seller go by every ten minutes waking you up by yelling "Chai, chai!" I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it would be a favorite pass time...
We were able to visit the school and spend some time learning Hindi. We were given a crash course on pronunciation and a list of Hindi words, which were things we could buy in the market just outside the school. We didn't know what the words meant, but we were supposed to come back with them and try not to get ripped off. My team got the word "peanuts" right, but ended up buying nearly a kilo of them for fifty rupees. Our teacher laughed at us. By the way, a kilo of peanuts is a LOT of peanuts.
Anyway... the next crash-course was on how to wear a Sari, which is the gorgeous wrap-around dress that women wear. Pictures of that as soon as I get my hands on them!
I loved being in the school. We got to spend some time teaching an English class and build relationships with the students and staff there. We also got to spend quite a bit of time with some of the staff members while cleaning and painting the school top-to-bottom. It was an awesome chance to feel useful and serve the team.
I was hugely blessed to be able to meet the team I'll be working with and spend time with them seeing what I'll be doing. We were able to visit a women's Bible College (Junior and senior aged girls) and pray with them. They were such sweet girls, and I'm very excited to go back and hopefully spend more time with them.
The last few days in India we spent in Agra, visiting the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. It was fun to spend time as a tourist for a little while, taking cliché pictures and browsing shops. Definitely something to cross off my bucket list!
It was sobering, however, while we were waiting for our train back to Delhi to go home. We had quite a long wait, and while we stood awkwardly piled onto the platform, three little beggar boys came up to us and asked for money, which is not unusual at all. But what was unusual was the fact that they stayed for a long time, just playing around and showing off. The oldest was no more than maybe seven or eight, and the youngest not even walking. We earned some stares from locals and tourists when we began playing games with them. They seemed surprised that we were willing to touch them and interact with them.
It was hard to again be hit by the extreme poverty of India, and to watch these boys that will have to grow up far too fast go from person to person on the platform, asking for money that will probably go to someone else who is sending them out to beg. But it was humbling and a blessing to be able to sit on the floor with them and let them laugh at the silly white people making goofy faces and just be children for a while. When we left, they followed us all the way to the train, pulling our arms and talking to us in Hindi. We pointed at the train, repeating (rather pointlessly) "We have to go on the train." One of the boys kept repeating a phrase over and over, and a man translated for us, saying "He says: 'Don't go.' ".
That hit me really hard, and it was a long train journey to the airport. It was like God was reminding us before we left that His love is so needed in India. He loves these children more than we ever could, even if we could have spent more than an hour with them. At the end of the day, we get to leave the poverty and spiritual warfare of India behind and fly home to our churches and our safe houses. This is every day for them.
Since then, I've had Christmas break and spent time with my family, and now I'm back in Wales! What's next? Well, while we were in India, God made it very clear to me that He wanted me to go on my placement there, so I and the other American are planning to head back there for six months. I'm very excited to see what God has planned there and to be a part of it!
We are, however, facing some visa difficulties. To make a VERY long story short, we can apply for visas after January 18th. We need to decide what the best kind of visa to apply for is and go for it. We would both REALLY love your prayers on this. I'll send out more detailed info on the lovely e-mail list ASAP! Until visas are sorted out, we're both with the team in Wales seeing what he has in store for us here!
Prayer points!
1) Visas! That God would give us wisdom in deciding what kind of visas to apply for, and that the applications would be accepted quickly and for the full amount of time we would like.
2) That we wouldn't be frustrated or discouraged in waiting, but remember that God has us here in Wales for a reason, and His plan and timing are perfect.
3) For the team in India to be blessed and see God move in their area and the school. That their work would be multiplied and the kingdom of God furthered.
4) For financial needs to be met in ways that bring glory to God's name.
Thanks so much to all of you who are reading this! Sorry for the long wait. From here on, updates will be more frequent! God bless you all!
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