Change of locale

Wow, we had to switch hotels today which entailed once again leading the cabbie step by step.  This new place is nice and claen and super small and off the beaten path, well away from the tourist areas.  Which is nice and quieter but I also had to walk a long way to find internet access and there aren't many restuarants right around us.  We were excited about being beside the Homeland Mall but it is just home improvement stores.  I had to ask over 5 people just to find this internet spot and ven then the directions were  vague.

So to fill you in on Melissa.  She connects with her friends jane and Roger each morning and then takes the bus and motor rickshaw to Daya Den.  She gets a different child every day.  On Friday the kids didn't ahve school so som eof the higher functioning children were there and they sang some songs for the volunteers and other children.  Melissa loved this.  Melissa feeds her child and then does physical therapy and sings to them.  She has a brief break before the afternoon session but this is really short once you subtract the commuting time.  On Friday she stopped in with Jane and Roger for a peanutbutter sandwich.  In the afternoons she is at Shishu Bhavan the orphanange.  He she and Franschesa (an 18 y/o girl from Argentina who has boundless energy)  Help the kids with bathroom and play time.  The both work with about 20 2 y/o's  During play time the kids are all out in a big yard. There are some toys but not always enough.  One day they had ballons but not enough for every child (The nurse in Melissa choked when she sayw the kids putting the ballons in their mouths.)  So the kids fought over the balloons.  HOw hard would it be to get enough for everyone?  Few kids are adopted out.  We can't figure out the process but apparently a lot of it has to do with the Indian government.  It breaks our hearts that these kids are stuck like this.  It is better than life on the street.  They are fed and sheltered and educated.  BUt they aren't touched much and they learn to fight for everything  (Which incidently seems to be the Indian way.  Rarely do lines matter.  Little ladies push their way ahead of you, when you wait at a door to let someone else through people behind you start pushing you in the back.  I am way to gracious to survive in the culture.  But then when I stood in the wrong line to get into the Victoria Memorial today the man behind the counter ignored me, not even a comment this is the wrong line, finally someone in the other line pulled me over and let me go in front.  Another aside is that we ahve found that the perception that English is spoken in India is a gorss generalization.  Most people know some English words, but few speak it well.  Like the ticket seller at the Indian Museum barely spoken English.  Cabbies speak only a bit and seem completely blown away by the fact that streets have names.)  On Friday Melissa and I joined Jane and Roger for a dinner out.  They are a couple from Michigan who are spending a month in India serving with Mother Teresa.  Last year they spent 7 weeks in Kenyua serving at an orphanage there.  It seems like a realy rewarding retirement for them.  By the time we got home it was about a 14 hour day before we had any break or got to rest in the room.  We are both exhausted.  Melissa is getting a cough and not feeling well.  We think it is the air pollution which is intense.  I am also not feeling that great.

Thankfully apart from moving hotels we actually have some time to rest today.  We stopped in to see the Indian Museum - it is kinda of a catch all museum, pinned butterflies, and Egyptian mummy, textiles, industrail botany, a huge room of geology which consisted of rocks in display cases with a name beside them.  They probably had maybe 2,000 rocks.  Some dioramas of cultural anthropology, some pottery and many statues of Buddha and Vishnu and other gods.  They also had art galleries but the whole place was really poorly lit so it made it hard to really see the art.  We also took time to see the Victoria Memorial which is close to our new hotel.  It is huge and beautiful and pretty clean.  Inside was filled with lots of art too.  Almost too much.  We also looked in on St. Paul's Catherdral and just like the Victoria Memorial and the Indian Museum they have a tendancy to fill all the available wall space with stuff.  Some walls in the cathedral had 4 separate memorial plaques in about 3 feet.  While resting on the steps of the VM  I had a family appraoch me to do a phto shoot with their young daughter (maybe 3-4)  They put her in front of me and put my hand on her.  Apparently a shot with the weird bald foreign guy is way better than one of the VM.  This held true at the Cathedral too when a group of Sikhs asked to take their picture with Melissa and I.  One even put his turban on me - great shots!!!  We tried to see a Bollywood film but they were sold out of at the local theatre until late tongiht.  Indians take their movie-going very seriously.

My teaching session yesterday was expanded to about 35 students.  I spent a lot of time praying for them before, during breaks, and afterwards.  They all want prayer which is good, but I think they have some idea that my prayers are somehow better.  I am working to correct that understanding while at the same time praying graciously for each of them.  Their prayer requests do give me a very personal insight into theri culture though.  And I treasure that I have been welcomed in many homes.

At breakfast I ate wtih some other tourists who have also been here a week.  They listed of an impressive list of sites they have seen then asked about me.  I said in a week we have been to an orphanage, a home for mentally disable, some slums, and a government housing project.  Temples and tourists sites are rather shallow insights into a culture.  Melissa and I have been blessed to see much more deeply than the average person ever does.  They people have deeply impressed us.  We love the closeness of the families.  Men open hold hands and put arms around each other.  At the VM we both sniled as we saw a dad with two boys.  The teen had his arm drapped over his hands shoulder and the dad was holding the younger sons hand.  In the streets things are more serious, but in their homes these Bengali (the are of India we are in) are always laughing and holding and touching.

At the slum I visited on Thursday night I was invited afterward into the home of the first Christian there.  During the visit I prayed for them and then afterwards their daughter Deepa gave me a little rose.  I don't know where they grew a rose in that place and I can't guess the value of that gift.  It deeply touched me.  Out of the money provided by many of you I was able to give 1,500 rupees to that church.  It is a little over $30 for us and it is life changing for them.  I also gave some to support each of the pastors I was training.  They live off of 1,000 rupees a month which is about $22.  This is barely subsistence living.  I am moved by their sacrifices to live for Jesus.  Each of they could live a lot better off if they pursued other lines of work.  One young man Soumya spoke to me about a challenge in his life.  He is the only son of his parents and they are too old to work.  There is no social security.  The only social security is your children.  He wants to get trained as a pastor and serve God with all of his heart.  But he can't live on 1,000 rupees a month much less provide for his parents too.  I told him I was moved that he wanted to love God and love his parents.  I provided some money to help him in the short term and will invite him to find other ways to fund his training.

No way to load pictures on this computer, the cpu is behind a box somewhere.  Thanks again for praying for us and following on our journey.  We have two worship servies tomorrow, I preach at one, and probably a visit with a regional leader as well.

They slum I visited