Flexibility

Still adjusting to the time change so we were up for 3 hours in the middle of the night.  Good time to talk and pray and read until we were tired again.

We had breakfast at the Fairlawn and got tea and porridge and rather runny eggs.  Melissa had some time before her orientation so she walked around a bit and began to feel a little bit more at home in this neighborhood.  She made her own way to the orientation and got separated into groups based on language.  She connected with a girl from Worchester, England.  We actually found a blog from her when we b\were preparing for this trip and we met her yesterday.  Melissa recognized her form the blog and by her unique name, Veritas.  She has volunteered off and on with the sisters all over the world for the last 11 years.  She helped guide Melissa to a home for mentally disableed children instead of the orphanage.  Apparently the kids at the orphanage don't bond much unless you are there for longer.  This other option seemed to fit better.  But it is farther away and tomorrow Melissa will take the bus to this new place an find her way back again.  We found out that Melissa's phone was not reset to allow us to use it here.  So we are trusting a bit more and dealing with the separation.  Melissa is also planning on a trip to a leper colony on Thursday with the sisters.  Veritas also lead us to some better palces to eat. 

[I apologize for poor typing most of these keys have no visable letters on them.]

I got to head to Salt Lake City via taxi.  I don't know why anyone bothers to make a map of this city because I've seen exactly one street name sign. I've been on three taxi rides and in each one the driver promised they knew where to go and each time they had to ask directions.  Getting to the teaching site was challenging, my driver asked directions 8 times before I actually had to find it for him.  This part of town is newer and a little better by comparison but still dirty, some roads unpaved, people urinating along the streets, people dumping trash out of the windows of their apartments.

Along the theme of flexibility was discoving that this group of pastors who are fluent in English are not.  They are fluent in Bengali and only a few speak English.  Even for them Bengali is the native tongue and we often have to find ways of understanding each other.  Teaching with a translator is tough work.  It is exhausting trying to gauge what they understand and figuring out how to express ideas and undersatnd theirs. They tend to smile and say yes even if they don't understand a bit of it.  My translator also got tired toward the end. The church is also way bigger.  I was told it was one church of 140 but apparently they have been busy. There are 37 churches with around 1,000 in total attendance.  It is fun to slowly learn the unique personalities of the pastors and women ministers.  I also had the best meal in India when they served us lunch.  I surprised them by eating on the floor with them and using only my right hand - hopefully it was a good kind of surprise. :)

We found our way to a restaurant tonight.  The cleanest place we've been so far.  It was a nice time for us both to share about our day.But a little weird when the waiter stands right besdie you look at you to see how much you are poing to tip. 

Tomorrow we are planning to awake early to go to morning prayers and breakfast with the sisters at which time Melissa will board the bus for her work site and I will grab another taxi.