Home sweet pollution

It's a crazy mixture of emotions that you can feel in this place in Kolkata. We have a gorgeous place, in a lovely area to live in with everything you could want within walking distance... and I have a room of my own here for the next couple of weeks that I can call home, but at the same time, it's still the overpopulated city, with lots of pollution that constantly makes me choke, and there is lots of political unrest in the state... lots of looting and last week in the city in Suddur st and Park street buses were burnt and taxi's windows' were broken. That's not so far away, and Mum and I usually do our shopping in New Market which isn't more than a block away from where everything was going on last week. Our Lord is going to bring peace and safety to this earth. Pray that it is soon.

Daryl Madden & Jono Williams, both originally from Perth were on the same train as me, so when I woke up the next morning, it was cool to spend some time with them, although I still did have 3 Catholic sisters come and sit next to me and talk to me and ask if I was travelling alone!!! Glad that I could say I had some company but in another carriage, or boogey as they like to call it.

We played 2 handed 500 until the breeze coming through the window annoyed us too much. It was also good to have some quiet time on the train, as the past few weeks had been full of people, and I find it refreshing to just look out the window and watch Indian countryside whirl by, so much of God's beauty to be seen all around me on the train.

We celebrated our arrival in Kolkata by heading to Amazon, quite a goodly restaurant for people who are too tired to cook, and the pars weren't home so we couldn't cook ourselves anyway.

Today is the 24th and our new family have just eaten dinner together and finished the readings... establishing that like Paul, we have to teach sound doctrine while we're here. There were many stories going round last night from the others recent trip to Contai, but I think the funniest one was hearing about a Prophesying cat:-) Interesting. I think we should make it the mission flat mascot.

We're planning a trip to Gosaba for next week. Please pray for our safety, because that area is where the Bengali tigers roam... I need to have faith and trust in whatever God's will is.

And so I arrived at Rajahmundry station

an hour early and had to call Tony to come pick me up....thinking that he would be a while I sat down outside and waited. I would've thought it was less than 10 minutes. And on bike.
Oh, so he balances my bag between the steering wheel and I had my backpack on my back and he commenced negotiating with traffic coming the other way and I held onto the bar of the bike tightly as we took at least 25 mintues to get back. Not sure how quickly he drove to the station:-)

It was lovely to see a 6 six month pregnant Shubha. Spent that evening catching up and then she went to teach the next day, and I hung around and did my washing, until Tony was free to drive me to find Praveen and Sirisha's new house. It's so hard to keep track of them!

We arrived and gave them the shock of their lives. As I was down to do sister's class in Kadium it was going to be easier if I didn't stay in rajahmundry that night, but Praveen and Sirisha who already had his sister and brother-in-law and their two children staying, begged for me to stay the night. So Tony, who had left and was coming back in an hour, came back to go home again without me.

It was such a nice evening. Sirisha cooked coconut rice and we all sat around and ate it.

But I can't neglect to mention that I spent many hours looking after the 20day old, unnamed male new heir of Praveen & Sirisha's. It was my priviledge to name him Titus. Such a cute thing. All he does is drink and sleep...and dirty the floor, as they don't use nappies much as they are quite expensive. He also dirtied me!! Not pleasant, but forced me into my comfortable Indian nightie for the evening!!

Wow, 4 children under 5 require a lot of attention, and I realised how much time and effort Indian mothers put into their households. Most of them get up at 5:30 to start the day and generally don't get an afternoon nap. I was in awe of Sirisha, but I guess if you've got to do it, you do it cause you love your kids.

Anyways, I had a lovely evening with the whole family minus Jothyi who is now living at a hostel for young girls.

The next morning Sirisha and I got the children ready and went to Kadiam sisters' class which I gave on Rahab, focussing on the Grace of God who will forgive us if we turn to Him and obey Him.

We had lunch at Shubha's house and then travelled back to Sirisha's. It was so nice to spend the afternoon with her, and I did manage to force her to get some sleep because there was no way that she wasn't going to come to say goodbye at the station at 12am the next morning. The train came over an hour late, and we were almost sleeping at the station before it was time to climb up to the upper berth to start the 18hour journey.

Visak

In Visak, there was a little time to rest before it was time to head out to a house warming feast. They go all out, any opportunity they're given to celebrate:-)
Babji's wife Esther was very supportive... she sat next to me, the men all facing our row of women, and mostly everyone ate in silence. We were given big banana leaves, and banana's and Indian sweets, and then they started to pile the rice and curries on... I tried my best to get a Kunchem amount, but it was hard as they loaded up while I was saying my prayer!!

I can't eat rice quickly, and did my best to get through the great quantities of foreign food, and then Babji was saying to me, we have to go, there are other people waiting downstairs to take your chair. Thankfully I took my banana as it seemed to be the thing to do, and left. Wish I'd known beforehand that we were all eating in shifts.

Esther took her son Elisha and dissapeared to visit friends in the area, as they used to live there, leaving Babji and I to go and visit Samuel at LV Nagar. He's decorating the hall, preparing for his son Samson's wedding next month. Hung out there for a bit as there was also a lady contact there who was interested in who I was, and asked all the usual questions.

My main purpose in visiting visak was to see if I could catch up with Santoshi, Sheila, Sunitha & Syam.

Santoshi is living & studying in a hostel in Karkinada, Sunitha I had no address for, and apparently Syam and his wife are living in Hyderabad. So Monday afternoon Babji and I head out to visit Sheila. She was excited to see me and decided that I should stay for dinner and the night.

The next morning she asked permission to have the morning off school (she's well again, minus a cough and is teaching 6 days a week) and we went to the internet to set up another email id for her and iway account. Before we left we had a surprise visit from Syam who had arrived a couple of days earlier to take a month of exams to complete his MBA.

Unfortunately, Babji didn't get this message. I'm not sure why, somewhere in all the translating there was a communication breakdown so when I got back to the flat after taking lunch, he was a little upset. I can understand why, if there was an Indian sister in Australia, I'd feel the same way, thankfully he understood. Was just worried because people were calling him asking to speak to me, and he couldn't tell them where I was.

Having found out the train times, I decided I should catch an earlier train to Rajahmundry so as to not arrive there too late. Of course, I've been told they leave frequently, but at this time, only every two hours...and I have 30 mins to get to the station that is an hour away. No problem sister, just catch an auto to the station that is closer to here.

Babji again was my escort, he was saying that he'd taken over looking after the westerners from Phanni and he'd been doing it for 18 months now. Amazing how things change so much.

It was a gorgeous ride to the station as the sun was so bright in the sky and was shining through the palm tree's. The sun is setting about 4:30 here and it get's redder and redder before it dissapears completely.

I didn't have a reserved ticket, as it was so hard to book seats when I was able to finally sort out an itinerary in Hyd, so I got on sleeper class with no reservation and payed the TT for an upgrade.

Travelling alone, I seem to attract Catholic sister's. This first time they were 'Sisters of Charity' and seemed to enjoy the fact that I was reading my bible next to them. One of them asked quite a few questions, and showed me all her photo's of her studying, and becoming a sister, and I realised that they go through the same phases of marriage, to become a sister, but they're giving their life to the Lord and not to a man. Interesting.

Saturday morning

I headed off to the railway station to buy myself a ticket (foreign quota) to Visak.
Then I headed back to Shunem with Ravi in the afternoon, and spent some time with Padma and Ravi trying to buy some winter clothes for both little Johnny & the new baby Joshua.

The afternoon was spent with the children doing more drama practise. I think those kids will be all dramaed out by December 23rd and collapse on the stage:-) They were meant to have another session after dinner, but they voted with their feet and went straight to bed. Good on them:-)

Sunday morn we accidentally slept in. It was so nice to wake up and know that it was 7am and not 5:30.
Dev uncle exhorted and afterwards Cals, Kate and I headed off to the Tej for lunch as everyone else seemed busy!
Everyone gathered back at the hall for cyc which was nice. I hadn't been around for a cyc since my first trip in 2003!! The older ones from Shunem stayed, and it was cool to know that they are partaking of extra spiritual sustenance, with those from Moinabad and Hyd. People do grow older each year!

Then I was on the train.... off to Visakhapatnam.

Arrriving In Hyderabad

I felt almost triumphant. It has been the weirdest experience to be living in Kolkata and trying to learn Bengali phrases and meet new people, when my insides have been crying out to be in AP, speak a familiar language and to visit those I know and love.

The feeling very quickly changed when I arrived at the gates of the compound and found that calling the day before to arrange for them to be left open hadn't worked, and there was no easy way to get into the compound. After banging the gates, and trying to see how far I could wrench them open, I resorted to trying to stick my hand through and move the metal. But I am not strong normally, and definitely not before 6am in the morning. This time prince charming wasn't so charming and I was left a little shaken, but unharmed. Then it was my turn to wake up an elderly lady (Tim's sister) by trying to sleep in the room adjoining hers, and no I didn't try jumping on her bed.

So it wasn't such a good start, and Jen couldn't come into Hyd from Shunem as arranged because Sarah Aunty had come back the night before as Eithen was poorly. As I felt in need of female company I found the first ship sailing for Shunem and set to work typing in the office while awaiting for the voyage to commence.

On route I got to visit the new Galbraith abode which is currently being built, and in typical Indian fashion, Sarah Aunty is having to visit everyday to check that they are doing as per her requests. It looks like it's only going to be another couple of months before it's done, if all goes according to (an Indian)schedule.
Then I was at Shunem, and eating noodles with the girls and seeing the old folk and chatting to the girls:-) Was so nice to be there when the children got home from school and to help with their homework and to partake in their prayertime. The food is so much different to when I was first there. We had roast potatoes and fish for dinner with chappatti's.

Then we summoned all the kids back to the study room and we spent the evening teaching them new songs for the Christmas drama. How to keep 50 children quiet for over an hour...is something that requires a great deal of patience...but it was just so good to be there and to see them grown up so much since last year. Deepa has taken over the role of mother, and some of the little ones have grown up so much. They're all just as naughty as ever;-)

It was Jen's last night in Hyd so we mosed on until we were too exhausted to keep our eyes open...

and then came the 5:25 call.... trudged downstairs, half asleep, the morning air was biting. All the children were there, with their courageous leader Jenny, ready to start the day in the proper way.

Jen and I caught a bus back to Hyd and spent the day picking up a few little nickknacks for her to take home and repacking her case. Then another goodbye. The little munchkin is now safely back home at the beach and eating honey logs from my favourite bakery at Port Elliott!!

Samson from the office drove me back and invited me to his wedding, I don't think I'll be able to attend, but it was really lovely to get an invitation. He is teaching his fiance the truth at the moment, so God willing, by the time John and Maggie get to visak for the interview, she will have a good grasp of the gospel.

I'm very thankful that an opportunity came up for Jen to visit India so now she knows most of the people that we talk about, and understands the challenges and exciting moments.

Bangalore

We flew down as we didn't have the spare 8 days needed to train there and back, and jen was flying out of Hyd later that week.

I had told Bernie we would be there for her 21st birthday on the Thursday and then booked tickets to arrive with Wes on Wed. SO it was quite a cool thing to see the surprise on her face when she arrived to pickup 3 'parcels' at the mission flat and discover they were us!!

Since I was last in Bangalore a nutrition scheme has been set up 3 days a week for the children and old people living in the slums next door, which I was really happy to see. No longer are we ignoring them and expecting them to be warmed and filled...it's really happening.

Thursday a group came round and we had a happy birthday for Bernie, and then she went to work (her last day was her 21st bday) and Jen and I were invited back to Susan and Linus' for dinner where we ended up sleeping the night as it was too late, and too much hassle to go back.

The next morning Susan and I went to visit Mike and Anne, as Anne had been in hospital and had literally just got back to her house when we arrived. She looked a little tired, but was in good spirits and seemed to want the company.

Then I was dropped off and a whole group of us (Cals and Kate having arrived from Hyd that morning) went out for lunch to celebrate Bernie's bday properly. Was lovely to see Pavi and Naomi again.

Unfortunately Jen and I had eaten something somewhere and weren't feeling so good, so by the time we got back to the mission flat that night we were feeling rather unwell, and had to miss out on the whole KCY on Saturday.

I was still weak, but we got up for most things on Sunday, but after saying goodbye to Cals, kate & Jen on the train to Hyd, we collapsed and enjoyed a good sleepin on monday.

Naomi is the best pancake maker ever. I enjoyed them so many times during my stay in Bangalore, and introduced using lemon and sugar on them!!

Monday Bernie and I caught a bus to Mandya and on route stopped in Maddur and visited with the massive family living there. Caught up with Ashur and Prema and the rest as they hadn't been able to make it to KCY and I'd really missed their presence.
Something that I really noticed about this trip was the families willingness to pay for our travel. In Kolkata I am so used to being fleeced for every rupee people can get, that it was the most refreshing thing for someone to want to pay for us:-)

Tuesday Bernie and I caught yet another bus to Mysore and spend the late morning touring the palace and then in the evening met up with Bernie's relatives and then had dinner with Persis and met her new husband. We had planned to also see James before we left, but we ran out of time...as I am right now.

Wednesday was back to Bangalore with a quick house visit on the way to the bus to visit a single sister who had recently lost her mother, she is looking for a new job, and was home alone, so I was very glad that we ended up making the time instead of catching an earlier bus back.

Then it was packing and training to Hyderabad.

House visits

On the Sunday before Jen flew out to Bangalore all the brothers and sisters were asking if they could have us to visit their houses for a meal. They suddenly realised they had no time and so we ended up visiting 2 houses in one day, which isn't such a good idea when your translator arrives 2 hours late.

Anyways, we had a lovely meal at Sister Chompa's who took the day off work to make sure that we could visit. Amazing, although I guess I would do the same if possible back home! Then we raced to get the train to Canning to visit Susanta and Aparna.

It was the most packed train I've ever been on. Sister Chompa's sister in law had given Jen 3 eggs as a parting gift...anyways, by the end of the trip, Jen had 3 eggs in her bad ready for scrambling.

At Canning, we had time for a reading on the rooftop and time to eat some delicious fried rice cooked by Aparna before racing back to the flat as mother was terribly unwell and wes wasn't up to much either as he had hurt his leg and needed to rest it up, and at the same time was taking pills for high bloodpressure. Besides which, Jen had to pack for leaving the next morning at 7 for Bangalore.

Before Jen left

Jen and I spent one afternoon with David and Erina in a beautiful park, and then David came back to our flat and cooked a chicken curry and I even got taught how to make Parata's...which was cool. It's amazing how far away the craziness of India seems when you're sitting on green grass and eating an icecream.It was good winddown time.

While observing the scene around me, I made an amazing observation. There were lots of couples in the park sitting on the benches. Some of them were going as far as putting their arms around each other. After a few couples had been spoken to by the park guard, I asked Erina what was going on. She said that the park policy was no touching. So the couple's first warning is the guard standing near them. Their is no third warning. If the guard has to speak to you, you're out of the park. There was nothing left for me to say once I clarified what she meant.

Kolkata Ecclesia

Arriving home on Saturday night from the villages, it was a relief to know that our memorial starting time was 4pm.

Dad gave the exhort, and it was so refreshing for me. His theme was pressing on, no matter the trial. Having a vision like Christ of the future. So encouraging after the times we'd been through during the previous days.

Midway through the exhort the translator stopped and asked a question about the kingdom to explain one of Dad's points. It became obvious that most of the bre and sis don't know much about their hope at all. Not entirely sure what their point of being baptised was if the kingdom isn't something they know about. Sad, but true.

So we checked with them all once it was over and they said that they could stay later the following week. So from now on we'll have memorial at 4pm, then a break for chai, and another class following through the them of the Kingdom throughout scripture afterwards. I wasn't there last weekend, but they started with Daniel's image and all the brethren and sisters were so excited to learn about the prophecy. And it's even more exciting for us filling in the blanks on some important topics!!

It was really nice meeting all the brothers and sisters in their own ecclesial environment, as this is a relatively new ecclesia and they all stayed on and chatted and it was nice to just spend some time with them personally. My only regret is that I wish the flat wasn't quite as posh. It's like we're living in a mansion compared to their homes.

What is a plan?

So the 9:30 start turned into 11am, and 2 women came, so instead of having separate studies for them, they joined the men, and us girls were set up with a table and 7 little tackers at the back of the room. Not prepared for ss, I rushed out to copy activity pages, but of course the electricity went out (currently laydo) and I ended up leaving it at the xerox place and coming back as Jen was left stranded to teach her first ss lesson. She was fab!

In the evening we took a van to Akash's ss which was about 45 mins from his home and Dad taught a lesson, and the Saxon quad's sang 'Bold Daniel'. hmmmm We then went on to teach them other songs, as it apparently wasn't one of Akash's forte's!!

Akash asked us if we were wanted to see brothers & sisters in the morning, and said there was a historical sight to show us. It was interesting that he suggested 6am, and we were like...whatever. He couldn't turn up for the study on time, but would get up that early for a walk. There must've been some misunderstanding, cause he came and woke mum and dad up and then proceeded to knock on our door as well. We ignored and went back to sleep not imagining it could possibly be him...but 10 mins later there was more knocking and him standing there waiting for our walk.

Jen was sick.. & Mum also, so Wes, Erina, Dad, Kamelish & I head out for this walk first. It took hours..and we got to the top of the mountain, and all the Indian men stopped to eat their breakfast....and give us the bill!!! More walking, as the heat rose, so did our patience...where are the contacts, and why are we walking round a park when we have a bus to catch early afternoon?

Anyways, we got back exhausted... had some time meeting some bre & sis and then raced helter skelter to catch the bus. The train that we were supposed to get on had left 40mins earlier as opposed to what we had been told several times by those who knew:-) So we endured the bumpy busride, and arrived at some place..in the middle of nowhere called Chandrakonda. Due to the strike, everything was shut. Mum and I thought there might be something to revive our spirits as the hotel room that we'd been given wasn't even satisfactory for Erina our translator...she thought it was too damp and dirty. But no.
Got back and the power went out. I am in a bathroom that has no window to let light in, and I can't find the latch, and then it was stuck.
The brothers who were supposed to met us aren't there....
So there were a few issues that day!!! Amazingly enough though, I'd sent a card to Becky Paul from Cambodia and it had arrived that afternoon, and Beck called me up and it was just perfect timing and my soul was refreshed!

The next day we took a van to where the brother and sister lived. It was like the back of beyond, and we weaved through so many village mazes to get there.
We arrived and were taken to a patch of shade and given chairs. THe village children where all there waiting for us, then we were given garlands and bouquets of flowers while the children started to sing. Amazing, I know these people have nothing, and yet they showed so much love.
We had a mini prizegiving that morning. Some songs, some more songs, and then some drama's. The teaching is going well in that area.
Even the snack prepared was so delicious, and I felt so guilty eating what they gave us but I had seen the look the hostess showed when one of the members of our party refused the plate he was given.

So a beautiful morning was had with this family in their village and we meet another daughter of Deepali Das' who had never been able to come to bible week.

Then we took that family back with us to CK Road where we had a memorial with the ecclesia there, and some members from the surrounding area's. From now on we are going to schedule 30mins extra before we leave each place to listen to requests...as we were really pushing it at the end of the meeting...how can you leave a brother behind who needs money for his baby to have milk? You have to trust that what they are saying is true as sometimes there is no way of checking, and you are left knowing that it is between them and God.

Something that really stood out to me on our journey through the village was the amount of baby goats that were around. Some were so so little that they must've been newly born, and it was great to see the new lives everywhere we went.

The train on the way home was a squishy affair. We were standing for quite some time, and I made it to the sink where I did a doubletake as I saw a hamster in a cage. A white one at that. Made me laugh:-)

Dad was amazing. He sat surrounded by people he'd never seen before and starts talking about God to them. And the whole way home he was talking.... telling these superstitious Indians about the 'unknown God'.

Time to update

It's been quite some time since I wrote on here, and it's definitely time to update. We were just settling into the Kolk flat when I last left, and I'm just about to head back there to start settling in again:-) Although I'm not sure that you could ever be fully 'settled' in India as there is always something different / unusual going on!

For our first village trip we'd planned to leave on Monday morning, but there was a strike, and it continued for two days. In the end we decided to go anyway, so caught a Taxi at some unearthly hour on Wed morning to Howrah station. The train was going, so we boarded, and after an hour it stopped... and we waited...and waited,... and then heard that there were some demonstrators on the tracks, who really didn't want the trains running, but Dad went to view, and saw nothing so we're still not sure if it was a fallacy or not. One district we passed through there was lots of shouting, and we were thankful that the train didn't stop for long, and we reached West Midnipur safely and were greeted by a massive shout from our brother Akash Kumar. The three hour trip took us 4.5 hours.

We had lunch with a group of brothers and then retired for some much needed rest. In the afternoon Akash brought his wife Rita Rani plus other contacts for a study which Dad conducted in his hotel room.

In the evening we walked to their house and meet the family and neighbours and all in sundry who had seen the white people and wanted to be introduced. There was a Telegu speaking family there which was nice, because I'd felt very strange being in India and not in AP where I can generally understand the subject of a conversation. But by this time, my Telegu was very rusty, and my head was confused as to whether the words I was thinking were Telegu or Bengali. Strange predicament I know. Very frustrating.

One elderly contact and his wife forced us to sit down and wanted to hear about Jesus. It was lovely to see him so interested, and we thought it was strange that he didn't follow up with the studies the next day at the hotel.

I rode a bike back to the hotel which was very refreshing in the cool evening air. Some guy with Akash leant it to me, so I rode in circles around the group the whole way home. By the time we got back to the hotel it was so late, and we were so tired, so we just opted for a room service dinner before collapsing into bed.