And behold, the half was not told me

happy are all those who eat of the Hyderabadi Mangoes.

Hannah Ogden and I ate our first Mango of the season in Nepal, and it was quite bitter and tasted like Mango Maaza and I was scared that maybe we just have really sweet tasting ones in Australia. Quite probably it hadn't ripened properly, but they were doing their best to sell them to the tourists who were too excited they could buy mangoes and weren't so interested as to checking whether they were properly ripe or not!!!

But my doubts have been washed away this week.
I bought my first kg of Mangoes yesterday and Sarah and I melted away while savouring their delicious flavour. We love our Mango moments!!

Today for lunch we had another one each, and I have come to the conclusion that eating one juicy mango makes you feel so much more happier than if you knew you had unlimited lindt chocolate coming your way.

pps - from Nepal

I have to have to mention that Hannah and I arrived 1 hour early BEFORE the 2 hours prior to the flight departure time at the Nepal airport.

Somehow, I was on watching the time, and I got confused between quarter to 1 and quarter to 2. Anyways... it's just a fact for those of you who know it just doesn't happen very often with me:-)

On the topic of airports...
pps - flying into Hyderabad on Tuesday was interesting. The new international airport has been constructed, and is semi functioning. I saw my arrival as arriving into India for the first time and pictured how I would feel with what I saw!

The first 30 mins was great. The luggage was a little more delayed than a normal flight, and then there were people asking you if you needed any help...and I managed to make my way out without any drama's and found the free pink bus which took me to to the CHEAP ride into town, as opposed to the bus that I would've caught if I was a tourist or a short stay missionary. The drive out of the airport was lovely, there are fields of gardens on both sides of the road for at least 2 km's. Most of these are still being planted, and the plants haven't quite reached maturity yet, but it IS going to look gorgeous once they start to grow, provided they are all watered.

And then you get a little further out, and the road becomes uneven, and there's litter on the road, and little kids not wearing much, some random cows crossing the street and a man was relieving himself on the wall!!! And the village life, lower class Hyderabadi life becomes very obvious.

Interesting through someone elses eye's. But this is what I feel is normal right now, having been here nearly 6 months!! Last night Sarah and I walked past a couple sleeping on the pavement. It didn't seem strange. We knew they had nowhere else to go. I also watched a young person back out a car from a very expensive jewellery shop and thought, wow, he's lucky to be rich.
Perspectives change quite quickly. I tell people here when I'm buying fruit that I'm not going to pay the extra they added because I have white skin that I'm NOT a tourist, and am living in India. They generally take it well:-)

I know I'm going to be appalled by how much things cost to buy back in the West!!

The current Hyderabad life

Being back in Hyderabad has been so good. I've been able to help organise activity books for vbs (just need to start thinking of activitIES) and it's been nice to be around in the daytime with no commitments at the ISH.

My first night in Hyd we had bible class on Zechariah by Tim Uncle and I nearly cried because it was so good. I'd missed the solid bible teaching while in Nepal and Kolkata, as none of the exhorts were translated in any detail. It was just so good to sit there and soak it in, and LEARN!!

It was Hannah's night to stay in the city and so we had a lovely catch up over a block of choc recently delivered from Oz (between three it vanishes so quickly), and some exported soft lollies that I discovered in the newly built 'South City Mall' 2 mins walk from the Kolk mission flat. I only realised how much I payed for the exported goods on my return back to the flat. But they were worth it. India generally only sells hardboiled lollies, which don't happen to be my favourite.

The following day I found out that I was teaching 12-14 year olds for VBS which made me leap for joy. I was beginning to wonder how on earth I was going to simplify the lessons for 3-5 year olds. Although I have had a bit of experience with 5 year olds at the school, so maybe it wouldn't have been too hard. But anyways, we fell to work for a bit with Sarah Aunty to work out what was expected and the timings and etc. Then it was time. Triumphiantly we left our activity books and made our way to IndiJo's. A restaurant where I ate lettuce for lunch for the first time in nearly 6 months!! We dined well and comfortably.

More VBS. I have currently finished organising my activity book, but now it's time to sort out the lessons. It's so cool that we're talking about the bible being true, and God's purpose with the earth, and all Genesis lessons. There is so much depth to cover, and I'm glad I'm not having to take it to the other extreme with 5 year olds!

Yesterday before lunch I bought 3 mangoes. The first of the season. It felt so good to have the juice running down my fingers and to know that GW there were going to be many more moments of mango eating in the future. Apparently Mangoes have been named the 'King of fruits' by Indians. I've never heard the phrase at home before, but it was certainly very good...and there are more cooling in the fridge for later.

Also yesterday Sarah and I had a pedicure. It was incredible to walk away with soft feet. Walking around in the dust doesn't really do wonders for your feet, and it's nice to treat them every now and again.

We had internet set up in our room yesterday for the girls working here during the summer as it's so hot in Tim uncle's room and we have a/c here to use when the heat gets unbearable.

Last night I was taken by foot to Orey's where they sell delicious icecreams. I think the walking takes care of the extra calories, especially when i'm not doing the 6am walk with Sarah Aunty at the mo. I'm getting a sore throat, so trying to rest up before the 15 days of VBS begin.

Love to all.

Logging out.

Kolkata, a whirlpool

I had planned to be in Kolkata just for the weekend, and then make my way down to Hyderabad by train but due to my asthma, couldn't put myself through the 32 hour ride in the heat if I was travelling standard sleeper, and I'd cough my life away if I upgraded to travelling A/C.

So I fell into the whirlpool of the Kolkata mission life and and left just under 3 weeks later. It seemed that there was a lot going on, and Erina has just been employed by the ACBM to help out fulltime with translation and with the correspondance work which had been piling up, so I felt like it would be good to stay for a couple more days and help.

We visited Arothi one day, finally got the internet sorted another day (you wouldn't really think that it takes a whole day to do that, but it does), visited Jayanagar and had some baptism interviews there, tried our hardest to get to Canning, and then visited Jayanagar again. Throughout this period I became very familiar with the inside of the AMRI hospital with 4 visits in less than 2 weeks. We got some free consultations as well due to the fact that we a volunteer organisation and the mission was paying for the visits and not the people.
It was a relief to find out that Erina wasn't seriously ill. They haven't been able to pick anything up as yet, and her symptoms seem quite strange, swelling feet, and legs which give her a lot of pain and constant headaches. We know it's not thyroid, so that's a relief! We had started looking for a plot for her.... on the doctors requests. Indian doctors are mostly very jovial thankfully. Cause I hate going into hospitals. I've never had to do a public Indian hospital thankfully, I've heard some terror stories about what goes on inside them. So it was nice for my induction to Indian hospitals for it to be a private one with lovely a/c.
Days just ticked by... and kept ticking by!! I stayed till I knew that all the correspondance courses had mostly been completed and then booked my flight back to Hyd. While I was there things sorted themselves out with Dad's work, and he's arriving in Kolkata late next week to help out with Bro Milton Richardson from Victoria.
There are a lot of people ready for baptism interviews, so it was important that a brother could be there to interview the men. There's so much to do out there with visits to brothers and sister's, they really need a people there all the time to support the work.

The countdown to VBS was ticking by very quickly, and I wanted to be back in Hyderabad to organise my lessons and activities for that, and to have a minute more with Hann before she flies out. Besides I was asked to write a play on the 7 names of God for the Bangalore Bible week and needed some quiet time with that before the avalanche of vbs descends and takes us with it!!

The lonely north western front

Oh, I can't begin to describe how lonely i felt confined to the Kolkata mission flat from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon all by myself with horrid asthma and my puffer run out.

These feelings were worsened by me thinking about all my friends meeting up at various gatherings over the Easter long weekend. I missed being at Glenlock oh so much!!

We had the most turbulent trip even flying back into Kolkata as a storm was making it's way down south, but we tried landing twice and only made it the third time. The turbulance began as we were handed out our meals which were all fatty fried veg cutlets, and i'd begun eating then felt ill and decided to wait for it to pass before I commenced again. But the turbulence didn't stop it just got worse. So I was eyes closed and praying, every 10 mins I'd open my eyes to see Hannah looking interestedly out of the window...and then after some time she also had her eyes shut.
I could hear noises of vomiting, and covered my nose and ears, trying not to let the smell penetrate, and just concentrated all my energy on not being sick myself.
We were an hour late landing, and Hannah had a flight to catch to Hyd which was leaving in 30 mins. We still had to get through customs...
We raced to the front of the line, and Hann left me to pick up her luggage and raced to the domestic terminal. It was there that she found me with her luggage 10 mins later trying to get a message through to her in the airport, as they don't let you through the doors unless you have an itinerary on you. If it was anywhere else in the world, the flight would've been closed and she would've had to rebook it trying to claim compensation for the late arrival. But in Kolkata, she left her bag at the counter and they were fine with her checking in later, as soon as she'd picked up her luggage from me.

Then Hannah was gone and I was left trying to find a taxi and find my way to the flat. Erina had informed me that she wouldn't be able to come because the next day was a Hindu festival, so that was fine. I assumed I'd catch up with her on Sat!
Friday was a bit dull, basically cleaned the flat as it was filthy. I kept wishing that I could get out on the streets to buy some things, but unfortunately I had no old clothes with me. The Hindu festival is called holi. The day was created for flirting! The idea being that you buy dry paint powder and water pistols and spray the opposite sex with different colours. When Hann and I were in Nepal, the lead up to holi was all about water bombs, and we got plenty of those thrown at us, so I was just imagining walking out on the street and being sprayed with all different colours. I was really just wishing that I had some old clothes with me that I could ruin!!

With not so many pressing things to do at the flat, I started to read The Fruit of the Spirit by Colin Attridge, and absolutely love it. I'd spent a while back home trying to get past the first few chapters, but I jumped straight into finding Peace, and I'm a fan. My Telegu letters book was also dusted off during my first couple of days there!

I realised when Erina came on Sunday that I really don't like being alone by myself for long periods of time with no proper communication with people! Thankfully she was well by then as well although she couldn't stay at the flat cause her mother isn't very well and needs help with lifting water buckets and washing and such like. All things that people with bad arthritis struggle to do.

Oh, that's right, we're lost

The above phrase sums up our time in Nepal. Well *most* of it anyway.
Something that I've never done before, that Hann and I did on the flight from Kolkata to Kathmandu was to watch a movie without any words and tell each other the story line. Neither of us were bothered to put in the headphones and it was quite a fun game until the plane stopped and people started unloading and then the airhostess came and asked us to leave the plane. HOW embarrassing:-) We hurried down the stairs to find that there was a bus below waiting for the 2 remaining passengers. Triply embarrasing, and slightly amusing at the same time. But honestly, WHICH airlines would show a movie that was longer than the flight and keep the passengers in suspense as to whether he got there in time before she had to leave or not? Who really cares?

Thankfully we made it through and got our Nepalese visa's with the correct amount of USD. Don't ever pay for photo's in the airport as they cost you 3 times as much, and don't ever listen when you're told you need 2 photo's cause you only need one.
After just having the USD to cover both of our photo's I discovered I had a photo hidden away in my passport, quite convenient really.

Recalling our trip to Nepal the things that really stood out to me when we first arrived was that we were surrounded by mountains, and the temperature was oh so much cooler than the raging heat of India. I know that Hannah looked after me most of the time because I got quite sick, what she called 'halfterm flu' and I spent a lot of my time sleeping or feeling awful in between trips to the embassy.

Summing up: the trip is still a bit of a blur, of an English nurse and an Australian patient wandering through the touristy streets of Nepal and being offered cups of *hot* delicious tea by Nepelese men, many brightly coloured objects hanging outside shops to lure you in; wooden floorboarded hotel; lemon and honey drinks everyday to cool the raging throat; taking steroid again for asthma; 4 hours in the queue at the embassy; hearing stories from a man who had been walking round the world for 8 years for some peace cause whose wife spent 3 weeks of every year with; a restaurant where the waiters were all mute and spoke with sign language; finding peace in the mountains; a south african, a welshi and a moroccan; climbing to the top at 5am to view the cloud covered mountains; room with a view at Nagarkot; tasty flavoured carrots; apples with crunch; sharing our first mango of the season; learning the j'mussey phrase (praise to the Lord that the Christadelphians use as a greeting); understanding some of the language because of the cross over of Hindi; no power for 8 hours a day in 2 4hour segments; lunch eaten at 10am before work; absence of beeping of horns; Hindi holi festival where water bombs thrown at western white women; taking rest in the afternoon; missing the last bus; spending an hour in the water park with little beggar children having waterfights; momo's; the care of the brothers and sister's; doing readings on the grassy gardened rooftop; a chicken sizzler; borrowing shawls to keep warm.

The Indian Embassy was full of incredible people. One couple we met had bought a campervan and had driven from France to India taking time in each country on the way and had 2 years of travelling to fill in; we met an Iranian women who you just wanted to listen to because everything she said held meaning, and it was an eye opener for me understanding how blessed I was to have been brought up in a world free from violence and war.
After having lunch with some of these people from the Embassy they left and we were left on our own to make our way back to a completely different part of town. We wandered here and there and Hannah was sold a Serengi (Nepalese kind of violin) and then the seller was gone and Hannah's comment was 'oh, that's right, we're lost' which kept us in fits of laughter for hours afterward.

We spent an afternoon with Hannah leading Sister's class and the topic was very apt 'Hannah and Abigail'. So great to look at our namesakes and recall how amazing they were in their own ways. We were kidnapped from Bicky who had very nicely found us and brought us to Sister's class by a sister who had decided we were going to stay at her house.
A plush house, carpeted floors, 3 levels, a chinese looking lady with semi white skin. Random extended family members came and went, 1 man spoke english. His name was Tarzan. He brought us breakfast in bed. One married lady was too busy serving us, so very humble to step out of line in her new household to carry on a limited conversation in English with her guests. Several small children, one named Bernicee lightened up the lives of the grandmother and greatgrandmother. Lentils and rice, with a blackcoloured gravy: Hannah eating my share as no appetite was there, cold showers (solar power doesn't work unless you want to take your shower in the middle of the day). So much coughing. Thukpa soup for breakfast.

I would like to be able to return the same hospitality that they showed to us oneday. It was overwhelming, and I felt so undeserving. They clothed the naked, and took the homeless in, and fed gave them rest.

We heard birds singing in the morning in Nepal.