I’m ‘out of station’ for this month as they call it here. I’m in S. India. Its funny, I lived in Andhra Pradesh for three months and thought I was in S. India. Turns out that the people in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu welcome us to South India like we weren’t in South India before. I’m pretty sure after composedly being shown to our room on a campus that is basically just a tropical paradise, into a room that is so clean and new and just lovely—pretty much me and Elise jumped up and down for a long time. Wait, that was just me.
We spent the morning (well, its 3pm but we just finished lunch, so there are long mornings here) working out our program for this month. We’re going to get to spend time in such a variety of different places and doing a bunch of different things. Basically, we got to devotions this morning and ended up being the speakers. And I didn’t hate it! Maybe I’ll be used to the whole public speaking thing by the time I’m done with my time in India. I’m going to get to do a pretty good variety of public health teaching on health and hygiene and nutrition. We sat down with leadership and they brought a lot to the table, and we shared with them what we would like to be involved in. It was actually a very encouraging experience.
I like the very relational nature of this culture. There is a chance it may drive me crazy by the end of this month, but going into it with flexibility is helpful when doing anything in this culture. In the past several weeks, I actually had some responsibility and stuff to ‘get done.’ At first I was so frustrated and tired ‘cause it would take hours to get two jsimple tasks done. By the end though, I knew to give myself a couple hours, so I was totally content to sit and talk with people while I was waiting.
One of these days my task oriented nature will be overcome It is much diminished from three months back without a doubt!
Bangalore is quite different than Hyderabad. I’ve seen such a small portion—really just drove through the city, so I’m sure four weeks from now I’ll know even more ways that it is different from home. I saw much more modern, western, cleaner architecture. I could imagine much more that I was in an American city as we drove by a sign for Texas Instruments.
The most important thing you NEED to know about is that India won the Cricket World Cup. If you were unsure, all you’d have to do is to be in India last night and the fireworks and boys running around screaming would remove any doubt! As we drove through the city the most amusing thing I saw while I was there was a techy store with TV’s and stuff like that. It was a nice store, totally empty except the clerk, the storefront evident because of the glass windows. Outside this store probably 30-40 men were huddled, all gazing intently at the screens inside. It was hysterical. India is a happy country today!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
North
http://uakron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073512&l=fcb76&id=39105465
This link will take you to more pictures!
I’m sitting in a hotel in Dehli. It is a bit surreal to be typing on my dear old mac again. I hardly recognize my lovely computer as the keys click familiarly beneath my fingers. For those of you who didn’t know, my computer crashed the end of last month and I just got it back ☺
BUT… the greatest thing is that I’m with my dad this week! He came out with a chapel team and I surprise him today. He thought I was meeting them up in Bihar tomorrow, and had his back to me when I walked into the hotel lobby this morning. I don’t think he quite knew how to respond!
Dehli is much different than Hyderabad. For the first, it is cleaner and more orderly. Cars actually drive in the lanes some to most of the time! It was shocking. The roads are well kept up and clean. And I even saw people using blinkers today. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I love my city, but it is so cool to see different parts of India—the same India, but recognize the great diversity. I am aware I am just seeing the surfacy differences since I’m in Dehli under 24 hours. But just to recognize it at that level speaks something of the differences. I feel as if I were in a big city back in the US. Some areas of the city are once that I’m used to from Hyderabad, but other cities send me into a confustion of what country I am in. First impression: I like Dehli! I was expecting a city more congested and more dusty and overpopulated. But I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the aspect of India that I see here!
Six days later:
I had just a lovely time this last week. I met up with a team from the Chapel to help with some women's empowerment conferences. I am quite in love with the north! The chapel women were so enthusiastic and energetic. It was an encouragement to see them just jump right into the conference and invest full force into their teaching and into loving the women. And the Indian women in charge of WE were just lovely. I enjoyed building friendships with them and am excited to see them more in the coming months. I did also get to see my father, which was just an added bonus :) I'm thankful that he got to see India and be a part of the work being done here! It was funny watching the team go through culture stress/shock. Its a lot more obvious when it isn't you going through it!
The language barrier is always hard, but there was enough interaction, visual aids, examples that kept the women attentive despite linguistic difficulties. I must say that I was encouraged to see how easily the women on the Chapel team interacted with the Indian women. The comment in the feedback session that made the greatest impression on me was that she felt love in that place more than she had felt it in her whole life. I sometimes think I’m so used to the love of Christ that I often forget the power of his love and the power that a community in Christ really does have. It was such a good reawakening for me to the blessings of having a community. I just pray that God will remind these women that they aren’t alone. That they will be encouraged to remember that they arfe a part of a larger community in Christ. I Peter 2:9-10 has been made so real to me this weekend.
I was really nervous to give my talk. I was slightly paranoid that I would be oversimplifying things and they would feel insulted. Once I was talking though, I really enjoyed it. Even though I have a B.S. I still need reminded of these things. I still need to be reminded that being good stewards of God’s blessings includes my health. Nonetheless, I was still blown away when the women talked about how much they learned from the health topics. I thought everything was so basic, but realizing how much they learned in those two sessions made me realize how much awareness still needs to be there. It has challenged me and definitely is making me think about different ways I can spend the next 7 months.
This link will take you to more pictures!
I’m sitting in a hotel in Dehli. It is a bit surreal to be typing on my dear old mac again. I hardly recognize my lovely computer as the keys click familiarly beneath my fingers. For those of you who didn’t know, my computer crashed the end of last month and I just got it back ☺
BUT… the greatest thing is that I’m with my dad this week! He came out with a chapel team and I surprise him today. He thought I was meeting them up in Bihar tomorrow, and had his back to me when I walked into the hotel lobby this morning. I don’t think he quite knew how to respond!
Dehli is much different than Hyderabad. For the first, it is cleaner and more orderly. Cars actually drive in the lanes some to most of the time! It was shocking. The roads are well kept up and clean. And I even saw people using blinkers today. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I love my city, but it is so cool to see different parts of India—the same India, but recognize the great diversity. I am aware I am just seeing the surfacy differences since I’m in Dehli under 24 hours. But just to recognize it at that level speaks something of the differences. I feel as if I were in a big city back in the US. Some areas of the city are once that I’m used to from Hyderabad, but other cities send me into a confustion of what country I am in. First impression: I like Dehli! I was expecting a city more congested and more dusty and overpopulated. But I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the aspect of India that I see here!
Six days later:
I had just a lovely time this last week. I met up with a team from the Chapel to help with some women's empowerment conferences. I am quite in love with the north! The chapel women were so enthusiastic and energetic. It was an encouragement to see them just jump right into the conference and invest full force into their teaching and into loving the women. And the Indian women in charge of WE were just lovely. I enjoyed building friendships with them and am excited to see them more in the coming months. I did also get to see my father, which was just an added bonus :) I'm thankful that he got to see India and be a part of the work being done here! It was funny watching the team go through culture stress/shock. Its a lot more obvious when it isn't you going through it!
The language barrier is always hard, but there was enough interaction, visual aids, examples that kept the women attentive despite linguistic difficulties. I must say that I was encouraged to see how easily the women on the Chapel team interacted with the Indian women. The comment in the feedback session that made the greatest impression on me was that she felt love in that place more than she had felt it in her whole life. I sometimes think I’m so used to the love of Christ that I often forget the power of his love and the power that a community in Christ really does have. It was such a good reawakening for me to the blessings of having a community. I just pray that God will remind these women that they aren’t alone. That they will be encouraged to remember that they arfe a part of a larger community in Christ. I Peter 2:9-10 has been made so real to me this weekend.
I was really nervous to give my talk. I was slightly paranoid that I would be oversimplifying things and they would feel insulted. Once I was talking though, I really enjoyed it. Even though I have a B.S. I still need reminded of these things. I still need to be reminded that being good stewards of God’s blessings includes my health. Nonetheless, I was still blown away when the women talked about how much they learned from the health topics. I thought everything was so basic, but realizing how much they learned in those two sessions made me realize how much awareness still needs to be there. It has challenged me and definitely is making me think about different ways I can spend the next 7 months.
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