Traveling in Asia is INTENSE! Wonderfully intense. The funny thing about that word though, is that it has taken on a whole new meaning….We were not traveling in tents, just trains, jeeps, buses, and the like. Ministry on the World Race looks different from any other ministry as does EVERYTHING else.
Travel days, as I have come to call them are chaotic in the most exciting way possible. I will give you a little peek into our travels from Dehri-on-Sone, India (GEMS Campus) to Kathmandu, Nepal.
We left GEMS on a bus at 4:30 AM on Wednesday morning. Arrived at the “Train Station”, a local train which means the train station is where the train stops and you jump on as quickly as possible. It was dark, there were 7 of us (Team Shefa plus our squad leader Noe), and we were on the wrong side of the tracks. After walking for some time on the tracks being ever so mindful of oncoming trains, we passed our bags through the stopped train on to the correct platform. We then ran up and over to the real station and jumped on our train.
The train left at 5:20 AM and we were soon joined by all the Indian commuters going from one village to the next. Local trains make stops every 10-15 minutes in different villages. I am learning how to sleep in all kinds of environments.
India is divided into states and we were in the state of Bihar for the whole month, and traveled by train to the capital of Bihar which is Patna. After being on the warm train for 6 hours we were ready for the next leg of our travels and some food. God provided and we were met at the train station by Jonathan, our contact in Patna. We drove through the city for about 45 minutes and ended up at the GEMS office in Patna. We ate amazing fish, chicken, potatoes, and sweets. Jonathan then took us sightseeing and to DOMINO’S PIZZA which might have never tasted as good. Patna is over run with idol worship and on every corner there is a shrine or gated area about 15′ by 15′ with a scary, funny colored, idol inside. I have never felt like I had the gift of discernment I felt a heavy pressure in my head. It is ridiculous how serious the spiritual realm of things is and how the presence of these people worshiping these idols can truly be felt.
We spent the night in Patna at the GEMS office and woke up early in the morning to hop in a jeep that seats 7. Comfort at this point has been totally thrown out the window and I must say I am kind of enjoying it. Our team has just adopted the mantra “When in …..” at this point it was “When in India, you do as the Indians do”. So the 7 of us piled in with our backpacks at 5:00 AM for the 8 hour ride to the border. The quickest way to the border involved some “backroads”, yet another term I have learned to use loosely. We were sitting 3 in the front, 4 in the back and one brave soul on top of the bags in the very back.
Crossing the border was quick and easy. The immigration offices are a joke and pretty much a scam, I guess it will be a lesson in patience this year. We drove one hour after crossing the border and reached the GEMS Nepal campus where we ate lunch and rested for about an hour. We loaded into another jeep and took off on the way to Kathmandu. Basically another 6 hour car ride up a mountain, no joke. No guard rail, or pavement for pretty much the whole ride. We were told that if it was daytime we could’ve seen Mount Everest. I was thankful that it wasn’t daytime because we couldn’t see how far the drop would be if we went off the road.
After a crazy long 3 days we arrived in Kathmandu at the hostel. It was an amazing journey and although it was exhausting it was such a blessing to be able to have the experiences that we did along the way.
