Well our month 3 in Ireland has come to a close and a whole new journey has begun here in India. The half marathon went great for me! I completed it in 2 hrs 8 min. and 31 seconds. I missed the proper turn around so I actually ran 14 miles. I believe all my teammates have met their deadlines, so thanks for any of you that helped out. On our flight over we had a short layover in Dubai. I wish we had a day to explore one of the richest cities in the world, but we spent our time in the airport from about 1 to 3 am. Andhrapradesh is a southeastern region we will be spending our time in.
View from our rooftop
I have never experienced such a drastic culture change in my life. One day I am in Ireland, which visually is a step up from America. Ireland has clean streets, English speaking, green lush landscapes, and only new cars on the road. The next day I am in a 3rd world country where it is hot, trash everywhere, motorcycles outnumber cars 30:1, few speak English, and everyone stares at you.
Wildlife includes, monkeys, lizards, frogs in your shoes and much more!
It has been an interesting transition far different than the ones in the past. Comparing to the other countries we have been to, it finally feels like the World Race! There is no place we can go to get wifi. We have been working on getting wifi cards for our laptops and will have them when this blog get’s posted. We have been super blessed with our living accommodations. We have electricity, running water, fans, and a beautiful porcelain squatty potty. They just installed a showerhead for our cold showers the other day.
Our host family is truly amazing. Hospitality is huge in India. They make us every meal, along with coffee and tea, and apple slices for snacks. Every meal has something spicy and every lunch/dinner has rice. We are not allowed to help with washing dishes or anything. We sit, food is served to each of us, we set the dishes on the floor when done, and then they come take them away. If a couple of us get caught sitting on the ground, they come to us with chairs. One of their 2 daughters just came and served me apple slices telling me to take 3! They are a lot of fun and know quite a bit of English and they are 5 and 7 years old.
Our ministry starts in the late afternoon. We travel to nearby villages and visit people in their homes and pray for them, and then we have a small church service for the village to come to. The children are so excited to see us and follow us everywhere. Our first church service we attended lasted for 2 hours and 45 minutes. We enjoyed music with tambourines, finger cymbals, drums, and a very loud tambourine shaker thing. Our team also led 4-5 songs, gave several testimonies, and a short sermon along with theirs. Halfway through the service they gave each of us “thums up” sodas. We partook communion with them and they requested that we prayed for everyone at the end of the service. It was a really cool experience to have people come up to me for prayer. I was blessed to pray for a blind man, a boy with a broken arm, and a young girl that has a lot of fear in her life, along with many others.
Streets at night on the way home from ministry
My camera quit working at the end of the 2nd month in Moldova. Last month I was able to use other squad mate’s cameras to take pictures. This month my squad mate Amanda decided she didn’t want to carry around her DSLR camera because she usually uses her small camera. So I have once again been blessed to have a super nice camera to use!
We have only been here a few days but have seen and experienced so much. It really is a beautiful country, very green and filled with life! Please continue keeping us in your prayers for health and safety.
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Fun Observations:
- Church bell rings loud EVERY hour and bible verses are recited. The chimes sound like an Ice cream truck
- You can fit between 6-8 people in every little 3-wheeled taxi
- Huge monkeys are everywhere and have been told that they will fight you for your food
- It is common to see 2 men share a motorcycle and not uncommon to see 3 men on one.
- The maximum capacity seen so far is a family of 6 on one motorcycle.
- If a group of Americans stand anywhere for more than a minute a group of +20 people might gather around and stare at you in close proximity.
- It is common to see men and children relieve themselves on the side of roads.
- When asking translator, “What should I do with my plastic pop bottle” He responds “ you throw it on the ground. This is India.” Then he takes it from you and throws it on the ground.
- When asking translator, “Why do you only eat spicy food” He responds “ This is India.”
