My team is currently back at the School of Worship in Hyderabad, India. We’re sleeping at the airport tonight, flying to Delhi in the morning, and then taking about 24 hours of train rides to Kathmandu, Nepal, where we’ll be working in a prison ministry for the month.
This past month in India has been full of new and interesting experiences. I thought I would share a few of them in a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” sort of way. These are just a few of the things that have happened to me and my teammates here in India. Enjoy!
Ice Cream? No?
Since being here, there is one thing that just about everyone on the SOR11-Fugees Teams can appreciate – ICE CREAM!! It’s nothing fancy, and it’s not fresh-scooped, but rather the pr
epackaged kind that is stored in a cooler. But India has butterscotch ice cream, and mmmm, mmmmm, mmmm, is it good. They sell this delectable dessert at the
small grocery store in town, so basically, anytime we’re near the store, we stop in for a cone. Or two, or. . .
Anyway, we went into the store the other night after adventure day in Vijayawada to stock up on snacks and, of course, get ice cream. I’d already enjoyed a cone in Vijayawada, so I didn’t get one. Instead, I just stood near the doorway and waited on everyone. When I turned to leave, the store lady said, “Ice cream? No?” like, “You came here and didn’t buy ice cream?” That is sad when the store lady knows that about you.
Saved at the Fruit Stand
White people in India are good for 2 things: money and photos. Random people will come up to you and ask to take their picture with you. Except that you use your own camera, so what is the point of their wanting a picture? I don’t know. The other thing you are known for is money, and therefore, you must be careful not to get ripped off.
So, five of us walked into town today to go to the grocery store, and of course, to get ice cream. Melanee and I tasted a native fruit (of which I do not know the name) the day before, and she asked me to look for some on the way. We knew that the vendors would likely try to rip us off, but I don’t know what kind of prices are reasonable anyway. We found a fruit vendor selling some of this fruit and asked him how much a small bag was. He said, “100 rupees” (about $1.60). The rule is to never take the first price they give you, so I thought we could talk him down to 50 maybe. Right at that very moment, one of the older boys from the orphanage rode up behind us on his bicycle. We asked him how much we should be paying for the fruit, and he said “15 rupees” (about 30 cents). Fifteen? We went from 100 to 15?!? Wow. The fruit vendor tried to laugh it off. We should have just walked away, but I paid the 15 rupees.
Praying for the White People
One night we had prayer circles, where the kids are divided into 12 groups, and we just go around the circle and pray. Rajesh, who translates for us, was at Melanee’s circle. The children were praying, and Rajesh was telling Melanee some of the things the kids were praying for. After one child’s prayer, Rajesh said, “She prayed for the volunteers. Actually, she didn’t say ‘volunteers.’ She actually said, ‘I want to pray for the white people.'”
Kentucky Fried Chicken
One night, our host let our teams cook dinner for the kids. And what better meal to cook for them than fried chicken? The boys went out with Rajesh and ordered 8 very fresh chickens, milk, and flour, and we fried enough chicken for all 200 kids. Was it successful? Well, we got one suggestion from Rajesh: “Salt is a very important ingredient.” I’m kind of not thinking that was a compliment on our cooking. However, we fried up some chicken legs for ourselves that would have made the Colonel himself jealous. Oh well! Maybe we’ll try something easy next time, like spaghetti (with rice, of course!).
God Cares About Trail Mix
Noe and Hollis, our squad leaders, came and visited us here for several days. Their job is to
spend the month traveling around to all 7 teams on the squad and check in, encourage, and disciple them. They obviously spend a lot of time traveling. We had a great few days with them, and they left Wednesday night for a 28-hour train ride to Delhi! Wow!! They weren’t likely to get food on the train, so they stocked up on snacks and Hollis made some trail mix.
When they got ready to leave, we said our goodbyes and they got in the truck to be driven to the bus station. John said, “Guys, I think we need to pray for safe travels for Hollis and Noe.” So we circled up and he prayed for them. He said, almost jokingly, “Lord, please let them have some food on the train.” And right then, Kristen remembered that all of Hollis’ food was still in the fridge upstairs! Thankfully, they hadn’t driven off and were able to rescue the trail mix, and thus, themselves from starvation on travel day. See? God cares about trail mix!
Beach video!
Here’s a video I made about our day trip to the beach a few weeks ago. Enjoy!!
