India! The place where traffic stops for cows and pigs but not people. Ankles and shoulders are considered erotic and must be covered at all times. April and May are the hottest months (think of a hot Texas August day) and power outages occurs twice a day and you might as well forget about air conditioning anywhere. India, the place that captured my heart!
I lived in a two bedroom apartment (2nd floor of a house) with a living room/hallway, kitchen, and two bathrooms, one being a squatty potty. There were 12 of us living in this house. We did have the beautiful roof top to escape some of the insanity in the house; however, during the day it was too hot. So mornings and evenings were the only time you could go unless you wanted to fry like an egg on a hot sidewalk. (They moved in 3 days before we arrived…)
(The House)
(The hallway/living room where I slept, ate, played, etc.)
(The hallway/living room looking towards the door)
(The Kitchen)
(The larger bedroom)
(The bathroom, which led to…)
(The toilet….aka squatty potty)
Every morning I would wake up between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m. I slept in the hallway/living room and my host parents would get up at 5:00 to start praying on the roof for an hour; so depending on when I heard them, would depend on what time I got up.
By 7:30 a.m. Ama (my Indian mom) would have chi tea ready for me.
The power would always go out at 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. so we would lay around the house waiting for the power to come back on. We would also eat breakfast somewhere during this time.
Around 10:00 a.m. we would start ministry. We might go to the leprosy hospital, mentally handicapped hostel or school, handicapped hostel, door to door prayers, village evangelism, deaf and dumb school, blind school, old age home, or the woman's shelter. (By the end of our time in India, we went to 40 different places.) We would stay there until 12:00 and go home for lunch.
(Handicapped Hostel)
(Leprosy Hospital)
(Deaf and Dumb School)
At 2:00 p.m. the power would go out again, during the hottest part of the day and not come on until 4:00 p.m. Once again we would lay around the house finding any breeze we could.
At 4:30 p.m. Ama would have another cup of chi tea waiting for me. By 5:00 p.m. she had made some kind of snack that we were expected to eat even if we were not hungry. Between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. we were back doing ministry. Typically the night ministry focused mainly on going to villages to do prayer meetings or door to door ministry and prayers.
(Night Prayer Meeting)
(Village Prayer Meeting)
We would usually get home somewhere between 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and have dinner. Then my host parents would go to the roof to pray for an hour while the rest of us got ready for bed.
It was a great month! I learned a lot about myself and Christian women. India was awesome! As I look back over the pictures as I am posting this blog all I can think about and sigh is that this was one of the best months I have had so far…
(This is where I lived and…)
(my Indian family…)
