Sorry that I haven’t been able to update my blog lately! We’ve been in India for about two weeks and this is my first post! India has won the prize of “hardest country to find internet” so far on the race. Anyway here is an update on life…
We ended our awesome month in Penang, Malaysia by heading to Kuala Lumpur for our end of the month debrief. Everybody was very sad to leave Malaysia. We were blessed to have worked with a great ministry and got to know our ministry contact, Peter, and his family very well. After spending a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur, we boarded a flight bound for India! We arrived in New Delhi several hours later and did our (now quite common) scramble to make sure that 41 people and 41 massive travel bags were accounted for! After we checked this off the list we headed to a shady hostel for the night. Our rooms consisted of mats on the floor and walls with paint peeling off them….but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world! I’m finding that on the race if the room has 4 walls and a floor then it is basically a 4-star hotel room. After spending 2 nights in New Delhi, our team embarked on probably our most “interesting” travel accomadations yet…..INDIAN TRAINS!
This month our team is working in Calcutta with Asha Missions. “Asha” means hope in Hindi. Asha Missions is an organization that runs several orphanages throughout India. They have two main orphanages in New Delhi (where another team on our squad will be this month) and in Calcutta. The orphanages take in children without parents and children whose parents are unable to properly care for them. The children are often from villages and speak either Hindi or Bengali…and sometimes both! The orphanage that I’m working with in Calcutta currently has 13 boys. It is operated by a man named Sam and his wife. They also have a 4 month-old daughter named Gladys.
So far this month we have great time working with the orphanage! You’d think that 13 boys would be incredibly overwhelming, but for the most part the kids are awesome and very well behaved. We’ve had a great time teaching them English, playing cricket, coloring pictures and just showing them the love of Christ. “Uncle” Sam (in India elders are called “Auntie” and “Uncle”) and his wife have been great hosts for us as well. I’ll admit it was tough at first getting used to the Indian tradition of eating EVERYTHING that is served. There were a couple of times I thought rice was going to come out of my nose. Also the heat and humidity has been tough to get used to as well. Other than that though, the month has been going well and our team is continuing to bond together as we work to serve in whatever ways God is calling us! As previously mentioned, internet has been hard to come by in India but, I’ll definitely work hard to post some more updates and pics of the kids!! Talk to y’all soon!
