I am in India now! My last blog was from the Moscow, Russia airport and we were able to get back on a different plane around 10pm to head to New Delhi, India. We arrived in New Delhi around 5am on Tuesday the 13th and were immediately met by someone that works at the hotel/hostel we planned to stay at. The fun part was trying to load 13 of us into 3 small vehicles with all our packs. Packs were loaded on top of the cars and strapped down (we were kind of reluctant about this one) and also across our laps.
It was about a 30 minute car ride from the airport to the hotel… 30 minutes of Indian introduction. We experienced the chaos of driving on the streets of India, along with the excitement of being surrounded by a new culture. More smells, more noises, more visuals, definitely more people than in the previous 2 months.
We stayed at Hotel New King, which was in a sketchy part of New Delhi. As we drove up to the alley where our hotel was we passed many clothing and food shops (food shops as in open areas where people cooked large batches of food outside) along the street, many people walking around and selling things, trash on the dirt streets, many tuk-tuks and rickshaws as well as cars passing by, constant honking, children running around barefoot playing, and people sleeping in a little nook of a building.
The hotel was nice inside and the people that worked there were so hospitable.
We spent the day in New Delhi resting, site seeing, and shopping.
After a 41 hour train ride from New Delhi to Bangalore, we arrived at Grace Mansion (the YWAM base in which we are staying) at 3am on Friday the 16th. During the train ride we were able to see landscape of the whole length of India.
It’s beautiful with large areas of farm land, marshy areas, open grassland and slums. I began making a list of some of the things I’ve been seeing and experiencing:
- Some people have the bottom of their feet painted red
- Many women have nose piercings
- Honking is just a way of saying, ‘Hi, I’m coming through!”
- Toe rings
- Men in white outfits with white hats
- Men with wraps around their waist
- Everyone lives their day in close quarters
- No one is bothered by other people (ex. If I need a seat on the train and I happen to sit on your bed it’s okay. If you are in the aisle and I need to get through I will just maneuver around you and not think twice about it. Two men will straddle each other to make room for someone else)
- Dots on most everyone’s forehead if they are Hindi (only a tradition for some because even Roman Catholics have it)
- Turbins
- Saree (women’s outfits)
- Marker line on forehead
- Trash thrown everywhere in the towns and cities
- Smell of feces and trash
- Rice and spice for every meal at the YWAM base
- Cows just chilling on the roads like dogs
- Dogs that look like cows
- Children with no underwear running around
- Children traveling by themselves and sleeping on the streets
- Eat with hands
- Many people on the streets have deformities
- Rickshaws (bicycle-carriage rides)
- People coming through train and selling food in a high pitched and loud voice
- No gaps are left in lines (they will find a way to close any gap)
- Beggers noticed, not ignored, but not given money because it has become so every day
- People living and sleeping anywhere…I mean anywhere
- The head wobble (you may think they are saying ‘no’ with the wobble but it’s just a gesture to show that they are listening)
- Bare feet
- Lots of cooking on the streets
- A kid playing drums for money (or chips is what we gave him)
- People crawling on the floor of the train sweeping to then ask for money
- Squatty potties on the train
- B.Y.O.TP (toilet paper)…nowhere has toilet paper already in the stalls
- Toilet paper goes in the trash, not in the toilet
- Bucket showers all the way…I love them actually
- Orange dyed hair
- 3 men dressed as women, cornering us in our sleeper car on the train and asking for money
- Muslim mosque, Baptist church, and very well-lit up (like it’s Christmas) Catholic church
- Very tall buildings with lots of staircases to get anywhere
- Monkeys on the streets
- Beautiful people and colorful clothing
- Driving on left side of the road
- Steering wheel is on the right side of the car
- Honk to let other know you are coming up on them and beside them and in front of them, etc
- Tuk-tuk ( 3-wheeled, open car)
- Tuk-Tuk getting stuck in between a bus and a building
- Jessica running for the moving train after hopping off for a few snacks
- Us in the process of hopping on a bus (shoving our way through the door and in the middle of the crowd), and in the mean time it begins to move because of time restrictions
Further, Carly and I had a great conversation with a man on the train that sold earrings. His name is Kamal. He was with another man that actually made the earrings. We spoke with Kamal about the books he was reading and the books Carly and I were reading. He was reading about enlightenment, Carly was reading a book called ‘Culture Honor’ and I was reading the Bible. This led to an amazing conversation about his faith in Hinduism and our faith in Christ. We learned that there are many gods in Hinduism, but 3 main gods: god the creator (Brahma), god the protector (Vishnu), and god the destroyer (Shiva). The other gods basically represent the characteristics of God, such as the god of fertility, the god of the sun, etc.
A tradition of those following Hinduism is to go to a psychic who can speak with those who are dead. People get guidance from these deceased people through the medians. They do not believe that they can directly get guidance from God. This is the direction our conversation went and it was so blessed. I challenged Kamal to ask God to come meet with him every day for a month and that God would speak to him…that he did not need an earthly median. His heart was so sincere during our conversation and his desire to hear God directly was so evident.
As far as our ministry site…we are staying in a large YWAM base building with many other people such as staff, Discipleship Training Students, and guests. It’s great to be in such a joyful environment with lots of connected ministries in the surrounding areas.
PRAYER:
That Kamal wholeheartedly is seeking God, the creator of all and provider of all…even direct guidance through the Holy Spirit. That God begins to speak clearly to Kamal.
For God to show my team how we can impact this place for his glory…how to live beside people who are hurting, have nothing, are crippled, are hungry, are lacking attention and love, etc.
