Archive for July, 2009
Delhi, it’s a mess.
Friday, July 31st, 2009
What is so bad about Delhi many ask? Well for starters, have you ever been there? I have, and its like going to NYC in the heat of summer; not much fun.
The traffic is always horrible, the airport(s) are a mess, the mass of humanity and the constant noise, the comparisons can go on and on. I am not a New Yorker nor am I a Delhiite, that’s my own term I think, anyway, here I am, not actually as I am now home, so I should say, there I was…. OK, there I was a day or so ago, fresh off the plane from a domestic flight; Chennai to Delhi at around 3 hours. The flight is probably only 2.5 but you taxi after landing for at least 10 minutes.
Who ever heard of taxing for 10 minutes? This isn’t Chicago or Atlanta where you taxi and wait, taxi and wait, taxi and wait; this is just taxi. The planes are as slow as the cars! I think I even heard the pilot honk his horn a time or two. (That’s a joke of course and if you have been to India, you’re still laughing I hope.) Anyway we taxi and ultimately deplane and collect our luggage. Once you collect your stuff you either exit or if you have an international flight you jump on a bus that runs every 20 minutes or so, to take you to the international terminal. The ride is not bad despite going only 10 mph, at least you are inside the gates of the airport and most of the trip you can see the many runways and taxi ways along with the slum dwellers and their huts, not to mention the countless security posts that dot the landscape.
After catching your bus and entering the international terminal you have to be interrogated by airline security before you can check in for your flight and then subject to random screening or testing depending upon how suspicious you, your bags, or your answers seemed to the person. You would think TSA is bad, wait until you go through their mess; it to the point of being silly.
Enough of that, got my boarding pass, cleared customs, cleared another screening deal and on to the gate, but wait, Subway first. (Great sandwich or maybe it was just that it was 2am when I finally ate it and at that point almost anything would have tasted really good.
American Airlines, almost the pride and joy of every American traveling overseas or at least to and from a 3rd world country. You see when you are in a place like India and Oh how I love India, (I am serious, not joking, India is my 2nd home) you realize how screwed things can get in your own head about what’s important and what isn’t and yet there is still something that reminds you as you walk the streets, talk to the people, and eat the food; I am an American and am proud of my heritage and country. Take that thought and all you see is all this stuff which doesn’t remind you of who you are and then boom you’re at the airport and there is the trademark AA and you look out the window and there is the most beautiful bird, a 777 sitting on the tarmac waiting to take you home.
It’s just to bad you volunteer for your own non profit and thus you can’t afford to sit in any other class than coach; oh well, at least it’s a seat and it gets you where you need to go and on board there is clean water, English speaking flight attendants and some sense of Americana.
Now the mess; for whatever reason the silly Americans and Indians can’t seem to load a plane in a timely fashion. Sure it doesn’t help the incoming flight was delayed out of Chicago and thus was 2 hours late in arriving but come on 1.5 hours to load 300 people. Southwest could have loaded and unloaded at least 10 planes in that amount of time.
To make matters worse once you are out the door you are screened again, bags checked and double checked, another frisking and wanding and then shuttled onto a bus which drives for 5 minutes to your plane and there you sit for another 15 minutes while they load the bus ahead of you.
This entire process was almost funny but it wasn’t. The sad part is, I don’t this this was a unique experience, this was just Delhi being Delhi.
Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Trivandrum – give me any of those airports, even Bangalore any day over Delhi. So why Delhi? Non-stop from Chicago is why; 14 hours. Ouch.
Well I am home now, not recovered by any stretch of the imagination, that will take a week or two, but at least I am home. Once AA was airborne things improved though it took another 40 minutes to get airborne even after the doors were closed and cross checks complete.
I already mentioned I was home and lest you think all of Delhi is bad or a mess; well most of it is but there are still wonderful people there; a few at least, like at Subway, the Radisson and last but not least my pastor friend George.
Here is a video of the ride up the mountain. Heed the warning.
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Tuni, what day is it again?
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Once you arrive someplace and work for several days you loose all track of time other than knowing when the sun rises and when it sets. More often than not the days and nights run together and you are left wondering where did the time go.
Tuni is like this, I don’t think in the 9 years I have been coming here that I have ever once sat on my cot or under a tree and counted the days, hours or minutes until I could leave; no, it’s just the opposite.
Truthfully I don’t really know what day it is, I think Tuesday because we leave on Thursday and it can’t possibly be Wednesday as that means I should be packing instead of blogging. I’m going with Tuesday.
Today, this morning we left, the entire team for what I thought were 2 borewell dedications nearby. It turned out to be 4 and they were way far away. 1 hour in 2 vehicles then the one I was driving lost some kind of belt and we were dead; no brakes and no horn; 2 things you must have along with the 3rd which is good luck. Good horn, good brakes and good luck – 3 essentials for getting behind the wheel in India. There we were dead on the road; no problem, just change vehicles, pile in, shift people around, get some motor bikes – all of the above we did.
Long story really short; most of the team got to go about 20kms on a motorcycle up mountain terrain which only 4wd vehicles can navigate (don’t have one of those) so cycles it was and those who weren’t fortunate to ride a bike got to go in a auto rickshaw which somehow made it up the road.
We finally arrived to our remote mountain village and our borewell took 3 weeks to drill as they went 350 feet and did this by hand as no trucks can make it up the road. Tribal interior people who don’t have much contact with the outside world and here we were dedicating a water project funded by the kids at Monticello Trails Middle School in Shawnee KS.
Awesome sight and awesome time.
The remaining 3 projects were near this place and so our day was pretty well shot.
One thing I have learned, when you see a schedule of activities or engagements – don’t believe it as it will change, grow, expand and before you know it, you’ll be a hundred miles from home and out of water.
Hopefully I will get some pictures posted and some video footage of the drive up the mountain uploaded soon. Maybe tonight if I don’t sleep. Hopefully though I can “borrow” some Ambient from someone and get a good night’s sleep; if not, you’ll see pictures in the morning.
Tuni
Monday, July 27th, 2009
What can I say about Tuni other than it’s a great place to be, not because there are 300,000 who call this place home but because Dr. Premdas resides here along with 500 really cool children.
About 20 minutes north of Tuni (the time it takes me to drive this) close to a toll booth is New Life Children’s Home. Sunday afternoon I arrived with my 3 companions and after dropping off our luggage at Light of Love we quickly headed for the property recently purchased by Westside Family Church for the kids at New Life.
Driving onto the grounds and seeing again first hand all that has taking place since February was really cool.
Construction on some temporary rooms has started along with the foundation for a permanent dormitory. September 30 is the target date to transfer the children from the rented New Life facility to the newly purchased acreage. Walking the property again and seeing the building progress brought a sense of excitement and anticipation for what is to come. I couldn’t help but feel the peace of God in that place and its natural beauty, the palm trees, hills, mango trees is just serene. I can’t wait to spend a night there, sit out on the veranda, watch the sun go down, listen to the children laugh and play and after there in their rooms, stoke up a fire and talk with the team about the things of God. Soon, very soon.
Today I visited 2 remote interior villages where we dedicated water projects. The drive to these places was long and arduous but I persevered but not without a headache and some car sickness.
The first village I was greeted by a foot washing and kissing and realized how awkward that can be, having someone kneel at your feet and then kiss them, certainly not something I need to get used to and wish it hadn’t been done but I do understand why it was.
Thankfully our 2nd stop was a little more low key and yet at both places the message was the same. God sent us to you to celebrate the gift of life; physical life and the opportunity for spiritual life. It was an honor to deliver these words and to then take time to shake hands and say a prayer for those desiring.
The next couple of days will be filled with bore well dedications, interacting and ministering to those affected by HIV/Aids and leprosy along with a lot of playing with the kids at New Life and Light of Love Children’s Home.
I know there is more I could report but if I did I would miss my dinner, so I’m done, my chicken is calling me!
Riding the train
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Riding a train is a lot of fun and when it is done in India at night, well the fun is compounded. I am using FUN loosely of course as Kim, Sue and Tracy would probably differ with me on what makes for a fun time. Starbucks, a good book, clean clothes and a planned agenda are probably more up their alley.
Me, loosey goosey is how I roll.
Picture the scene, mobs of Indians running and walking for their train that leaves in 5 minutes, it’s night, the train if full with people hanging out the doors and maybe even the windows. There are about 25 cars, so the train stretches down the platform and into the hazy, smoke filled night. 4 Americans and their luggage, a Catholic priest, photographer, ex-Catholic priest and his son, driver and no this isn’t a joke, it’s the truth. We run back and forth looking for 1A but all we find is A1 which I have learned from experience are not one in the same.
We ask Indian Railway officials for help but like many, no help. Finally this young priest tells us just get on, grab a seat, force someone out of theirs, this is your car, no problem. Problem was I knew it wasn’t our car as there was no 1A on the Rockfort Express bound for Chennai. The trains starts moving and our luggage and the ladies are taking up the entire vestibule of A1. Sure enough, wrong car and it turns out we are supposed to be in H1. Funny, our ticket doesn’t say that, but H1 was where we were told our sleeping compartment was.
Let’s go to H1. Well you need to jump off the train to do this, next station in 5 mintues, station stop 30 seconds. Holy Cow.
In Trichy they joined 2 trains together to make one really long train and resultantly you can’t walk the entire train, so from where we were we could only go so far until we bumped into the end of the car.
On 3 let’s jump, one, two, three – off I go, next Sue, Tracy and then Kim starts throwing off luggage and then jumps herself as the train comes to a stop.
H1 was to far for us and our luggage in 30 seconds so we elected to go 2 cars and jump back on and then make our way up to H1 through the narrow passage ways of 2 and 3 tier sleeper cars jammed with Indians.
Good news was we made it; bad news our showers we had about an hour earlier didn’t do us any good as we are now hot, sweaty messes. Oh well, Chennai is only 7 hours away, we have a sleeper car to ourselves and it has a wonderfully functioning AC. Thanks God for the simple pleasures and for making it a FUN night…at least in my book.