This week..

Sadly on Tuesday night, Lucky, the daughter of a women at church and a close friend of some on the girls in the city school girls class died. Please pray for the family as they grieve for her. She was only 12 years old. Wednesday was therefore a quiet day at the city school. The girls’ class spent the lesson writing letters to God about how they are feeling and praying for the family together.

Thursday was a holiday so we went with our host’s family (minus John who was in Hyderabad) to the cinema to see Jodhaa Akbar, the story of a Mughal ruler who married a Hindu Princess to avoid having to fight to gain a kingdom. It was an absolutely stunning film. The sets and costumes were unbelievable!

On Saturday we spent an exciting day in Delhi visiting the toilet museum, Lotus temple and Akshardham. The toilet museum is run by an NGO providing sanitation in rural areas of India. It was interesting to see the work they were doing and also to have a guided tour of the museum which had displays on the history of toilets, toilet humour and toilets around the world! The Lotus Temple is a huge, beautiful Baha’i temple in the shape of a Lotus flower. It would make an amazing church. Akshardham is a huge temple complex (the biggest Hindu temple in the world) which looks like it was built 500 yrs ago but actually was finished in 2005! It’s beautifully carved and also had a professional film and show with moving waxworks telling the story of the Hindu man who started the section of Hinduism which built the temple. There was also an ‘India Through History’ boat ride. Really random.

However we have had a good couple of weeks with our classes and have really enjoyed getting back into school after the holiday. Anna and my classes have both performed the plays they practiced whilst we were away and both were amazing!

We’re trying to make the most of the rest of our time here which is rapidly decreasing, please pray that we do so!

Naomi

Weddings

Last Sunday the girls had anouther chance to get on their silk saris when we were invited to a wedding- Leckshmi Aunty’s (the cook/cleaner/baby sitter for our hosts) son was tying the knot with a south Indian girl. We were slightly disappointed when we got there to find out the actual ceremony was long finished- it would have been fascinating-but since the whole wedding process lasts several days there were still loads of people, food and decorations. We enjoyed a fanta with the new bride and groom and then went to the big marquee thing for some food.

It was amazing we didn’t get unwell- the food was great but it was definitely designed for Indian stomachs- we ate salad (BMS’s big no no) and mayonnaisey stuff off banana leaves (which was cool) with dirty hands (we forgot hand gel stuff- oops) and washed it down with some good old tap water. We left and spent an hour or so at a posh mall, before going to Seema and Sunny’s house (John’s sister and husband) for one of their absolutely epic dinners. We gorged ourselves on hot roti and the 5 different meat dishes they offered and then had just enough time to watch some of Godzilla on TV. Good day.

We have been thinking quite a lot about arranged marriages recently, especially since we have seen one of the of the older- and one of the not so old- girls at the village school leaving to start a new life with a man they have never met. Its been really hard seeing how gutted they were about leaving  all of their friends and family, to live far away in a different village. I was slightly shocked at Arnold’s comment at the wedding we went to, that the bride was the happiest bride he had ever seen. I would have described her as polite, but not noticeably happy. Its such a shame.

I just don’t see why families but their children through so much grief over getting married- it seems to me to be so far away from what God intended marriage to be like.

Please continue to pray for our friend Sumitra as her arranged marriage gets closer.

David 

Holiday

We got back from our holiday last week after a really amazing time in South India with the Kolkata Action Team.
The train journeys (52 hours each way) were actually really fun – t’s impossible to get bored on Indian trains as there are so many people trying to you sell things (regular calls of “chai, chai” starting at 5am), things to look at, people to talk to and rats to dodge!
We spent the first few days relaxing on the beach in a place called Varkala – a very touristy resort set out along a cliff top overlooking the sea. It was a bit strange seeing so many white people after almost 3 months in Dwarka where we’ve seen about 3, but it was beautiful and SO nice to be able to jump in the sea! We had some really amazing evenings on the beach worshipping and praying whilst being surrounded by God’s awesome creation. We spent a day in the backwaters, punting around tiny villages where we were shown the traditional farming methods they use and how they grow and harvest the different spices for our curries.
We then travelled inland to the jungle – a long and eventful bus journey during which the bus filled with black smoke and had to leave us on the side of the road in the middle of no-where half-way up a mountain! When we finally arrived at our accommodation they had given away one of our rooms, so the 6 of us girls had to all cram into one room with some mattresses on the floor!
We spent 3 days at the wildlife park in the jungle; riding elephants, going on jeep-safaris and trekking through the jungle. We saw elephants, giant squirrels, chickens and a frog – I think our guide was quite disappointed in our lack of interest at the last two. We also saw some massive poisonous spiders on a night trek which was quite scary, and a poisonous water-snake in the lake we’d just gone swimming in (fortunately we weren’t attacked by anything and so far seem to be amoeba-free). We also visited some tea plantations and a tea factory, and had a go at harvesting some tea with the women who work there; Naomi got a bit excited at all the tea so the women dressed her up in their tea harvesting outfits.

It was an amazing 2 weeks and we really felt God’s provision for us throughout – a lot of things could have gone quite badly wrong but jaimasiki it all went smoothly in the end.
We are now back at school feeling really refreshed and excited about the last two months of our time here.

Anna

The Wall of Death

One of the most unexpected things that happened to us in Kerala was our visit to a flower show in the town outside the wildlife park. Becky and Sarah (from the Kolkata team) had both headed back to our house thing after a large dinner, but the rest of us had our attention grabbed by the bright lights and exciting noises of the flower show, and at 10RS each (13p) what could possibly go wrong- however after wandering past rows of flowers, shrubs and large vegetable carved as the taj mahal, the novelty wore off. It seemed India had let as down.

But no! As we rounded the corner (after the taj mahal melons), a huge structure came into view with a large poster on its side- stating it was a circus . The noise coming from it was insane- it was a large “wall of death” made of what looked like scaffolding and old planks, and the whold structure vibrated and swayed as the motorbikes roared along the walls. We bought our tickets for 15RS each and headed up the stairs, slightly worried to see that parts had sheared off with all the vibrations.

We stood around the top of the top of the wall of death and watched with goosebumps as four motor bikes and two cars roared vertically around the wooden walls (with planks missing and broken). Only in India. The guy next to Jamie and me told us it was the most dangerous circus in India (no kidding), and showed us how to hold out money for the bike riders to snatch as they went past. we held out our 10Rs notes and had our arms nearly torn of by the guy grabbing it. There were no pads, no helmets, no barriers. It was the most insane place ever. It would have been absolutely awesome if it wasn’t for the three year old kid they put in one of the cars- Anna and Naomi left in disgust-it was horrible that they put a kid through such danger just for shock value.

David