Author: Taunya Neff

We have had more “office work” to do this week. Part of what we do as humanitarian missionaries is to take the proposals we receive from NGO’s and submit them for approval. We need to make sure that all the needed information is included and accurate. The proposals go to the Asia Team in Hong Kong where they are evaluated for approval. Then the legal team writes an agreement that the NGO signs and we follow-up on the financial obligations and monitoring of the project.

Although we have been busy this week with the process of developing projects, we have had time to have some fun. Our morning walks and badminton are always entertaining. It is really hard to portray the nuances of life here in Nepal. It seems like there is something new around every corner. A bull, a beautification project, dogs, a puppy, and a bug!

There are many things we see that we miss photographing or that we don’t feel are appropriate to capture. This morning while walking we crossed paths on a narrow neighborhood road with a man in a wheelchair being pushed by a holy man dressed in colorful orange robes with his forehead painted. They were playing recorded music and the man was holding a collection jar. It seems like a rather forward way to beg but the holy man will pronounce a blessing on those who contribute. It wasn’t as aggressive as the woman on our street the other day that was acting like she was unable to speak, but could make grunting noises, who followed us shaking a bowl and was quite “in your face” about it. We later learned from our landlord that he has seen her talking with friends on a nearby street corner.

Some other sights include a procession of finely dressed people carrying their offerings and chanting as they headed to a temple to worship, the surreptitious looks we get as we walk along that turn into big smiles when we greet them with a “namaste”, the interesting print and color combinations people choose to wear and the list goes on. I just wish words and pictures could capture all the feelings and sensory overload of the experiences we are having.

We went to visit the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation again this week. There was a new group on expedition and we wanted to see the progress being made. We had another downpour while there and the young people took full advantage of the rain and mud.

We had the pleasure of attending a birthday party for a three-year-old girl from church. We thought we were going to the family’s home but it turned out the party was at Self Help Nepal where the father works. It is a home/school for underprivileged and orphaned children. They have 205 residents! Since it was also a celebration for all the children with June birthdays it was much more grand than we were anticipating. Things are rarely what we expect them to be here in Nepal.

 

Traditional Nepali Dance

Our adventures at Bhandarkhal Jungle Park included monkeys going wild. Well, they were actually just outside of the park and were running across a corrugated metal roof creating quite the ruckus. Then after they tired of that game they slid down a green hose like they were on a zipline! Another was seeing a tiny baby monkey jump off of the foot high wall at the edge of the walkway. I thought it was cute because he was a little wobbly and just developing coordination. We turned to walk on that path and there were a few monkeys on the walls and one jumped down and across the path. Another tiny baby wanted to jump down but the mother grabbed him by the tail and kept him close. It was laugh out loud funny but my laughter scared the mama and made her grab her baby tight to her chest. Then I felt a little bad but it was still funny.

We marvel at the various humans exercising in the “jungle park” with their laughing yoga, primal yells, aerobic dancing, clapping, chest pounding and one of my favorites is the chunky man dressed in what looks like a bedsheet around his waist wearing large beaded necklaces enthusiastically doing his yoga and other exercises. He is a wonderful man who radiates the glory of all that we have and are in this life. This morning he reminded us that, “Life is a glorious blessing from God!”

And last but not least, monkey figures reminding us to live moral lives and “see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil”.

It was an incredible week. We were able to go visit two expedition work sites. “Expedition” is a name given to trips designed to foster cultural and humanitarian experiences.

The first was a group of 20 young people ages 16-19 with a few parents thrown in the mix. They came from all over the United States and met for the first time in the JFK airport. The first few days of their adventure were spent in Chitwan where there is a National Park that has wild elephants, tigers and rhinos. (We’ll go when it is a little cooler.) This gives them a chance to get to know each other and adjust to Nepal before the work begins. They came with HumanitarianXP out of Utah and worked on building a small medical clinic for The Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation in Kathmandu. They were amazing teens with a desire to serve, develop character and build spiritual strength. There will be groups here throughout the summer to continue the building project. I hope the monsoon rains don’t dampen their spirits!

 

How to build a clinic: Carry a load of sand up to the cement mixer–Fill the pan with cement–Lift and carry–Build the clinic wall

The founder of KRMEF, Krishna Gurung, invited us for a tour and lunch. He and his wife created this foundation in memory of their son who passed away at age seven. It has helped to ease their pain as well as lift others. They are doing fantastic and innovative things here with environmentally friendly building practices, biodynamic farming and providing needed services to their community with educational and medical aid. The vegetarian lunch was delicious and made using the produce they grow.

The second group came with Choice Humanitarian, the NGO we have several current projects with, and included more families or parent and child units. They were also amazing people. The project we visited is a water project where the group, along with villagers, were digging a trench to lay pipe and bring water from the source so that each home can have a spigot and convenient water for home use as well as irrigation.

It was a two hour drive into the hills on rough winding roads. We have submitted a project plan for this area (not just this village) to enhance their agricultural practices so it was especially fun to see and also meet the people including the municipality mayor and the chief officer of the ward. The villagers were very friendly and excited to have us there.

The group was staying in a couple of unused rooms in the village school. Classes were in session but we did get to interact with the kids a bit. Dal bhat tarkari (basically the same as last week’s food picture) was served for lunch and we ate on the rooftop of the school. After lunch the Choice team worked with the expedition youth to teach the school children about hygiene and gave each of them a kit containing toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, soap, etc. They seemed pretty excited and liked the playful presentation and animated practice time but mostly liked the bubble maker “gun”.

On the return trip work was being done on the road to repair the damage from a rock slide. They were filling cages with rock and creating a stable base for the road on the downhill side and a wall on the uphill side. What was most impressive was the level of comfort they showed while working on a steep hillside. They accomplish amazing work with hand tools. There was a big backhoe that was moving the large rocks.

We also met this week with the accountant for Latter-day Saint Charities here in Nepal and got pertinent information to help us negotiate our financial responsibilities. He provided us with a very tasty lunch of katti rolls. They are kind of like mu shu, a wrap, or a soft taco only with traditional Nepali flavors and ingredients.

Over this past week we have experienced some impressive rain storms. The monsoon season has begun. We had a downpour on Monday while we were at KRMEF. We were not prepared so got wet. On Tuesday we took our umbrellas because it looked like rain only to find what we really needed was our sunscreen. Fortunately we were able to borrow some. I’m going to need to take a bigger bag with me so that we can be ready for anything.

I’m not planning to haul around loads like those we have seen here. What they haul and how they haul it fascinates me. I have shared some pictures in earlier posts but here are a few from this week.

We each carry our own load or burden. Often these are not seen and we don’t realize how heavy they have become. We can ease these burdens by yoking ourselves to the Savior. His love allows us to repent and as we cast off the burden of sin we lighten our loads. We can all enjoy the blessings of lighter loads as we turn to our Savior. Through loving service we lift the burdens of others. We don’t have to join an expedition to help. As Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “Lift where you stand”.

 

 

 

It sure does seem to take more time to settle into a new place than I think it should. We have been here 2 1/2 weeks now and are still adjusting. This week we received some training from our leaders in Hong Kong as well as the Wolfgramms. We continue to try to figure out how it will all work here in Nepal. Once we realized that our fiscal year starts in January and the main NGO that we work with (Choice) has a July to July year some confusing pieces fell into place. We were able to meet with Choice Humanitarian this week and had a nice orientation and lunch. We are excited to follow up on and visit some of the collaborative projects that are in the implementation stage over the next few weeks.

Another interesting event was meeting Bishnu Adhikari who some of you may remember from the Meet the Mormons movie in the Nepal segment. He is very knowledgable about life, humanitarian work, politics, history and the church here in Nepal and it was enlightening to talk with him over a pizza lunch. It will help as we go forward.

Lui (Elder Wolfgramm) showed us a nice park, Bhandarkhal Jungle, that has good walking paths, vegetation, space to play badminton and monkeys! It’s great to have our exercise routine settling in. Exercise keeps me sane. I think monkey pictures in Nepal may take over for cow pictures in India.

There are a lot of things about Nepal that are similar to India and so feel familiar. The roads are narrow with homes and businesses close to the edge. There are all kinds of little shops one right next to the other and often stuck between dwellings. They drive a little crazy here but not like India and they don’t honk constantly. A more constant noise here are roosters! They eat a lot of Indian food in Nepal although it is often a little different. Momo’s are a favorite food. They are much like potstickers and very tasty. We still need to thoroughly wash our produce but I am able to find some things that were unavailable in Vizag, like green chiles. Maybe they are just in season right now. I am roasting and freezing some because buying them in a can is impossible. It is mango season and they are delicious. We had a mango lassi (basically a yogurt smoothie) last evening. Yum!

Women here wear kurtas and saris like in India but there are a lot more women that wear more western style clothes. Men, usually older, wear Dhaka topi hats and there are quite a few dressed in traditional Indian and Buddhist clothing. As with the women there are plenty dressed in western styles.

Nepal is cleaner than India. Part of it is that Kathmandu has a new mayor that has done a lot to clean things up. There is still trash at the side of the roads though. Since there aren’t many cows wandering around, the streets are automatically cleaner! As in India the waterways smell bad.

One crazy sight found all over are rat’s nests of wires. We thought it was out of control in India but it is unbelievable here. These are not generally power lines, just cable. Apparently no one ever removes a cable line when it is no longer in use.

We are enjoying the cooler weather although it is still plenty warm, daytime temperatures are mid to upper 80’s. It does cool off at night which is helpful. The air quality is questionable at times but not like in New Delhi. There is a temple complex nearby where they do cremations and ceremonially dump the ashes into the river which doesn’t help, especially if they use the traditional method with an outdoor pyre and lots of wood.

We were able to go to Swayambhunath Temple, nicknamed the “Monkey Temple” for the abundance of monkeys found there. It is a Buddhist temple and Unesco Heritage site. It is a chaotic blend of Buddhist and Hindu iconography. It has one main temple and other smaller ones, hundreds of prayer wheels throughout the area and many statues.

The main temple, or stupa, is surrounded by prayer wheels that devotees spin as they walk clockwise around the structure. There are also prayer flags fastened to the spire.

This is all located on a hill in Kathmandu which is believed to have risen spontaneously out of the lake that is now the Kathmandu Valley. The name, swayambhu, means self-arisen.

Offering butter candles to God is considered to be the most powerful offering. It means one has chosen to drive away the darkness within and attain clear wisdom.

Our townhouse apartment building is very nice. I am especially thankful for filtered water that is clean enough to cook with and I don’t have to use bottles of filtered water to wash my hair. Because the water in India and Nepal is impure and has a lot of metals in it, it can cause hair loss or make your hair very brittle. We have joined the ranks of rooftop clothes drying. I feel like a native now. (We had a dryer in India.)

A few photos from walking around town…

There are many beliefs in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions that are fascinating. Our landlord (he’s Hindu) was talking with us and sharing his thoughts that we all want to get to the same place in the end and that all pure religions have the common ground of loving others, loving God and living moral lives. I thought that was rather profound and if I can drive darkness away (as with butter candles) by loving God, loving my fellow man, keeping the commandments and striving to do good, hopefully I can settle in and have the inspiration needed to successfully serve the people of Nepal.

We made it to Nepal!!!

It has been a very busy week with many new experiences and a few challenging moments.

We spent Monday getting ready to leave. That meant cleaning, laundry, packing, throwing out some food and such. Finally at 5:12 pm Rick got his exit permit!  At 5:18 I got this message, “Your request for Registration Certificate for Foreigners against application id AP1200028123 has been deleted.” What? None of our people helping us knew what that meant. They originally denied my request for an exit permit because my permission to stay was in process. That was part of the reason for cancelling my visa last week. I was thinking maybe it was deleting my permission to stay. Anyway, the Foreigners Registration Office closes somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 so we had hopes of my approval coming as well. Then at 5:53 there was a request for payment. We were so confused but the office made the payment. My exit permit didn’t come. There was still a possibility that it would come through on Tuesday morning. We were in a bit of a catch 22 situation because the FRO wanted our flight booking, but we couldn’t get it until we knew our permissions would come through. Our office in Hong Kong couldn’t book a flight that might not be used so changed the dates on our previous itinerary and we used that. We really needed to leave on Tuesday in order to attend the Helping Babies Breath training. If we couldn’t then there was no rush. Hong Kong couldn’t book a flight same day and Rick decided we should book our own flights and exercise faith that my approval would come through in time. I thought that was not a good idea but left it up to him. I was resigned to miss the training. We were ready to leave if it worked out.

Tuesday morning was spent finishing up last minute things in order to leave the apartment for our mission president and his family to use when they come to Visakhapatnam toward the end of the month. We knew we wouldn’t hear anything before 9:30 so I tried to be patient but kept checking my emails. I asked Rick to check the portal to see if there was any progress. He did and it showed that approval was granted. He immediately burst into tears and I felt an emotional surge as well, but since I  hadn’t invested the same amount of faith I wasn’t quite as vested as he was. At 9:52 the certificate came to my email and we could leave! Our ride to the airport arrived at 10:20 and we handed off the keys to the apartment manager and loaded up the car to head to the airport making a stop to print out our exit permits.

The process of getting our boarding passes and checking our luggage was not too bad except for the $400 excess baggage fees. Money isn’t worth anything if you don’t spend it, right? We were beyond caring. We just wanted to be on our way.

At the Delhi airport we had to go through immigration and that is where we needed to show our exit permits. The process for Rick went just fine. When it was my turn everything seemed to be going fine until the immigration officer looked up my permit on his computer system. It showed that my permit was “in process”, not “granted”. –Wait a minute, I have my permit right here. Here is the information on the FRO portal showing it is granted. Here is the email with the permit attached. Your  system has not been updated. Oh yes there are signs telling me not to argue with the immigration officer. What do we do now?–He talked with another officer, twice, and after 20 minutes of deliberation he reluctantly stamped my boarding pass and let us through. Whew!

We had an uneventful flight to Kathmandu and “enjoyed” a repeat of our Indian airplane lunch menu for dinner. We were actually grateful for the food since we had not had time to get anything at the airport. Our driver was waiting for us upon arrival and greeted us with the traditional scarf to place around our necks. We arrived at our apartment at about 10 pm and had fun carrying all that excess baggage up to the 5th floor. It took teamwork.

Our apartment is a very nice one bedroom, one bath area with kitchen, dining room, living room and a pool table on the top floor in the home of the family that owns the building. It is interesting how the three ground floor (with upstairs) apartments and the home intertwine. It is a little uncomfortable going through the home to get to our space but it will be fine for 2 1/2 months and then we will move down into the apartment the other senior missionary couple are living in when they head home. Yes, another move is in our future.

We left for the airport at 7:30 the next morning to catch a short flight to Bhadrapur in the eastern part of Nepal. Our hotel (in Birtamod) was quite nice with conference rooms for the training and a very good restaurant. The chef even made some food with less spice for us wimpy Americans.

 

There were 50 participants, 8 trainers from Nepal, 2 doctors and a nurse from the US. Everyone was engaged and happy to learn. They will return to their facilities throughout the district of Jhapa and train others. The program is extremely successful here in Nepal and has the full support of the government. I can’t tell you the numbers, but they have had a significant drop in the number of infant and mother deaths over the last ten years.

Besides the training we also visited four hospitals to evaluate their needs and see how they are implementing the program with things like resuscitation kits, postpartum hemorrhage kits and a practice corner. It is amazing what they can do with so much less than what we have in the US. There was a lot of difference between the government hospitals and the private one we saw.

I’m so very glad we were able to be here for this and see how everything works so that in the Fall we will know what we are doing for the next training.

Here in Nepal Saturday is our Sabbath. That is going to take some getting used to. Our chapel is in a very large rented home. That makes it quite unique but functional.

   

After church we went to Bhaktapur, an old cultural city (now part of Kathmandu) to tour the temples and old structures there. Because it was Saturday (day off) we missed the pottery and wood carving demonstrations but saw some of the finished products. The traditions and culture are fascinating.

   

It has been an exhausting and rewarding week. We are getting settled in and gearing up for the coming week. We’re grateful for all of the prayers in our behalf and to finally be here doing work that matters and helping the people of Nepal.

Monday and Tuesday were very busy this week as we said our goodbyes to church friends and our badminton friends at the walking park and made preparations to leave Vizag. We took careful inventory of our food, discarding things we wouldn’t be using and nobody else wanted. We did a great job of planning which included ordering lunch from Pizza Hut! We thoroughly cleaned our flat, did laundry, packed and filled out online forms for our tourist visa to Nepal. We were ready to go…

But alas, our “exit certificates” did not get processed in time for our Wednesday flight. (You have to have your flight before they will do the paperwork!) I guess since that has come and gone and our papers are in process we will book a flight when we know we can leave. It has been a daily “wait and see” week and I keep wondering what we need to be learning or doing here before we are allowed to depart. Limbo may be cool, it may be fine, but my back is sore!

Since our food was figured to the day, I ended up creating a couple meals from bits of this and that. Chicken onion soup is pretty tasty. We ordered meals delivered two more times and managed for three days, but we ended up going to the store knowing we would not be leaving before Tuesday. I really don’t want to need to buy more groceries.

As we have been expecting to leave any day we haven’t been going anywhere except to the grocery store and the Foreigners Registration Office. We have had many exchanges with church employees here in India who are trying their best to get this taken care of. Because Vizag is a “small” city (only 2.4 million) they don’t actually have an FRO here. It is just done through the police and then goes through the office in Hyderabad. It seems like it should be simple but is a rather complicated process. We have been to the police barracks four or five times now. Not something I expected to do as a missionary.

To quote another song, which we actually heard in the Uber on the way to the police barracks a couple of weeks ago, “You can check out anytime but you can never leave.” Unfortunately I do feel a little like we have “checked out” as we hang out in our flat and wish we had more snacks to eat. We have found some constructive things to do though. Rick is proofreading a book for a friend and I have been working on family history.

Because we have needed to stay close to home to handle this business we discovered that we have a rooftop garden! There is even enough room up there to play a little badminton. Plus a helipad, which we knew was up there. I guess that since our apartment building is still being finished I didn’t expect the garden to be completed. The fitness room and swimming pool don’t exist yet. And no, I don’t know why we have a helipad.

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Great 360 degree views.

Pretty plants and flowers.

And the helipad.

We are fervently praying that at this time next week we will be settled into our new apartment in Nepal and ready to head out on a project called Helping Babies Breath. It is training that teaches essential neonatal resuscitation and newborn care skills to support babies that do not breathe on their own after birth to reduce infant mortality rates. The couple currently serving in Nepal will handle it, along with the skilled instructors, but we want to share in the experience. We are so very absolutely and completely ready to be working as welfare services missionaries!!!

 

We have news, we are being reassigned to Nepal! Rick and I are excited to begin another new phase of our mission. Hopefully this will be the last phase although we will probably change apartments after three months. It will be fun to be able to do humanitarian work. In Nepal they have some fairly strict regulations and we will be limited in some regard, but there are clean water projects and they have a Helping Babies Breath program that we will help implement. We will be working closely with an NGO called Choice and some others that Latter-day Saint Charities has a long standing relationship with. There is a missionary couple serving there now and we will be blessed by their tutelage for the three months we will be working together.

Nepal is actually part of the India New Delhi Mission but there are no young missionaries there, just the one senior couple. We will be based in Kathmandu. One of the things we are excited about are cooler temperatures. Another is the Himalayas. We understand the people are wonderful. We are looking forward to meeting them and helping as much as possible.

As we have told some of the people we have met while walking and playing badminton they have expressed sadness about our departure and two in particular wanted to spend some time with us before we go. We were able to meet with a man and his wife who run a home for underprivileged and orphan girls. They currently house 20 girls. We met them and shared some singing and good wishes. Later in the week we were able to go visit a new property in the country that they are developing which will be more suited to their needs now and in the future. They are amazing people. We are not able to help them at this time but maybe future humanitarian missionaries will.

Another gentleman took us to the Andhra University campus (established in 1926) and showed us around. He taught there for about 35 years. This was something Rick was excited about doing because of his tenure as a university professor. It was a nice walk and interesting to compare the AU campus with the BYU-Idaho campus. It is more spread out and has lots of trees and many of the buildings are from the original university. He is another of our contacts and has been doing some leg work trying to help us find some projects. Again, the timing is not right and hopefully in the future there will be the opportunity for collaboration.

We attended the baptismal service for two teenaged girls. They will be a great addition to the branch. They already have strong testimonies. It is fun that after each baptism they serve a “birthday cake” which includes the tradition of feeding each other cake. It’s pretty fun.

India is hosting the G20 summit and various cities are hosting different conferences. These are some murals created here in Vizag to welcome guests.

The women here dress more in traditional clothes than in New Delhi. They are so beautiful. Women at the walking park wear saris and kurtis with tennis shoes and sometimes they even play badminton dressed traditionally.

I was thinking about the restorative nature of, well, nature. We have the ocean here in Vishakapatnam and when we walk along the beach the ebb and flow of the waves soothes my soul.

We went to Darjeeling where we were in the foothills of the Himalayas and saw Mt. Kanchenjunga, third tallest mountain in the world. It would have been nice if it had been a clearer day so that we could have better witnessed the majesty of the mountain but we did get to see the sunrise gradually illuminate its peaks. It replenished my soul.

Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ and witness how His glory illuminates us in ways we didn’t think possible, cleansing us from deep within to bring light into our countenances that we in turn might glow with His love and share that light with others. He restores my soul.

Because we are currently “servants who aren’t serving” we got permission to take a little trip and went to Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. It is a hill station known for the production of Darjeeling tea and was a place of respite from the heat for the British. It has a lot of historical significance and beautiful places to see. We mainly went because we wanted to see the Himalayas (pronounced Him-al-y-as here) and got to see many other fascinating things. The people and customs are very different from Vizag and Delhi. I felt like they were more a reserved people although our drivers were very friendly. Language barriers made communication difficult. (Bengali is the official language along with Nepali.) Darjeeling has influences from Nepal and Tibet as well as that of the British and India. The main religion is still Hindu but there is also a large percentage of Buddhists. The roads are narrow, hilly and congested. It took over half an hour to go 6 km from one side of the town to the other. I call it a town but there are about 120,000 people who live there. At first I felt a little scared and definitely uncertain, but in the light of day (we arrived after dark and had to go down what seemed like a dark alley to get to our hotel) and as we learned our way around I was less nervous. The whole concept of building a city on a hillside is incredible. It was hard to get photos that really showed it though.

One of the places we visited was the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center. We learned a little about the oppressive history of the Tibetan people and saw some of the traditional crafts they use to provide for themselves and keep their culture alive.

Yak fleece being prepared for carding

Woman spinning cashmere wool.

Tibetan woman weaving a beautiful rug.

I really felt the truthfulness of this quote that was on display in the photo exhibit:

“Tibet will never die because there is no death for the human spirit. Communism will not succeed because man will not be a slave forever. Tyrannies have come and gone and so have caesars and czars and dictators, but the spirit of man goes on forever.” —Jaya Prakash Narayan, Indian Freedom Fighter and Political Leader

Prayer wheels used by Tibetan Buddhists to accumulate wisdom and merit (good karma) and to purify negativities (bad karma).

Vertical Tibetan Pole Prayer Flags. They believe the prayers and mantras written on them will be blown by the wind to spread good will and compassion.

The last thought for this week was the feeling of coming home when we arrived back in Vishakhapatnam. We both felt it and I was very surprised that our flat with no personal touches in this huge city in a foreign country feels like home.

We are still in a holding pattern regarding humanitarian work in India. It isn’t exactly fun but we are finding ways to keep busy. We continue to meet new people and have unique experiences.

Monday while looking out from the balcony to the Kailasagiri Hill I noticed how bright and cheerful it looked. We got at least an inch of rain over the weekend and everything was rinsed and brighter. The air is clear and it just felt lighter (not heavy), more hopeful. Things are looking up.

Except that we got locked in our apartment! We could not get the lock to work. I was a little panicked. It is a long way to climb down from our 17th floor balcony. We used a spoon handle to unscrew the lock (we have no tools) from the door but that didn’t quite work because a plate went perpendicular into the door frame. I yanked on the handle but all that did was pull the handle off of the door. We shimmied and bent the lock and got it open but then we couldn’t get it back together again. A spoon handle was not adequate. We contacted the maintenance guy but he wasn’t able to come until the evening so we had to stay home all the rest of the day.

We had some meetings this week pertaining to the work here but we won’t know anything until April. We are looking at some places that might be fun to visit while we await direction. We were invited to serve at church by Rick speaking in Sacrament Meeting and me teaching Relief Society. An especially interesting experience since we had people translating for us.

Happy Ugadi! Wednesday was the New Year here in the state of Andhra Pradesh (and other Telugu speaking states). Our badminton friends invited us to the 7AM celebration at the Health Arena by the Buddha. They said there would be food and that it was a special time. We were happy to go and I had thought about bringing some food item to share. After reading a little I decided that they had some traditional food and that I should just enjoy that. When we arrived and got to the top of the ramp at the entrance there were a lot of chairs set up and the man with the microphone said something like, “Welcome foreign visitors! Please come and join us.” It was rather hilarious. We continued up and since they weren’t quite ready to begin we walked for a bit and then returned. At that point only one of the badminton people was there. It was so not what we were expecting. Once again language is a barrier. We speak the same words but they mean something different.

The program was about an hour long and mainly consisted of an astrology guru sharing the predictions for the year and pronouncing the traditional blessings. It was all in Telugu so we only understood a few words here and there. The man that “coaches” badminton came late and was decked out in his new clothes. New clothes are part of the tradition.

Following the program they served the pachadi which is a chutney with six tastes—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and spicy. These ingredients reflect the six aspects or emotions of life. They are a symbolic reminder that one must expect all flavors of experiences in the coming new year and make the most of them. It tasted pretty good but it all comes back to eating food prepared with unknown care…

I often forget how much we stand out. I honestly don’t feel that different but people continue to approach us just to say hello or say they see us walking and want to talk. Random people often want a chance to practice their English as well as get a photo.

We went to Tenneti park beach again this week and one of the men we met at the Ugadi celebration noticed us and was surprised that we knew about this beautiful place for walking. We would have just passed him by because he didn’t stand out. We do try to greet people as we walk and sometimes a conversation ensues.

The government has allocated funds to spruce up Vizag because of the G20 summit being hosted in India. There are conferences all year long throughout the country. Some of the projects we have noticed include painting the median concrete work, planting flowering plants in those medians and the traffic circles. There are a significant number of murals in Vizag and they are creating new ones as well as sprucing up those that already exist. We were surprised to find some paintings on boulders at the beach that were not there a couple of weeks ago.

 

Although we did not know what a mission to India would look like it is not going at all like we imagined. Life rarely does. I am thankful to feel at peace despite not knowing when we will be given the go ahead on projects or what that will look like. We have to take the sour along with the sweet and incorporate the spicy and the salty. It is all important to keep life balanced and to develop ourselves along the way.

As you may have noted our blog site was down for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately all of our posts were lost and it has taken Rick many hours to recover the data. Because of this my post is a little long.

We have been taking a lot of time to get to know where things are here in Vizag, the City of Destiny, as it is called. We are getting more comfortable with the supermarkets, travel by auto rickshaw, the warmer weather and cooking with ingredients that are just a little different. My observations…The people here dress in more traditional clothes than they did in Delhi. Lots of saris for the women and dhoti for the men. Fewer people speak English. The weather is more tropical. The language is Telugu and that is what is mostly spoken at church making it challenging for us. Prayers are generally long, heartfelt, faith filled and personal even over the pulpit. We thought the people in Delhi looked at us with surprise and interest but here we really stand out. In Delhi we lived in a neighborhood that had several embassies and so we were not the only foreigners around. It was a relatively quiet area within walking distance of a small outdoor mall and a short ride to a very large mall. The mall here doesn’t have a lot to offer us and is a 15 minute drive. We live on a busy four lane road. There is traffic and honking all hours of the day and night. The traffic is still crazy but there are a lot more scooters, motorcycles and rickshaws. Seeing women driving scooters is common as is riding side saddle on the back with their colorful saris flapping in the breeze. There are not as many stray dogs, but the ones we have seen are often very scrawny and mangy. They have more water buffalos and although we haven’t seen as many cows wandering the street the ones we do see are so much healthier. We are no longer able to walk to church because it is too far away. That is a little disappointing.

Early in our exploring we found some small neighborhood parks that required many laps to achieve any distance. Fortunately we found another place that is called a health arena which has some nice paths along the base of a large hill. There is also a stairway up one end that has 500-600 steps. We have climbed the stairs twice now. This is a good option as long as we get an early start so that we beat the heat and walk when it is still below 80.

Kailasagiri is a park and tourist area on top of the hill. Last Saturday after climbing the stairs we walked through that area and met a group of Indian tourists from Telangana. After taking my first photo of the 40 foot statues they noticed us and everyone seemed to think they needed a picture with us and to shake hands. It was a little crazy especially seeing as we were sweating profusely after our climb. The last photo was with a small woman that only came to my shoulder. After our picture she reached up and wiped the dripping sweat from my chin. They have a very different concept of personal space!

We walked to the beach one morning and there is a nice park there but it is a long walk through traffic and along broken or blocked sidewalks. We get a lot of curious looks from people as we walk by. The children are more likely to smile and are excited when we talk to them. One day they were actually chasing after us calling out asking our names.

You may be wondering when we are finding time to do our humanitarian work. Well the sad news is that we are on hold for a couple of weeks as we wait for the area leaders in Hong Kong and the church legal department to figure out what we can and can’t do here in India. There are some restrictive laws and requirements and legal has concerns with some of the projects we have been doing meeting those requirements. So until we get the go ahead we will continue to explore and adapt.

While walking at the health arena we came across a group of people that get together each morning to practice badminton. They are very friendly and have invited us to join them. We purchased some racquets and played a little on Saturday but because of our late start we didn’t have much time. Rick didn’t get as much practice as me because he was drawn into a conversation with a man who is making a movie about the Indian freedom fighters. He was asked to play the role of a British officer! It doesn’t seem to fit with the reason we are here and may be politically problematic so he will probably need to decline but it was a fun thought for a minute.

 

Unusual sights not captured in photos:

-Two guys on a scooter carrying an 8 foot ladder.

-An old man with long gray beard dressed in white robes zipping along on his scooter.

-Two camels being led along a busy road.

-A beggar/vendor trying to sell windshield sunscreens to Americans in an auto rickshaw.

-A man carrying a 5 gallon bucket on his head full of sheep (maybe goat) heads.

-My forehead sweating while eating some delicious biryani. (The manager came by and asked how the spice level was. Apparently the chef toned it down for us!)

Random things we saw while walking around the neighborhoods:

It seems that every day brings something new and different in our lives here in India. Just when we think we have things figured out, they change, or something new comes along. It requires our faith to take that one step into the unknown and continue moving forward never knowing what to expect next. Kind of like life.

This week began with another new experience and not because it was Rick’s birthday. Several missionary couples went together to the Surajkund International Crafts Mela in Faridabad which is about an hour south of Delhi. It is kind of like a ginormous farmers’ market without the selling of fresh produce. There were over 1000 booths that sold textiles, clothing, trinkets, pottery, furniture, dried food products, and so on. There was also a food court area with many yummy offerings. As always we were hesitant about eating food but found a hotel culinary school tent that looked more professional. (Each morning we pray with gratitude for our food and for it to provide the nourishment we need but now we add a prayer that it will not do us any harm!)

The fair was fascinating in and of itself, but we were amazed when we kept getting requests for photos with people. I think we were the only white people at the fair. I think Jawan and I had at least 20 people ask us for pictures.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday we had a meeting with a representative of the National Council of Churches in India. We expected it to take 2-3 hours but it lasted more like five. The Indians we have met like to share stories and just have a more leisurely pace. We did take him to lunch and that took some time. The culture here requires hospitality that includes food. We are always offered a beverage and frequently a snack as well. If our meetings are anywhere near lunch time they want to provide a meal. It is challenging to convince them that it is our turn to pay.

We spend time regularly developing relationships and connections. This particular gentleman has some great contacts with people and groups that can help us with distribution and maintenance for the wheelchair project the Joneses are working on here in Delhi.

Friday and Saturday we ventured even farther than Faridabad. It took 2 to 2 1/2 hours of travel each way. Friday we visited five rural schools near Jewar where we evaluated the need for RO systems. As we were driving along the roads between fields of grain, sugar cane and marigolds I could feel the tension leaving me. I didn’t even know I was feeling uptight. It was lovely to leave the chaos of the city behind for a few hours.

The children in these rural schools were absolutely adorable. They are very polite and well behaved. Some had uniforms, some did not. Some had shoes, some did not. They all had big brown eyes full of curiosity as we walked around their schools. It was a long 8-hour day but very rewarding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While traveling along the backroads we encountered young men who were carrying decorated bow-like contraptions with containers of water attached. They were traveling with sacred water from the Ganges river and taking it to a Hindu temple. It was about a 250 km trek and the processions were accompanied by other people, support vehicles and there were resting spots along the way. It was all part of the Mahashivratri celebration.

 

 

Saturday’s trip took us north to Baghpat where we visited a hospital to learn more about the community and their need for the diagnostic equipment we are hoping to supply. They were very accommodating and of course gave us beverages and snacks. I tasted but didn’t care for the Pudina flavored potato chips. It had kind of a minty, garlic, cinnamon taste. (We were able to excuse ourselves from the lunch invite.) We learned all that we needed to and saw lots of interesting things during the drive. Here are some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no great insights from this week, just the realization that no amount of words or photos can relay the sights, intensity of colors and sounds and the feeling this all invokes. Maybe there is a life lesson in there somewhere. How about this? You can only rely on the testimony of someone else for so long and then you have to develop your own. Some things just need to be gained through personal experience.