First Training Day

Being a woman, there was a couple of things that stood out to me. You look at the buildings and the streets how dirty they are. Then you look at the way the women keep themselves, it is an amazing site. They LOVE color, and they are always dressed well, from their hair to their clothes. Not just throw something on to go to the store. I was told that you can look at a woman and know how her family is doing. If she has a "happy Sari" on with flowers in her hair (many of the women wear flowers in their hair every day) then her husband is in good health and she has a happy home. (June)

Gary: Today was a great day of training. As it was last year, the people are eager to learn. They appear to be very reserved, but once you break the ice, they are a fun bunch of people. They make huge sacrifices to come to the training - some traveling by 8+ hours by train to get here - then they go home and conduct trainings throughout the month of April to literally thousands of children's leaders before the Gospel Clubs begin in May. As a culture they are very gracious and respectful, though it may not seem so by the traffic! Everything is done as a community - work, ministry, personal life. Though you may make an order at a restaurant, expect that you will be sharing that meal with everyone else at the table. Kinda like going out for Chinese food and everyone "potlucking" their meal. Here it is a natural way of life. Speaking of chinese food - every Indian restaurant offers Chinese food. I am not sure why it's that way. Tomorrow we have a few more sessions and then we catch a plane to Pune. Should have some pics posted tomorrow. Time to hit the hay. (For my little prayer warriors, your prayers are being answered - everyone's stomachs are doing good. Most of us could still use prayer for restful sleep!) Okay, here's Jeff...

Another amazing day here in India. We traveled 1.5 hours outside of Hyderabad to a town called Acer. I literally saw my life flash before my eyes as our large van passed large trucks with other large trucks headed straight our direction....and just like I experienced in China 2 years ago...nobody got hurt and everybody gave a little to make it all work out all right (maybe there is a lesson to be learned here?) Really crazy and pretty cool system they call driving here (oh, I forgot to mention the motorbike with a family of 4 aboard and the tricycle loaded with more materials than I would try to put into a regular truck back home.)

We participated in a training session for youth and their pastors today. I led them in a finger game and they all laughed a lot. They have beautiful smiles with beautiful white teeth (because they haven't had the sugar and sweets to rot them). After our teaching time the leaders presented and honored each of our team members with flower garlands and a nice plaque. A very gracious and generous people these Indians are.

We shared lunch with about 10 monkeys that sat right outside our window until the dogs came to chase them away. Today was my first lunch eating only with my hands. For someone who has difficulty eating a meal at home without a napkin it was a huge stretch....especially when my tear ducts were opened from the spicy (and tasty) and very spicy chicken and sauce....at which point I went to wipe my tears (without a napkin) and proceeded to get spice in my eyes. I was a mess for a few moments. It's all part of the adventure.

On our return to Hyderabad (after signing autographs for about 50 kids), we returned to the city to find a political rally taking place and people coming to the city by the thousands and the opportunity to sit in a traffic jam that rivaled any traffic jam I ever experienced in my two years of living in L.A.....and this is in a city where the streets have no lanes (I don't know if they have any names as well.).

loving every minute of it...jeff