On August 7thI set out for Mumbai (Bombay). I had to catch a train into Hyderabad to catch a plane to Mumbai. I was taken to the train station by Joseph, Gedion, and Raj. They waited with me until my train arrived and then boarded with me to sit until the train was ready to leave the station. As the train began to pull away I thanked them and said goodbye to each one, �Goodbye Raj, goodbye Joseph, goodbye Gedion.� As they were leaving I had one of those strange moments when your imagination seems to get the best of you and I laughed as I felt I had been transported into the Wizard of Oz�and I�ll miss you most of all, Scarecrow!

If only Bombay could have been paved with yellow bricks... Paved with anything would have been good; instead I sloshed through mud and muck all day. So to say the least it was a trying week. Everything that could go wrong did. But Jesus is so good. He continually sent little angels disguised as a Hindu shop owner, a hotel owner, ex-prostitutes, a helpful saree salesman (a true miracle), and a friendly dog (as my dog, Duke, died while I was in Bombay) to encourage me and my partner and help us along the way.

No, but seriously, I have never had a week like this in my life!!! It got to the point where you would just have to laugh and ask yourself, �How is it possible that one person could be this unlucky?� Just to give you an idea take a look at my trip home and keep in mind this is one day out of 10.
I had had plans to spend my last night in Bombay to be near the airport but being the thrifty person I am I stayed at my partner Ena�s house about 45 minutes outside of Bombay. Despite the fact that we were up at about 4:30am and left in plenty of time we hadn�t planned on the horrible road condition. The Swiss cheese roads, as I like to call them, were a result of the monsoon rains that were beating down on us all week and made for an awful case of car sickness. So our 45minute drive turned into two hours and even though I arrived at the airport 30 minutes before the flight was to take off, it left 40 minutes earlier than scheduled and left without me. The airlines would do nothing for me so I had to buy a ticket on another flight later that day. After checking my bags in at the ticket counter my shoes broke so I had to go barefoot in the airport. Later that evening in Hyderabad I had to wait on a street corner for 2 hours to get on a bus. I finally got on a bus at midnight and was home by 6:30am� just in time for a busy Harvest India day!:)

Though the trip at many times was difficult I am so thankful for the opportunity to have met Ena. She is truly an answer to prayer; now I have a real friend in India. She is a remarkable designer of women�s Indian dress but was called to move out of the city to work for Bombay Teen Challenge (BTC) where she is training girls, rescued from the red-light district, how to sew and design clothing. I would never have been able to complete my work without her! Check out the picture of us at a saree shop.

Also, the girls at BTC�s Ashagram (Hope House) were an amazing blessing to me. When you hear these girls stories and you see their beautiful faces you can hardly believe it: a teenage girl starting her life story, �Even when I was in my mother�s womb, she hated me,� and girls telling of when their parents and grandparents took them to the red-light area to �make money for the family.� But the most remarkable thing was the hope that now exists. These same girls that tried to kill themselves or drink excessively to numb the pain now have goals of owning their own tailoring businesses, going to college or seminary, and getting married. They now look at the future with hope and anticipation for what God is going to do in their lives. Praise the Lord for these beautiful restored lives!

 

Ena and I with Sunjay, our saree guy. Notice: when you buy sarees you sit on the floor and the salesmen throw the sarees in your lap. 

The back streets of Bombay. I snapped this picture during one of the few moments when the rain took at break. 

Some of the sweet girls I had the opportunity to get to know while at Ashagram. The are standing in front of a truck delivering the sewing machines and furniture purchased by Indian Princess Project (IPP). 

The beautiful Ashagram. BTC's House of Hope. 1 1/2 hours out of Bombay, it sits as a retreat from the dark and dirty Red-Light area. 

I’m so tired but I can’t sleep…

Once again I have an entry riddled with extremes. It is as if the Buddhist concept of ying and yang* was derived simply from observing the seemingly contradictory experiences one can have in India. But I guess it wouldn’t be India if it were any other way.

*Funny side note…Ying came up on my spell check—it wanted to replace it with yang. How can you have yang without the ying?!?

Last week I was walking through the neighborhood and came upon some baby chics. I picked one up and cuddled it---it was so cute. 2 minutes later I arrive home and there is Lazarus in the backyard killing a chicken for dinner.

Does irony ever stop being ironic?

Anyways, I was happy to have had the experience; now I truly understand the sacrifice made in order for me to eat. In the US, most of us take for granted that life was lost for us to eat. I told myself before coming to India that if I couldn’t at least watch a chicken be killed and help pluck the feathers than I didn’t deserve to eat chicken or any animal for that matter.
So I observed the killing process and then helped pluck the feathers. Just a couple hours later dinner was served. Did I eat the chicken…you bet! And although we don’t have meat all that often, when we do I am very thankful for it. See pictures below…

At times it feels like everyone in India is numb to suffering and death. It is always around whether it is the animals on the street or the street people. You start to ask yourself am I the only one seeing this? Am I going to stop seeing it someday? How do I deal with it now? And I almost get angry at the people I am with for not being outraged but this is their reality, it is all they have ever known. Should they see through my eyes or should I see through theirs?


Then there is the language barrier. It’s funny as soon as someone actually understands me, I feel misunderstood. I am so frustrated with my inability to talk to the people and to understand what they are saying, the jokes they are telling, and the prayers they are praying.
There is no way I can accomplish all that is expected if no one understands each other.

And on the rare occasion when they do understand, they either: think I am stupid and just repeat (over and over) some inane answer to placate me or they don’t trust me and go to Suresh to get approval.

How does that help facilitate administration?

Is it just ‘cause I am a woman?

Everyday is a new day of frustrations and I am trying to stay positive b/c the frustrations are so minor in the scheme of things but it sure is amazing how quickly they add up here in India.

“It’s funny how I feel so much
but can not say a word.
We are screaming inside… but we can’t be heard.”

Prakash and I and a couple of adorable baby chicks. 

Oh the irony...  

It was a little difficult at first but by the end I had lost the nauseous feeling and got pretty good at plucking the feathers
 

Harvest India lost an amazing man this week. The Chief Overseer for Harvest India, Santhie, passed away on Thursday. He was the right-hand man to Suresh and friend of over 30 years. Suresh and Santhie’s friendship was something extremely special. When they were teenagers their town was in the midst of a feud between 2 different castes. Suresh was from one caste and Santhie was from the other. Despite what the majority said they decided as young men to take a stand and went through town holding hands, they ate at each others houses, and were best friends through it all. The feud didn’t last much longer; was it b/c of Santhie and Suresh, who knows? But friendships like that only come along once in a lifetime!!!

Suresh is doing well. He knows that Santhie ran the race to win the prize and God brought him home where there is no more pain. Thank you LORD that we had the opportunity to know him and his selfless giving nature!

Please pray for comfort and peace for everyone in the ministry, including Santhie’s wife and 5 year old son.

Also, I have several family members and a friend struggling with life threatening diseases please pray for them.

One last prayer request, there is an illness spreading quickly here in India called Chicoon Goonya (that is probably not spelled correctly). It is spread by mosquito and since it is the rainy season there are thousands of mosquitoes. Please pray for me, HI staff, and all the kids in the children’s home that we would be kept from this illness.