Leaving on a jet plane

Today was the last day of the Academy. It was amazing. The teachers just kept taking our pics and taking our pics and giving us gifts. We were truly humbled. They have so little and yet they wanted to show their appreciation by giving us something. One lady apologized " just a little something" she said - it was a key chain with red heart beads. Another said something similar and didn't want me to open it in front of her. It was a pair of earrings which I promptly put on and showed her as she left how precious her gift was to me. One of the men kept laying his hand on top of our head - -I'm not sure if it was a blessing or what. We felt like celebrities after our photo op. :) Our flight leaves at 2 am but because of the time zones we arrive the same day we leave. :)
See y'all soon.
jane

My time is up

Tomorrow is our last day of Teacher Academy. We head home after the academy. We will be back in Amarillo on Wednesday. We have all thoroughly enjoyed our time here - we've enjoyed each other and have bonded with the teachers here. I have never been in a situation where 16 of us are living under one roof and not a cross word has been spoken. I don't even think we had situations that would cause cross words. It has truly been your prayers that have helped us through this. Some things that I didn't expect: all of Dehi is slum area - today we saw the only part that was not which was around the parliment (or something like that) I cannot tell one neighborhood from another - they all look the same. There is poverty all around. At the stop light this morning two men came up to 'autos' - those are the sort of open air go cart things used for transportation - with pythons in their hands. they were shoving them in the faces of the people in the 'autos' and wanted money to go away. Thankfully we were in real autos and we quickly locked the doors. Almost at every stop light there are deformed people, very poor people, people selling things etc at your window trying to get your attention to give them money.. I was expecting Delhi to have a poor section and a "Hunsley Hills" section and a middle class section... I wasn't expecting poverty to be everywhere. Plus the poverty is far worse than I anticipated. Another thing is I wasn't prepared for the friendliness and openness of the Indian people. We have been the recipient of kindness everywhere we go. I didn't expect and can't get used to the stares we get. 16 white people in a third world country will always get a look! The Indian people jerk their head to one side and that means "ok" or "yes". I have had a horrible time getting used to that - I don't know if they're shaking their head "no" or saying "it's ok" :) Plus, I never realized how much I shake my head when I talk. I'm sure they are totally confused about what I'm saying :) I'm probably jerking my head and saying "ok" or "yes" in Hindi but meaning something different. Oh, boy! We take our shoes off when we enter a house or classroom. I love going barefoot but my feet need a pedicure. Since the various attacks they have had in India they have stepped up security. I cannot get used to the soldiers everywhere with machine guns! We're not talking security guards - we talking fully armed soldiers. In the Metro there is a sandbag circle where the soldiers stand guard inside the circle. The food has been tremendous - not too much curry - but then I've been careful what I select. The cafeteria at school found out one of our team members is allergic to curry and they have not put it in since day one. They have been sooo nice. The cafeteria manager wears a turban and can hardly wait every day for us to come down and greet him. He stands by while we taste the food to make sure we like it. We especially like a dessert he prepared one day last week - so he is fixing it for us again tomorrow before we leave. That is the kind of service we have received everywhere - on the Metro, at the markets, in the restaurants etc. I cannot tell you how wonderful the people here have been. Not for one minute have I been fearful since the first day. The first day it really struck me that I was not in Kansas anymore and I got fearful that day. Since then I have been fine. I think even if I had to get myself to school I could do it. I feel totally safe - except when the snake guy comes to the window :) We leave shortly after the Academy tomorrow so I won't be able to blog until I get home. By then, though I will have time to post pics. If you are on Facebook many of our team members have posted pics on my facebook.
Next blog will be from Texas,
jane

Happy Birthday Abigail!!!

Today (in Texas) it is still Abigail's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! Abigail, I am dreadfully sorry I am missing your birthday but know that I am thinking about you - have thought about you all day and the teachers at my Academy wish you the very best on your first birthday. They sang Happy Birthday and I recorded it for you. One man (they one that is giving me such a hard time about domesticatin a DOG!!!) wrote you a birthday blessing in Hindi - I can hardly wait to give it to you. Of course, I have a special bday present from India :) Know that I am serving God on your first birthday and praying for you. I have called twice to wish you Happy Birthday but the times here are different than the times there so it is hard to find a good time to call.
Other stuff - Several of us have 'Dehli belly' - just an upset tummy, headache etc. We've been drinking filtered water so not sure what we came in contact with. Pray for fast healing.
I'm presenting today so I've got to go study my notes. Love to all - miss you very much. Kevin and Hutch went to Angel Fire to do work for a client - LOL - pray for them as well! :)
jane

Squatty Potty

I have finally been introduced to the indian culture. At the school they have squatty potties which are basically a porceline potty that sits in the floor. It has treads on each side where you stand and squat. Up until now I had visited the one western toilet they have in the teachers lounge but today I didn't have time to go that far so ..... when in Rome.... :) I can officially say I've done it! Just a tip... if you use the potty in India - tyotp - take your own toilet paper. :)

Teacher Academy going well

We are having a great time at the TEacher Academy. The teachers here are so eager to learn anything new we can teach them. Today we taught them how to do centers but it was fast and furious so I'm not sure how much they really understood. We set up centers around the room and they rotated around. We had teachers at each center that would exlain the benefits of that center. They loved it! They were all taking notes furiously. We have really fallen in love with these people and their culture. The teachers are so appreciative. The Academy has 3 basic elements to it: a study of world view/culture etc - training in speaking english - and our training on teaching techniques. As part of the english training he told them to learn 3 new english words from us during "Tea Time" (we have Chai tea everyday in the morning) - and in return we had to learn 3 new Hindi words from them! As always, I crammed for the test and I can't remember the words, now. :)
Miscellaneous stuff - Every day we leave the flat and head to the Metro (an above ground subway) when we get to our stop we take rickshaws about 5 blocks to the Academy. We pay 10 rupees (5 cents) for the rickshaw going to the school because it is downhill and 15 rupees (we give them 20 rupees - 10 cents) coming back because it is uphill, obviously. There are no rules of the road in India - you can drive basically anywhere you want so, needless to say, the rickshaw ride can be quite hairraising! I knew I had finally "arrived" though when today the rickshaw was driving the 'wrong' direction (there really isn't a wrong direction, because everyone drives everywhere - but this time all of the other vehicles were coming at us!) I didn't even flinch - I knew from past experience that the rickshaw driver was going to get out of the way or the cars would go around us. :)
I brought several of my books to give away as door prizes. However, the magnetic letters are in higher demand than my book. ha ha! The teachers here have so few supplies that they see the letters and their eyes light up. They can't believe we are giving this stuff away.
Tonight the international interpreter that is helping us came to dinner at the flat and he brought his family - a wife and two little boys - the boys are absolutely adorable!
I'm sorry I haven't posted any pictures - computer time is precious here as all 16 people here are wanting time on the computers. I will post pics when I get home or later if I get time alone.
Thanks for listening,
jane

Teacher Academy

We started the teacher academy yesterday. The teachers are so friendly and eager to learn. They have so much to learn. All they know how to teach is rote learning. Their class sizes are unreasonable. They will have as many as 50 prek+ !!!! and only one teacher. How in the world are they expected to teach under those circumstances and yet they are so willing to learn more to make themselves better. Amazing. It is only the second day of class and already we are having so much fun building relationships with these teacher friends/collegues. I don't know why it amazes me but teachers everywhere struggle with the same problems. A funny spot was when we introduced ourselves I said I have a husband and a dog at home who are missing me very much. That the dog had taken over my side of the bed. Then the teachers got to ask us questions. One guy started saying something about our cultures - he was talking in a mean kind of voice - I thought he was mad - then he said he wanted to know why our cultures are so very different that in HIS country the dogs are outside (there are literally thousands if not millions of stray dogs here - and they are all the same breed of dog!!!) and in America the dog sleeps in the bed with you!!! It was funny! we all had a good laugh at my expense. We have a tea break every day - chai tea - I would love to adopt that custom in America. We eat lunch on a concrete slab - just like in slumdog millionaire. These two times as well as the group time during the day have allowed us to build relationships. I personally have latched onto a special group of 5 indian men that are just precious. Their english is very limited. very. so when they were asked to do group work, they were at a loss b/c they have such limited english to begin with they weren't sure what to do etc. So I took it upon myself to sit with them whenever they are asked to do group work - by the second time, they had my chair waiting for me! :) By the third time the group next to us had turned their chairs to join us. :) It is so weird. It's almost like we are celebrities :) The 5 men have come from a long ways away - a village away from Delhi. They are sleeping in the school. They toured with us the day we went to the Taj so I already had some connection with them. On the way to and from the Taj we played some games on the bus etc so I could tell at that time that their english was limited. I'm not sure why they got to go to the Taj with us ... I think they know the interpreter that is working with our friends that live here in Delhi, but I'm not sure. The teachers at the Academy all teach at Christian schools which is nice. We sing Christian songs, we pray together - it's wonderful. They openly talk about their faith. Pray that we can help them find a way to teach in a new, loving way for the children here and for them to show God's love in their school. Love and miss all of you, Jane

Taj Mahal

We have been spending these few days site seeing so we will be a bit familiar with the culture. This by far the dirtiest, poorest place I have ever been. It is the same as slumdog millionaire. My heart goes out to these people. I cannot imagine being in their situation - there is not much way they can get out of their poverty. We visited the Taj Mahal - absolutely gorgeous. Imagine how tall and big you think it is and then multiply that by 10 times. It is huge, huge huge. Then we went across the river to the Red Fort where the sultan was imprisoned by his son because his son thought he was crazy for spending so much money on the Taj. I wish all of you could be here to see this "prison"..... the son probably spent more money on the prison than the sultan did on the Taj .. maybe not... but it's like no other "prison" you can imagine. It is HUGE - like a castle - a fortress, with a drawbridge, a huge "bathtub" out in the courtyard, a seperate swimming pool big enough to entertain friends, a seperate section for all of his wives and children- they had a swimming pool of their own in the courtyard where about 40 people could sit in the pool (kind of like the ledge you sit in in a hottub only much more elaborate. It was all in marble. Imagine the movies of the days of the kings... the king is sitting on his outside throne watching the things going on in the courtyard in front of him... there are huge white columns all around the courtyard.. there are people watching from the second level all around the courtyard - sitting on and leaning over the white marble railing between white marble pillars .... that's the Red Fort! The sultan could only view the Taj Mahal from inside the fort. He was there for the rest of his life. On the way to the Taj we rode in a bus - it was about 2-3 hours b/c you can only go about 40 mph. We had to stop periodically to pay taxes or tolls - there were beggars at every stop. At the first one, we saw a cobra in a basket! The second one we saw monkeys on a stick! they brought them right up to the bus windows wanting us to pay them money for looking at the cute monkeys. However, they are wild and mean. The beggars tried to get on the bus - opening the windows. Then we went around to the other side of the river where the sultan was going to build a tomb for himself - a mirror image of the Taj only in black marble - he never got to do that b/c his son wouldn't let him so he is entomb in the Taj beside his wife. That is the only thing that is not symetrical - the two tombs. On the opposite side of the river where the black tomb was to be built we rode a camel!!! :) Not too comfortable! I would hate to travel long distance. I will never look at the Christmas story the same again - the wise men coming from "afar" probably on camelback. It was here that we saw a blind boy - just as on slumdog. His eyes looked the same as the movie so our friends that live here said he probably was blinded on purpose. They also said the beggars most likely make way more money than the average indian. the average income is 1 rupee/ day (just less than $1/day) The beggars make way way way more than than from the people feeling sorry for them. It is against the law to give money to them - b/c the govt would like them to go away.
Tomorrow we finally start the teacher academy. We are to build relationships with these fellow teachers and help teach them new techniques. Thanks for "remembering" us daily in your thoughts.

Ancient ruins

Today we took a tour of some ancient Indian ruins. The sultan and his wife and family is entombed here. It is marked as an historical site by the govt of India but we literally climbed all over the ruins. They are completely open to anyone at any time of day - no guards, no protection. This is completely foreign to us because historical sites in America as well as that which we just saw in London had guards, charged an entrance fee, were well taken care of etc. Not here. Maybe no money to protect it? I don't know. I just have to say it was truly amazing to think about how long ago the temple was built/ wonder who lived here? what did they do?http://www.pbase.com/sethlazar/image/75999353 Here is a picture of the mosque we visited today. I haven't downloaded my pics yet but I found this one online.

Baptised into Indian culture

We arrived at midnight last night. After waiting for our luggage, changing our money, and going thru traffic to our friends' home, we finally headed to bed about 2 or 3 am. However our bodies are still set on Texas time so we were up early. Today we took our first ride in 'autos'. I was especially thankful our hosts daughter, who is only 17 but very experienced in the language and negotiations needed to acquire a ride in an auto. She negotiated a good price both times we took the autos - the drama was quite amusing and amazing to watch. Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and do a search for India travel - or India street travel and you will probably see the green autos. There are literally thousands of them in any square block of road and they fill every inch they can wedge their auto into. If there are 'rules of the road' no one pays any attention to them. It's a free for all. Hang on! The other thing that was eye opening especially for this small town girl was when we got stopped in a traffic jam for a bit. Within minutes our auto was surrounded by children begging and selling and by a eunuch. Go to www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/2022 to read more about this horrifying and quite sad experience. Our auto driver did nothing to prevent this form of harassment as it is a way of life here. We bought indian clothing to wear at the street market - we went from a very poor market to the most posh - you cannot imagine the poverty of both. I asked if this was typical of all Delhi and it is. There is no Hunsley Hills area. Only a small area where them embassy is located is nice. The streets are littered with beggars, street vendors, the untouchables - the traffic and poverty cannot be described - you must check out the youtube posts by others before me. We had a great time of 'sharing' this morning though with our friends here in Delhi and the friends that met us here from Cline, Texas . We sang songs, read verses and talked about what to expect, what joy it will be when we get to start next week. I'm on my way to the airport to pick up the rest of our friends whose flight was cancelled. I'll post more later.
'

The call

My friend, Gwen, told me about this wonderful opportunity she had been given to visit friends in India. She asked me to 'think' about going with her. At the time I thought I had 2 years to come up with the money and prepare myself. However, His time is perfect. Because of Lance's graduation from college, his senior year to play baseball (we planned to attend to two games plus graduation), and Kevins' 50th birthday and my beautiful grandbabies' FIRST birthday, I had many objections as to why I could not attend. Like I said, His timing is perfect. He took care of the funds needed to attend - to abundance. How amazing. Not only did He provide but He provided to abunance. It was as if He was showing me.... 'this is nothing....it may be a problem from your perspective but for me it's a piece of cake." His people have been so obedient to His call to give that I have been humbled to the point of tears. Almost immediately after I surrendered, the funds started pouring in. So, of course, I surrendered to the invitation. I fear him more if I decline His obvious directive.
The task in India is going to be tourism - which will be exciting, scary and eye opening all rolled into one. But as a teacher I am interested in the school system and how it operates. I hope to be able to visit with teachers and their children.
This will be the first time I have been away from home for so long and I'm naturally fearful of that. Being among friends and staying active in my tasks will also help keep my mind off of missing my loved ones - and probably keep me too exhausted to ponder thoughts of home. This will be a 'first' in that I have never been in a foreign country much less a third world country. I must confess, I am fearful of the unknown.
Tomorrow is a big preparation day for me - packing... going to the bank.... checking and double checking my lists!