Well, today was another long, but good day.
I debated for about 15 minutes whether or not I should go to Pastor Joseph's church today- I was feeling pretty down physically. In spite of it being cold and rainy, finally I decided to go.
The trip getting to church was interesting. I got into a jeep, fairly quickly. There was the driver and another guy in the front seat- other than that, it was empty. I got in the back seat. A little while down the road, we picked up another guy. He got in from the right hand side. Then, another guy came and got in from the left hand side. Thus I was now in the middle of two guys and there were two more guys in the front. Then two more guys got in the back. Great. Then, we got stuck in a traffic jam for about 20 minutes. In the rain. Fun times. I was going to ask the guys in the jeep, “so, how do you say, ‘traffic jam’ in Hindi” but figured it was probably better if I just kept quiet since I was the only girl in the jeep. I wasn’t scared or nervous at all- I felt completely confident in the situation, and I think they knew that. They knew I understood some Hindi, so they didn’t say a whole lot.
We got to the half-way town, where sometimes the jeep stops as that’s the end of the line. Or sometimes the jeeps continue. This one stopped there. Actually, he stopped a little ways before the town and said ‘that’s it.’ I wasn’t sure where we were, so I asked him if that was true- he said yes and that the town was a little ways ahead. I figured if it was a little ways or a lot of ways, I had only one option and that was to get out of the jeep. I paid and got out and started walking. It turned out to be about 2 minutes ahead, I just hadn’t recognized the place where we stopped.
I found another jeep leaving soon- the people piled in…This one also go stuck in a traffic jam…
I ended up being nearly an hour late to church. I walked in quietly, no one noticed. Except when Pastor Joseph said, “please come and sit” from the pulpit! Haha! All well. I explained to Pastor Joseph afterwards. He understood.
I wasn’t planning to mentioning our work, since I just wanted to build the relationship, but he said, “I am trying to find people for your work…I know of some families, they are school teachers…I will ask them.” I explained that we wouldn’t be paying them and did he think it was a problem. He said ‘no, of curse they wouldn’t expect to get paid for this…”
I’m not so sure the people will feel the same way, but we’ll see. The main thing is that he understands and can explain if needed when he asks the people.
So, that task was accomplished. I started walking from their back through the bazaar. It’s about an hour and a half walk from there to home- and that’s what I was doing since I was supposed to go to Heema’s house around 1pm. It started raining. But no problem- since it was chilly and had looked like rain when I left, I had brought my nifty waterproof jacket (that really makes me stand out as a foreigner)…but all well, it kept me warm and dry…
Now, I had no idea where Heema’s house was- just somewhere in the bazaar…and a little more direction I had gotten from my landlord. I knew it was between his shop and the first temple on the left. But beyond that, not really sure.
I started asking people after his shop. They kept pointing forwards- I was just glad they had heard of the place, and it seemed I was in the right area. At one shop, The shopkeeper called over another guy and it turned out this guy lived down there. He took me there- he ended up being neighbors to Heema! And after one turn off the bazaar street- we had to talk another 10 minutes. Without this guy, it probably would have taken 20 minutes for me to find it, since there were just random houses, and no shops. Anyway, that was providential!
I met with Heema, her mother and sister. I learned that Heema’s husband died a few years ago- he was weak or had some problem she said. In pictures of him, he was smoking and seemed weak…wonder if it was some kind of cancer. Her sister is also 5 months pregnant…Her mother was shocked that I knew some Kahani and scolded her sister because her sister doesn’t know any!!! Her sister does know English though. Her mother said for me to come anytime and she would teach me her language. Heema’s sister said that her mother really likes me because I could speak her language…
After Heema’s, I had one more stop to make- a “naming ceremony” for Sangeeta’s brother- the family I had met only one or two days ago…and only for 10 minutes at that. Fortunately, their house was on the way home from the bazaar to our house. I stopped, had chai, some people took some pictures of me and them, and then I said I had to go. I was only able to stay for about 15 minutes. It was interesting when I was there, they tried to get me to smoke a cigarette!! That was the first time that has ever happened to me before. Her mother was really forcing it at me- trying to get me to take it…I was like, “No thank you- I don’t want it…” I almost had to get up and leave. I was laughing about it, but they seemed pretty serious. Finally I said, “I don’t like it”- then they seemed to back off… Anyway, it’s funny now, but in the situation was really strange…I’ve had food and chai forced at me, but never a cigarette…goodness!!
Another thing that happened was when I was entering the house there were several other people standing there and one man saw me and said, “Praise the Lord” which is a greeting that Christians use to greet each other at church. Then, as I was leaving, the same man came up to me and introduced himself. We talked for a little while, he said he has a small church near our part of town. And that he knows the other Worker who used to live in our hosue. Then he said:
“The other Worker and I used to talk, he asked me, ‘How can we reach these Kumaoni people?” I told him, “well, the translation of the Book is good, but the Kahani people can’t read or write, they don’t have their own written language, so how can they read the Bible? If you give me some tapes or some recordings, we can take that to the villages, maybe….”
How cool was that??? And to think, in spite of the rain, the fact that I’m sick, and the other meetings I had today, perhaps it took all that to bring about this meeting with this pastor. And, he lives about 5 minutes from us too- which is always a plus!! I’m not sure if he has a wife, but, we will see.
In the course of it all, I developed a sneeze/runny nose thing in addition to the cough now, but maybe my body is getting rid of whatever I have. I plan to get into bed pretty soon. Tomorrow we have language, I may also pack a little for Thailand…I also need to take a bath- haven’t done that since the village…it has been 10 days. I’ve washed my hair a few times, but not my body...
Except that we now don’t have water, so a bath won’t be happening til water comes again! But, we’re going to Thailand on Thursday- so even if I have to wait, won’t be that much longer…haha…good think we have handi-wipes!
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