A Typical Week In My Indian Life

Maybe some of you wonder what I actually do here in India, maybe you don't. Either way I thought I'd tell you. :) This is a rough schedule of what my weeks look like here. Please remember that I am in India and so this tends to be pretty flexible

Sunday:
7am - Breakfast
9am - Worship and Sunday School at Kalapani.
12pm - Home for lunch.
4pm - Worship at the Bread of Life Centre in Guwahati.
6pm - Home for supper.

Monday & Friday:
7am -Breakfast
9am - English class with Autumn
10am - English class with Andrew
11am - Social Studies class with Autumn
12pm - Lunch
1:30pm - Social Studies class with Andrew
2:50 - Communication Skills class with Autumn
6pm - Supper.
(Friday evening usually involves a DVD projected on the living room wall and popcorn.)

Tuesday:
7am - Breakfast
8am - Leave for Kalapani where we spend the morning teaching Bible to the kids at the Bread of Life Academy.
On Tuesdays I eat lunch at Kalapani.
1:30pm - LST follow up with two small groups of readers at Kalapani.
3:30pm - Home to Guwahati.

Wednesday:
7am -Breakfast
9am - English with Autumn
10am - English with Andrew
11am - Social Studies with Autumn
12pm - Lunch
1:30pm - Social Studies with Andrew
2:10pm- Bible class with both Autumn and Andrew
2:50 Communication Skills with Autumn

Thursday:
7am - Breakfast
8am - Leave for Kalapani for a morning of teaching Bible to the kids.
12pm - Home for lunch.
1:30pm - To the Bread of Life Centre for one-on-one follow up LST sessions with readers.
5:30pm - Head home for supper.

Saturday:
DAY OFF!!!!

Add to this lots of lesson prep in the evenings both for A&A's classes as well as classes out at Kalapani , some blogging, facebooking and other normal life activities and that's pretty much my week in a nutshell. Consider yourself informed. :)

One And 21

So in exactly one month from today I will be leaving Guwahati. That reality brings a mix of emotions. I know that I am going to miss this place when I'm gone but if I'm honest I am ready to go home. I am really looking forward to hanging out with my family, I've missed them. Hopefully they're looking forward to hanging out with me too. :) There's some other people I'm looking forward to seeing too, if they haven't forgotten who I am by now. I admitted to Ellen today that the hotter it gets the more I think about going home.

I am leaving India as a different person than when I came. If you want to change your life, go hang out in a foreign country for half a year or better yet make it a full one or even two. You can't help but be changed. I've learned a lot during my time here in India. Maybe someday I'll feel like sharing with the blogging community, right now I don't. I thank God for not allowing me to stay in my comfort zone.

And as for the 21 part of the title of this post. Today Tyler Butel is celebrating his 21st birthday with us here in Guwahati. In the photo below he is sporting his Birthday gifts, an Indian outfit that we all pitched in for and a mustache given to him by Andrew, since even at 21 he can't grow a decent one. Happy Birthday Tyler.

Introducing Raja

This is my buddy Raja Das. Raja lives very close to the Bread of Life Academy at Kalapani. His father is employed by the Bread of Life Centre. Raja is ten years old and is in grade 5. I've had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Raja. He has great English skills and has recently taken over translating for us during Sunday school out at Kalapani. He is always willing to help in anyway that he can. Having Raja around has been especially great for Andrew as they have become close friends.

Two months ago while Raja was playing ball he fell and broke both of the bones in his right forearm. Unfortunately the doctor that he originally saw did not set the bones properly. His arm was x-rayed after 4 weeks and the doctor said he needed to wear the cast for another 2 weeks. When the cast was removed it was obvious to everyone that the arm had not healed properly. There is an obvious bump that you can actually see in the above picture if you're looking for it. We thought that it was important that Raja get a second opinion on his arm. The new doctor that looked at Raja said that he would be fine for now but would run into definite problems in the future if his arm is left in the state that it is in. Tonight Raja is in the hospital awaiting surgery at 6am tomorrow morning. The doctors will be re-breaking Raja's arm and putting in plates and screws.

The surgery is going to cost about $25,000 Rupees, about $600. To give you an idea, the original plaster cast that was put on Raja's arm cost $1500 Rupees. That's only about $35 Canadian but when you take into consideration that Raja's father's monthly salary is $1000 Rupees you can see that there is no way that this family can afford the care needed. If you would be interested in helping with the cost of Raja's surgery get in touch with me and I'll pass along the needed info.

After school today Raysha and I took the kids to go see Raja in the hospital. We played some UNO and had a good visit. He confided in us that he is pretty nervous about the surgery. Please pray that he would experience God's peace and a full recovery.

Changsari

Let's look at a simple equation. one large Sumo + heavy rain + narrow dirt road going up steep hill with significant drop off = lots of slippery mud and a terrified Pamela. I have a fear of heights. If there is a wall or some kind of barrier between me and a significant drop than I'm ok with it but when there is nothing I'm not so ok. This fear has come up a lot since being in India. Mostly when we are driving up the side of a mountain on super narrow roads with huge drop offs only inches from the edge of the tires. My prayer life has increased significantly since being in India.

This morning on our way to visit the village of Changsari we stopped at Kalapani to pick up team "get BENT". The sky was very angry looking as we neared the village. If we had made it to the top of the hill 5 minutes earlier there would have been no problem. If we had made it to the top of the hill 5 minutes later it would have been impossible to descend. The way it was, I nearly peed my pants as Kuldip somehow managed to turn the Sumo around and slide down the hill to where there is pavement. He laughed at me and I punched him in the arm. Team "get BENT" made it down to the Sumo soaked to the bone and covered in red mud but at least they didn't slide off the edge.

When we first started out driving up and down the hills I called my fear irrational. I don't consider my fear so irrational anymore. Since being here I have seen a three wheeler that had gone off the edge of the very road I was terrified of, I have seen the remains of a bus that fell off the side of the road in the Khasi hills, and I was riding in a vehicle while it was raining and we slid off the dirt road and nearly hit a bamboo hut. Had it been the Sumo that day I think we would have hit the hut. I can't even imagine what would have happened if more than just the one tire had gone over the edge...My heart pounds just thinking about it.

Thankfully the rest of the road is paved and so there was no worries of sliding off the edge in a Sumo mudslide. The storm let up as we made our way out to the village. We had visited Changsari once before during Bihu. Sarbananda invited us to come and hold a small worship service there in one of his relatives homes. Three of his relatives are LST readers and participated in the Discovery Youth Camp. I can see how God is making His way into this family and this village. We sang and Ray shared a message on how prayer is common to many religions. His message was very appropriate for addressing Indian people of Hindu faith. It is exciting to me to see the young men who have been reading and who came to camp so eager to sing with us. I think that there is great potential among this family and village.

The Canadians were all seated in chairs and the rest of them sat on the floor.

Everyone was eager to sing and very attentive to the lesson which was translated into Assamese. They even sang us an Assamese song.

After the service they took us for a walk. We ended up wading through some mud and water and finding our final destination to be a huge mango tree.

Here is Eric climbing the giant mango tree.

Even though the mangoes were totally green they collected a big bunch of them.

They washed, peeled and sliced the mango and then added salt. It was a green mango salad to be shared by all. Sour and salty but good.


I really like goats...I think I want one as a pet!

Tyler hitching a ride on the way back.

Eric taking a little cruise.

This little girl's name is Coquita (sp?). She was the most carefree child I have ever met. She didn't care who carried her.

Washing off the mud from our little trek.

Sarbananda requested that I take a "snap" with the newcomers...how did Raysha make it in there?

Discovery Camp Part II

So now that I've told you about my sickie story and you're all done feeling sorry for me ;) I'll go on to the goodness that was camp. The theme of camp was Moments With The Master. So each lesson we focused on a different scene from the life of Christ. The classes, taught by Ray and Shyam, were top quality. I had the opportunity to participate in some great discussions with new friends. I really came away from camp feeling spiritually fed. It's been a while since I've had those kinds of conversations and it did me good. Camp wasn't all serious though. I had a blast just hanging out and playing volleyball, badminton, frizbee and even a little hacky sack. Some of my favorite moments were when the Indians would start singing and dancing. They sure know how to have a good time. Autumn, Raysha and I stayed out at camp from Friday until Sunday. It was good to have more time to just hang out with everyone.

On Saturday morning team "get BENT" arrived out at camp and were welcomed warmly. The afternoon activity for the day was to climb the Kalapani mountain. This was time number two for me and I was kind of glad that we took a much easier route this time around. The mountain is much greener now than when we first arrived in India. This can bee seen from the Bread of Life school yard but I was really struck by the difference as we climbed. If you check out my pictures from our first climb you'll see what a difference there is.

A much more pleasant incline than where we ascended the first time.

Rosalin, Rael, and Paua.

I love that Jiten, Timothy and Rubika are all posing for this one.

Jiten and a couple of the girls from Nagaland.

Jiten getting a little boost.

Nic has brought Rider pride to India.

The boy truly has no fear.

Autumn, Raysha and Timothy

This was the same boulder that Jiten got a boost for. Timothy is amazing, he got up all by himself!


It is a really BIG boulder!

A breathtaking view.

I'm pretty sure he was contemplating whether or not he could make the jump.

On Sunday we said goodbye to all of our new friends. It was especially sad because Sanglalray and Timothy, who have been here for the last 3 months taking Bible classes with Ray, also left. We sure will miss having them around.

Here is the group shot of everyone who participated in camp.

Discovery Camp

Campers for the Discovery Camp arrived Sunday night and camp officially started on Monday without us. A lot of changes have happened recently out at the Kalapani school site to prepare for this camp. Later I will show some comparison pictures to show the changes. The camp definitely has more of a camp feel out at Kalapani than it did when it was held at the Baptist Guest house in January!

The plan was for Ray to teach the morning classes and for Shyam to teach the afternoon classes. We had originally planned to go out to Kalapani with Ray in the mornings for his class and then come back home for lunch and school with Autumn and Andrew in the afternoons. Tuesday was our first day out at camp and we were so excited to see so many of our old friends that Ray asked us if we wanted to stay for the afternoon and come home later in the day with Samuel. It was a good day! Today we went out in the morning and came back for school with the kids in the afternoon. It looks like with where the kids are at in school that we will be able to go out for a full day tomorrow and again on Friday. Should be some good times. Here are some pictures from the first few days.

In the girls room. They love to sing and to dance!

Timothy wanted pictures taken of us so that he can take them with him when he goes home to Myanmar next week...this was the best one we got.

Love listening to him play and sing.

Lian giving Andrew a guitar lesson.

Sanglalray, Autmun, Raysha, Lian and Paua


Sivilia, Mridula, Rubika, Autumn and Marina.


I really enjoyed all of the singing and dancing that happened during spare moments.

Nic Olson and his self named team, "get BENT" (Bonnie Casella, Eric Goud, Nic Olson and Tyler Butel) are arriving on Friday night. We (Autumn, Raysha and I) plan on staying out at Kalapani that night so we won't be here to greet them. This group of four is our last wave of visitors before we go home. Crazy to think about. Keep your eyes open for more camp pictures after the week is over.

Acampamento da Vitória, Camp Victory

Two years ago I went to my very first bilingual camp here in Brazil. It was put on cooperatively by a group of Americans from the Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas and a group of Brazilians from the Church of Christ here in Itu. Last summer while I was here in Itu I got to go to another bilingual camp again put on by people from Abilene and from Brazil. Both of those years I acted as a leader and translator for my small group. This summer a group from San Angelo, Texas came to Itu to help put on the bilingual camp. Lucas and Katie and I were not able to participate in the entire camp but we chose to spend our days off from reading sessions out at camp. We went out with the group Sunday afternoon after morning worship and stayed until bright and early Wednesday morning. Anyone who has ever participated in any kind of summer camp knows that every year is different. This year was no exception. This years camp was especially different from previous years because it was put on by a completely different group of people. Lucas and Katie and I all really enjoyed camp a lot. Katie emphasized to me that it was so nice to get away from Itu and our regular daily schedules to a place with such beautiful surroundings where we were doing something completely different for a change. Lucas shared with me that he loved the fact that while we were at camp he felt as if we weren't separated by nationalities or language barriers and that everyone seemed to be on an even playing field.

Two of my LST readers, Camila and Ana Carolina, came to camp. They brought their friend Ana Carolina with them... And no that is not a mistake, they both have the exact same name. One of my favorite things about the bilingual camp here in Brazil is that it is so evangelistic. It is great to see Christians and non-christians coming together and learning about and experiencing God's love for them. This year was no exception and I was especially thankful that Camila and both Ana Carolina's were able to be a part of it. Camp has opened up entirely new areas of conversation between Camila, Ana Carolina and myself.

I'm a firm believer that pictures speak louder than words so I'm going to share with you some of my favorites from our short time at camp.

Ivan and Marusia getting ready to serve supper.

Jessica, Jandira, me (Go Riders), Soraya, Mel,
Iara, Marusia and Bruna.

Watching the soccer game.

Paul translating for Kevin.

Me, Jessica, Katie and Miriam.

Me and Soraya

Jessica, Soraya,
Rebecca, Katie, Miriam, me and Marusia.

Everyone trying to pop everyone else's balloons without getting their own popped...good times!

An interesting new game that I don't know the name of.

Lucas and Josh finger jousting.

The aftermath of the finger jousting.

Brooke, Katie and Vitinho enjoying some delicious watermelon.

Me and Iara dressed for the Festa Junina

The ladies all dressed up for the Festa Junina.

Me and Antenor

My readers, Ana Carolina and Camila dancing at the Festa Junina night.

Photos don't do justice to the beauty of God's creation. The campground we rent from the Presbyterian church is simply breathtaking!