Last Teacher Training

On Friday, I concluded the teacher training that I have had the
privilege of doing. I gave each teacher a clear file of all the notes
from the training, new songs, games, copies of the new planning format
and they were so stoked. A clear file that was organised and brought
for them, each. The delight on their faces was beautiful when I asked
them to write their names on the front with a permanent marker and I
think they finally felt worth something.

After going through the paper stuff, we just played games and had fun
together, I wanted to keep the mood light and let them know that they
can really enjoy themselves in an extremely hard and taxing job.

Over the few weeks that I have been having the training sessions, I
have seen people lighten up, relax and open up a whole lot. From the
first session, I felt they were cold, worried about what others would
think, they wouldn't participate like I wanted them to. Slowly,
they've come out of their shells, I have demanded it from them and it
has been invaluable for them as people and them as teachers. On Friday
I saw them laughing in hysterics, not caring about how they look or
what others think, completely letting their guards down and not being
afraid. It was such a freeing experience for everyone, and such a
beautiful sight for me.

I really felt in that moment, as I got one of the teachers to lead a
game I had just taught and seeing everyone roll in laughter, that I
had really done something here. If that's all I did, and that's all
that they remember, then I am happy with that.

At the end of the training, I gave the Kindergarten teachers the large
pack of goodies that I had made for each of them, including maths,
phonics and english resources, story books, toys, puzzles and other
things for developing language, personal skills and relationships and
the smiles were again, so impacting. Something that seemed so little
and small on my end will impact their ability to teach greatly, and it
only took a few thousand Indian Rupees per pack and a few days of
planning and organisation to make it happen.

My main work has been to develop a working model for the Kindergarten
programme as it is so new, but greatly needed. It has been fun taking
something from absolutely nothing, and moulding it into something that
will really work, putting resources and skills in the teachers hands,
and seeing them run with it, with enthusiasm. I really hope that it is
only the beginning of something great, that will take on its own shape
and continue to grow and adapt where it needs to.

I also purchased some more hands on resources for the buses like story
books, measuring tapes etc and gave the teachers them as well. The
need was not as great as it was for the KG team, so I was pleased to
be able to give to that. Don't get me wrong, the need is still so
great...but for the time and money that I had received to put into it,
that is what I was able to do and it was greatly appreciated.

So to all the people that so generously gave, that is what you gave
to. And now, in the Kindergarten programme, over 200 2-5 year olds
that they see per day will get hands on resources and activities to
see and do every day instead of sitting on a mat waiting for their
food. It seems worthy when you see the 200 precious little faces.

Sightseeing and the Temple Gates

Sightseeing has not been on my agenda for this trip, so it is a

welcomed but also interesting experience.

So far in India, I have really experienced life as a local and have
definitely not been to the sights, treated like a tourist or even
behaved like a tourist. This weekend I was thrown into a whirlwind of
something different, of how most foreigners view this country.

After being scammed, ripped off and taken for a ride, I can
comfortably say that my trip here could not have been complete without it and has added a beautiful dimension to my stay. From touts sending you in a direction of a 'tourist information' centre, where they are on commission for any things that they manage to talk you in to.

Rickshaw and taxi drivers who literally times their fare by at least 5
for anyone that looks different, or men in the market groping you
because they think they can...it all somehow makes India beautiful,
unique and intriguing.

India is wonderfully disorganised, and I don't even know if they know
it. It is something that you resolve to and it all becomes a part of
your India experience. Standing in the train station line to buy
tickets to Agra is a prime example of how un systematic their
'systems' are. Out of 20 lanes open, one was for woman, I joined the
back of the line and was quickly squeezed forward by another that
joined behind me. Suddenly, wrapping her arms around my waist and
holding me, I was alarmed at this stranger and her serious lack in
physical boundaries, then I glanced forward and noticed that every
woman in line was doing this and soon it became apparent why.

Woman try to push and barge their way to the front or try to get others to
buy their tickets so woman stand strong, united in their line
formation and determined to keep their places. But as I got closer and
closer to the front I noticed all these people that seemed to be
'legitimately' pushing in, and it seems that they were allowed to by
the strong woman standing their ground. Men and woman were pushing
their way to the front, crowding the window and buying tickets on the
side of where the actual line was and I then found out that these
people are buying coupons. So, you can board a train with coupons or
tickets, if you're buying a ticket then you have to line up, but ifyou're buying coupons you have every right to push your way forward. So why doesn't everyone buy coupons?! After a long, squished wait time of 50 minutes, I finally arrived at the front and was told I was in
the wrong line. Hah! I assumed I was in the right line since it was
the only womans, and this is where they sold train tickets. But...this
is only where they sold train tickets to Indians, and I had to
therefore go to the International Tourist Bureau to get my more
overpriced tickets. I went there and it was closed. A friendly
gentleman pointed me to another one which just happened to be where he
worked.

To cut a long story short, it ended up that I hired a private car with
a friend, to take us to Agra which is where the Taj Mahal is. No
trains were available and I needed to do it, I came here to do it. So,
after dodging traffic for 4 1/2 hours on a long, straight and busy
road, I found myself standing at the gate of the mighty Taj.

Included in the car price was a guide and he met us there, we walked
in and we were faced with the images that we had seen all our lives.
The beauty was inescapable and every bit as amazing as you would
imagine. Except, I got to see it in person, with my own eyes and it
came alive...off the paper and it was so breathtaking. We did not have
a beautiful blue sky, but one of white fog and it seemed it gently
blended into the background, but yet protrudes out to meet you.

It is just a sight, it is just something else in this world that isbeautiful, but I'm glad that I got to experience and see it. Like the
pyramids of Egypt, the structures of Olympia, Vatican City and ancient
Rome and the white terraces of Pammukale, they will be a once in a
lifetime trip. I won't come here or do this again - so it is fun that
I have been.

I also have had time to explore Old Delhi, with forts, tombs, mosques,
temples and bad electric wiring, with streets and rows of buildings
connected by hundreds of lines of electricity between them, crossing
roads and dangling from every corner. I was able to imagine how life
was, and really how life still is for many, many people.

One scene really threw me back to bible times actually. There was a
long, narrow road with markets down either side, bustling with people,
children and all sorts of livestock. There were areas of grass that
people were selling their most prized goats, pigs and chickens, and it
was buzzing with life. At the very top of the road was a temple, up
raised on a hill and overlooking the market place. After moving my way
through the busy, non-touristy market, climbing the stairs and going
into the temple, I came out of the gate around 3pm, and there, sitting
right at the gate were lame men - blind and deformed. Immediately I
was taken to the passage at the gate called Beautiful where Peter
called upon the man to 'Look at us!...Silver and gold I do not have,
but what I do have I give to you'.

As I slowly walked away, I was contemplating that story, the whole
scene that I was just in that almost mirrored exactly what Peter had
encountered that day, and I was disappointed in myself. Here I am -
having the answer to abundant and beautiful life, full of grace and
freedom and I did not have to boldness or tenacity to simply say 'look
at me!' and help them up.

Imagine if I did?

What would happen?

Would the Lord heal them?

Would the men turn to faith in Christ?

Would it mean that the people would be in 'awe and wonder'?

It just makes you think...

It makes me believe that it is possible. It gets me excited and expectant.

Look at me! There is power in that.

Proverbs 10:12

I am sitting here in Mumbai, India, at Gloria Jean's coffee shop and
am having a moment of peace and solitude from a crazy city outside of
these walls. I am reading my bible and these words are hitting me deep
in my heart.

"Hatred stirs up dissension,
but love covers over all wrongs."

Dissension. I don't even really know the full extent of what that word
means, but I know that it is not pleasant. In my heart I know that
hatred is simply a lack of love - it is not the intense word that we
use in todays society, and I really believe that everything that lacks
love is hate. I know that there are some people that I am finding hard
to love at the moment, does that mean hatred? I know I would never say
that, but is that how God sees it? Is that how He views my heart when
it comes to people that I'm finding difficult to love? I really hope
not, but I'm pleased that the next part of the verse says what it
does.

Love covers over all wrongs. Wow. My wrongs, your wrongs and everyones
wrongs. Love, His love, and our love for each other. It covers all
wrongs...not some, but ALL. That's crazy and unimaginable as I sit
here and think of all the wrongs that go on inside me on a daily
basis, all wrongs that other people do to me and I do to them, all
wrongs that are done in this city that I am experiencing. All wrongs,
all wrongs, all wrongs.

It doesn't say that love will fix all wrongs...but covers. I think
that is incredible and so against the culture that we live in. We live
in a fixing culture, where everything needs to be perfect and
wonderful and if it is not, then we need to change something about our
lives, or circumstances, or get new friends, or shelter our existence
instead of really battling through it.
Love covers...I imagine the Lord spreading out a blanket over my life,
my wrongs, my thoughts, my feelings, my hurts, my troubles, wrongs
done against me. He doesn't fix it, doesn't make them go away, I still
have consequences of my thoughts and actions but He covers, He covers
it with His love, grace and mercy.

I imagine a blanket being tenderly pulled over this city and all the
tragic wrongs that are done here in peoples lives and to the people.
Some have no control over it, some are beaten, killed and controlled
by terrible people wanting to make money or because of power. Some
young girls and children are trafficked and broken and made to service
disgusting men for their pleasure. Some people and families are forced
on the street because of unfair treatment in their workplaces. Some
come to find a better life, expecting promises to be filled, only to
be shown the true reality of what it means to live here and what was
'the city of dreams' soon becomes that of nightmares as they find
themselves wrapped up in evil. Some have known nothing else than to be
living on the kerb eating gutter food. Through it all, I see Jesus and
His mercy and kindness and He is kissing this city, He is covering it
with His enduring love.

Somehow, love covers this city and people will know Love. Love is
covering, but now needs to be poured out. He needs His church, His
people to rise up and to be His hands and feet and to show 'kindness
and mercy' to those who are so desperately in need of it.

People might not want it. People might not appreciate or value it the
same way in which we do. But nevertheless, it is a command. To love
our neighbour is not a small, medial task, but a mighty one and one
that Jesus and His apostles so wonderfully modelled to us. They went
to the dirty, unclean, seemingly un loveable people as well as their
friends, family and people who were similar to them. To love our
neighbour is not to just love the person that is easy for us to love,
it is to love all people. That is huge for me and I know I can't do it
without His empowering grace. In my humanity I will struggle, but in
His bounty of grace and love I know that it is possible.

It has to be possible, otherwise He would not have commanded it.

So, imagine today, God spreading His cover of love over all the wrongs
that you have experienced in life, that others have experienced, that
your city is experiencing and that this world is experiencing. See him
gently spreading the cover over us and thank Him, love Him and love
your neighbour.

Training, Kids and Other Things.

This week is week 3, and actually, it’s almost the end of week 3! I cannot believe that my time here has ended up going so fast. I guess the days are long, but the weeks are fast. Or that seems to be my feelings when I get home each night, exhausted, hot, dirty, and in desperate need of a shower. My very rusty and corroded faucet and shower head have proved to be very worthy of my praise and I have set up a little offering to it. Haha, just kidding…but seriously, if ever I was going to have a false idol, this glorious shower at the end of the day would be it.

This week has been a little different, some training sessions with the teachers and a lot of admin for me and only one day in the buses with the kids. I guess it’s getting to that point of the trip where I really have to set in stone the things that I have done, so I have been busy writing curriculum, useable planning formats, songs, games, translating to Hindi and I feel very much like a one man band doing everything. But I feel capable, not out of my depths and very secure in what I am doing. It is such a great feeling, because I know that I am definitely being used by God, and the things that I am setting in place and training them in are going to have huge implications in such a positive way. It’s fun knowing that I get to be the ‘behind the scenes’ person in helping them reach over 600 kids per day with education, Jesus and food.

Yesterday I had a 2 hour training session with the Kindergarten teachers, it went extremely well. I was so happy with their receptive hearts, and there was an atmosphere that was so glad, and I almost felt them have a sigh of relief as they were so happy to really have something to go with instead of wandering in the wilderness as they have been. The KG teachers are absolutely fantastic and they love to be with the kids, and in this ministry. They are enthusiastic and energetic with the children, but they have lacked such direction since they have not had any training. All the previous training that has been done has been with the teachers who target the 5-14 year age bracket, so they really just felt like they were ‘entertaining’ the children and not really inputting into their lives and education. I shared a new planning format that will help their preparation, and give them direction. I also gave them a ‘mini-curriculum’ with ideas for areas of learning that they need to head towards. They were very encouraged and thankful to have that particular direction, and stoked that I did not leave them hanging with no ideas and gave that extra support. It would be all very well and great of me if I just trained them in how to use the planning, but they would still have that stuck feeling like they didn’t know where they were going, so this way it gives them skills and resources to fall back on.
After sharing all those things, planning a model lesson together and doing a model lesson together, I shared some other ideas in using just a ‘bag of tricks’ as I have called it. It is a bag of toys, objects and a lot of random things like sandpaper, to create discussion, developing language and also using some thinking skills that will hopefully get the children to be more interactive and alive in the lessons.

The children here are interesting, and it is quite hard for me to watch. Their life is hard, it is not fair and there are so many wrongs with it. But the one thing that breaks my heart, is that the children here are completely under stimulated. In the western world, our kids can often be so far over stimulated that it has created this highly stimulated and entertainment driven generation, but here, I can’t even explain it. Some of these children will sit on the small mat hunched over, limpy and lifeless and no matter how much you try and coax them into doing some actions or singing some songs, they will not. Their little lives have created it, they are simply left on the side of the road on a mat and are required to sit there, to not play, to not move. The parents sleep, lie down, don’t move, don’t do much at all and that is the life that is modeled to them. They have seen it from such a young age, and they copy. They have extreme internal boredom and literally no skills or knowledge of how to think, create play, or do anything but to sit. I can’t imagine how it affects you in such a deep way, and by the evidence that I have seen here, I know the type of society it produces. There is nothing healthy about it. It is probably the most tragic thing that I have seen here.

So, going into the slums and teaching has more barriers than you can imagine. They are up against so many obstacles, but they remain faithful, positive and in the knowledge that God has called them to be there and to do His work.

Did I ever mention that they use 75kgs or rice per day? PER DAY!

I have 2 weeks left here in India before I head out to Vietnam to see what is going on there. I am going to take a little break from Vision Rescue work for 5 days and this weekend I will head up to Delhi and see that area. I will also travel to Agra and see the beautiful Taj Mahal…how can you come to India and not see it right?! So that will be a fun adventure, and I have a travel companion as well which will be nice. A mutual friend hooked it up so that is great to have a little company.

I hope that you’re all keeping Vision Rescue alive in your hearts.

My short glimpse at my week

Internet is very sparse around here - I only manage to get on it every
4-5 days, but I have found a new system that works - in my down time I
can write and save emails, then send them when I get to an internet
connection. The discovery has blessed me! So right now, I am lying in
my room, fan going, windows open and the monsoon rains falling. It
has, for the first time, created a cool breeze into my room and I am
enjoying it very much. Tomorrow I am going to meet with 2 woman who
live here with their husbands who work for British Gas, they have
invited me to have coffee with them tomorrow, so that will be really
nice to have the contact with my western comforts of living. I am
taking 2 more training sessions for the teachers this week...the first
one for the Kindergarten teachers, in which I have developed a
curriculum and a method of planning for them that I will train them
on. The KG part of Vision Rescue is very new and the teachers have
zero direction, so my prayer is that this will give them something to
lean on and give them more structure as I have seen them sitting there
literally doing nothing at times.

On Friday I will continue the training with the Primary teachers, I
have developed their planning formats so that it is much more straight
forward and easier to digest. I will also be teaching them to interact
with the children in a more positive and lively manner so engage them
in the learning. So...keep all those in your thoughts and prayers. As
always, there is some trepidation about new ideas and ways of doing
things so I would love open hearts and ears.

Introducing Roshan

Roshan is an amazing guy that was rescued off the streets of Mumbai.
As he sat outside the kitchen where we prepare the meals for all the
buses, in broken English, he started to share his story with me. I was
truly blessed, and I think that you will be too.

From a very young age Roshan was homeless and parent-less, with no
mother or father, this tiny child had to fend for himself in a pretty
hectic city where there is so much desperation and need. For years and
years he was his own keeper, he had no one to lean on, or rely on. He
was his own family, he kept himself alive and provided for himself.
When the boys at Vision Rescue found him, he was sleeping in the
gutter and also eating the 'gutter food', as he called it, as he
gestured putting his hand in his mouth. He told me he had a Muslim
background, and this new Jesus that they shared with him was
refreshing, they continued to visit him on the streets everyday, would
give him food and talk to him about Jesus. At the time he was also
hooked on 'brown sugar' as he called it, which I assume is some kind
of drugs. Vision Rescue encouraged him to get clean and provided ways
for that to happen. The team took him in to their homes, and now 5
years later, he loves Jesus, is working in the kitchen, has great
relationships with the others that he works with, is drug free, and is
also learning to read and write, which he has never had the
opportunity to do.

With a tear in his eye, Roshan told me that I am his family and calls
me sister, and he told me that all of the people at Vision Rescue are
his family, he now has a father and mother, brothers and sisters and
he is so blessed.

Roshan, along with about 10 guys live in one room next to the kitchen.
This, for him and all of the other men that have been rescued and
found their way there, is luxury. It is luxury in more ways than one,
as it is more than just shelter and food. It is relationship, it is
family and it is functioning. They work, live and play together, they
have purpose and vision and hope for their lives.

Roshan has such joy in his heart that can only be described as
experiencing Jesus. He is a new man, a new creation and he is
wonderful. He constantly talks about Jesus, both in the Hindi language
and broken English. Someone recently gave him a phone and loaded an
audio bible on it so now he plays his bible out loud everywhere he
goes as well as some worship songs.

Roshans life challenges me to be so thankful and to find joy in all
circumstances, celebrating Jesus continually, and I hope it does for
you too.

I don't know why it was Roshan that was picked up off the streets, but
I know he is literally one in a million. Think how many other stories
could be set on a new path like Roshan if we just did
something...anything.

Link to photos...

Hopefully this will work?!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=324148&id=593397305&l=45b24d0a29

Dental Van Miracles

For a lot of Indians (and the rest of the world), dental care is very
expensive. So, people neglect their teeth, and in the slums, they do
not know basic hygiene and very few even brush their teeth.

I had the privilege of spending the day in the Dental van that Vision
Rescue have started as just one of their many initiatives to fight
poverty in this city.

This little boy in the picture, came in with very decayed,
brown and broken teeth - even his front ones. After a little over an
hour of work from the amazing dentist here, his front teeth were built
up, restored and are now white. His mouth looks more normal, and
because of this he will not be ashamed to smile.

I have seen many people come and go today, smiles brightened, and some
still in pain. Services are limited on the van but they really do
everything that they can. I got to assist and help prepare fillings
and generally was in the dentists way. It was quite fun.

The second picture is the view from the van today.

Just a day in the life of what happens here at Vision Rescue.

New Perspectives..

Week 2 has begun with much more anticipation and grace from my end. I
was excited to get on the buses, see the children, see the work and
just have some good times.

From this week will see me doing 2 training sessions per week for all
the teachers. My aim is to keep it light, vision filled and refreshing
because I know that the last things the teachers want to do after a
big day on their bus, is to come back and sit down and have to
concentrate again. So on Wednesday I will take the first session, and
we will talk about memorable teachers, how to interact so you will be
memorable, speaking value into these precious children and just
generally being Jesus to them. My intent is to keep them positive
about what they're doing and knowing that the sacrifices they make are
changing lives. So I would appreciate that you would pray that they
would have ears to hear and that I can speak into their lives.

From there, my intent over the next few sessions is to give them more
practical ideas for games, songs and interactive activities that will
help build relationships between the teacher, but also between the
children. The major thing that I have noticed is that the children
don't know how to play together or work together so I think that is a
major challenge for them.

Next I will spend some time on planning, giving them more strategies
to be able to teach these kids. Since the teachers have no formal
training, they don't have prior knowledge to lean on. I hope to give
them skills to be able to think outside the box and also to rely on
each others strengths and to help each other plan.

Rajesh, who is the Vision Rescue director, really wants me to be able
to address getting a balance between having fun, being interactive and
also the learning that needs to take place so I think that all the
things I will be touching on will bring a good balance for them.

With some of the money that has been donated, I am making phonics
packs for the buses as they are teaching them English through phonics.
I will be purchasing items that will mean their lessons are more
interactive and child centred rather than teacher directed. I am also
going to be buying tape measures and rulers for every bus, and enough
to share between 2, as their maths programme is also very teacher
directed, and hopefully measurement will be within their comfort
levels to teach, stretch them a little, but also really bless the kids
to have something hands on. They have no Hindi picture books so I will
be buying around 25 to share between the buses that can be rotated, as
we all know, story is such a brilliant way to capture childrens hearts
and minds. There are a few other things that I intend to buy as well,
but I will give the remainder of the money that is left over to Pastor
Biju at the end of my trip which will bless them.

So with all that in mind, I ask you to continue to pray, read and ask
God to be with me as I do this stuff.

On a daily basis, it is still intense because for 8 hours a day we
drive into the most perverse and sickening way of living and no human
on the face of this planet should have to live, breath, eat and
function in this way. It saddens me that literally millions, in this
city alone, live in such a way.

So there you have it!

Nothing Like a Fresh Curry

Yum.


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Weekend of Festivities

On Friday there was a festival called Diwali here, which is the festival of lights. All the streets are adorned with beautiful lights, flower garlands and bright, vibrant colours. It is how I 'imagined' India to be before experiencing the reality of how a lot of people live.

During the festival, there are literally fireworks and crackers on every street corner, from the top of every building and they light up the sky like nothing I've ever seen. It first terrified me, I awoke at 5am literally thinking that a bomb had gone off because the explosion of fireworks was so loud. Soon after the first one was a second, and a third and then I remembered the sounds of what I thought were shotguns the night before and I pieced all the puzzle together. It amazed me that they had started their celebrations so early and carried it on throughout the day, and long into the wee hours of the morning. Practically 24 hours of explosion going on around me, I got used to it and put it down as the craziness that is Mumbai. I couldn't imagine that President Obamas team would enjoy it so, as they would be put on high alert from the 'explosions' that are going on all through Mumbai. I guess they didn't really think that one through as they planned his trip for this weekend. It just kinda makes me giggle.

I am over my mini-meltdown and I have renewed hope for this trip. I am excited about the things that I will get to impart into the teaching team and also get to experience while on the buses. My 'observing' time is over and on Monday I will get stuck into some planning, teaching, gathering and making resources and hopefully making life somewhat easier for these untrained, but very capable teachers. I can't imagine doing what they're doing without any training, it is truly brave and courageous and I think they're flippin awesome for doing it and being available to what God is asking them to do. So hopefully I will be able to encourage, help, give and be a resource for them to squeeze while I'm here.

I'm SO ready to get stuck in. Bring it!

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Some Pics...

Life here on the bus means that a bunch of kids get to have some schooling and food...here's a couple of pics to show you what goes on!

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Yellow School Bus with a Difference

The last 2 days have been spent on Vision Rescues yellow school buese. Currently, they have 3 operating and another one they have just purchased and are waiting for the people to come along to run it.

My first morning there, we arrivd at the headquarters where they have an office, a kitchen to prepare all the food for the day, and they also park a medical van, a dental van and one of the bueses. I met all the people, tried to figure out who went where, we got in a circle and discussed and prayed for the day. Before long, the food was loaded onto each bus and we were heading out to our first of 5 destinations.

Cruising the streets of Mumbai is not a typical Sunday drive. The streets are crammed with cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, rickshaws, and even horse/ox pulled carts. A complex array of honking seems to be the only road rule, with 'lanes' merging into one with several layers of traffic trying to squeeze in. Sometimes it feels like you go within an inch of your life, by in a big bus you feel the power and strength that it has, and feel quite safe in the hands of the driver.

Pulling up to the first sight was what I had expected, makeshift houses, tarpaulins, rusty iron, bits of wood and tons and tons of rubbish. I was a little nervous about interacting with the children, as my friends who I'm normally with in this type of situation, were not there to rely on. It was up to me to connect, play, to smile and to try and get their names. I failed on the most part, but was stretched and made better because of it. I wish I was way more fun and easy going, but put me in that situation and completely out of my depth, and I'm just not!

It was fun seeing what they get up to on the buses, they teach English 2 days, Maths 2 days and then Hindi for 1 day. They also talk about general hygeine, being clean and will not let the children on the bus if they have not washed their face. At the end of the lesson, they close it with prayer and then give the children their rice and food for the day. I'm surprised at the share volume of food that they give to each child, and what they give out in a day. Every day, they cook 75kgs of rice, and around 25kgs of lentils and vegetables. That is a HUGE amount of food, and that is a HUGE expense that they keep on giving.

It was nice seeing one or two of the sights that they visit, but by time we got around to the fifth, it was too much. It was too much in the heat of the day to process, it was too much extreme poverty for me to see, it was just too much. Every day, 3 buses go out and go to the same five locations. Thats 15 different slum areas that they're educating and feeding daily...and in the scheme of the largeness of this city, that does not even scratch the surface of the need that there is.

Its too much for me to drive around and literally see all the streets 'littered' with slums, street people and rubbish everywhere. I hate to use the term littered because they are not trash, they are people and hearts and feelings, but that is the only imagery that I can protray it as.

Mumbai is so well known as 'The City of Dreams' and I am continually thinking, how? How can people come here with so much hope for the future when there is so much of this around? How can people possibly think that they'll be better off here than in their home towns? How can you look around at this and call it hopes and dreams?

It is SO intense, and I find myself hourly trying to figure out a way for me to leave here, leave this uncomfortableness because it literally just hurts. I feel alone when I go home at night to my little bedroom where there is no one, I eat alone, I sleep alone. I know I'm being a whimp, but in the first time of all of my travels, I want to go home.

(And its only my 4th day here!)

India Welcomes Me

Arriving in the heat of the day was a good hit after the coolness of London, and I enjoyed knowing right away the temperature high that i would be living in over the next month.

After some questions from immigration, backwards and forwards conversation in their own language, and more questions by the gentlemen, they agreed to grant me a visa and allow me into their country. Although they would only grant me the visa until the night before my outbound flight, I was happy to get the all clear, collect my bags and then go meet my ride from Vision Rescue that had been patient for over an hour while the whole scene unfolded. You can imagine me, a single girl travelling by herself to meet an Indian man that had invited her to come and stay for a month, provided many questions to the immigration officers.

Two Vision Rescue staff, Marshal and Islam, welcomed me and we proceeded to weave through the busy and overcrowded streets, a much different picture to the village in America that I was in. All around I saw some similar sights to things I had seen in other countries, but I also began to see new sights, experience new smells and take in everything that Mumbai has to offer. The roads are full of people and things to dodge, within mere centimetres sometimes.

We arrived at St. Pius College where I will call home for the next month. It is a simple room and complete with 2 small single beds (which I have now combined to be like a tiny double), a hard pillow, a wardrobe, and a 'European' style bathroom. The buckets and jugs in there slightly concern me, and I have not attempted the open shower (or should I say facet in the wall) as of yet. I am thankful that I at least have that.

After dropping my bags, we were soon out on the road that would be a 10 minute walk to the Vision Rescue office, that I'm sure will become very familiar to me. It was good to see some new and old friendly faces and they all greeted me warmly. There was an excitement and nervousness as introductions were made. Thoughts invaded my head like 'What are you doing here?' 'What are you going to talk about?' ' You have nothing in common with these people' 'You can't do this for a whole month, you're crazy'. So throwing those thoughts and fears aside, I delved into conversation and silence was broken.

There were so many questions unanswered about my stay, but I was feeling a little more comfortable. We made plans for me to be picked up at 8am and taken out for a day in the buses the next day, and then we left. I was taken back to my room, feeling overwhelmed, uncomfortable and unsure of what I should do next.

And now, in my 4am jetlagged state, I am writing this, so better try and sleep some more.

Ending, but just beginning.

I'm sitting here on the tarmac of London Heathrow T5. I feel that it is the end of a sweet, exciting, fun, hard, challenging and adventurous season of living in London and all that meant for me. I actually felt like this trip of just a few days was a little bonus, and that I was so blessed to be able to see great friends again.

As I contemplate the ending of something that has been so life changing, I also get the sweet reminder that the end is still only the beginning. It is the beginning of something that will probably be even more exciting, fun, hard, challenging and adventurous. But something that God has prepared me for, and for that I am so thankful.

Tomorrow morning - Londons breakfast time, USAs middle of the night and NZs dinner time, I will be landing in the heat of Mumbai, India. In my mind I simply cannot make a comparison of the differences in things that I will see and do. Its absurd to me that I can get on the plane, and shortly land in a place that will be so foreign to me in more ways than one.

Well...it is time to turn off and fly. I will be sure to keep the updates coming, and your part of the deal is to keep the prayers coming!


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