Sunday April 13, 2008
Today has been a good day so far, really hot but good. The service this morning that I attended was once again all in Hindi so I just sat for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the sermon to end. The only things I had to play with were my camera and a small Gideon bible so I tried to find some deep meaningful verses. I found some good verses pertaining to travel and a good verse about love. The first travel verse I found was Psalms 121. Go read it.

Monday April 14
Woke up early this morning and felt great we rented an SUV and drove out to some land that Mission India had recently purchased for building a Bible College and Orphanage and I took pictures of the land and the surrounding area and the neighbors and villages around it. Sagi is trying to find sponsors to help build the orphanage and he wanted some really good pictures of the land and area. The Land is about 3 acres and bone dry. It is near a main road that is in construction but like everything in this state it is taking a long time b/c of corruption in the state govt. The Indian Govt. gives money to the state govt. to build roads and wells and to repair roads and bring villages into contact with the rest of the world but the local officials just pay for a little bit of construction and pocket the rest. The same thing happens with builders they pay someone to do it and pocket a little bit so by the time something gets done it’s not very much. ANYHOWS, we drove around villages and saw how people were living and it is amazing to see people living in such conditions, then again I think their mud and straw huts and dirt floors are cleaner than the cities trash strewn streets. More later

Night met Mr Jonson, runs a Christian school
Tuesday April 15
Met Mr jonson SR, military 10 years, postmaster, missionary and interpreter for Methodist missions which used to be abundant in this area but not so much after a big earthquake 30 years ago. Well spoken, lives in a huge house.
Preached a sermon this evening on quiet times and retreats to reconnect with God. I think it was very well received, I think I’m getting the hang of this preaching thing.
Ate Sumosas, not as good as my Mums. Bed early
Wednesday April 16, 2008 - Thursday April 17
Today we were supposed to catch a train at 0645 and missed it. The pastor we were staying with kept telling us that the train is always late and we don’t need to worry about it. He got us there right as the train left. Genius. So I was really pissed off, and I went back to the school where I was staying and went back to sleep for a while and then read some of my book and vented into my diary. Dev and the pastor showed up a couple hours later and told me that we were going to take a night bus to our net destination. This would be a wonderful idea I thought until I realized that Indian roads suck balls and all vehicles in India lack suspension. This journey started at 1800 and finished at 0700 the next day. We traveled on a sleeper coach that had bunk beds above the seats and Dev and I stayed in one of those. It was really cozy and not in a good way and I didn’t get a wink of sleep. So far I’ve had the worst train journey of my life and this came close to being the worst bus journey of my life. Solely for the fact the roads haven’t been repaired since the British built them 40 years ago. Oh yeah no AC either so it was super hot and I don’t like being touched when it is super hot a little thing I got from my Dad. But in this tiny bunk it was unavoidable and apparently Dev can sleep anywhere b/c he is Indian and made good use of this fact and slept all the way with his legs on mine and elbows in my face. What was great was that I got to see some beautiful scenery at night b/c the moon was really bright. We passed over some bridges that I thought might fall at any second which was exciting and we stopped every couple of hours for a pee break and coffee break fro the driver. I used these stops to buy lays potato chips in various American flavors, which felt a little comforting. When we finally pulled into SiliGuli and unloaded my eyes were bloodshot and I was again visibly covered in dust. I hoped off the bus and was immediately hounded by very Asian looking Indian rickshaw drivers and young men wanting to know if I wanted to rent them and their SUV to get to Darjeeling up the mountain. Then out of nowhere a monk jumped me and before I knew what was going on I had a red dot on my forehead, a flower in my hand, a bracelet on my wrist and a wet palm. Then the guy proceeds to demand 10 rupees. This as fine with me b/c 10 rupees is not even 25 cents but Dev was pissed off and told him to look at the rickshaw drivers who are doing hard work and only getting paid 10 rupees. Dev flicked him 2 rupees and he scurried off. Before we got our ride to the Orphanage I managed to counter 3 more sneaky monks with flowers. Siliguli is bit of tourist waypoint on the way to Darjeeling so I didn’t expect all the staring but it still happens. A white guy standing on the sidewalk waiting is the perfect opportunity for loads of people to practice their English and for every rickshaw to stop and yell and point at their rickshaw and then me. I wave the rickshaws past and try to make sense of what some of these guys are trying to say and oblige with conversation that is only two sentences but takes 5 minutes to get across. Just as I was getting into these conversations with locals a silver SUV pulls up and Dev shouts and we pile into the SUV that has “JESUS LOVES YOU” printed in red, block letters across the upper windshield! We fight our way through a see of rickshaws and down the street a ways and then pull into a nice looking apartment community, which is a Christian enclave and I am shown my room at the Bible College. I cant wait to get out and see this city it looks fun and then tomorrow we are going to go to Darjeeling! I’ve heard it is very mountainous and I like mountains. Now it is time for a well needed shower a nap and some eats. After we rested we had a walk around the campus and met the Orphans and walked over to the local church and got a briefing on what it took to get here and what the future plans of the area are and that I need to pray really hard so that they can build another dorm room on the church for a full time pastor.