I am well acquainted now as I have arrived at my final destination in Nagpur. We are staying with a family here and they are absolutely delightful. They are the directors of the home of hope in the red light district (RLD) and have two children age 16 and 14. Jodi and I are able to stay in the master bedroom--it is such a blessing that they gave up their room for us... this morning when I got up, everyone was sprawled out in the living room on the couch and floor; the Indian culture is so very giving and sacrificial for others.
Yesterday, Jodi and I had to get up at 3:30 to be ready for our taxi to take us the the airport for our flight from Delhi to Nagpur. Our taxi driver was 30 minutes late and put us to the airport with not much time before our flight. Did I mention we were in a foreign airport, in a foreign country, and with no printed itinerary, no idea where to go!? haha. What an experience... we got in the check luggage line that seemed to NOT MOVE AT ALL for about 20 minutes. I went up to a lady that looked like she was in charge of something and told her we had a plane that was leaving in 20 minutes and we hadn't even checked our luggage. She took care of us and we ran though security and to the bus that took us to the plane. Yes, this was weird too; we took a bus to the middle of the landing area where we went up these stairs to get in the plane like you see in the movies sometimes. So we are on the plane, the ONLY white girls, and after about 1.5 hours, the plane stops so we follow along and get off the plane. Well this guy at the bottom of the stairs checks our ticket only to inform us that we got off the plane too early! WHAT!? So I guess domestic flights here are like a train, they stop at ports along the way. lol. It is not like we would have even know because we don't speak the language. So we got back on the plane like dum dums and waited to arrive at our final destination, Nagpur.
When we got to the airport, waiting for our luggage, we decided to use the restroom-bad idea! So I open the stall and find a hole in the FLOOR! WHAT! I had heard of these kind of things before but never thought I would relieve myself in this manner. So i told myself, Lauren, you are in India, just get over it... a phrase I seem to be telling myself many times a day. :D So as I was going to the bathroom, I realized that there was NO TP! AH! I didn't have anything with me to take the place of toilet paper so yup, I just had to continue on my kinda of merry way. ;) I took photos of this by the way, don't worry.
Oh! in reference to smells in India, I actually smelled the most beautiful thing just outside our guesthouse yesterday in Delhi--fresh lavender! OMG. There was this huge lavender plant growing and wow, it was delightful. :)
The AC in the house we are staying is considered "poor man's AC." Somehow, water is filtered through hay and it is blown into the house to create cool air... it works quite while, not the same as AC, but better than nada.
This morning we got up early for service. Brother E heard we liked bagels and cream cheese and had it on the table for us this morning for breakfast! how sweet? They don't have American bagels and cc here but it was like a knotted bread and a cheese spread. ;)
Service was incredible today--2 hours of worship in Hindi and in English. They Indian peope are so enthralled with worshiping God, it is beautiful. They are so grateful for his many blessings that he has given them.
We went to the RLD last night and it was very intense. We drove through the main strip and saw girls standing seductively outside of their rooms waiting. I thought that I would shed tears or be overwhelmed with emotion upon actually seeing the RLD after all the time I have spent studying and reading about it. This was not the case at all--I felt numb, numb to the fact that what was occurring was actually real, that these girls/women were actually selling themselves. Some things in life that we face are so surreal--the enemy uses these things especially because they are such dark places that many in our family do not believe they exist, the severity and reality is hard to swallow.
The girls in the home were so beautiful, the boys too... I will share more about them later, Jodi is wanting to get on the puter.
I love you all and am grateful for your prayers and continued support. India is doing a great work in me and I look forward to the many days to come. I also look forward to the cool weather in America!! Hehe
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