Yesterday, the first day of the 45th year of my life, proved to be quite an interesting day.\u00a0 India is many things – frustrating, hot, nasty, conniving, dirty, lying, noisy, tasty, hot, crowded, smelly, and did i mention “HOT”?\u00a0 One thing it is not, and that is “boring”.\u00a0 Open your window and see a world that is sometimes stranger than fiction; talk to someone and learn that logic plays no part in some people’s lives; smile at someone and say “hi” to get an almost-lifelong (it seems) “friend”.<\/p>\n
I stayed in India for 4 months in 1998, helping a self-supporting pastor, and helping set up the accounting books for an orphange.\u00a0 Many things i had learned up to then in schools and life were proven wrong by staying here, and i had a terrible time trying to regain my confidence in people again, (and in keeping additional hair from falling out \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Actually, the hair outage stopped after 3 days of seaweed eating in Korea, and the human-confidence factor was restored about 1 day after returning to Japan.<\/p>\n
So this time, what will happen?\u00a0 I made it here on Tuesday, and had some experiences Wednesday, but yesterday was super interesting.\u00a0 First, my friend came to visit in my hotel room in the morning, bringing some lovely chapati and okra with just one hot pepper in it.\u00a0 I have a supply of food with me, so spread some peanut butter on the chapati, and ate a few handfuls of raisins, had a sesame-sugar (jiggery) combination brought from Sri Lanka, and topped everything with a Vitamin C tablet.\u00a0 “Hotel” has a nice ring, and may raise some eyebrows about missionaries living high, but at 200Rs. (4.5dollars), i could live much more cheaply here than staying in a normal apt. in most developed countries.<\/p>\n
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After dedicating the day to the Lord in prayer, my friend had an appointment, so i walked over to the animator’s office by myself.\u00a0 He had not accomplished much since the evening before, making me a little disappointed.\u00a0 I sit with him around 2 hours, watching him work at getting a nice background image for chapter3 of the GC animation.\u00a0 He melds a greenery pic with the pic of heaven used in the first chapter animation, and the result is marvelous.\u00a0 His DTP skills show thru, but he’s still working from a low level on his animation skills.\u00a0 Just having the technical knowledge is not enough either, as one must have some kind of eye for aesthetics,\u00a0 For example, if you have Jesus flipping quickly like a page just because the text says he was shut in by the bright light about the Father 3 times, everyone will think Jesus is some kind of looney-tune.\u00a0 Hey, actually the Looney-Tunes’ animation is tops all around – haha.\u00a0 The scary music must go too…..<\/p>\n
I go back to my room and piddle with the computer a bit, and then eat the leftover rice from last nite along with a pomegranate brought by my friend.\u00a0 Pomegranates are usually very expensive in Japan, and hard to eat, but here they are 10Rs. (around 22cents) and hard to eat, so i dig into one while thinking about how we will be eating these in heaven, as Ellen White saw them on the looooooong silver table there.\u00a0 With some pumpkin seeds and raisins on my rice, and a bit of olive oil shaken on it too, i have a nice meal, even if long from plucking each pomegranate juicy thing and crunching thru it – yum yum!<\/p>\n
My friend is busy again in the afternoon, so after dropping in on the animator once more, and seeing almost no change, i decide to take a walk around my neighborhood.\u00a0 There is a PC shop nearby, so avoiding the 2 cow guards at the entrance, i make my way up to the 2nd floor where i’m told a 128mb USB drive (called Pen Drive here) is 700Rs., and a 256mb one is 1300Rs.\u00a0 The price for the 256mb one is the same as for the very cheapest 1gb one i saw in Bangkok!\u00a0 Sure wish i would have bot one there and brought it over.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 Walking in the hot sun on a dusty street when it is probably 36-37 in the shade (97-99F) isn’t quite the nice cultural experience you might imagine.\u00a0 It is really funny seeing cows wandering about in the city, settled over there like big dogs, standing over there munching on garbage, just standing doing what cows do – poop, etc.\u00a0 It isn’t until i go back to my hotel room and take off my pants that i see something that only a pyschology professor could love – cow-poop splatter on the back of my pants.\u00a0 Probably from when that bus went by……<\/p>\n
The market looks like something from a bad B-movie, with dirt and trash and junk, and that basically describes the produce for sale!\u00a0 One vendor goes to the trouble of shooing away a cow who thinks his rotting apples look tasty.\u00a0 One girl of around 7 grabs my arm with the other hand outstretched in the universal sign for “give me something”.\u00a0 I make my way onward, thru the mess to the mess on the other side.\u00a0 There are fewer people in the street, and you can pick your way to step a little more carefully.<\/p>\n
Walking down the street is not the nicest of things to do, as every other male calls out “You’re from?!” in a demanding tone.\u00a0 I still have enough energy and belief in people to smile at everyone.\u00a0 Isn’t that what Jesus would do?\u00a0 But would he really take the time to talk with each one, knowing that their brains were working feverishly to figure out a way to get at his money, not being interested in a true conversation?\u00a0 At least their methods are mostly legal – thank God!<\/p>\n
My hotel offers a nice respite from the majority of the filth, if not the heat or noise.\u00a0 My trusty digital thermometer displays 35.9 sitting on my bed.\u00a0 It’s hard to take a nap at 96F, so to cool down, you take a shower right?\u00a0 Only if you like to get boiled from what comes out of the water tank on the roof.\u00a0 Well, it does feel nice to stand directly under the fan, letting the evaporation process save you the trouble of using a towel.\u00a0 It makes me sneeze.<\/p>\n
After working a bit on my first ever Sudoku, finally figuring out how the thing is supposed to work, my friend comes, and we go to see the artist who is drawing “stills” for the animation of the 1858 Great Controversy.\u00a0 He’s a nice Muslim man, and it is amazing to see how fast he draws and the beautiful work he can do.\u00a0 He’s concerned over drawing Satan’s forehead, showing it receding.\u00a0 He read Isaiah 53 last nite, as he saw that in the Great Controversy we gave him.\u00a0 He reads it again to us, explaining that it has nothing to do with Satan.\u00a0 It is marvelous to see him get the Gospel of Jesus Christ as he does this \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 We tell him to look in the GC book itself, and explain that Isaiah 53 explains The Plan of Salvation, the title of chapter 3.\u00a0 He seems satisfied, and we go thru the various drawings we want for the animation.\u00a0 He doesn’t want to draw the nakedness of Adam and Eve, and i don’t want him to either.\u00a0 It takes a while tho thru my translator to get him to understand that they should be covered in light, so maybe he could just draw the hands, face, and feet in the proper position, and then the torso could be painted showing just light.\u00a0 He smiles and sketches out a beautiful human form in seconds.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 That’s talent.\u00a0 I understand he worked in Saudi Arabia for some time also.\u00a0 His office is incredibly cramped, making me wish that spoiled workers in other countries could see the conditions some people are in, doing as good or better work than they do perhaps!!<\/p>\n
A truck is trying to go down an impossibly narrow street on our way on the motorbike to the main “moneyed” hotel here.\u00a0 We have an appointment to meet the Division Evangelism Director here.\u00a0 His plans have changed, so we have around 2 hours to while away.\u00a0 There is an old cafeteria from the British era it looks like, with maybe 20ft high ceilings, large columns, marble or polished granite floors etc.\u00a0 We wash our hands first like everyone does, because we eat with our hands like everyone does.\u00a0 My fingertips have started to turn yellow from the masala.\u00a0 The masala dosai is a very thin pancake-looking wheat product that has a bit of potato-vegetable curry in it.\u00a0 It comes spread out, its 3 corners sticking far out over the edges of the perhaps 12inch dish.\u00a0 It looks like a meal-full, but if you squished it all together, it would probably barely fill up one hand.<\/p>\n
The waiter stands practically over us, asking of course “You’re from?” etc.\u00a0 I answer nicely, but wishing he wasn’t doing that.\u00a0 The usual Indian way tho is not to give a care about how the other person would like to be treated, only about how you want to be treated by them.\u00a0 Even my Indian friends say this, and other Japanese who have been to this country many times point this out too.\u00a0 It gets really old after awhile.\u00a0 We eat our dosais and i pay 40Rs. (almost 90cents) including a 4Rs. tip.\u00a0 Finishing a spicy meal without something like yoghurt or sweets to bring life back to my tongue, and to tell my body not to expect anything more, is not what my system thrives on, but am forced to bear with it this evening.<\/p>\n
We walk around town a bit, going to a PC shop run by some Christian man my friend has dealt with before.\u00a0 His 128mb USB drive is the same price as everyone else’s, but his 256mb one is much cheaper, so hope to buy one for my friend some day.\u00a0 We dodge motorcycles, tri-shaws (tuk-tuks), cars, and the worst – bicycles – on our way to a night market where mostly imported electronics, toys, and home-builder type things are sold.\u00a0 Bicyclists don’t have any lights, and don’t care much if they run over you or not.\u00a0 The incredible cacaphony of wheezing, blasting, blaring, musical, grating horns on all the other vehicles makes one tired just to keep ones’ ears open.<\/p>\n
Another friend we meet in the market has a cell phone shop.\u00a0 He tells us he has gone shopping in Dubai, Iran, Malaysia, and Singapore.\u00a0 I ask about Japan, and he says the visa is too hard to get.\u00a0 He quotes an excellent price on exchanging USD, only 1\/2Rs. off the official rate.\u00a0 I ask about JPY, and he quotes a rate about 1Rs. off, plus he requires a photo copy of my passport if i wish to do that one.\u00a0 His rates on both are around 1Rs. better than the exchanger near my hotel, and about 5 Rs. or over 10% better than the airport’s Thomas Cook shop’s!!!<\/p>\n
My friend counts the huge wad of 100s (2.2usd) for me, and i notice one thing in India hasn’t changed in 8 years – many of the bills have staple holes in the left side.\u00a0 They STAPLE them in bundles of 100 notes.\u00a0 Like, wonder why they fall apart so soon?\u00a0 What a disfunctional way to take care of a minor problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We wander back to the hotel where our appointment time has gotten closer.\u00a0 Here in this city the “coolest” shops with all the customers and mirrors and flash and pan are the fruit juice shops.\u00a0 Really quite nice to see, but haven’t felt a need to try them yet.\u00a0 We do spend a few minutes in a imported-food shop, and i buy some almonds and super-lovely soy milk with saffron and pistachios in it.\u00a0 Have you ever drunk velvet?\u00a0 This is too lovely.\u00a0 There is one of the paradoxes of this place.\u00a0 99% of the time while walking along the streets you are in danger of being run over, assaulted with excretion and garbage smells, and if in the daytime, in danger of serious heatstroke or dehydration, yet once in a while you see the most exquisite flowers for sale, or smell the most enchanting perfume-laden breeze wafting from some shop or temple – sensory-overload!!!<\/p>\n
The hotel graciously lets us wait in their lounge for the Evangelism Director.\u00a0 After waiting for around 20 minutes the director walks in, a couple of minutes early.\u00a0 We pray, and i show him the English 1858 GC book, then the Japanese, Tamil, etc.\u00a0 After about 2 minutes he cuts to the quick, and asks what we would like him to do.\u00a0 I tell him that i’m trying to get this book into the various languages, and would appreciate it if he knew anyone willing to translate into Telegu, and if he would be interested in promoting\/distributing it.\u00a0 He replies MUCH more affirmatively than anyone else EVER has – turning to the Tamil Conference President who is with him, and telling him that he would like to order 10,000 of them for the members in his conference.\u00a0 He says he also would like 10,000 of the Telegu ones when they get done, and supplies the name of a translator he trusts.\u00a0 I show the 4 minute animation of the first chapter, and he is quite excited actually, saying that he would like me to come up to the Division headquarters in Hosur and show it and give a talk to the people there some Friday evening, and that i should go to the English church in this city and they would help with a projector so i could show it there.\u00a0 Then he says he would like to get 10,000 English ones printed too.<\/p>\n
WOW!<\/p>\n
It is all over in 20 minutes, as he has to catch a bus, but the quick appreciation of the value of this inspired book by God’s servant – Ellen White – and the desire to see many church members get an opportunity to read this most important of her books – it is a GREAT heart-lifter to me.\u00a0 Church leaders are usually the most reserved, the most “take no risk” type of people i’ve ever met, taking everything to committee meeting after committee meeting until it has been hashed to death.\u00a0 Or they are of the opinion that they have the theological degrees, and who am i anyway?\u00a0 I’ve even been asked point-blank once if i’d gotten seminary training (implying that you can’t possibly know the deeper things of God if you haven’t).\u00a0 So this reaction was like a blast of fresh, air-conditioned air, giving a light step on my way back to my hotel, and with a song in my heart of praises and honor to God.<\/p>\n
Checking the TV channels, reading the Bible, and taking a lukewarm shower rounded out this amazing day.\u00a0 Would it be too much to ask God to have every day this year of my life like this??!!<\/p>\n
May Jesus, who gave his life of infinite worth to save ours of zero worth, receive all the glory and praise and honor, and may he look at us and be satisfied at his soul’s travail when we stand on the sea of glass,
\nDaniel<\/p>\n
NOTE: Post written April 28, 2006<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, the first day of the 45th year of my life, proved to be quite an interesting day.\u00a0 India is many things – frustrating, hot, nasty, conniving, dirty, lying, noisy, tasty, hot, crowded, smelly, and did i mention “HOT”?\u00a0 One thing it is not, and that is “boring”.\u00a0 Open your window and see a world …<\/p>\n