Impressions of India

Trip Start Sep 26, 2008
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Trip End Oct 22, 2008


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Flag of India  , Maharashtra,
Wednesday, October 1, 2008

It's been about four days here in Mumbai and I'm slowly getting used to the place. My first sights were of the airport which was under renovation (interesting bamboo concoptions), and the cool taxis, which look like life sized matchbox cars. Church on Sunday was great, the congregation grew as time went on during the service....sound familiar?! Some short testimonies were shared, which was encouraging. Lunch after church was cool, was a good way to mix and mingle with the members from Paul's church.

The place that we're staying at is interesting. The staff know us all now, for me, its cos I'm askingi them for water at least twice a day. Traffic here is mad, with a constant tooting of horns, half the time I think they're just tooting for the fun of it. It seems to work, as no one has been run over yet, and the drivers just form their own lanes while driving. I now understand why Indians are so late to things, its cos they're stuck in traffic for a large part of the time....no excuse in NZ though, there's no traffic on Sunday's!!

There have been sights that I've expected to see, people begging and sleeping on the streets, it does make you grateful for what you have. The slum area that we've been ministering in has been an eye opener, with some houses being barely the size of a garage, although some (emphasis on the some) do have electricity, so they have TVs. The kids that have been coming to the morning kids club have been great, so full of life despite their lack of material possessions. The great thing for me is that a number of them speak tamil, which has helped my own tamil speaking. It's been highly rewarding, and some of the personalities of the kids here remind me of our KQ kids back in NZ.

I've also been involved with the building project, so far we've done sanding, scraping and other prep work. The 'glamorous' stuff (painting etc) is due to start in a couple of days. Has been good getting out of the office doing something different.

OK, I've been given the word to stop writing, so until next time, be good...I'll let someone else take over now

Aaron Vincent
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