Fun Facts

Indian or...?

Surprisingly, many Indians look Chinese or Korean - there are a billion kinds of Indians (Naga, Bengali, Nepali, Manipori, Assamese, South Indian just to name a few). This is Chotu; he's a wee Naga Indian. He's the cutest!

22 completed, 23 running

Indians count birthdays a little different...Pawal turned "23" this week (even though he was born in 1987) b/c he completed 22 years and is "running" 23 years. It's actually pretty logical. So I guess I'm 23. Cool.

Indian Mail

Receiving letters and packages are jolly - I got my 1st letter and package this week...over a month after they were sent. ha! The package had been opened on one side, but my iPod was actually still tucked inside...amongst Alabama memorabilia. You can probably guess who that was from...brotha! Roll Tide!

P.E. 101, Indian Style

I taught Freeze Tag and Badminton to almost 300 Indian kids on Wednesday at Havillah School. It was so jolly to see them having so much fun. And God continues to open doors for relationships with teachers there.

Pandels for Puja

Pray that God would provide opportunity to talk to people about Jesus, who does not dwell in earthly temples and is not made by human hands. Many Hindus do not even understand why they worship or do the things they do. It is tradition and maybe even just cultural tradition that is void of true life (maybe not unlike cultural Christianity in America).

These are made out of bamboo and cloth and are all over the city

What's jolly about this picture is that Sujay, boy who I met playing soccer, is waving. He's like my little brother!...who I can't understand b/c he doesn't speak English. ha! So I practice my Hindi with him.

Update on Jaazaniah

Trish got back from Delhi today, where she was helping Kikon (guy who works with Jeff) and his wife get medical care for their baby, Jaazaniah. He's been diagnosed with West Syndrome and is undergoing a 10-14 day course of steroids as treatment. Kikon and Lireni are staying in a private room with him during this time. The doctor said "his prognosis is guarded." Please pray for his healing.

Indian English

Many Indians don't know past or future tense verbs, so they speak in present tense all the time. And they repeat the verbs many times for some reason. For example, Menuka (our househelper) says, "Morning time, so much is paining, paining, paining..." So you find yourself talking like that so they can understand...and even when you're not talking to them. Bad habits! This is Menuka and me: