So This Is What It's Like To Feel Good!

Yes, after almost 3 months of a cycle of illness, both of us are feeling good. The most recent lab results also report we're bug free!

So, as life goes on, many times it's not that things are being done wrong, weird or funny. Rather, just different. It takes some getting used to not to react with the first instinct of wrong, weird or funny.

For example: we went to a shop for the first time Saturday. After selecting what we wanted (there are many shops here where you don't get to do this, the shopkeeper or helper must do that for you), we made the mistake of taking it to the "Pay Here" counter. We found that before paying for an item, you had to take it to a separate counter where they prepared an invoice - in quadruplicate. Here, the invoice was computer generated, though it's not unusual that a shopkeeper doesn't want to give an invoice or receipt, it's also not unusual to have just a handwritten invoice, nor to have both a handwritten invoice and a computer invoice.

At the invoice counter, they also took your items - which you would not see again until you left the shop. We found out later that, while we went to the "Pay Here" counter, our items went to the "Delivery" counter.

After paying, we found our way to the "Delivery" counter...on the other side of the store. Here you presented one of the invoice copies and they would locate your items which were wrapped in brown paper, and had been placed in a bag that was stapled shut. We later opened the bag and found all of our items. However, while at "Delivery," the lady before us was having trouble. She had purchased quite a few things and the system worked for nearly all of them...but not all. The missing item was also the smallest. Have we mentioned it seems to us that everything turns into an adventure in INDIA!

Some of those adventures just seem to have more potential for Kingdom advance than others seem to have. Recently, when Janis was so sick, she had to cancel the Art lessons for our landlady's grandchildren. We found out later the girl cried for three hours because she couldn't have Art with Aunty Janis! She's the same one who has creatively fashioned a Christmas tree, complete with a star and angel decoration, from a large potted plant. She, and the rest of the family, have a strong fascination with Christmas - what it means and how we celebrate it - and are anxious to come to a Christmas Open House we will be having this weekend for them and the staff at the Language Institute.

And as Chuck has had to do some hard things recently with some of the international personnel at the Educational Foundation, we just found out today that those steps, though difficult and uncomfortable, have prepared the way for some significant advances in more effectively delivering education for children of cross-cultural workers - one of the most common reasons cross-cultural workers quit India is the struggles they have in providing a solid educational experience for their children.