When It's Quiet...

Something I've noticed - since I'm at home a little more now that my leave from the Foundation has begun: When Janis gets quiet, something's up! often some home decorating activity.

Here she is when I caught her on film trying to turn our bedroom into a scene from the recent, somewhat controversial, semi-historical film, "Jodha Akbar."

If you get a chance, "Jodha Akbar," is worth seeing for the scenery of that era of Mughal, Muslim rule in India, and for the potential relevance to relationships today between the minority Muslim and majority Hindu populations.

Another recent Bollywood film worth seeing, if you get the chance, is "Tarre Zameen Per," a fictional account of a young learning disabled boy whose unrealized potential is unlocked through the interest and unconventional tactics of his art teacher. Amir Kahn is the director who stars in his own movies, usually introduces new talent in his movies, makes only 1 film a year, usually about a social issue of current interest. He directed and starred in "Lagaan," a classic about Indian/British history.

The "Village"

Despite having at least 100 cities of over one million in population, and despite a migration from the rural to urban centers, India today is still over 60% rural.

In Delhi, a city of over 12 million with a metroplex of over 20 million, it's not unusual to hear a statement when someone is seen doing something socially inappropriate, "They're just in from the village."

It's also not unusual to hear of Delhi residents "going back to their village."

Perhaps village life is what accounts for a willingness to put up with more spartan living conditions. Below are pictures of housing - mostly for construction workers, many who come from the village with their families for work and the prospect of a better life.

Previously, many of these temporary arrangements became semi-permanent after the construction project was completed. However, today due to the attempts of the City government to regulate unrestrained growth, and due to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in 2010, and due to the possibilities of Delhi's application to host a future Olympics, these housing arrangements are indeed only temporary and will be forcibly removed if the workers don't leave after construction is completed.

[Apologies for the indistinct photos, they were taken from inside an autorickshaw. You may have to look closely to actually see the dwelling.]



















And, in case you can access the following link to a front page cartoon from yesterday's Times of India, this is a subject over which even Delhi pokes fun at itself...
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDgvMDUvMjQjQXIwMDEwNg==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

“Fifty-Somethings” Living and Dying in India

Death by Drowning

Even while living cross-culturally for the first time for “Fifty-Somethings” is quite a difficult task (maybe especially in India, though I don’t know since it’s my only experience), many good things have also surfaced from our long string of trials. Jesus made it clear to me before we embarked on this remarkable adventure that life would be difficult for us in India but He also promised me that He would be here 24/7 and His Grace would always be sufficient. He also assured me that my obedience in coming would be the “fast track” to inner healing from my past. He is keeping His word, as He always does, on all of these accounts.

I am beginning to better understand the truth that God disciplines those He loves and count it a joy to be loved by Him. Through my encounter with this culture, He has been turning me upside down by the ankles and firmly shaking away many of those things that are not a part of His ways and His perspective (like my preconceived cultural notions, over-simplified worldview, host of hasty generalizations, extremely idealistic expectations, and crippling fearful assumptions – just to name a few!). Make no mistake, this process is a very painful one and as I look upside down at the pile of lies lying around my head, I feel naked, vulnerable and quite humbled! I am finding though that by allowing Him to undo me in this way, He can now gently turn me back over and set me firmly on His solid ground and re-clothe me with His Truth. Though the shaking will surely return from time to time, I believe I have just recently begun the journey of being redressed as the daughter of the King.

The first outfit He is giving me is one of the “right size.” Jesus showed me that I have been wearing clothing way too small for me, for way too long, through a recent dream.

In my dream I was at a water park with a young man from my fellowship named Shalem and a precocious 5 year-old girl with blonde curly hair. For some reason Shalem was in charge of watching over this little girl and I found it very irritating that he was not keeping a better eye on her.

I kept telling him, “She’s getting further ahead, you’d better hurry and catch up to her!” He would respond with, “She’s Ok, just let her go – she’ll be fine.” Finally I couldn’t take it any longer and shouted, “She’s out of sight and you don’t know what’s ahead! Go find her!” Shalem just calmly said, “Really, she’s ok and women always worry about these things. Just let her go and have fun.”

We got to the top of the watery stairway and there below us was a steep waterslide into a huge dark blue pool. We went down the slide and to my horror, the little girl was nowhere to be found. Then I woke up. I felt the dream was significant and thought about it for several days after.

Finally, at the close of a time of worship at our fellowship, it seemed Jesus revealed to me the meaning of this dream. I sensed that I was the bold little girl determined to explore what was ahead. I saw in my mind this little blonde laying on top of the water and her slowly and gently submerging into His “Living Water” where she was blissfully and joyfully swimming with Jesus who knew all along she was indeed “OK.” I realized I needed to let go of this little girl of my past and stop “wearing” her little hats and tiny dresses that cramped my thinking and constricted my freedom to grow into the adult He has made me to be. I needed to be free of all her burdensome baggage, her cumbersome wardrobe, that was weighing me down and entangling my progress. He is fitting me now with clothing that is just the right size – not too big so as to have sound judgment, but also not too small so I can think rightly about my value as His child. [this posting by: Janis]

Morning Thots

New Delhi, India
May 11, 2008

“Careful,” I Keep Telling Myself…

I have been surprised at the impact of culture in our first 9 months here in India.

I did not understand, realize, nor appreciate the depth of culture’s place in my life.

I thought “culture shock,” and cultural adaptation were “head-things,” easily rectified by attitude adjustments. Little did I realize how deep culture goes – both in integration in one’s “home” culture, and in dissonance in a “host” culture.

So, I’m in a stage of cultural adaptation where I must constantly remind myself, “Careful, different – not wrong!” This can vary from experiences such as:
• a dried octopus falling out of a cupboard when I’m rummaging (by permission!) for breakfast and thinking, and then starting to say, “Ooohh, ick!”……
• being shocked at seeing everyone driving on the “wrong” side of the road, and being even more shocked at seeing someone driving on the wrong side of the “wrong” side of the road but no one being surprised, upset or even alarmed by it!……
• wondering at the utter ineptness of craftsmanship when many doors have three different latches – one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom, only one of which lines up and actually secures the door – (not realizing that with extremes of temperature and humidity here, each of the latches works at a different time of the year!)……

So, I have to keep remembering, and reminding myself, “many times it’s different, not wrong.” CL

Morning Sounds

New Delhi, India
early Sunday morning, May 4, 2008

SOUNDS OF SILENCE
(apologies to Simon & Garfunkel)

(But, not really “silence,” maybe, “sounds of quiet?”
Not really “silence,” not even, “quiet,”
…more like, well…
“sounds of quieter” –
“quieter than the sounds of day or evening”)

A vehicle - only one - drives by, sometimes announced by a short horn beep,
sometimes the more usual obnoxious, blaring.

Residents still try to cool off,
• overhead fans and swamp cooler fans drone on,
• A/C compressor motors start, stop, and feast on scarce electricity.

The wind blows gently, sometimes rustling the tree tops of Tikona Park across the street.

A new building being built on the other side of the Park:
• A back hoe excavates, preparing the site,
• bricks are stacked,
• rebar is dropped, grinders cut it, welders weld it,
• cement trucks deliver concrete…
• any time - day or night!

Upstairs Neighbors – When do they sleep???
• A ball bounces, again and again and again… Do they have a disturbed child? Is one of them an insomniac?…or, do they have a computer with a screen saver?
• The interface between marble and the ever-present-in-India plastic chair creates such unusual noises.

Dog(s) bark, growl, snarl, fight.

“Tap, tap, tap,” “thunk, thunk, thunk,” the security guards’ lathi announce rounds - or boredom – each has his own lathi, each lathi has its own unique, resounding tone.

Pedestrians pass by in full – rarely hushed – conversation.

Holidays, celebrations and/or other auspicious events bring…
• Music, Singing, Talking, Crying, Laughing.
• There’s an 11:00 pm noise ordinance…but….

Call to prayer
• Often resembling – unfortunately – the bleat of a “sick cow,” but sometimes a…
• Younger, melodius voice…[We were spoiled by the voice of the Saket muezzin!].

Pigeons coo and battle for place on the air conditioner; birds chirp and sing.

Laughing in Tikona Park…
• The tormented anguish of mentally disturbed? the groan of exercisers stretching?
• No - laughter - not joyous though, evil, sinister - It’s Laughter-Yoga.

The local Madrassa has a daily children’s early morning observance:
• The younger, more melodius muezzin leads,
• The children joyfully repeat in response.

Venders begin calling out their wares:
• Newspapers, vegetables, fruit, garbage pickup, who knows what else?
• …and so begins a day in New Delhi… CL

2-Cup Showers

The 2-Cup Shower
Because of the method of water delivery, and chronic water shortages, everyone has these basic tools in their bathrooms – a bucket, a large bin for storing water, and a pour cup. The pour cup holds about 2-cups (16 ounces).

Water is pumped through the supply lines only at certain times of the day. When the water is on, each building has to use their own booster pump to pump the water to large black storage tanks on the roofs. When occupants of a building use their stored water before the next supply time, that’s when the contents of the storage bin must be used.

Because of weather variations, poor infrastructure and large, unregulated movement to the metropolitan areas like Delhi, water supplies are increasingly not enough. Hence, even when water is scheduled to be available, more and more often it is not.

Hence the 2-Cup shower…

For some, this means, wet, soap, wash and rinse with the contents of two pour cups. For others who are even more frugal, it means completely showering with the contents of just one 16-ounce cup of water! And we are careful to collect the “brown water” for use in flushing the toilets.