More Photos

We have a letter coming out and were going to include more photos, but ran into huge demands on memory - computer, that is!

So we thought we would post them here instead of overload the letter.

Just a note of correction on the previous post - Janis and I are not sitting in front of Humayan's Tomb. The building behind us is another of the many tomb sites. Here is Humayan's Tomb:








There are so many ruins all around Delhi. Here's a view of one of the tombs partially surrounded by a decaying stone wall:




And an exquisite entryway with a dilapidated wall abutting it:









After visiting Humayan's Tomb, we went to our favorite art store in Delhi. Just outside the store, a young man and woman had just gotten engaged. Here she is having henna painted on her hands:

Breath of Fresh Air

We stood in an open archway that had been built hundreds of years ago. It was part of a vast construction housing a tomb built by the wife of Humayan, one of the latter Mughal Emperors, to commemorate her husband's death. At one time the area was known as the hallway of the Mughals because there were so many other Mughal (Muslims, tracing their lineage to the Mongols) tombs.

It was hot, perhaps high nineties, low hundreds, Farenheit. And, with summer time temperatures in Delhi, it was typically quite humid. On this adventure, I actually think Janis was beginning to enter the early stages of heat exhaustion. Her face was uncharacteristically flushed. But, as we stepped into the archway, there was a unexpected current of cool air. It was a welcome relief from the heat.

In this open archway, the cool air was present only in a small space of perhaps five feet by five feet. Take a step in any direction beyond that small area and there was no cool air. I was thinking about this breathe of fresh air in a house of death, wondering, "Is there some correlation between this experience and life in Christ, especially as we go about in this world?" Hmmm....

Below are some photos from the Humayan Tomb complex:



These two young men were very anxious to have their picture taken before this entry to one of the many tombs.



This is an example of one of the other tombs on the Humayan Tomb site.



Here is the previous tomb viewed from outside a surrounding wall. At one time, this entire enclave held a small Islamic village.




Islamic art usually prohibits representations of people or objects, therefore designs are common. This is an interior dome of one of the tombs.



Viewed from the courtyard of the Humayan Tomb, this is a mosque in use today.





Janis and Chuck in front of Humayan's Tomb. This Tomb was built over a 100 years before the Taj Mahal, but was a direct influence on the architecture of the Taj.



Sunneye Phillips, a friend from Mosaic, stayed with us this weekend and visited the Tomb with us.

Back in Language Classes

Language Classes
This week marks our return to Language Classes. Janis will be in a class reviewing what we've learned so far, I (Chuck) will be in the Intermediate Beginner class (which is going to be a mighty stretch for me!)

Weekend Retreat
Last weekend we attended the first ever East West Educational Foundation Annual Retreat. The speaker told us that his great grandfather was born a Muslim in Iran, but grew disenchanted with economic limitations and religious issues, so moved to Afghanistan where his great grandfather raised his grandfather as a Hindu.

His grandfather grew up as a Hindu in Afghanistan, However, due to disenchantment with economic limitations and religious issues moved to Pakistan, where he raised the speaker's father as a Sikh.

So, the speaker grew up in Pakistan as a Sikh, but because of economic limitations and religious issues, he moved to India where he now has become a Christ-follower! Some might say, "Only in India!"

Delhi Belly and other ill-health
Well, I (Chuck) have finally succumbed to the infamous, "Delhi Belly"! After three weeks of travel in India last summer, several days in India last Fall, and almost a month here this time, I came down with the symptoms. Following several days of trying to ward off the nasty little bugs inside, I took some medication to bring them back under control. Hopefully, this means my system is now more immune to the resident intestinal microbes :).

This happened just before leaving for the retreat. While at the retreat, both Janis and I came down with sore throats. The warm, moist air is such a perfect breeding ground for such things.

Speaking of "Moist"
I brought some Airborne with us in case we should encounter the sore throat, runny noise, cough issues. Because I was battling these symptoms, I took an Airborne from the container and set it on my plate while I went to get a cup of water to place it in. When I came back, the Airborne tablet had already begun fizzing from the humidity in the air!

Relationships
Janis' natural friendliness is producing a wealth of opportunities for her to share her Hindi - two neighbor ladies, two High School aged girls in the local marketplace, and two young adults at the nearby Coffee Day!

We've also had a number of visitors from the States already, with two more scheduled for this week, and another possibility next week. It's genuine, please feel free to contact us about you visiting!

A Change of Pace

This week, things have changed a bit. We're not in language learning. But here's a picture of Janis and I with our our language tutor last week - Shammi Kapoor.



The Language Institute is in the midst of moving to a more stable facility, plus last week was the final week of Summer Intensives in preparation for Fall Semester which begins August 6.

I (Chuck) have been helping in getting settled in the new facility at the YMCA in Nizamuddin. This YMCA site has been undergoing significant renovation as the Y concentrates many of its educational programs at this site. Because East West is focused on cross-cultural education, it has proved to be a providential fit for both sides.

Because of the threatened sealing last Fall and again this June, the Language Institute's supplies and furnishings have been scattered in temporary storage around the city. It has been quite an effort to re-gather them and put them in some sense of order in this new setting. We have another two days to prepare, then everyone assembles for the first annual East West Retreat to be held at our International School in the YMCA in Greater Noida, a satellite city to the South East of Delhi.

Janis has been using this week to get some things settled in our flat and to meet with Sarah Hivner, one of our INSIGHT students this past year, who was also Janis' substitute Art Teacher when she was away from Pasadena. Sarah was visiting India for a couple weeks this summer seeing friends and volunteering at an Ashram just North of Delhi.

One of the things we do a lot of is walk to the shopping areas. Below are some pictures of one of the parks we walk through. This park is often used in late afternoons and early evenings by young boys playing cricket. Each block in our area has at least one park which people seem to enjoy using especially in the evenings.

Week 3.5

Acclimatization
The jet lag symptoms are basically over and we're on a fairly regular sleep cycle now. That helps. Not so much fatigue which can make everything else more dramatic and challenging.

We've been managing public transportation well on our own. Only a few times when we've paid more than we should. I've actually been keeping a log of costs from place to place and have begun to get a sense of how much a ride should cost. That also helps.

The heat is still difficult, especially with the humidity. There are breaks occasionally, but Janis is feeling this is the biggest challenge for her so far.

Acculturation
We visited the Qutb Minar yesterday afternoon. A strange architectual mix of Muslim, Hindu and other influences. There are sevel stories about this structure. Whichever is correct, it remains an impressive structure within an impressive area. The Qutb Minar is essentially an Islamic structure, but contrary to all Islamic principles, images - not geometric shapes - are all over the structures. In many respects, this represents the deeply complex nature of Indian society. There are some principles that apply, but there's always exceptions.

We also visited a Hindi speaking church yesterday. The pastor and his wife are a couple we met last summer and have stayed in contact with over the year. Unfortunately, it is quite a distance away from where we live. We suspect they would like us to become involved in their fellowship, but we have reservations with the distance and uncertainties of what our responsibilities will entail on a week-by-week basis. Still, it was a wonderful experience...and we actually understood some of the Hindi from time to time. He asked me to give a 10-15 minute testimony, that I started in my rudimentary Hindi!

Learning
Today begins week three of language learning - the first week with Intensive Hindi 1, last week and this week with 1:2 tutoring. Challenging, stretching, but actually beginning to see a little progress. We were informed last night that if we kept up at the pace we are currently on, typically in two years we could expect to be fluent in Hindi!

This week will be full. In addition to tutoring we will: visit the site of the International School (MDIS) today; I will return to the YMCA site in Nizamuddin where the Language Insititute and EWEF Offices may be relocating; host our first guest from the US (a friend of our daughter, Heather. We did have a guest for 4 days last week, but he is the one who has been orienting us in EWEF); we may get a visit to our flat from an Indian family we met in the bazaar whose son is scheduled to begin a Master's program at USC this fall; and we're supposed to meet with two couples we met last summer who are cross cultural workers here and who will be members of our accountability team.

Namaste!

We arrived lated PM July 3 in Delhi, by the time we actually got to our flat it was early AM on the 4th. We were hoping to just rest, but I ended up doing some things with EWEF and Janis and I had a number of things to do before Intensive Hindi classes began on Monday, July 9. But...it takes a long time to do anything in India! We weren't able to complete everything, and, in fact, the list of things to do actually got longer.

One of the complicating factors is the type of visa I have requires registering with the Foreign Registration Office. For any with experience with this Office, the typical phrase is, "Come back tomorrow." This can be very frustrating when you have other obligations or things to do. However, we ended up "coming back tomorrow" three times for a total of four trips to the FRRO Office.

During those four days and four trips, we had the opportunity to pray for many people with many complicated circumstances. Some missed flights because of "come back tomorrow." For those who have taken Perspectives, this is a real-life "Newlander" experience. Newlander exists!

We could have gotten frustrated but Paul Gillette, our host, was a model of how important it is to stay calm and pray about the obstacle. This, in fact, may have been the reason God had us return the 4th time. We were five minutes away from completing registration on the 3rd try when the power went off. No auto-save features on the FRRO computers! It was already at the end of the day, so the attendant said with a smile, "Come back tomorrow."

As we were waiting, again, on the 4th day, after about an hour an older gentleman struck up a conversation with Paul. This man was quite frustrated. He was from Washington D.C., but his ancestors were from India. He had come to India to get acquainted with his roots, but had stayed beyond the time limit of his visa so was caught in a bureaucratic tangle. Needless to say, he was quite frustrated. He said there was nothing left to do.

Paul replied, "You could pray." The man said his prayers were never answered. Paul replied again, "Maybe you're praying to the wrong god." Pretty bold, huh!? especially in a government office in India! The man quickly moved away - he had been quite interested in talking about complaints, and even about spiritual things, until the conversation turned to prayer.

However, within minutes of him moving away, a clerk came over to us and said he would take care of our registration - which he did. As Janis walked by the man from the US with Indian origins, he said, "Looks like God does answer prayer!"

Yes, He does. Thanks for praying for us during these past six weeks. Here are a few pictures of our Hindi class, the inside of our flat, and one of the local shopping area.





Here we are with Geeta Rai, the senior Hindi instructor and our teacher for the first week.



This is Shamim, a new teacher at East West Language Institute. His specialty is Urdu. He sat in on the first week of class as an observer, learning teaching methods from Geeta.



These are our class mates. Janis and I had been in India 5 days. The others had been there 1 1/2 and 9 years! We are like babies learning the sounds, much less the language!



Our kitchen.






Our dining room.



Our living room.





Our spare room. If you visit in the first 7 months, this may be where you would sleep.



Our bedroom.





This is one of the entrances to a local shopping area.



No telling what you can buy in India!

Intense!

An Intense Month and a Half...
June and these first days of July have been quite intense.

We left Pasadena on June 1st and traveled to Nevada, Central and Northern California, Oregon, Washington, back into Oregon, and finished in Watsonville (near Santa Cruz), CA before driving back to spend one night with our son, Brandon, in San Juan Capistrano. We flew out of LAX at 1:05 am July 2nd.

Here are some of the people we saw during the month of June: