Some lessons learnt from India. In chronological order:

1. Listen for the Lord at all times. Also: wait on Him. A great way to not do everything the hard way.
   
   1. Give thanks at all times, it truly could be way worse
   2. Bless all food and drink you consume.
2. Almost never go with the first option.
   
   1. Especially if it is in a main area [tourist market] Infact, don't ever buy from there there is a way way cheaper to get the exact copy one block away.
3. Do not wear white. You can't even keep it clean in the west, what are you thinking.
4. Rules concerning trains
   1. Book at least one day in advance, normally it is best to just goto the train station. Cleartrip.com is ok if you can get a seat tho normally you need to book a good few days in advance as the stations reserve lots of tickets and thus waitlists are longer online.
   2. Which berth to get. (Always assuming you only travel SL) Going upper for sleeper give you way more privacy and means you get to sleep whenever you want. The only down side is you have to sacrifice some space if you want to keep your luggage in hand. The bottom sleeper is more social, but you have to wait till night to sleep, as people will all share and sit there. The middle is just crap.
   3. Night trains are best. Also stick to traveling only about 12 hours max. Else the following night traveling pro's and con's merge.
      • Pros - way way less hassle from people (trannys etc), get a 'free' night accommodation, you dont have to worry about getting up on time to make it to the station. You also don't waste a day traveling and don't have to look for a hotel at dusk.
      • Cons - Less good views, though you normally get some. (This is normally not a big deal as might you will sleep in the day anyway) Have to carry around luggage most of the day if you can't store it at your hotel after checkout. (Though you normally can find someplace thats ok with this)
5. Always check things before you walk away
   1. Do not just pretend to count your change, do it properly. Also add up menu items yourself. You will save lots of money in the long run. Also it is kind of expected.
   2. Make sure to check the seal on your water as soon as it is handed to you.
   3. Do not touch the bottle with your lips. Most things sit around in a shop before they are sold and everything has been transported in a dusty truck for days. This means that most things will be covered in some form of rat, cow or miscellaneous urine. Let alone other crasy things.
   • Some interesting water advice, Water is quite dependent on your weather and location conditions, make sure you always asses them. If it is very hot, but you know you are in water buying proximity, wait till you get thirsty, then you can enjoy lots of delicious cold cold water all at once. 
   • Side note: If you are in a house with a fridge, go right now and put a bottle of water in there, once chilled, pour yourself a big cup and drink at your pleasure. Perhaps you will never know how amazing that is, but try, or if you do, remember. Do this now for my sake. This is truly an overlooked luxury of life.
6. Mosquitoes, if you have a room with an external door or window, it is best to never air or vent your room. Also keep your bathroom door shut if there is a window too. Restricting insect access is of the highest priority. This of course is also quite weather (season), location and window mesh (tho this normally sucks) dependent. Either way make sure to keep repellent close to your bed.
7. If you do not know where you are going, it is really hard going anywhere. You end up at night at lonely abandoned places. An end goal is essential. Although this rule is not always true, I will say it perhaps is my prefrence now. It could be seen as opposite the spirit of adventure, but I disagree. (Thus have finally included in it my rule list)
8. Always settle a price before hand. You lose all bargaining power after you have received goods or services (but are still yet to pay). They simply will not barter. You also lose some of the most powerful techniques, such as the walk out and the feign interest.
9. Be careful of the '1rs scam'. this is where something at first sounds reasonable but then quickly and most dangerously escalates in price without an easily discernible warning or notice. To spot this scam is simple really, basically check if the service price sounds reasonable. If so, well there you have it, the 1rs scam in sight. For example, a 10rs head and neck massage is a common offer on the bank of the Ganges, though this will quickly lead to shoulders, lower back, arms etc etc, it is very hard to know when one stops and the other begins... then all of a sudden... bam! '500rs please, you just had the full treatment'.
   • Scams, dont fall for them, they make life expensive.
   • Note: this scam is an exploitation of the rule 8 principal. As you receive a service (albeit unknowingly) without first a settled price.
   • Side Note: I did have my first ass massage during a similar, tho less expensive, experience.

so i was going to write again about my recent adventures, tell you about the funny things that have happened recently, things like finding my shower taps in bodhgaya mildly electrified or recounting tales of gypsy encounters whilst camping in a bear forest in the kashmere' mountains. But this time i decided against another round of story telling. Instead, rather than presenting recent events, i will present recent thoughts. Here goes:

ok sorry, this is a bit of a let down, as i actually wont be presenting recent thoughts..... i kinda never finished writing them. This is what has led to the delay in all posting related activities. so i have benched that idea and will proceed with the small talk stuff.

it is getting cold here. Himalayan winter type cold. a few months back i was in Varanasi. then i traveled by various modes of transport up to Leh. thats quite far away. Rainy time is a hard time of year to travel up that way. anyway, now i am back in Kathmandu. the cold place. we harvested some rice and we made a building.

recently some western people were talking to some other western people in another place. about giving. one person was like 'man people dont like giving money, tell them to give things instead, thats way easier and better'. here is how i feel about this: is the stigma regarding giving money so huge? like 'we cannot give you money since we dont really trust you, i bet you are just a fat guy in an office lounging back smoking two cigars at once, or wait, perhaps you are just so so poor that you will just waste it since you are also uneducated. wow i know, how about take our crap instead eh. i once bought this thing to fulfill my life and now only the new thing will, so here, take my left overs. when i think of giving stuff that wont affect me i dont consider my former opinions or even your conditions so much....'

ok sidetracked a little. so anyway people ask, what can we send you? like stuff wise? i reply, awesome! the things we need are food, clean water, shelter, education and love. here is our po box number.... like really, you thought it was your wall mart dvd player that we need?

anyway, i have a quiet two weeks here till cherie and catherine arrive to check out the place for a bit. i should get around to finishing my other post thing. perhaps it can be a little less cynical.

So I was going to write about a supermarket experience that surprised me in Nepal, which I thought was a good story.. well, not really a story.. I guess it would be if I told it in person, but in writing form its more of a few sentences. But then, here in Varanasi, it was one-upped. Let me start from the Nepal end of this story, so I was shopping for tea with my buddy Dev and we were just passing through the spices section.. looking at all the different seeds and things, cardamom, cumin... a whole bunch of other random ones, then, what, what is this? pot! they sell pot seeds at the supermarket! I though that was amusing. But then, onto part two, while walking the streets here in Varanasi I find government run weeds shops! Established here to be the official suppliers for the shiva priests, whose deal it is to smoke up all day. Since this is a 'holy' city there is a ton of em. Now I find this difficult to even begin to comment on, so ill leave it there and move on. Ahh how about a short recollection of a funny awesome only in India moment?

So I was just a stones throw from the border (Nepal side), after two quick bus rides down from Tansen (ok actually this is a Nepali story, same same but different eh) and I needed to jump into a jeep to make the last couple km's to the crossing. So I pile onto this tiny, overcrowded, doorless 80's style safari looking thing, managing by the grace of God to get the front seat. That means with my bag on my lap, I could luxuriously hang my legs out the part where the door is ment to be and finally get some stretching time. So yer anyway, it was me, some other guy and the driver in the front, with quite possibly 100 tiny black guys jammed into the back somewhere somehow. So we were off. Good so far right, tho a fairly standard situation. The amusing part was when we stopped 100 meters or so up the road and the driver jumps out and some other dude piles in. 'Oh, a driver change' I naively think to myself. Now I am quite accustomed to the transport overloading which is common here, quite often I take busses where the only space I get is a 6 inch slab of room on the foot rail outside the door and half a hand grip on the inside railing. But when the driver of this jeep slid one foot back in and reached over the passenger in his seat to change gear I could not help but laugh. It is one of those things I should of taken a photo of, but alas, space was scarce and I could not reach my camera. Though it is worth trying to picture this. The driver fully outside the jeep, with his arms and legs sticking around this guy, trying to control the thing as we careen down a muddy path in the scant border town of Sunali. Perhaps invision a cow or two standing round in the background somewhere too. Ahhhh classic. And so with this amusing memory I said good bye to Nepal with a great smile. See you again in September I say.

So anyway, as you guessed from above somewhere, I am now in Varanasi. Quite lovely I must admit. Sunny and rainy and quite hot. Perhaps every hour or so it rains heavly for 3-4 minutes. Then pow, sun again! With a touch of cloud thrown in for good measure. Tho I forgot how suck and kinda funny it is to just lie down to sleep and pow pow, power cut, ah ha! and you thought you were going to sleep?! you cannot repress a giggle as the fan slowly spins down and the sweat instantly begins to build... Ahh how reminiscent of Culcutta. Ah so anyway, I don't really know what I am doing now. Just finishing an awesome lecture series on Habakkuk from Matt Chandler while reading an awesome book, which I will talk about in a minute.
In regards to plans for the next few weeks, well I have a Church contact in Dehli sent by my little brother and one in Leh, so at the moment it looks like in a week or so I am heading that way.

Regarding Varanasi, it has all worked out quite well here so far, came directly to an awesome little cheap lodge in old city. No walking around aimlessly for hours which was a first for me. They also have two zones of power in the building, so when there is load shedding in my room, I can just whip down to the ground floor and the fans there are still going. In Nepal there was one book I really really wanted to read, but each time I went to buy it I never ended up doing so. Particularly because I was also so 'busy' at Compassion, but also the time was never quite practical. Anyway, it was on the top of my 'ill read this guy next' list. And what do I find when I look in the little collection of the 5 or so english books tucked away in the reception here? Thats right, a copy with over 98% of the pages intact. Thankyou Lord. So yes, ill be taking that directly to the rooftop to commence reading, along with a nice cup of chai of course.

Ps. This photo is dedicated to Grg, Dinz and Mck for their lovely pic last week.


Currently reading: Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Yesterday we (Dev and I) broke our shopping record. We managed to carry 86kg of veg home together on the bike. I think we can break 100, but needless to say, that last trip was hard, painful and dangerous enough. 

On a side note, I read this today:

"The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising." - Leonard Ravenhill

Is this the generation quotes like this will cease? Can it be? Can we hasten His coming?

For those that requested an update, here is a short one: Took a train. Drank lots of tea in Darjeeling. Travelled in many different vehicles. Had a little Giardia. Played some soccer. Now at Compassion Nepal Orphanage. Doing some work. :)

I have been playing lots of cricket. There have been elections in India recently so all the schools (at least here) closed for 10 days. So we play 1-4 games of cricket each day. Depending on the heat. Otherwise its scram (the indoor, under the fans, alternative), which is basically pool, but with little discs that you flick with your fingers on a one meter square table.

Ahhh snakes! We see about one a week here. The biggest the kids have killed (that ive see) is about a foot long. Though 2 nights ago there was an appearance of the mother, which was reported by very credible sources, to be 2-3 meters in length. They threw cleaning acid on it and it slithered away into the night. Rajesh, the manager guy, has some nice burns on his hands to show from the whole escapade.

In rain news. We had the first of the season a few weeks back. It was awesome and unexpected. After 3 or so weeks here, not seeing a drop of rain, and after a particularly hot day, it was very awesome to see the beginning of the rains. Epic was almost an appropriate word. It hit at about 8.30pm, just after dark, but for the first hour or so there was lightning every 3-4 seconds, amidst the super heavy rain. Only once was the thunder scary. I thought a plane had crashed in the yard it was so loud and long. Enough to set my heart pumping as I lay in my little mosquito net encased bed.

In other exciting news I had my first ring worm, there should be a pic of it below, its the thing on my foot. Good thing that it is common enough that cream to fix it was 10rs (about 30 cents), very danger!

Ahh Load shedding just hit. Power is a little shaky out here. Tho we prolly get a good 16 hours a day. Although in saying that they usually 'shed the load' at peak times. Which makes it a little more suck, for example: if dinner at 8 gets delayed, chances are halfway through the meal the lights will go out. This can be difficult. Lucky eating with your hands allow the advantage over utensils of knowing exactly where you food is. This is of course until one of the boys runs out to fire up the generator. Another lovely side effect of high load days you end up drenching your bed in sweat until the power comes back on at midnight ish and the fans kick in again.

I was asked this question in an email, so thought I would share the answer, as it was a cool day:

'i don't know what Indian people do for Easter but happy Jesus' re-birthday, oh, what do they do?'

I was in the orphanage here over Easter, so here, this is what we did: It was a little Church service. With one kid reading one of the last words of Jesus, then saying a few words about it, for each of the seven (i think its seven) things He says while hanging on the cross. After each reading we sung a song or two. 

Mix this up with a whole bunch of prayer and some more singing all in fancy clothes (the pink ones). Thats my experience of Indian Jesus' re-birthday. Oh they also had meat for lunch. oh and we fasted until the hour of Jesus death (which worked out to be 3pm, so perhaps I didn't understand what we were fasting until, anyway, it was a late lunch with no breakfast). It was all actually pretty cool.

So this is my last night here at the House of Hope Boys Home. I am off to see the Davies tomorrow. (Yes I am writing this late, as at the time of posting they are already here) Yay!

Currently reading: 

Jeremiah

The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky