Maharastra - Part 1

Well, I'm back in Delhi, and wow. What an experience! Instead of trying to cram it all into one blog post, I'm going to spread it out over two. Check back tomorrow for the second installment.

So, as I said in my previous post, we left rather suddenly for Maharastra on July 24. I was right about flying there, I was wrong about exactly where we were going. We actually went to Nagpur, which is almost smack in the middle of the country. From there, our travels took us south to Yavatmal, where we spent most of our time.

In pure Indian fashion, I almost never had any idea what I would be up to on any given day. Most of the time, our journeys to villages, schools, ministries, etc. began with Sunil coming into the room and saying, "Ok, let's go." I would follow him to the car, having no idea just where we might end up.

The end of the wedding ceremony.

For example, I had some vague notion that there was a wedding happening at some point. Little did I know that it would be our very first stop upon landing in Nagpur! We pulled up to the building, and were ushered up to the front of the ceremony. There I was, in a t-shirt and jeans, sitting at the front with everyone staring at me. Awkward. Haha...

As we continued on our journey, we stopped to eat at a really sketchy roadside "restaurant." the food was actually pretty tasty. But I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried when Sunil ended his prayer with, "And don't let Barry get any diseases from the food. Amen." It was one of many moments where I laughed to myself and thought, "How in the world did I end up here???"

The Head Chef and Sous Chef hard at work... Haha!

Driving in rural India is quite the experience. Beautiful countryside, scenic vistas, and screaming two ton trucks roaring by just three inches away from your head. With signs on the road such as "Be safe than never!" "This is road, not Aerostrip!" and the slightly ominous "Death rides the fast car.", I couldn't help but tense up a bit with the closest of the close calls.

Most of the cities and villages we visited had a similar look and feel to each other. Very green, very rural, but still very dirty. Everywhere you look you can see cows lying in the road, goats wandering the streets and enough stray dogs to make Bob Barker weep.

Some cows. Just chillin. In the road.

We spent our nights at the guesthouse for a ministry called Dinbandhu ("Friend of the Poor"). It is a church-planting ministry that Sunil helped start and is now run by his brother Nitin and sister Smita. Very cool place. Though it started in Yavatmal, it has now spread to Wardha and Nagpur, and has reached thousands upon thousands of people in the area.

One of the practical extensions of Dinbandhu is a techincal training school for young men. It is a center to teach 16-20 year old tribal-caste boys practical life skills like welding, electrical wiring and computers. This is where I spent my third day.

Sunil's brother-in-law, who runs the school, took me out there via motorcycle, dropped me off, gave me a tour and basically said, "This is where you'll spend the day. I will be back in the afternoon." Then, he got back on the bike and was gone.

So there I was, surrounded by a bunch of teenage guys who didn't speak a lick of English (except one, who followed me around the entire time because he wanted to practice). We chatted for a while about everything from movies to dancing to sports. Mostly they just stared at me.

When I got here, they told me that staring is an
appropriate way to gather information. Apparently so.

Eventually I got to sit in one of their classes and have lunch with the boys. Afterwards, we climbed a nearby "mountain," then hiked across a river to a village down the road. Ended up being a pretty fun day. But there was one moment that I just have to share...

Before class began, one of the students got up to read a Bible verse and pray for a devotional (most of the new guys aren't Christians). He stood in the front and boldly proclaimed Mark 5:9. "Then Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' 'My name is Legion,' he replied, 'for we are many.'" Let's pray.

I don't know about you, but it left me good and truly blessed... :)

Well, I'll write more tomorrow. If you are interested in seeing all the pictures of my India trip (with comments added), click here. Or, if you are just interested in the ones from my Maharastra trip, those start here. See ya!