From Bruce's journal, photos by Eric...
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Tuesday, January 22
I mentioned Pastor Daniel Preuss who heads a Missouri Synod organization that oversees all of the day schools in the Synod. The Moriah Home had a sendoff for him in the morning, a program of songs, bible recitations and dances that lasted an hour. It was impressive because the entire "student body" of children of about 350 was neatly arranged in a rather crowded space outside the front door but under shelter from the sun. I had to be creative in getting camera angles for the videotape.
In the afternoon Eric and I were taken on a drive to see and record information about some churches to the southwest. We were accompanied by Pastor Zachariah and a driver. We saw three churches and one site dedicated to future construction. In each case the local pastor had been alerted so we were invited to share a round of 7-Up or similar beverage. It would have been frustrating if we were focused on covering as many churches in as little time as possible.
My job at each site was simple: photograph the church and parsonage from all directions with extra photos of any area that needs repairs, photograph and pastor and his wife if available, and take GPS readings.
Land here is given out by the India government in 30 x 30 foot parcels or "cents." A cent is 100 square meters. To get the land you need to say how you will use it and a church is a perfectly fine use. If you have such an option, there is usually a time limit to move ahead or you lose the option. Some people who have acquired such land decide to sell it so there is a normal market in real estate.
Eric's job was more difficult. He is working from a list of requests from congregations and needed to examine the buildings and discuss repairs or expansions with the pastor.
The result of all this is to assemble a Facilities Directory and make recommendations to the BFLC Directors about capital improvements. They will have the option of either appealing for funds from the US churches or making it more personal by suggesting that congregations (or individuals) accept the responsibility of funding a specific church.
Tuesday's drive took us on an Indian freeway, the main road from Calcutta to Madras. It is two lane each way with a substantial divider between the directions. It is not limited access and the breaks in the divider do not always occur at places where side roads have access. Indian drivers are creative and have come up with solution to the lane divider problem that US drivers have yet to stumble on. If you approach from a side road and want to turn left, instead of turning right and driving to the first break in the divider to reverse direction, they drive the wrong way into oncoming traffic until the reach the break, and then slip through into the lanes going the way they want! I don't mean that they wait until there is no traffic, they plunge in with thick traffic and honking horns. What was two lanes in one direction momentarily become one lane in each direction and they adapt.
In the examble above I have reversed right and left. Indians drive on the left.
Eric and I are now the only guests at the Moriah Home. Karuna has a cold which may be moving into complications so we are trying to simplify her life.
Wednesday, Jan 23
After checking on our lost luggage, we decided to continue visiting churches. The luggage, by the way, was located in Bombay in the hands of Air India. Later in the day we got a message that the bags had reached the airport in Hyderabad and we could go and get them (six hours each way on the train). Eric conferred with Paul, now at home in Plymouth, and the decision was to send someone to get them today.
Back to the visits. We were encouraged by our progress on Tuesday and departed earlier (10 am) with Zachariah and driver to cover the churches to the south. We were joined by a local pastor who supervises 8 churches in the area. We covered all 8 churches and were back at the Moriah Home by 6 pm. The local pastor was present in most cases. One served us a lunch at about 2:30.
Lunch here is much the same as dinner: lots of white rice, chicken wings and drumsticks in a curry sauce, and a little vegetable. There is always a banana. Local bananas are half the length of ours so one is a modest serving. They want you to eat four or five, of course. Today's lunch was garnished by a green pepper puree and small cubes of potato, also in a sauce. (somehow the next sentence should describe the wine!)
The region that we visited today has lush agricultural land with prosperous plantations of tobacco, peanuts and corn. We also saw red tomales and know that they grow green peppers. We were only about 5 miles from the Bay of Bengal. At the church stop we were told that the entire area was flooded by the tsunami. The salt water was not deep but the crops were devastated.
In the midst of all this, we saw three large engineering colleges. This were big sprawling buildings that looked western. Why out here? The land is cheaper and there is no place to party. However, the presence of the new colleges was raising the land values -- and we should act fast!
Another bit of local lore that I learned from Eric yesterday is that few cities have city water. People have big tanks on their roofs and a water truck passes by regularly and pumps water up to it. This means that water conservation is a personal issue, not a community issue. We saw some water purification plants and the beginnings of municipal water management, but it will take years.
We are home and find Karuna no better. She has had a headache all day. At Paul's suggestion, Zachariah took her to the clinic where she had an x-ray which revealed an infection on a lung. She is on medication for a few days with the expectation that she will be hospitalized if the medication doesn't work. Susan, you should put her on the prayer chain.
With all this in mind, Eric and I checked out a modest hotel for the 6 of us, once the Columbus four arrive. It seemed to be perfectly adequate, a mile or two from the Seminary. However, that would bring up a transportation problem as the walk is not through the tulips. A double room is $38 a night which is affordable if everyone is paying their own way. The bathroom is almost European with a flush toilet and a shower that shares the floor with the rest of the room. The hotel has a dining room.
We are getting into more detailed planning of our trip to Madras to meet the others. We will leave on the train on Saturday, stay two nights in lodging half way up "St. Thomas Mount" and return by train on Monday. One interesting problem: the local language is Tamil and no one at the Seminary knows Tamil! They are trying to pick to right local person to accompany us. It will be funny if English is the only common language and we have to be the interpreters!
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Tuesday, January 22
I mentioned Pastor Daniel Preuss who heads a Missouri Synod organization that oversees all of the day schools in the Synod. The Moriah Home had a sendoff for him in the morning, a program of songs, bible recitations and dances that lasted an hour. It was impressive because the entire "student body" of children of about 350 was neatly arranged in a rather crowded space outside the front door but under shelter from the sun. I had to be creative in getting camera angles for the videotape.
In the afternoon Eric and I were taken on a drive to see and record information about some churches to the southwest. We were accompanied by Pastor Zachariah and a driver. We saw three churches and one site dedicated to future construction. In each case the local pastor had been alerted so we were invited to share a round of 7-Up or similar beverage. It would have been frustrating if we were focused on covering as many churches in as little time as possible.
My job at each site was simple: photograph the church and parsonage from all directions with extra photos of any area that needs repairs, photograph and pastor and his wife if available, and take GPS readings.Land here is given out by the India government in 30 x 30 foot parcels or "cents." A cent is 100 square meters. To get the land you need to say how you will use it and a church is a perfectly fine use. If you have such an option, there is usually a time limit to move ahead or you lose the option. Some people who have acquired such land decide to sell it so there is a normal market in real estate.
Eric's job was more difficult. He is working from a list of requests from congregations and needed to examine the buildings and discuss repairs or expansions with the pastor.
The result of all this is to assemble a Facilities Directory and make recommendations to the BFLC Directors about capital improvements. They will have the option of either appealing for funds from the US churches or making it more personal by suggesting that congregations (or individuals) accept the responsibility of funding a specific church.
Tuesday's drive took us on an Indian freeway, the main road from Calcutta to Madras. It is two lane each way with a substantial divider between the directions. It is not limited access and the breaks in the divider do not always occur at places where side roads have access. Indian drivers are creative and have come up with solution to the lane divider problem that US drivers have yet to stumble on. If you approach from a side road and want to turn left, instead of turning right and driving to the first break in the divider to reverse direction, they drive the wrong way into oncoming traffic until the reach the break, and then slip through into the lanes going the way they want! I don't mean that they wait until there is no traffic, they plunge in with thick traffic and honking horns. What was two lanes in one direction momentarily become one lane in each direction and they adapt.
In the examble above I have reversed right and left. Indians drive on the left.
Eric and I are now the only guests at the Moriah Home. Karuna has a cold which may be moving into complications so we are trying to simplify her life.
Wednesday, Jan 23
After checking on our lost luggage, we decided to continue visiting churches. The luggage, by the way, was located in Bombay in the hands of Air India. Later in the day we got a message that the bags had reached the airport in Hyderabad and we could go and get them (six hours each way on the train). Eric conferred with Paul, now at home in Plymouth, and the decision was to send someone to get them today.
Back to the visits. We were encouraged by our progress on Tuesday and departed earlier (10 am) with Zachariah and driver to cover the churches to the south. We were joined by a local pastor who supervises 8 churches in the area. We covered all 8 churches and were back at the Moriah Home by 6 pm. The local pastor was present in most cases. One served us a lunch at about 2:30.Lunch here is much the same as dinner: lots of white rice, chicken wings and drumsticks in a curry sauce, and a little vegetable. There is always a banana. Local bananas are half the length of ours so one is a modest serving. They want you to eat four or five, of course. Today's lunch was garnished by a green pepper puree and small cubes of potato, also in a sauce. (somehow the next sentence should describe the wine!)
The region that we visited today has lush agricultural land with prosperous plantations of tobacco, peanuts and corn. We also saw red tomales and know that they grow green peppers. We were only about 5 miles from the Bay of Bengal. At the church stop we were told that the entire area was flooded by the tsunami. The salt water was not deep but the crops were devastated.
In the midst of all this, we saw three large engineering colleges. This were big sprawling buildings that looked western. Why out here? The land is cheaper and there is no place to party. However, the presence of the new colleges was raising the land values -- and we should act fast!
Another bit of local lore that I learned from Eric yesterday is that few cities have city water. People have big tanks on their roofs and a water truck passes by regularly and pumps water up to it. This means that water conservation is a personal issue, not a community issue. We saw some water purification plants and the beginnings of municipal water management, but it will take years.
We are home and find Karuna no better. She has had a headache all day. At Paul's suggestion, Zachariah took her to the clinic where she had an x-ray which revealed an infection on a lung. She is on medication for a few days with the expectation that she will be hospitalized if the medication doesn't work. Susan, you should put her on the prayer chain.
With all this in mind, Eric and I checked out a modest hotel for the 6 of us, once the Columbus four arrive. It seemed to be perfectly adequate, a mile or two from the Seminary. However, that would bring up a transportation problem as the walk is not through the tulips. A double room is $38 a night which is affordable if everyone is paying their own way. The bathroom is almost European with a flush toilet and a shower that shares the floor with the rest of the room. The hotel has a dining room.
We are getting into more detailed planning of our trip to Madras to meet the others. We will leave on the train on Saturday, stay two nights in lodging half way up "St. Thomas Mount" and return by train on Monday. One interesting problem: the local language is Tamil and no one at the Seminary knows Tamil! They are trying to pick to right local person to accompany us. It will be funny if English is the only common language and we have to be the interpreters!
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