Trip and 1st days in India

We left Jacksonville, FL at 10 am on 6-15-10. First stop Atlanta, next stop was Paris, France and we finally arrived in Mumbai, India on 6-16-10 at 2 pm EST (midnight in India). 32 total hours. International travel is not as glamourous as you might think! AirFrance flight was great; all the baquettes you could eat :) We were exhausted but excited to get to the Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai. It was amazing. So modern and beautiful inside. The outside, however, was a mess. It looked like it was still under construction...but wasn't. You would never have known it was a state of the art hotel inside; as nice as any Ritz I have ever been in. The bed even had this cool control panel that allowed you to adjust lights, TV, music, air, even had two buttons for aromas for the room. I told Bob I wanted one of those in Silvassa...HA!

Our driver picked us up the next morning and we toured some of Mumbai. Wow, what a city of diversity. I have never seen so much poverty and depravity. Hard to believe. There is also lots of wealth in the city and it smacks each other in the face all day long. Don't know how the people survive so well together. I was totally overwhelmed and not ready for what I saw. It is one thing to read about it and see pictures of it and another to watch humans living in it. Of course, there are the funny things like animals walking the streets. Think of it like this- water buffalo walking down Broadway St. in NY. That is exactly what it was the equivalent of. Crazy! Everyone uses the horn- not to be rude but as a way of saying "here I am, don't hit me". Hilarious. The back of trucks have "Horn OK Please" painted on them. We visited a beautiful old cathedral and an Indian "mall". They are definately into pushy sales here, not unlike the Caribbean and Mexico. Since it takes 3 hours to drive the 60 miles from Mumbai to our village of Silvassa, we left early to beat the traffic.

The drive to Silvassa was interesting. There are officially 2 lanes on each side of the highway but they became up to six at any given time. Horns blaring and drivers "overtaking" (passing) each other. The twins and I managed to sleep some of the way. We had so much luggage that it barely fit into the Toyota minivan. We had to hold some of it. Along the way we saw huge, beautiful temples built for the gods and people living in shacks or under tarps. So sad. The farther we got outside Mumbai the more rural it became. There are lovely mountains and lush forests only miles from the Arabian Sea. The farmers were plowing fields with a single plow pulled by a water buffalo and the women worked in the fields wearing beautiful saris with a baby on their hip. I saw a man plowing with an ox at the same time a big John Deere tractor passed us on the road. Diversity!

We arrived at the Ras Resort (a loosely used term!) which is the hotel we will be living in. We have an apartment-type set up. Two bedrooms with a sitting room between them. It reminds me of an old hotel from the 60's. It is very clean but basic. The staff are very sweet and eager to help us. The Daman River runs right outside and it is pretty. The locals have build shrines on the shore of the river to worship the river gods in hopes of good rain and more water. Idol worship is very prevalent here and it infiltrates every aspect of their lives. They have little statues of gods in their cars, on the porches, their jewelry, pictures, everything. The elephant god seems to be very popular in this area. There is a large shrine to him on the front steps of our hotel. I am sure we are some of the first Christians some of them have ever met. I pray we are able to show them truth.

The twins and I are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to everything we have seen and feeling isolated. Bob has been here for 2 months now and is used to it but we need a little time. Lots of tears these last two days but I know it will get better as we get out and meet people. The village is very small but we really want to go see if there is anywhere we can volunteer or find something to do. Bob's company sponsors a Red Cross vehicle and we plan on riding along to give out medicine and humanitarian aid. Keep us in your prayers are we try to adjust and find God's place for us to serve over here.