My Indian Adventure

The Last Tom of India. Week 22.

2010-03-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

To all my loyal blog followers,

As you may have noticed, my blogs have got fewer and fewer the longer I've been here, mostly because we've been so busy over the last few months and I haven't had the time to devote myself to a challenging blog each week. I apologise to those who have been expecting more of me, but I hope that what I've already written has helped you to gain an insight into what I've seen, been doing and felt challenged by.

We've just returned from our 2 week holiday to Delhi, Agra and Goa, so now we're packing the flat up, saying goodbye and looking forward to returning to our families (church included :p)!

This is me signing off from Chennai, India. Good Night & God Bless.

Tom xx

Mumbai Marathon Part III. Week Eighteen.

2010-02-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry it’s late again, I’ve just been really busy here with reports and presentations, so I’ve just not had the time to sit down and write up a blog. Hopefully what I write makes up for the 2 week break.

So now to part three of the immense Mumbai blog I’ve posted over the last few weeks.

We were booked in for one trip out of Mumbai as part of our Inter-city visit, this was to the HIV Care Community, which is 3 hours drive from Mumbai, a place called Purnata Bhavan (PB). For Ben this was possibly going to be the highlight of the trip because it was his dad who pioneered the idea of Oasis setting up this community, he also designed the community and Ben spent some of his early childhood at ‘PB’. We left from our accommodation, early on Thursday morning, we’d hired a taxi for the day, a driver called Henry who always drives for the Oasis GATs and soon we were heading out of the city, into the countryside. The scenery was stunning, it was a lot like the southern states of the US or the hilly terrain of Spain, it was beautiful to travel through, really appreciating India’s full beauty and Gods creation. We arrived at PB at around 11am, it’s located out in the ‘sticks’, with rocky hills, fertile farmland and a perfect ‘peace & quiet’ surrounding it. There is a main building that houses the office, classrooms, workshops and a hall for events, as the grounds develop; you find the medical block with bedrooms for the older children and an eating area for lunchtimes. The further two buildings are the bedroom block for the younger children and the staff quarters, all of whom live there full time. The workshops in the main building are for mothers of some of the children and for young women who are suffering from HIV to make women’s bags, purses, clothes and candles, basically PB has this small business which generates money from visitors buying the products. It’s a beautiful place, it’s so quiet, the scenery is wonderful and for the kids who live there, it’s something of a paradise. But I’ve realised some of you, maybe all of you, don’t actually know what PB is and about the work they do. Purnata Bhavan (PB) was set up about 15 years ago, as a care community for orphaned HIV children, who either suffer from the disease themselves or have lost their parents as a consequence of the disease. There are currently 25 children living at PB, with several house parents living with them and most of these children are suffering from HIV, but are given free medicines to boost their immune systems, are cared for 24/7 including 3 healthy meals a day and are either schooled within PB or attend school in the local township. My feelings as we first arrived at PB were that this was an incredible place, the work that the team are doing is fantastic and as we took a tour around the grounds it was quite clear to me that working in something like this is very close to my heart. We met some of the kids as we took the tour, they are all so full of energy, eager to get you to join in their games and just love any attention you give them. There is one little boy, Vilas, who is now immune to stage 2 meds and as the next stage of meds would cost around $100 a day, it’s just not possible to get these medicines, so as a consequence it’s only by Gods grace that Vilas is alive, he is so thin and it breaks your heart seeing children having to suffer like this. But as the day wore on, it was clear that at a centre like PB, you have to be prepared to see people go, it’s just part of HIV, some of them will live a long fulfilling life, just taking stage 1 meds, whereas others will become immune to the meds and eventually the disease will overcome them, but what PB does is give these kids a chance to have a life, which is amazing. We ate lunch with the kids, so even within an hour of spending time with them; we’d built relationships with them and discovered that there are quite a few characters! After lunch we spent the afternoon with a gorgeous little bossy girl climbing trees, searching for snakes, climbing up the massive water tank (with one boy following to the horror of the staff) and generally immersing ourselves in PB life. When it came to our time to go, we were all pretty upset as throughout the day we’d developed such strong bonds with some of the children, it was going to be hard to say goodbye, which was evident as we left in the car and Sunita (the bossy girl) literally grabbed onto the car as we drove off, trying to hold onto the window, it was upsetting to see, but made me realise how needy these children are and how God has placed a compassion in my heart for working with kids in similar situations. If PB staff asked me to live and work with them for any period of time, I wouldn’t hesitate in saying yes, I just totally fell in love with the place, but more importantly the children.

Our final visit to an Oasis Mumbai project was to the anti-traffiking office in Northern Mumbai and this was another brilliant learning experience. The office is also doubles as a half-way house for women that decide to come out of prostitution due to the work that Aruna (see last blog) does in the red light areas. We were set to spend the day with Laura, mostly learning what anti-traffiking is about, but also helping out the office with an exercise in locating towns throughout India where people are reported missing and consequently discovered working in slave type situations or as prostitutes. We found out the extent of what the traffiking industry is worth per year in India and it’s somewhere around the region of 800 crores (£110 million) and is the second biggest crime industry after drug smuggling. So it was really interesting and challenging to hear about how trafficking occurs, where the people traffiked end up and how people are traffiked. Oasis works to stop this; they have four stages of this process and are educating the people that could potentially be affected on traffiking. My favourite way of stopping the traffik is when they send some boys who have been rescued to patrol the train stations, especially if a tip-off has been registered and then because the boys have experienced traffiking, they know what to spot. Once they see a potential traffiking situation, they try and talk to the people being traffiked, then get the police involved, although the police are so corrupt that sometimes other problems occur. Once the victims are rescued, they are required by law to live in a Government care home for a one year period, where Oasis are now setting up a teaching program within one of the homes because most of the people traffiked haven’t received much of an education. Oasis are also setting up another half-way home near a town in between Bangalore & Chennai, which will serve as a retreat for both traffiked victims and rescued prostitutes, somewhere safe and comfortable for them to recover. So there was lots we learnt during the morning and our task for the afternoon was to mark on a map of India & Bangladesh, the locations where people traffiked live, to get an idea of how the traffikers work. Our day was enlightening because I really didn’t have any idea about traffiking and this day really served as an eye opener to what is going on in the world and what people will do for money. It really is a big bad world out there.

Our last day in Mumbai was spent attending the Mumbai Marathon, where Oasis India had an entry in the Half-marathon and also in the Dream Run (6km run/walk) where 150 people associated with Oasis took part. It was great fun seeing the Chennai Team (10 of them came up to run & watch) who had been in Mumbai most of the week too; seeing similar projects that we’d seen and then participated in the Marathon along with the Bangalore Team too. We then spent the afternoon with Jeanie (Heads up Education for Oasis), relaxing, eating, swimming and watching West Ham play, but throughout all of this, I still couldn’t forget what I’d seen during the week and I don’t think I ever will forget the incredible experience of Mumbai.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading this 2/3 part blog and I’ll be posting up one more blog before I return and hopefully this will summarise my time here, highlighting what I’ve learnt and how I’ve changed.

Much love and God Bless,

Tom xxx

Mumbai Marathon Part II. Week Sixteen

2010-01-28T23:36:00.001-08:00

So as we packed on Sunday night, ready for our early morning start (6am wake up for a 7.30am check-in) I wasn’t really sure what to expect of Mumbai. It’s the unofficial capital of India, it has the biggest population of any city in India (close to 20million), it is the financial capital of India, Bollywood (Mumbai’s take on Hollywood) is the second biggest film industry in the World, it’s home to the biggest slum in Asia (Dharavi) and on the 26th November 2008 Mumbai was rocked by terror attacks on some of its famous sights (Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe and CST Station). So would this trip be a nice sightseeing visit or would I see and experience things that would have a lasting impact on my life?

So after some initial confusion at the airport mostly with checking-in bags (it’s different in Chennai to every other airport I’ve flown from) we were on our way to Mumbai for our inter-city visit. As we came in to land over this massive city, we couldn’t help but be excited about all that was planned and for the finale on Sunday, the Mumbai Marathon, where some Oasis Chennai staff & the older football boys would be participating in the 6km dream run, along with 120 other Oasis runners!

As we came in to land we caught our first glimpse of the sheer extent of the slums in Mumbai, it was the Santa Cruz slum, literally right on the taxiway of Mumbai Airport just behind an 8ft wall, talk about the rich & poor divide. So we reach the plush domestic arrivals terminal, collect our bags, catch a pre-paid taxi and head for our accommodation for the week, Church Mission House, Grant Road. Our taxi ride in really gave us a sense of what Mumbai is about, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, mostly due to Mumbai expanding as a major World city and slums being demolished to be replaced by enormous office complexes. The hardest thing for me was seeing families living on the streets, not in slums, but right on the main roads, they just find a big wall and set up shelter against it, making the pavement their home. There are kids running around, women cooking food and men just sitting around passing the time of day because with no job there is nothing else to do, but be. The other experience that is difficult to cope with is the amount of beggars there are, literally at every traffic light or junction you are confronted when stopped in an auto or taxi, by either children begging (usually for someone who ‘owns’ them and takes the money they get, in return for having food & shelter) or women holding children begging, they don’t just stand there and ask for money, they grab you, touch you and generally harass you for something. So experiencing this for the first time on our way to CHM (Church Mission House) was both eye opening and challenging in how to deal with these situations.

So our time in Mumbai starts with a trip to Bandra, an area mostly populated with slums (as is 60% of Mumbai) and office complexes. In fact the families in the slum across the river from where Oasis runs programs have been offered 1 crore (10,000,000 rupees. £170,000) by a company for each property they own because they are living in areas the companies want to develop. However the families aren’t budging because they are holding out for 2 crores, this is the extent of how valuable land in Mumbai is, but the funny thing is that these families don’t even own the land, they are living illegally! So we visit the Bandra office, where we meet Kuldeep (Leena from orientation’s husband), he explains all about the work that happens in Bandra which includes, playschools, healthcare, English teaching and this is all run through microfinance, which means that all Oasis does is oversee the project, the people living in Bandra actually run everything, which is fantastic to see! This specific way of running a project basically ensures that when Oasis move on to a different area of need (another slum in Mumbai), then this project will be able to fund and run itself, which surely has to be the goal for every charitable mission organisation, it’s vital that the people are given responsibility and the ability to be self-sufficient. During the afternoon we visit the Blue Dart (postal company owned by DHL) project, which is located in another area of Bandra slum, this is an awesome project where those who have dropped out of school get a second chance to make something of their lives. Andy Cheng (co-ordinator of the course) runs a 5/6 month course that teaches 18-24 yr olds written & spoken English, Life Skills, Computer Skills, Job Skills and Interview Techniques. It was so encouraging to see that 4 groups of 20 students complete this course each year and that lots of them are now in full time jobs, whereas before they had no hope, now they have a hope and a future. Our first day of visiting projects was such a rewarding experience, it made me realise that Oasis Mumbai is totally dedicated to the work they do, they are really passionate not only about the work they are doing, but about leaving projects to be self-sufficient and consequently reaching out to other slum areas, that even if sometimes we feel helpless immersed in all this poverty, there are projects out there that are making an incredibly visible impact on lives. A lovely evening was spent with John Nonhebel’s (Oasis India Chief Exec.) family, including two other guys who work for Oasis (Andy & Clive), both of which know Laurie & Ben’s parents, so it was great for us all to chat about the UK for once!

Wednesday was set to be a difficult day, mostly with regard to where we were going and what we would see, it was the day we visited the Aruna project in Grant Road (5 mins from our accomm.), a project based in one of Mumbai’s red light areas. We walk to the office unaware of what we would find, slightly curious about what it’s like, but also kind of scared as to what we would find. The morning was spent with Sachin & Michael learning about all the work that Aruna does, we find out that they run healthcare programs from their office/centre, they hold church here for the women and the centre acts as a drop in place almost 24hrs, so anytime a girl needs to talk to someone they can drop-in. After lunch, a Thali costing Rs.27 (37p), a Thali is rice, poppadum, roti and little pots of different “gravy’s”, we helped out with teaching English (I had a really sweet guy called Sandeep) and then prepared to head out onto the streets to talk with some women. Ben went with another group and Laurie & I went with Rafeeq & Sachin to one of the main streets where the women live and work, along the way they showed us different buildings around that are brothels, most of them you would never know were brothels. As we approached our first home visit, I suddenly had goose bumps, I felt pretty sick and was almost thinking I wasn’t prepared for what I might see, not the first time I’ve felt like that in India. What would we see? Would the whole building be a brothel, so would we see things that would shock us or make us feel uneasy? Lots of thoughts were running through my head as we walked up the rickety old wooden stairs, it was like entering a factory in England around the early 1900s, there was rubbish everywhere, it was dark and sinister, the feelings I felt made me realise the Devil really had full grip on this building and was relishing in the business going on here. As we approached I was almost reluctant to enter into the flat, I was looking around trying to find something to calm me down, like children playing or the sound of laughter, anything to change the mood of the place. We enter into a long flat, almost like two separate flats but you had to walk through one to get to the other, so we did, and found 2 families living in the end flat, 2 mums, a grandma and 4 kids (one of which the mother wanted to put up for adoption), to put it into perspective they all live in this one room smaller than most of our bedrooms. So we spoke with them for a while, well Sachin did, we just sat on a bed listening in to what they were saying and playing with the kids. It turns out that these 2 mums go out to look for business (like many do), then bring the guy back to their flat and then regardless of who is around, be it children or other adults, they get on with business there and then, hearing this really shocked me and also broke my heart, is this really what God wants for his children? Was this really the way life was meant to be lived? The worst thing is that these women have no other options, once they get trapped in prostitution they lose all self confidence, they lose all family contact because the job they are doing leads to their family disowning them, they truly are on their own. This is where Aruna steps in, they are seeking to change the lives of these girls (who are free to walk away from it at any point, they just get immersed in it so think they can’t leave) and bring about a hope and a future for these women who God loves just as much as he loves us. We visited some more homes, including one where at least 4 people lived in a space (drain for a toilet, 2 shelves for a kitchen, 3 wooden beds and a 1.5m2 area to eat) smaller than my bedroom, this really challenged me about how much I take all I have for granted and how comfortable my life is in comparison. After visiting homes we went to speak to some street women, they sit outside a room entered off the street, a curtain gives privacy from all travelling along the road, they can be very forceful to passers-by, trying to entice them in, one girl even took a guys glasses and would only give them back if he came inside, he called the police, so the situation was sorted, but it’s an indication of what goes on. So we headed back to the Aruna office to share with Ben what our afternoon had been like, it seems they were similar, although Ben spent his time in a huge brothel (300 women) just down the road from the office and he was equally shocked by what he saw. What a day, what an experience and what a privilege to spend time with a team who are so driven to serve God in such a difficult place, a place where the Devil has reign. I will never forget my experience of Grant Road red light area; this day will stay in my memory for the rest of my life, and will serve in some way to change my thinking or opinions on what life is about.

So this is the end of part II, there will be a part III next week; I’ve just been so busy with various things that I haven’t had a chance to sit down and type. I hope this is sufficient reading till next time and that you’ll be challenged by what I’ve seen and written about.

God Bless,

Tom xx

Mumbai Marathon. Week Sixteen.

2010-01-18T23:58:00.000-08:00

To all my loyal blog followers,

I am sorry for not posting anything up for pretty much 3 weeks, but we've been pretty busy with various events and the kids finally getting back to school after exams! Plus we were away in Mumbai last week so with no access to the internet I haven't been able to update you at all!

My plan is to have a new blog up by the end of the week and it will probably be a shocking one due to the upsetting but life changing work we saw in Mumbai, last week I feel has had a huge impact on my life, so I will share with you my thoughts soon.

Please forgive me and check back soon,

Much love & God Bless,

Tom

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year. Week Thirteen.

2009-12-29T22:41:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

I hope you are still enjoying my blog, but I apologise for the lack of blogging over Christmas & New Year, I plan to come back with a vengeance in 2010, in fact probably next week. So something to let you think about, something that we witnessed on Boxing Day, something that shocked all three of us, mostly just the suddenness of the whole ordeal.

So as most of you may know we have a slum just 2 minutes around the corner, a slum that we work in called SD Puram. Well the day after Christmas Day, 347 families from the slum were evicted (including those who were participating in the music class, fun stations and screen printing at Kellys'), so in came the Police, firemen (they act as peacemakers) and JCBs that made short work of razing the slum to the ground. So now nearly all the families have been moved 35km away (including Shanthi our cook) to new government housing, where they'll have better living conditions, but extremely limited access to jobs, unless you travel back into central Chennai (just as Shanthi fortunately is, well fortunate for us). So each time we walk through the slum, there is less of it standing and within the next week or so the area we live in will take on a whole new personality, something we didn’t expect.

So after you’ve all (hopefully) had lovely Christmas’ in a comfortable warm home, with nice food, friends & family, some great presents and possibly a relaxing, peaceful time too, just think of those families living in our slum. These families have been sleeping rough in front of their destroyed home guarding their possessions, waiting to load all that they have (which is very little) into the back of a lorry, jump on the back of the lorry and head to an area they’ve never been too and with no other options, they are forced to make this area their new home.

A slightly sad end to what’s been a great year, but unfortunately the poor don’t have a voice, something that has to change as all of us are equal no matter how much money is in your bank account. Jesus didn’t come to this world to hang out with the doctors, lawyers, sportsmen and enjoy the high life, he came for everyone, no matter what race you are, language you speak, job you have. He spent most of his time with social outcasts, the people that nobody else cared about, the people who we so often walk past and ignore or we mutter something under our breath at them. So I pray that you would really think about what I’ve written about in this blog, I hope that you’d feel real compassion not only towards these families, but the many millions of people in this world that are homeless or without the basic needs to survive.

Thanks and God Bless,

Tom xx

Christmas is Coming. Week Eleven.

2009-12-16T02:46:00.000-08:00

Again apologies for the delayed posting of a new blog, but I guess as you all know by now, I was struck down last Saturday by a nasty bout of gastritis (or something similar), however this really got me thinking about why I was getting ill and about what God says in James 1:12, “Blessed are those who endure when they are tested. When they pass the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” So this all started two weekends ago when I decided to stay up too late on Friday night and I had to be up early for a music practice for church on Sunday morning, so it wasn’t too sensible to exhaust myself. The plan for lunch was to go to a typical Indian restaurant, pretty much the Indian version of McDonalds with regard to speed of food delivery, the restaurant is called Sangeetha and I had a ‘meals’ lunch (rice, roti, poppadums and lots of pots of different ‘gravy’s’), interesting thing is, nobody else had what I had! So towards the evening I started to have crippling lower abdomen pain, but ignored it and tried to enjoy my evening, but with another late night I wasn’t taking it too seriously. So Sunday morning was church at 8.30am (well a practice anyway), the worship was amazing, God really blessed the worship time, however my abdomen was still ‘paining me’ as the Indians say. So I went through the day with the pains getting steadily worse, knowing that it was partly my own fault for not eating enough fresh fruit & vegetables and going to bed too late, basically not helping myself. So that evening the flu symptoms started to develop, I had the aching feeling, I had a headache, I was hot one minute, cold the next and I had a temperature of 38deg plus. So that night I had a really long shower, I spent some time worshipping God, then I really prayed into the situation, I’ve been reading The Purpose Driven Life and it says the sign of a mature Christian (not saying I am, but I’m trying) is when you thank God for testing you, putting you through difficult times. So I just thanked God for testing me in this way, I prayed that somehow through this illness that I’d learn something new of him and that overall I’d be changed to be more like him in some way. It’s amazing how being ill in a foreign country makes you more emotional, helps you to be thankful for all who love you and really give everything over to Jehovah Raphe the Lord who heals!

So all of Monday was spent resting at the flat, still with the pains, but we had a music practice for the Jingle Bell Rock concert on Friday, so after taking two Nurofen plus, I felt so much better! I got an early night in on Monday, after really enjoying a time of fellowship with the youth guys whilst practicing for our concert on Friday. So on Tuesday morning I still wasn’t better, so Becky phoned me to say Dani was taking me to see a doctor, as a precaution and to hopefully get some medicine to speed up the healing process. We rode there in an auto, I was feeling rough, and worried about being in an Indian hospital and praying it wasn’t anything serious. So the hospital was pretty cramped, fairly clean, certainly not a place I wanted to spend a huge amount of time. I was weighed by a nurse, they also took my blood pressure (which was normal) and sent me to wait next to an open door (all the doors were open, so germs flying about everywhere). Eventually the doctor saw me, she asked what was the problem, I lay down on the stretcher (40cm wide, metal, never been cleaned) I explained I’d taken some Nurofen and she absolutely nailed me for taking it, saying Nurofen was the reason I was unwell and consequently she diagnosed me with gastritis. I was really defensive as I’ve always taken Nurofen when unwell, she also stated I was ‘in the habit of taking Ibuprofen for a headache’ and overall I was pretty shaken up by what she said, basically because it wasn’t what they say at home. After picking up a prescription of Rabeprozole tablets, Digene gel and some paracetemol, I headed back to the flat with Dani, calling Mum on the way asking her to check with the Rohais surgery that it was ok to take what I was given and to find out if the diagnosis was correct. Eventually I found out that the Nurofen may have made my pains worse (doesn’t explain Saturday till Monday evening though) and that I was ok to take the antibiotics, which were in fact the correct ones for my problem.

So now a week later since seeing the doctor the pains have finally almost cleared up after drinking lots of water, eating lots of fresh fruit, taking my medicine and getting some early nights in! But it really was something I wouldn’t want to go through again and by God’s grace I have pulled through it, the whole time really thinking about how God has changed me through this test. I think I was the architect of my own downfall in a way, with the late nights doing what I’d do back in the West, living a student-like life of eating junk food and playing computer games and God was just saying, “Look Tom, you aren’t here to do what you want to do, but what I want you to do, there is nothing wrong with eating junk food and playing computer games, but do these in moderation, you haven’t!” I’m so thankful now for all the blessings God has put in my life, especially my family (mostly my mum, especially when unwell) and the fantastic healthcare in Guernsey that we take for granted all the time. I urge you this week to seek God in the difficult times, really allow him to work in your life through testing times and when the these times come praise him for allowing your life to be changed through these times.

Thank you all for your prayers and may you have a blessed week,

Tom xx

Ill-in-India. Week 10

2009-12-11T01:36:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I would like to apologise for not getting a blog out this week, but I've been pretty ill with suspected gastritis, which included a lovely trip to an Indian hospital on Tuesday, a doctors visit I certainly won't forget in a hurry! So prayer that I would recover as quick as possible would be appreciated.

I'm planning on having something up early next week, so look out for a note on Facebook or just keep checking!

Take care, God Bless,

Tom xx

Inter-city Visits. Week 8.

2009-12-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

We’ve just got back from visiting two amazing Indian cities, Mysore then Bangalore; it was a relaxing, refreshing and interesting trip. Mysore was so beautiful, lush greenery everywhere, the Maharaja’s Palace and a perfect air temperature (22 degrees). Bangalore, a city slicker’s dream has high-class bars, clubs and restaurants, providing for the younger generation as they earn their big bucks in the IT industry, which dominates the Bengaluru economy. Travelling by Indian train was a fantastic experience (although leaving Chennai at 6am wasn’t great!), for a 3rd Class A/C (no need for 1st or 2nd Class) one-way ticket to Mysore from Chennai (a seven hour journey) costs around Rs. 550 (£7.50) and you get breakfast, snacks, mineral water all as part of your ticket price. So travelling through the farmlands, mountains, jungle was inspirational, I hadn’t really grasped how beautiful India was because we’d been city dwellers for the past 2 months, consequently I spent most of the journey reading my bible and looking out the window, marvelling at how incredible God’s creation is. We spent our time in Mysore visiting the Maharaja’s Palace, Chamundi Hills (stunning views over Mysore) and we spent some time browsing the silk, sandalwood and textiles that Mysore is famous for. Bangalore was obviously much more like being back in Chennai, mostly due to size; however its clean streets, pleasant climate, metered auto rickshaws and green parks make Bengaluru (it’s original Indian name) a much more attractive place to live, consequently it has become the hub of India’s IT Industry. Our accommodation here was basic, but as we were mostly spending our time at the Oasis Office, it was sufficient for our needs. During our visit to Bangalore we met the Oasis team, visited the work they are doing, including Jacob’s Well fair-trade offices and talked to the staff about the projects they are involved in. There is an anti-trafficking branch based at Oasis Bangalore, and it was clear to see that it is really making a difference to so many women’s lives; they have a large team dedicated to hunting the traffickers down and bringing justice to the city, giving these women a chance to make something of their lives. We left with a real sense that God is working in big ways in Bangalore and everyone in their office is passionate about bringing change & chance to the marginalised of their city.

So would you say that in your life you take for granted the situation God has blessed you with? Can you even imagine what it’s like to be trafficked, given no hope or lose all your rights? Do you just live your life for yourself, occasionally letting God in once a week or even once a year? I can certainly say for myself that after my visit to Bangalore, God has really challenged me about all the blessings he has provided me with, asking me whether I’m grateful for these or whether I think I deserve them because I’m lucky with the situation I was born into. The point to ponder, is that while we may not live in physical poverty (money, possessions, accommodation), are we living in spiritual poverty? Are we driving the car ourselves, not letting Jesus touch the wheel or even be a back seat driver? For me, I believe the Western world relies so much on money being the answer to everything, that consequently reliance on God has been lost or at least God has been packed away in the boot, coming out only when it suits. This is not what the bible says! In John 12:26 (NIV), Jesus says, “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.” In Hebrews 13:15 (NIV) it says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” The message sums up what I’m trying to say in Psalms 116:17, “I’m ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of God.” So essentially putting God first in our lives will only increase the blessings in our lives, it will bring about joy to not only God, but also to us as we thank God for what he has done.

So my challenge for us all, because it’s something I’m working on and praying about, is to live our lives totally for God, being thankful for everything because no matter what it is, God has provided it for you. We are so blessed to live in a comfortable part of the world, that it’s not always easy to be truly thankful for what God has provided us with, I know that before coming here, God had been at work in so many areas of my life, but I hadn’t been thankful for these. However since arriving in India, specifically after coming back to Chennai from Bangalore I can see that people are so thankful for even the smallest things God has provided them with and that is the real challenge to us all. How thankful are we for the blessings, hidden or obvious, in our lives and subsequently where in the car (our life) is Jesus sitting?

I hope you can understand what has challenged me over the past couple of weeks and I really pray that God may teach you through reading this, maybe discovering something new that you hadn’t thought about before.

Thanks and God Bless,

Tom

Off to Bangalore...be back soon...

2009-11-26T00:50:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

It's been a busy week for us in Chennai, so coupled with our trip to Mysore & Bangalore tomorrow (leaving at 6am), I won't be filling your minds with any deep questions or thought provoking statements until next Thursday! Don't worry because it'll be closer to Christmas, so you'll all be merrily preparing for this wonderful season and will find it in your hearts to forgive me!

Something to get you thinking though, I was reading this morning about God challenging us and that we must embrace difficult times because God uses these to develop our character. I would like you to all think of a challenge you've had in your life that's allowed to you grow the most spiritually? For me it would be University, but I believe and pray, that by the end of my time here, this experience will be the answer to that question, as God continues to shape me and my future, whilst I'm here in India.

God Bless,

Tom xx

The Monsoon has arrived. Weeks' Five and Six.

2009-11-19T03:29:00.000-08:00

So, after weeks without rain, including a monsoon season earlier in the year without any rain, it finally arrived and boy did Chennai feel the effects of it. If you thought that the sea wall crumbling at L’Eree, flooding all that area was bad, then you haven’t seen real flooding and this has been a good year for drainage! Put it this way, every year the same areas flood with water up to your waist and those living on the rivers (basically sewage waterways) or lakes, end up with their home and possessions washed away or at least severely damaged. Thinking about what happens to those living in slums when it rains this much, how they cope, what they do and how badly it affects their lives, has really challenged me this week. Consequently I have questioned myself over the past few days as to why I’m here, am I here for a nice spot of poverty tourism? For a ‘feel good’ experience, feeling sorry for these people and feeling better about myself/my life as a consequence? Or am I here to serve these people just like Jesus did and do this for Him?

So firstly something about what these children, adults and families face when the monsoon season arrives twice a year, not that every day isn’t tough enough for them already. It’s Saturday 7^th November, the rain hasn’t stopped for two days straight and looking up at the sky this trend is set to continue, boy do I feel glad that even though our flat is on the ground floor and that our particular area drains well. However I open the front door to find choppy water lapping up to our doorstep and our outside doormat floating away, but setting out during a brief dry spell later on, makes you realise that water lapping up at your doorstep isn’t a big deal. We decided to venture out to see what damage had been done, we walked through SD Puram the road cut up by all the water, but this slum is built on a river (just rubbish/sewage) which had swelled massively to flood all the houses/huts built next to it. On Friday (the day before), Eunice (education co-ordinator) said when it started raining heavily that the parents were invited to the competition Oasis was holding at the Kelly’s office, but because they have to stay and stop the water from destroying their homes they haven’t come, seeing the river confirmed what she had said. So basically most of the slum areas are built on rivers and lakes because it’s free land (both from government and existing buildings), but very dangerous when it’s monsoon season, but all they want is a spot of land to set up home. So now almost two weeks on, I’ve seen photos of children sitting in their homes on chairs with ankle deep water surrounding them, I’ve heard of families who sleep on beds with rocks under the legs to get out of the water and seen many roofs being temporarily patch up to try and protect all that these people have.

I realised this week, especially after being ill on Saturday, that life is so comfortable in the West and that as bad as the recession is, we’re all living with plenty of food on the table, more than sufficient shelter and money enough that if you want something, you can buy it. I feel really challenged when I say, these sandals cost this, this camera cost that and I went skiing earlier in the year. Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong with these items and holidays, but are we giving our first fruits to God and his mission or are we spending our money as we please, giving God what’s left. What shocked me today was talking to a guy at football training (we’re teaching him English) called Dana sheka, who said he used to earn Rs.80 (£1.11) a day, sometimes working into the night too, and even here that would only just get you 3 basic meals a day, but what about shelter, travel, healthcare etc. But the question is, that after experiencing slums washed away, livelihoods destroyed and the struggle to survive, what can I do about this? How can I make a difference? What impact can I have here? Hopefully as my experience here develops I can begin to answer these questions both in my heart and on this blog, as I hope and pray God continues to shake me up, so as Micah (and Tim Hughes) writes, I can ‘act justly, love mercy and walk humbly’ in this world.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by,

God Bless,

Tom xx

Hello World, well Guernsey pretty much!

2009-11-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

To all my lovely blog followers and those who have possibly just found out this address from the church news letter,

I am very sorry for not putting up a blog for so long, basically we've been so busy here with various competitions and work activities that I've simply had no chance to write a blog, I was also very ill over the weekend so that didn't help.

So I hope I haven't lost any new readers because I don't want you guys to keep checking this blog and seeing nothing new, a bit like Josh's blog earlier this year (although the content was amazing, the times he did do it) and definitely by the end of the week you'll be reading a new style of My Indian Adventure, focusing on the work/feelings/emotions that I'm having.

I pray in some way you'll be blessed by this blog.

Thanks and God Bless,

Tom xx

Laurie's Indian Football

2009-11-04T22:32:00.001-08:00

Laurie is doing write ups for the Oasis football team so if you like your football here it is:

http://chennaifootball.blogspot.com/

R - r - Recording. Week Four!

2009-11-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

I hope you’re all having a great week, this entry hopefully will be smaller than the previous two because firstly it takes a long time to write and secondly it was a fairly boring week in comparison!

So the morning of Monday 26^th October was another ‘hard to get up’ morning, which seems to be a regular occurrence, maybe due to some heavy partying over the weekend?! I had a slightly uncontrollable bowel movement just as I’d made my toast, which sucked in two senses, firstly, more importantly, cold toast and secondly did I mention how much I dislike the Japanese flag? Anyway enough of that, so eventually at 9.25am (latest so far) we made it into the office for a typical Monday morning of preparing for the week, checking emails and browsing the web for the weekends interesting stories/news. So after a brief shop for essentials (juice, crisps, chocolate, fizzy), we ate lunch whilst watching episode 3 of Flash Forward and made it to BV Colony School for 3.40pm (late, but with valid excuse, seeing as we had no way of contacting anyone call/text L). We played (well John really) noughts & crosses, beach pictionary (seeing as it was B is for Beach this week) and after seeing I’d forgotten to bring the colouring in, I quickly put together a beach scene on a blank piece of paper and got the kids to copy it! We ran the same program at John’s church Fun Station, this as usual went really well and after getting ‘auto air’ going round a corner at 50kph, we ate dinner (4 chapatti) and washed & brushed up for Lauren’s birthday (we’d only met her on Saturday, :p). So after taking ages to get ready, mostly me, we had a call from Timmy (youth pastor) saying they’d pick us up, awesome! So we get to Dynasty @ Harrisons (5-star hotel), an IndoChinese restaurant and I’m feeling hungry, even after 4 chapatti! We got to order a main to share, Blesson steps in saying we’re going for appetizers too, we order lots of food and I’m ready for this! The food was amazing, really tasty, I pack away more than most people, finishing with two slices of chocolate birthday cake and I still can’t believe now how I managed to eat so much after a filling dinner earlier! The youth guys are so great, it would be a different story here without them and they’ve got a good old British sense of humour! So after spending zero Rupees (how, I still don’t know) we got dropped home only to find out the bedroom door had been left open with the A/C on, whoops. After sorting out some washing and writing my diary, I got to bed at 11.45pm for a 5.30am!

Tuesday was not fun, certainly the morning anyway and this was down to having no working phone between three of us. So Vimel has an auto waiting for us, there is water everywhere because finally monsoon season has arrived (rain like you’d never believe) and we head to KG Puram. When we get there it’s clear football isn’t on, no boys, no Viji and a flooded pitch isn’t a recipe for a good training session! So after hanging around for a while a few boys turn up, we muck around with a football and leave after getting kicked off by the ground manager who is preparing for a league match that afternoon. We got back to the flat for some more sleep, but this was interrupted but Vimel (sleeping on our floor waiting for the A/C mechanic), the Repair Man (fixing the sink & light) and finally Shanthi who was cooking/cleaning. I decided to just chill on the couch, whilst dosing off and after they had all left I went back to sleep for an hour. After a delicious coconut rice, chicken korma and poppadum lunch, we spent the afternoon in the office preparing for the Kelly’s music class amongst other tasks and after a quick stop for dinner we were at the SD Puram office for the Kelly’s FS (does that confuse you?), then the music class (trying to teach some music theory). Still no translator so teaching anything decent was very difficult, so after some frustrations we leave for our poker debut at Thom’s house. All the poker players eat at Sparky’s before, so we met the 15 players at Thom’s house, someone brought our Fajitas and we get the games underway. I’m at the same table as Ben, with 6 others, the big table seats 12, but only had 7 seated. I played aggressively early on, seeing as I’m a novice and after a lot of fun I was out to Ben who beat me with a higher straight (I was first out in the whole game). The two tables combined, so everyone sat at the main table, I watched, took photos and just relaxed, waiting for Ben to get out! Eventually Ben joined me and after Allen (guy from Powerhouse) had lost, he gave us a ride home, well not him, his chauffeur! We got back early by these poker game standards, 1am and went straight to bed (we were thankful for the lift because the monsoon continued to fall outside).

The next few days would be more relaxed work wise because we were preparing for and recording the new spoken English teaching CD. Wednesday started in normal fashion, but the office got fairly heated, in a good way, over Matthew 4:35-41, debating whether or not God tests us. After this further arguing occurred in the quiz, everyone was buzzing in and getting so competitive (this is all done in love though). I spent most of the morning writing my new blog entry and after lunch (tomato rice, boiled egg & poppadums) Dave arrived, so we spent the rest of the afternoon reading through the script for the spoken English CD. Our jouney home was very eventful, firstly four white guys walking through Ayanavarum market with laptops/bags was dodgy, then after agreeing Rs.40 with an auto the light rain began. Just imagine a seat comfortable enough for two, with three squashed in and one sitting on the bars that block off the other entrance/exit to the autos, then the light rain begins. Laurie is hanging out the side, the heavy rain begins, he gets wet, the tarp is pulled down, the rain becomes torrential, now it’s getting interesting with 4 laptops in an auto with torrential rain coming down. I hastily covered my bag with the waterproof covering, the rain becomes monsoon rain, unreal, flooding everywhere, the driver stops to attach tarps on both sides, and then drives so slowly because he can see nothing. Finally without any further complications we get dropped right outside our door (usually dropped at the gate to the flats) and we share a noodle dinner with Dave. We had planned to go with Becky & Viji for a drink at the Fruit Shop, they turned up at 8.00pm and the rain had stopped. I ordered a Glenn Turner Special (kiwi combo) & a fruit salad, we sat around for ages chatting about all sorts, I even had to wee in a nearby driveway because I was so desperate! After cramming 6 into Becky’s car we got home, chatted some more, I wrote 2 days of diary and after not knowing the time I headed off to bed, safe in the knowledge I was skiving off the run tomorrow morning at 5.30am to be in at the office with Dave for 9am!

Thursday couldn’t have been a more boring day if it tried! The highlight of the day was speaking to Hodge for 20mins. I was woken at 5.30am even though I wasn’t going because firstly every time someone opened the bedroom door it banged into my bed and secondly the door squeaks every time it opens! So after getting into the office we spent the morning reading through all the scripts and deciding what part each of us would read, I was primarily phonics. After finishing my blog, Vimel bought our lunch in and after lunch the highlight of my day, a 20min conversation with Hodge, only to be interrupted by an office power cut. I left in the end because the power cut was going to last a while, this sucked though because I really wanted to speak to Ginge! We went shopping for essentials on the way home (juice, chocolate, crisps, smellies & fizzy stuff), ate puri for dinner whilst watching Episode 4 of Flash Forward and had another Kelly’s FS with no translator! We got back to the flat, chilled out, listened to music, chatted with Dave and wrote the shortest diary entry since I’ve been here!

Friday, the day my voice becomes famous throughout all of India who is learning spoken English with Oasis! So Becky picked the four of us up from the flat, with three already in the car it was four crammed into the back and three across two front seats, typical India! So we get to Eunice’s over the narrowest 2-lane bridge I’ve ever seen, with everyone in Chennai wanting to cross it, things were interesting. Eventually (Ben lost all feeling in one leg) we got to Eunice’s brothers recording studio in a converted bedroom at their house, it was really nice, air-conditioned, professional looking and we got right to work with recording the CDs. It was a whole family affair with pretty much all of Eunice’s grandparents, brothers, aunts etc. there! So we spent the next 7 hours recording 2 CDs worth of spoken English, we spent our spare time creating modelling photos, eating homemade vada (lentils, dried chillies and then it’s fried) and having fun on Photoshop (with our modelling photos)! We eventually left very satisfied and slighty fed-up of R-r-recording. We had to get an auto to Spencer’s Plaza to meet Blesson so he could take us to the cinema, this was rush-hour, a 40 minute journey and the film started in 45 mins! So eventually we got to Spencer’s, Blesson called (Ben was borrowing a working sim card) and after spending Rs.150 (our most expensive auto so far), Blesson arrived to pick us up. We got to the Sathyam cinema (it’s huge), met all the others (IJM girls, Ebe and some other Indian guys) and headed inside. I gave my camera to Ben because I knew there would be some sort of trouble if I carried it in slung over my shoulder! Still as I walked through I turned, seeing all the bags getting searched I headed over to meet Ben and basically they seized my camera batteries (only getting them back with a ticket at the end). It was weird experiencing incredibly tight security at a cinema, bearing in mind you could take a hi-def video camera (borrowed from Channel TV) into the Mallard and they wouldn’t notice! So after spending a further 20mins getting some sandwiches, three buckets of coke, I got into the screen to find my seat and sat down 45 minutes into the This Is It (farewell MJ)! The screen was huge (as big as the ones at the cinema we had in Plymouth), the sound was amazing, the seats were like sofas (with an awesome recline too) and the whole experience for Rs.120 (£1.60). After this we spent the rest of the night at the IJM girls place, it’s a huge 4^th floor apartment, with so much party room! We chatted for ages, including a period about the problems in Africa (including some Soul Edge chat about what Josh did, including the Congo trip) and also some history about Guernsey, about how we function (crown dependency wise). So at 1.30am we left, needing an auto home, this would prove to be virtually impossible and SO expensive. Blesson & Ebe rode off looking for an auto, to send it over to the flats, so after mucking around in the road, getting watched by various Indians they came back with an auto (it felt strangely like a rescue mission). The journey was eventful, apart from the driver being drunk (or at least merry), we encountered the infamous Chennai rat (the size of cats and jet black in colour), they are huge, we saw six whilst going through SD Puram and after paying Rs.200 (usually Rs.50 during the day), we got to bed at around 3.30am after some more chatting with Dave.

After a small lie in (slept 7 hours), I got up to spend some time with God, so I started ‘The Purpose Driven Life’, decided to read my bible cover to cover over the next four months and spent some time worshipping with my headphones in! I’m basically reading 8-10 chapters a day so it’ll take me from 1^st Nov to Feb 28^th and I’m really excited about this, praying that God teaches me so much, even though I’m not specifically studying passages as I go. So this time was amazing, it was like 1.5hours just reading, studying and worshipping, hanging out with God, something we don’t always get a chance to do! After the guys got up we decided to go to Spencer’s Plaza to do some shopping, then go straight on to Thom’s Halloween party @ Sparky’s (I was helping out, it meant free food :p). So we said goodbye to Dave (he got an auto the airport at 3.30pm ish) and headed to Spencer’s for lunch at Subway (chicken teriyaki sub, delicious but expensive £1.80 for a 6 inch), then shopping for speakers (got a 2.1 system, perfect for music & movies), I also picked up a new Indian cricket shirt from the Nike shop (Rs. 2295, so £32). We left for Sparky’s, getting there early at 5.20pm (party didn’t start till 6pm) and there were no tables because it was fully booked, so we all helped out with the games stalls. I was on Monster Cans (knock down tins with 3 beanbags), Ben was on Demon Darts (pop balloons on a board by throwing 3 darts) and Laurie was on Eyeball Toss (throw a ping pong ball into dyed water in jars). We all had good fun, got to wear Sparky’s baseball shirts, but we got fed up in the end as it got later and finally at 10.30 we finished, tucking straight into the huge buffet laid out! After grabbing a lift back with Ruth (from Powerhouse, she also helped on games), we were in bed straight away at 12.30am.

The plan for Sunday was to be at Sparky’s for the 9.30am service, but after Bens’ alarm didn’t got off, I woke at 9.22am knowing we’d missed church so after getting another half hour of sleep I decided to make the most of the morning off and do exactly what I did yesterday morning! TPDL (The Purpose Driven Life), 4 month bible reading and listening to some great worship music. We would spend the afternoon at youth, so we wouldn’t totally miss church today, we got to youth at 12.30pm and were straight into lunch, sandwiches (4 pieces of bread, 3 fillings, a monster club sandwich)! We played a great game after lunch and Ian (teaching English & from Australia) brought the word on 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:2, about being ambassadors of Christ. We then realised that we were leading (the youth) the service at Padur (1hr outside the city), so after packing up, waiting for Ebe & Ben (gone to get another sim card in Ebe’s name), we finally set off in an air-conditioned van for Padur church! It was awesome getting out the city and seeing what else was around Chennai, including the famous IT Corridor Road, with all the IT companies’ offices on either side of the road. Ebe pointed out a building where the Indian CIA are located, guess what, for those of you paying attention when I gave the presentation before I left, it was Tidel Park (I took some photos to prove it)! We also saw a collapsed bridge on the way, with a lorry laden with bricks being craned out the ditch (we actually saw it on page 3 of The Hindu the next day)! So we got to the church, basically a cowshed, with a weekly attendance of around 15 people, mostly Hindustan University students (University is very close to the church, city centre is too far for these guys to go). I played percussion for the worship time (djembe, tambourine & chimes), Blesson gave his testimony and Pinky (youth pastor) brought the message, the service went extremely well! Afterwards we stayed for some Pepsi and a chat to the students; I met a guy from north east India, also 3 Africans (2 Liberians & 1 Nigerian). The Africans don’t like Chennai at all, it’s too hot, they get stared at, it’s an unfriendly city and basically they have to stay here for 3 years study without going home, wow, so much respect for them. We headed back to the city, after a great evening, we also stopped at Cafe Coffee Day (Indian equivalent of Starbucks) for a drink together, I had a Devils Dream (cream, chocolate, coffee, splendicious) and a big chuck of Black Forest Gateau! After getting back, Timmy dropped everyone home in his car, apart from Ben & I (we were going to Sparky’s) and at last we got to Sparky’s at 9.45pm (Laurie had been at football so he was waiting for us for 20mins), although at least I got to sit with Dia (Timmy & Pinky’s 3yr old daughter) in the back of the car, she is so gorgeous! I ordered the Cajun Coca Cola Chicken, which was lush, but full of courgettes, mushrooms and peppers, oh well, there’s nothing like leaving a plate full of food! So we left managing to bargain down from Rs.100 to Rs.50 to the flat, we listened to music, wrote our diaries and got to bed at 12.30am, again!

So after a fairly relaxed and easy week, as you can see, the weekend was full of excitement! Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and feel free to make some comments, they are much appreciated!

Can someone also put this blog address into the church newsletter? Thanks.

God Bless,

Tom xx

Autos are so much fun! Week Three!

2009-10-29T01:29:00.000-07:00

Good morning from a now rainy Chennai! Yes, I said RAINY Chennai; supposedly the monsoon has finally arrived! This means chaos on the roads because Chennai has the worst drainage system ever, but it also means colder weather and much needed restocking of the reservoirs!

So onto the blog entry,

Our new timetable was fully underway from Monday 19th October so it was exciting to see how it was going to pan out seeing as we’d so carefully planned it! However the week didn’t get off to a good start when after moving into the living area to sleep (broken A/C meant spreading the body heat) I managed to wake SIX times during the night, giving me the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever had! So upon waking up at the time I was supposed to it was such an effort dragging myself out of bed, although this was made easier because I was dripping with sweat! We got into the office for Rs.30 after every auto was demanding Rs.40 (this would be a bad day for autos) for a morning of various things including learning a Tamil song (all I remember is bubbles) planning for the week, checking the internet for various news, reading/replying to emails and our Tamil class (Mon, Wed & Fri). After filling our stomachs with food we headed out to catch an auto to BV School, one auto asked for Rs.100, we laughed, didn’t even bother bargaining and walked away. Ben flagged another auto down, he wanted Rs.80, we said Rs.70 and whilst Ben was bargaining I flagged down another auto who straight away said Rs.70. So we jumped into the auto for Rs.70 and whilst the other auto driver was still shouting Rs.80 to Ben, we drove off with my auto guy. The other auto driver then leant out the side of his auto to look at us, I shouted to him, “See (pointing to the auto we were in), seventy!” It was pretty funny and we both felt good inside about refusing to be ripped off, getting an auto for our usual price! So we eventually got to the school, playing animal pictionary (the kids were older than we’d planned for so some improve. occurred) and giving them a colouring sheet of animals (they love anything art based). So we rode to John’s church with one of us on Bala’s bike, one on John’s, it’s so much fun riding pillion on bikes especially without a helmet :P! The Fun Station went really well, we did a similar program to the school (different games though) and then travelled to the Vyasarpadi office to then go out into the community to meet some youth. After refuelling with Lays Magic Masala crisps we rode pillion out into the slums, hung out with some youth guys, chatting to them whilst Bala & John talked to them about the programs Oasis is running for them. So after a long day we finally made it back to the flat for some food, although it was food shopping first, Laurie was asleep so I pulled his boxers down, which eventually woke him up! None of us were sure if the A/C had been fixed, so after praying (including a prayer during grace) and trying it out, but to no avail, we phoned Becky. She said the motor had burnt out, which was going to be expensive, with another guy coming on Tuesday to look at it, it meant no A/C till the weekend, NOOOOOOOOOO! WHY? HOW? What have we done to deserve this! We shopped for breakfast & snacks at Spencer’s/Mummy Daddy’s ate Chapatti & chick pea curry and relaxed until bed at 11pm. I decided to move into the spare bedroom with Ben to see if I’d sleep any better, so only time will tell...

I woke at ridiculous a’ clock, but this was expected because it was a football day, this meant I’d only woken when I had to, YEAH! Football was such a struggle today, primarily due to all the sleepless nights I’d been having, the boys recognised I was tired too, saying to me, “Sleepy, sleepy!” So basically whilst wondering around with the energy of a sloth, I also suffered the embarrassment of losing the ball every time I received it because the boys were full of energy, they just nicked it away each time! So after trying seven in an auto (failure) and paying our cheapest price yet Rs.40, we arrived back at the flat for breakfast, a shower and some sleep. However sleep didn’t really happen because we were woken firstly by Shanthi trying to burst into our bedroom with two of us asleep in boxers and secondly Swamy with the A/C mechanics. However as much as I was annoyed because I needed sleep, the thought of the A/C getting fixed game me renewed vigour! So after getting on/off rest/sleep we had lunch after everyone had left, sometime near 12.30pm and we made it into the office for 1pm. Anita (Bangalore Team Co-ordinator) was down for a few days, with a couple of Yanks from IJM, so we spent the afternoon playing with her daughters, planning for the spoken English class later on, writing our blogs and working on our Fun Station spreadsheet. We were dying for a fruit smoothie so from our beloved Greams road Fruit Shop, so we asked Vimel, who cycled off to fulfil our cravings! We were still waiting for the football boys attending the spoken English class by the time Vimel got back, so we gleefully drank our Tweety’s (watermelon combo) and Ben & I left for our SD Puram Fun Station. We ran the same animal program as Monday, which again went down very well, although with no translator it was very difficult to get anything done. We also had our first music class straight after the Fun Station, this went ok, but again with no translator it’s nigh on impossible to teach them anything! The evening’s plans were to go bowling with the guys from Bangalore, so we went back to the flat to wait for Swamy to arrive to take us in an auto and we had just enough time to scoff some dinner before leaving for the bowling alley. We ended up at the Du Bowl (place we went on our first Saturday) because the Snow Bowl didn’t have working monitors, we had great fun, our lane was between Ben & I and on the last frame I snuck it with 113-111.We then found out that nobody had eaten so off to Pizza Hut for our second dinner! It was a lush Pizza Hut, pretty much brand new, nice interior, we ordered a feast for 10 (9 of us) and I stuffed my face with garlic bread, pizza, Pepsi, you wouldn’t believe how much I eat here, it’s crazy!!! I chatted to Barry (an American) for quite a while about NFL & College football; you know what I’m like! We got home late at 12.15am and went straight to bed; the diary would have to wait till tomorrow!

Waking twice was still better than six times, but getting up was still a mission and after seeing the time, 8.45am I had cold pizza & Red Bull for breakfast! We met with Becky to discuss how things were going and prepared for the afternoon’s school session and Fun Station, we also learnt some more Tamil before heading home for lunch. We managed to squeeze in some diary writing time before getting in the craziest auto ever to Vyasarpadi, he was going the fastest we’d ever been since getting to Chennai (Ben thought he was going to die), and no gap was too small for his auto! The school session was difficult, they were so hyper for some reason, John tried calming them down, so did Bala, but in the end all we managed to do was musical bumps/statues and the animal colouring sheet. We did the same at the Vyasarpadi Office Fun Station, but slightly more successfully, although this is probably down to the fact the kids are so well behaved! So we met Bala at the Vyasarpadi Office, headed into the community, but the problem is that the youth work till 8pm every night which makes it impossible to meet and chat with them, so we spoke to two guys, then grabbed an auto back to the flat. When we got back we ate our dinner of noodles & fried egg, wrote our diaries and found out the washing machine had leaked all over the spare room floor, so after clearing that up we went to bed!

Thursday was a slightly more eventful day than Wednesday, it started off with another early football morning, which I spent just watching and taking photos for Bala to use for a league presentation. Whilst watching the boys I also saw about five rats in the scrub land, they were just foraging around in the scrub, I decided to throw a stone at one but I missed! So after waiting at least 15mins for an auto (usually 5mins) we got back to the flat, ate a well deserved breakfast (not deserved for me though) and grabbed a couple of hours sleep. I’m sure Shanthi (our cook/cleaner) is going to walk in on us sleeping in boxers at some point; I look forward to seeing her facial expression! So lunch today is something new, rice (never new over here), beef casserole and a dahl (lentil curry). We decided at the office to do the BV school session based on the environment because they had a rally around the community during the morning, so we hoped it would all tie in! We left late (3.15pm) giving us 15mins to be at the school, no chance, but after eventually getting to the school the auto demanded Rs.20 more, when it should only be Rs.10. I said to John that the auto wanted Rs.100 and they spent the next 10mins arguing, (bear in mind we were already late) eventually settling on Rs.90 and the auto driver snatched Rs.10 from one of the school kids, giving it to us. John told me on the way to the classroom that the auto driver wasn’t a nice man and was very unreasonable. We headed into the school, the session went really well, I joined in with the colouring and I saw the kid who had his Rs.10 nicked, and he said he’d got it back from the driver. We then rode pillion over to a new Fun Station with the KG Puram football boys, lots of familiar faces and an awesome location. The room is a church on the top floor (3rd floor), no windows just holes (five in total) and amazing views across Chennai from the roof. We found out we had no Fun Station at SD Puram (Kelly’s), so after getting an auto back to the flat we ate dinner and walked to the main Medavakkam Tank Road to get an auto. Ben stopped one and got bargaining (Rs.50 max), he wanted Rs.60, I flagged down another, bargaining for Rs.50, I got it, so I called Ben over and we jumped in, with Ben’s auto driver shouting at us aggressively as we pulled away. Ha, little did we know he’d get his own back in a funny sort of way! So we were heading for Egmore underbridge then onto Sparky’s to meet Anju who was going to pick us up and take us to Thom’s house, we started going a weird way, I had my suspicions and when we went over the Chetpet bridge I knew we were going the wrong way. The auto guy stopped and I said, “Sparky’s?” He asked some random Indian guy, who had no clue, so I said to Ben to phone Anju and get her to speak to the auto driver, sure enough this worked, but only for Rs.20 extra. I was getting angry, especially when he said we’d agreed Rs.60 and not Rs.50, so a total of Rs.80, this was ridiculous. I argued with him for about five minutes, but I was getting nowhere so I gave in to Rs.80 and eventually we got to Thom’s house. This house was palatial, especially compared to what we’ve been in, it had a huge Sony TV, Wii, fully A/C’d, huge sofa, double height ceiling and I fell in love with the place! We introduced ourselves, the food came out, Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, salad and garlic bread, it was a feast and we sat back enjoying being a bit Western again! So we played Charades & Taboo and ate an American size portion of scrumptious chocolate cake, at 10.30pm everyone leaves. We stayed behind to play Beatles Rock Band on the Wii, it was awesome, we had Thom & Tom on vocals, Ben on lead, Anne on bass and Taylor on drums (Taylor & Anne work in Sparky’s, they’re from Minnesota), we left at about 11.30pm. We paid Rs.100 (usually Rs.60) to get home, it was so weird seeing everywhere deserted and Chennai kind of asleep! I actually stayed up to write in my diary and then straight to bed!

After such a manic Thursday, Friday was a lot quieter. After Ben worked out at 8.30am what he was doing for the office prayer time at 9am, we get into the office slightly late and Ben leads a brief study! We found out that as an office we were going to the first Oasis Seniors match at 3pm so all Fun Stations were cancelled, however there was lots of work to do with most of the day taken up with the first report. We only had one break which was for a fish curry lunch and at 3pm we crammed 5 of us (plus the driver) into an auto to KG Puram football pitch. It was weird being at the ground with flip flops & trousers on, but we sat in the heat for 1.5hrs whilst they cleared the pitch, put the nets up, marked out the pitch and sorted out paperwork. The match kicked off at 4.30pm, the Young Hunters FC looked dangerous early on, but Oasis came back into the game strongly, but with few chances at either end, the game ended 0-0. It was interesting watching this match because it was an official senior league match (all ages), proper officials and the standard was way below even Guernsey church football, it just shows how young football is as a sport over here. We were mobbed before & after the game by various kids, who’d obviously never seen white guys before, they even chased after Becky’s car as we drove off to CSF! We got to the CSF English service late again because of a massive jam up just outside the ground, the problem is because there is no lane discipline vehicles just try and go around each other and eventually block up the entire road (I’ll draw you an example when I get home). I struggled through the service due to severe hunger & tiredness, Viji lead worship again, which was great, but after the service we decided to go home and grab some food. The plan was to meet Viji at the Fruit Shop, but when we realised we couldn’t call/text anymore and also we had a 5am wake up for the church football tournament, we decided to chill and watch Family Guy! Lights out at 10.30pm...

Waking at 5am for football seems to be the norm around here, so once again we went through the usual routine, but this time we were playing for serious and possibly for the whole day! So it was Saturday, the day of the churches football tournament, our team Powerhouse had never played together and some of us didn’t even know each other’s names! We got to the MCC School at 6am, but in classic Indian style we didn’t play for at least another hour, so we spent our time talking tactics, warming up and looking cool. Our formation was 1-1-3-2 with 2 Yanks, 3 Brits, 3 Indians, 1 Canadian and a Bangladeshi, so we were by far the most multi-cultural team in the tournament! Obviously I played up front, with Ben across from me, Laurie was playing defensive midfield but he was all over the park in most games. Timmy our youth pastor did an amazing job at the back the whole day, especially seeing as there were no goal keepers! Our first match finished with a win for Powerhouse, 4-2. We’d gone behind early on, but after developing some chemistry as a team (especially between Laurie & I) I managed to beat two defenders and slot it away top left, I then doubled our lead by being persistent, robbing a defender and finishing low and hard, the crowd went wild (at least 100 watching) and it was an amazing feeling! After I squandered two chances of a hat trick, Ben got the third, a breakaway lead by me, I slid Ben in and he slid, kicking the ball into an empty net. Sharon (Canadian) grabbed the fourth with another break away and the opposition pulled one back whilst Steven (centre back) chatted with me on the sidelines (whilst we were both still playing) about going off for a rest! I was high-fived, hugged, labelled Ronaldo (my first goal was Ronaldo ‘esque’) and it was an amazing feeling, maybe it’s because I’m white or am I just amazing at football? :p So we were through, next up the team in white, possibly the favourites, but time for a rest, some dosa & thunder bread (light noodles in a pancake form) for breakfast and our fans (Bram & Arpet) went to get bananas, water & Red Bull! So our next match was at around 10am (already been there for 4 hours), it was clear from the outset the whites had played together for a while (they had league players which was against the rules), but Laurie went on a mazy run and finished nicely for 1-0. We went backs to the wall as the whites bombarded our goal, but our defense (marshalled by Laurie) held firm and just into the second half (each half was 15mins, 5min break in between) Laurie pinged a ball over the top and I controlled in, banging it in on the half volley (you could only score from inside the ‘D’). Even after being taken out twice (one guy got yellow) I managed to break through with an open goal, a defender kicking my heels (the guy who fouled me earlier but didn’t get yellow), but I stayed strong and finished to go 3-0 up! I turned around and put my finger to my lips in ‘Shhhhhh’ style, pointing to the defender, but the ref saw and booked me for an excessive celebration (taunting the opposition)! The ref eventually blew for full-time, the match had been won, the opposition didn’t shake our hands they just walked away disgruntled. I was hailed on the sidelines again by all our fans, including other players knocked out or just watching, I could get used to this attention! So Powerhouse marched on, I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted (bear in mind it’s 350 heat with 90% humidity), but we had a 2.5 hour break till our semi-final. We spent this time eating (our fans had been to get us water, ice-creams etc.), sleeping on the dirt and enjoying the shade the tents brought (they had a tented area for food/rest). We were playing the greens in the heat of the day, after getting up at 5am, adrenaline gone because of the huge break, what would happen? The white boys suffered in the heat, with the greens outplaying us to go 2-0 up in the first half, although I missed a sitter, putting a cross over the bar. Ben pulled one back with a driving run, but the game was wrapped up with a counter-attack for 3-1. We were still congratulated, the Indians really loved us, but it was 3/4th place playoff, not the final! So after being waited on with Glucose drinks, water etc. (Becky & Viji spent the whole day watching us which was awesome, Viji gave some helpful tips too!) we played the 3/4th place game, with the teams mixed up because it was really just a friendly. We started badly again (probably because Laurie was on the bench) going 2-0 down fairly quickly, but with Laurie restored to the team, I managed to turn a Ben cross into the net with my left peg. Early on the second half we pressed for an equaliser, it came, with a neat interchange between Laurie & me, I put him through on the left wing and after running into the D, he returned the favour for a tap in, 2-2! In the dying moments it all went wrong, a mix up between Blesson & Ebe meant their forward nipped in and finished the game at 3-2. We weren’t too fussed because we’d punched above our weight all day, we even had three girls in our team! So after a horribly long presentation (just like this blog ), we had some snacks Timmy had bought (chicken pasty & muffins) and headed straight to music practice at the church office. We were late so by the time the very retro kit was set up and Ben had run to the flat, then back (no keys, Laurie had them), then to the music shop, so finally we started at 5.30pm. It was great just jamming with some guys again, I just sang harmony which was awesome and after the practice we walked to get the keys from Laurie. We walked all the way to the mosquito infested cyber cafe, no Laurie, but fortunately Theo from the office was there, so we used his phone and Laurie would meet us back at the flat. He had a long story to tell about his adventure at Timmy’s house, but fortunately we had keys, but no phones (sim cards still broken) and we went to Dosa Calling for dinner, at last hitting the hay at 10.30pm for a much needed sleep!

We had to be at church for 8.45am so at 8.35am after showering, grabbing my new un-ironed shirt, throwing down some Chocos and brushing my teeth we rushed out the door hoping for an auto nearby! We got one almost outside for Rs.50 and when I checked my watch after getting into Sparky’s, it was 8.49am, not bad but still late! The band was Pastor Jake (Lead vox & acoustic), Me (Harmony), Richard (Keys), Ben (Drums) and some new dude on bass. It was a great sound and we lead, Give thanks to the Lord, Let everything that, Over the Mountains, I will Worship, Majesty and Jesus lover of my Soul. After church we were on a mission to scrounge a lift, hopefully with Ruth, so we hung around chatting to the Spark’s guys, even experiencing a power cut (the backup generator gives light & power, but no A/C). So youth was awesome again, food was great, we played signs & Inky, pinky, bonky, wonky and the word was on ‘Finding Yourself’ based on Disney movie Cars. Blesson (goalkeeper who had the mix up yesterday with Ebe to lose 3-2) invited us to his place to watch the Liverpool v Man Utd match at 7.30pm, so before that everyone headed to our favourite Fruit Shop for a drink & chat (Romancing the Apple, Fruit Salad & California Quencher, just for me :p) and then onto Blesson’s for the match, with Laurie & Ben with Ebe, me with Blesson, all riding pillion going at least 50 kph without helmets! Blesson’s house is lush, Samsung HDTV, Xbox 360 etc. we decided to order pizza takeaway and we sat back watching football on comfortable sofas! So the pizza came at half time, we scoffed it down (so hungry) and enjoyed the 2-0 victory for Liverpool, now time for the match I came for! The Hammers game started soon after the other match, which was great, although we were 2-0 down at half time at the guys left just Blesson & me. After coming back into it, Ebe & Steve came back from taking Laurie & Ben and at the final whistle a 2-2 was a great result! Ebe gave me a ride home, this was an insane experience, I had no helmet, holding on for dear life, we hit 90 kph (56 mph) several times, whilst avoiding potholes, animals (we swerved at 60 kph to avoid a cow in the road), cars and people. It was genuinely the scariest thing I’ve ever done; if we crashed I would probably have died! But at 12.45am I got to bed so thankful I was still alive!

So that’s my week, I guess each time it’s gonna get posted up on Thursday because it takes me a while to write as you can imagine! This baby is over 4000 words, which is impressive, that’s almost my dissertation in one blog entry!

Take care and God Bless,

Tom xx

Leaving Comments & Becoming Followers

2009-10-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Hope you've all had a good weekend, mine was pretty awesome but you'll hear about that later on this week.

I would like to say that if you've read my blog, can you please leave some sort of comment so I know someone has actually read it and I'm not doing this for nothing!

Also if you are planning on following this through then PLEASE become a follower so I know some people out there actually want me to keep writing!

Thanks,

Tom x

Ben's Blog!

2009-10-23T02:09:00.000-07:00

www.benpotterindia.blogspot.com

Indian Driving! Week two.

2009-10-23T00:58:00.000-07:00

So I’m back again after 3 days rest, at least this update will be recent, unlike the last one which was in theory more than a week old! I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy typing it and sending it out to the masses!

So, where were we...

Monday 12^th October was our first day of proper work, so I guess it all starts here. We managed to get an auto into the office for 9am (we later found out Rs. 30 is the standard cost of this trip but we paid Rs. 40 for the first few days) and every morning from 9am – 9.30am the Oasis Chennai team meets for a worship, study and prayer time. This is such an amazing time just worshipping and learning together, bringing any troubles before both the team and more importantly God. So not knowing what to expect we start our first day, most of which is spent with Becky going through various forms and procedures, we also got onto the internet for the first time in India (other than a disgusting & smelly cyber cafe just up the road from our flat, I was getting eaten alive my mozzies, so I paid Rs. 15 for 1hr and left after 10mins) so that was a momentous occasion! So after a morning of preparation for the school clubs and funstations we headed back to the flat for our first sample of a Shanti (our Indian cook/cleaner) lunch!

The lunch was amazing, we all wolfed it down (including me Hannah) if I remember correctly it was some sort of rice (obviously), a potato type mix/sauce and poppadums and it was delicious, it really hit the spot! We ran through our lesson plans for the final time and got our first auto to Vyasarpadi Fire Station (the nearest landmark to all the places we work at in Vyasarpadi), we called John (Vyasarpadi co-ordinator, our translator and generally amazing guy), he met us, but rather than wait with the auto as suggested, the noobs we were we paid and let it go, so we had to get another auto to follow John in, but we haven’t made that mistake since! So we head right into the community, off the beaten track (although every track in Chennai is very beaten) and arrive at BV Colony School, a new government school, with good teaching but zero extra-curricular activities, in stepped Oasis to help out. Becky told us in the office that the community don’t respect the school so rubbish is dumped in the grounds, gangs break in and hang around smoking & drinking so the place gets trashed and they are lacking even in basic toilet facilities. So we head inside (we’re late because we didn’t give ourselves enough time... typical) and the place is literally concrete walls & floor, nothing else, the classrooms the same but with 2 blackboards and a couple of tables/benches. You guys think Les Beaucamps needs to be revamped or rebuilt, well Les Beaucamps is top-class compared to this school, I know it’s all relative but still, BV Colony School has unbelievably basic facilities, however they have a room full of very good PCs sitting collecting dust because nobody knows how to use them, which is why Bala (Oasis youth co-ordinator & chief fundraiser) has stepped in and is now teaching them how to use these PCs, also bear in mind most of these kids have never seen a PC before.

So, our first after school club started late, at 3.45pm not 3.30pm! We played games for the whole 45mins, which is great because they do no physical education as part of their curricular and we played ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ and What’s the time Mr. Wolf, we also introduced ourselves. It was so great to finally meet some kids, be able to start helping in some way and building relationships with them. After the school finished we walked to the Vyasarpadi Church Fun Station with John (it’s his church, his dad is the Pastor and they live underneath because the church is on the first floor), the kids came in dribs & drabs because they didn’t know the FS (Fun Stations) had started yet. By the time the kids had arrived we did the same games as the BV School apart from Eunice (Education Co-ordinator) was at this FS (we also thought she would be at the school so we had to think on our feet and on the first day!) so she did her game, Fruit Salad. There were about 15 kids and the session went really well, but we agreed we needed some other activities to keep the kids thinking (arts, songs etc.) and challenge them more. We also had our first FS at the Kellys Office (SD Puram), we played the same games apart from Eunice taught the In/Out game, they especially loved What’s the time Mr. Wolf, this lot bounce off the walls and were difficult to control, but so long as they have fun that’s all that matters! This group also has the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen (see Kellys photos) and Joshy L commented on her on Facebook! So our first working day was over, John got us an auto back to the flat and we ate our dinner feeling tired, but rewarded.

We were greatly pleased to hear on Tuesday morning that football wouldn’t start till Wednesday, so at least we had one more sensible wake up time! So Tuesday was the monthly team meeting which would last all day without any FS or kids work happening and we were allowed to contribute to this meeting. We mostly talked about the Chennai team filling in reports, forms etc. and talks on fundraising lasted all afternoon, the Oasis Chennai Team need to raise 55 lakhs which is £76,000 before next March because funding has changed due to the recession, however the team here want to keep all their current project going and not stop any of the work. So Tuesday was a very tiring day, just sitting listening to the team discuss various items on the agenda and then back to the flat at 5pm to have dinner, we then ventured out to do some clothes shopping, picture a large room, lots of rails, tables, shelves, no space to move, clothes everywhere, on the floor, some clean, some dirty and only ceiling fans to cool the room, WELCOME TO INDIAN CLOTHES SHOPPING!

Wednesday came around quickly and it was early morning time, we dragged ourselves out of our air-conditioned cocoon and out into the actually cold Chennai morning air, the streets were relatively deserted compared to a normal day and it was quite bizarre. Having said that the people here seem to love getting up early so even by 6am the roads are busy and people are flowing around the city as normal. We met Vimel (he is the Oasis Chennai messenger boy, he plays football and lives in SD Puram, one of the communities we work in) and travelled the 5km (Rs. 80, but now as low as Rs. 40 when not ripped off) to the ground. This area is the poorest we go to, there are housing blocks with families of 5 crammed into a 270 sq. ft room, with shacks lining the roads and people sleeping on the pavements. The ground is just red dirt with two goals, a concrete stand seating maybe 1000 spectators flanking one side and scrub land flanking another side (see photos of KG Puram Football). The kids are all waiting on the stand, as we ride the auto across the pitch and over to the boys. We meet Viji, introduce ourselves and Laurie sets to work with a warm-up, some stretches, some skill drills and finally a match. It’s really rewarding working with these boys; I pray we can somehow make a difference in their lives. After, one of the boys leads a warm down on the stand and bananas are passed around as some nutritious sustenance (most of them probably don’t eat a balanced diet). We ride back with 6 in an auto (which is our current record), Viji get’s this one cheaply (we always get autos cheaper when one of the team catch one for us) for Rs. 50, we arrive at the flat, have breakfast (a western cuisine of toast & marmalade :P) and rush out the door to make the office for 9am, we were delayed however due to a crash, one car across the road divide and 3 other cars involved, no surprise here!

The morning is spent preparing for the afternoon FS & school club and we leave in the searing heat at 1pm, back to the flat for lunch (we did this everyday during the week, bar Friday when Vimel went to our flat and got our lunch so we could eat at the office). That afternoon we met the older school kids (8^th & 9^th Standard, 11-13 yrs old), we played the same games (the joy of lots of different FS & clubs is that we prepare 1 or 2 a week and we can use them at all the places during the week, so less work for us!), got them to draw us (GAT Team) and again I think they really enjoyed themselves. We had no youth that evening but we had a FS at the Vyasarpadi Office; this was a tiny little room, although the building has a kitchen & office. Funnily enough we played the same games, but we also played the In/Out game and again the kids loved it, there was a gorgeous 6yr old girl who was looking after her baby brother, yes, a 6yr old looking after a 1yr old, so unfair! So because we had no youth our day ended and we headed back to the flat for dinner. The other guys are into working out a bit, so they do push-ups and ‘the plank’ (works on your six-pack), whilst I write my diary, so I have huge hand muscles! ;)

Thursday morning was D-DAY (after training for it with football at 5.30am, this is the morning I took pictures too), we’d discussed our timetable the night before and worked out that firstly our travel budget wouldn’t stretch to what we were doing and secondly our bodies were incapable of holding up for the intensity of the timetable. Becky was grateful that we’d flagged this up early and not let it go on for too long, so by the end we had an amazing timetable that meant sufficient rest and the travel budget fitted perfectly. This also meant 5.30am every day for Laurie, but only Tues & Thurs for the rest. I’ll post up my timetable at some point so you lot can see what I get up to on a day to day basis! We only had the school club on Thursday, so I thought seeing as Diwali was Saturday we’d give them a Diwali colouring sheet (they also don’t do art as part of their curricular). I spent the next hour drawing out a colouring sheet (I was proud of my art ability, thanks Dad & maybe Mrs. Adams too) of fireworks and a Diwali candle. Laurie sorted out some games and we were set for only 1hr teaching till Monday. They enjoyed all the games, but I’d say (biased) that the colouring sheet was the crème de la crème! That evening we spent basking in the presence of our new timetable, amongst other things, possibly food shopping (Spencer’s Daily for crisps, fizzy drinks, Dairy Milk and maybe Tropicana, yes, 3 blokes, what do you expect).

If we were to have a chilled catch up day, Friday was it. We had football in the morning for the last time (unless we want to) and got into the office for 9am. We spent the day setting up blogs (see previous post), sending emails, browsing the internet and I skyped my Mum & Dad for 1.5hrs! It was so great to spend a day in the office, eat with the team at lunch and generally continue to solidify relationships with these awesome people! Viji invited us to CSF (Christian Sports Fellowship) for an English service, then a Tamil service so we left at 6.20pm with Viji driving Becky’s car. Just to put you in picture, the road the office is on is very narrow, only just enough room for 1 car or 2 autos, it’s Friday night, the day before Diwali, so people everywhere. We eventually get to the end of the road and there are loads of bikes blocking our exit, next thing we know this guy comes from nowhere and kicks, YES, KICKS all the bikes over into the walls on the side of the road, it’s comedy in the car, we can’t quite believe it! So the rest of the drive was horn honking, avoiding people, cyclists and other road users, we got to the church late at 6.50pm, but the service was great. At 7.30pm the Tamil service started at Viji lead the worship, it was unreal, God was really present in that place, everyone totally worshipping God and after this Paul Moses brought the word on 1 Kings (Women & Jars of Oil) he spoke so passionately and the message was applicable & challenging. After the services we headed to the Fruit Shop (near our flat, we also went during the week) for a drink with Viji, he told us his testimony, amazing, I’ll write it up at some point, we then walked home and got excited about Diwali and our lie in on Saturday morning.

We didn’t see a huge amount of Saturday because we pretty much got up at 3.30pm and after having a leisurely breakfast & chatting, we headed out to buy some fireworks at 5.30pm because Becky, Viji & Vimel were coming to the flat to celebrate Diwali! They arrived at 7.30pm with a large bag of fireworks, so we headed up to the roof to have some fun. We had Rockets, Hulks (big fire crackers), Hydro Bombs (tiny little bombs but ear drum destroying loud), Roman Candles, Big Beasty (cardboard cylinder with a mortar like look and great display), Catherine Wheels (they spin on the floor and whistle very loudly) and other little things. Viji & Vimal are crazy, they were lighting rocket after rocket and these fuses are so short, like 2 second fuses! So we all had fun lighting fireworks and looking around across all the rooftops at other fireworks, it was a bit like a war zone with explosions going off right, left & centre. So after all the fun we decided enough was enough and that our ear drums were sufficiently destroyed, so we said goodbye to the guys and then realised we hadn’t eaten dinner. So in true western Saturday night we texted Becky for a pizza delivery number, got Pizza Hut’s number, called for a Hawaiian (no ham so chicken instead) and a Chicken Supreme, 45mins later it arrived, it was time for a take-away, a film (Hot Fuzz) and Pepsi! CLASSIC! :P It was an amazing way to round off a relaxing weekend, but little did we know, something not so good was in store for us! We decided to head to bed, late at 1am, which was when we smelt something burning in our bedroom. We worked out it was the A/C, but we were thinking, please, no...no... NOOOOOOOO, the only reason we sleep at night is because of that A/C! So after trying it lots of times, we were condemned to the fact it was broken and couldn’t be looked at let alone fixed till Monday! We decided to sleep in different rooms to spread the body heat out and take up a ceiling fan each, I was in the living area, Ben in the spare room and Laurie in our bedroom. Needless to say, this was an uncomfortable night; however I only woke twice and got a decent amount of sleep, waking up soaked in sweat wasn’t fun though!

Sunday was here at last, our favourite day of the week, Powerhouse, Youth and Sparky’s, does it get any better? So we all showered to rid our bodies of the stinking sweat we’d slept in all night, ate breakfast and hot footed it to Sparky’s for church. We arrived late, but not late enough to have missed anything and church was great. Brownies & lemonade halfway through is a genius idea, they taste so good and it’s also a good time to chat to people. We particularly enjoyed being at Sparky’s because our A/C had broken and Sparky’s has the best A/C in the city in my opinion! After the service we chatted with Taylor & his wife (from Minnesota, working at Sparky’s helping Thom out), Jake (asked Ben & I to lead worship one Sunday, talk about thrown in at the deep end!) and Anju (she won’t invite us around because we’re a team of boys!). We had to get an auto to youth, no lift this time, so we grabbed one for Rs. 60, we got 2/3 of the way there and were turfed out for Rs. 60. So for another Rs. 30 we get to the IID College, the Aminjakarai branch of Powerhouse church. Youth was great, the food was amazing, met two American girls, had a great worship time and a thought provoking word on destiny was brought. The comment of our time so far was made by Attu, it sums up my blog title, she said “In England they drive on the left, in Chennai they drive on WHAT’S left,” classic! We also agreed to play in a Chennai church football tournament for Powerhouse next Saturday, meaning another 5.30am wake up! After scrounging a lift to the church office, we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening playing table tennis with Ebe & Steve; it was great fun, but sweaty work! To round off anther awesome weekend we travelled to Sparky’s to enjoy our Powerhouse Sunday 20% discount; I had General Tsao’s chicken (fried chicken in orange/soy sauce with rice & pasta mayo), it was a beautiful evening spent in the confines of a western style restaurant with A/C! So we got back and for a change decided to have an early night, but what was to follow made this last week very difficult...

Hope you guys enjoyed this blog, I know it’s very late and very long, but I want to give you a good picture of what is happening here. You can always print it off and read it at your leisure!

Take care and God Bless,

Tom xx

My Address

2009-10-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon from sunny again Chennai! Seeing as I still haven't finished my next proper blog entry it's creeping up beyond 2500 words so be prepared, I am going to give you my postal address, so if you want to send something then please feel free!

20/40A Thirupacheeswarar Street

Ayanavaram

Chennai 600 023

India

I now look forward to Dairy Milk, Guernsey Milk & lots of amazon packages!

Thanks and God Bless

Tom x

Next one up SOON!

2009-10-20T05:52:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay, it's a big post, will post it up tomorrow once I've finished!

XXX

We've arrived! Week One!

2009-10-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

Sincerest apologies for not starting this earlier, I've been heavily snowed under with various training, auto rickshaw rides, bike stunts and allowing my bowels to adjust! :)

So we arrived into a different world at 3:30am Tuesday 6th October, it was so hot & humid in the middle of the night, that was the first thing that hit me, although nothing could prepare me for second thing, people, people, people and more people. There were hundreds just waiting for friends, family, clients to arrive, packing out the front of the airport. These people weren't just waiting outside the arrivals hall but sitting on the pavements and some even sleeping on the roads waiting for flights or people.

The noise was unreal, megaphones going off, people shouting, horns bleeping constantly and the heat, WELCOME TO INDIA.

So I spotted Swamy (he was wearing an Oasis shirt) and we then headed to the taxi, then met Becky (Oasis Chennai Team Co-ordinator). The first thing I did when the luggage was packed in was reach for my seatbelt, Becky turned around and said, "Don't bother with that, nobody here does." After getting on the roads I had second thoughts about taking her advice! There are usually 6 vehicles abreast heading in one direction, cars, lorrys, motorbikes, push bikes, animals, autos, it is simply unreal. No gap is too small to fit through even at 30mph!

So we arrive at the YWCA, our accommodation for one night only, only to find that my main bag was full of soaking wet clothes, a mystery still not solved, the bag wasn't wet on the outside at any point, just the inside. So at 5am after I'd unpacked EVERYTHING to let it dry we hit the much needed hay.

So up at 12:30pm we went down to meet Leena (Mumbai Co-ordinator) and Swamy for some lunch, I ate very little (take not Hannah) due to severe tiredness and jet lag. We planned on meeting Laurie at the airport (he was coming down later due to a stop in Mumbai). So the afternoon was spent starting diaries and watching Flash Forward (amazing show on Five, watch it).

6:30pm was meeting Laurie time and this changed as soon and Leena & Swamy arrived, typical India, our plans changed instantly. We were moving to the much bigger and nicer YMCA, a double bed for Laurie, a lounge area, a sea view (not quite) all in our room. We picked Laurie up from Chennai Intl. Airport, it was great to finally be the 3 of us in Chennai!

The next 3 days were spent training in our room (because it was so big), we looked at Indian Culture, The Poor, Indian Church, Teaching English, a City Tour and Youth/Kids work. The highlight however was the Rupee Runaround, basically we had to get around Chennai with a set amount of money, armed with only a task sheet, one mobile phone, some Rupees and a sense of adventure. We had to follow some set directions, complete a series of tasks and be prepared to bargain with Autos (Rickshaws) because they love to rip white people off. We had never been in any transport apart from Taxi's, with the Oasis Team communicating, so we were truly thrown in at the deep end not knowing any Tamil. We took Autos, rode buses, saw the flat, went into SD Puram (one of the communities we're working in), saw Vyasarpadi (another community) and ended up at Spencers Plaza (big shopping mall, that's air conditioned)! We actually saved money too because we refused to be ripped off by Auto drivers so we bargained or walked away, that worked a treat!

So after all the training we moved into the flat on Friday evening, we were so excited about actually being able to fully unpacked and settle into Indian life. So we were finally in the place we would spend 5 months living, eating, sleeping, working, laughing, washing etc! We relaxed that evening with Jeanie (Education co-ordinator from Mumbai, she is from Sussex). We had a lie in on Saturday, which was much deserved, we then we phoned Swamy who took us to meet Pastor Jake and see where Powerhouse church meets. We then spent the afternoon ten-pin bowling with Swamy and then shopping at Spencers Plaza. Saturday evening was spent at Dosa Calling (an Indian fast-food outlet) eating Dosa's (like a rice pancake).

Sunday was church day and we rushed out the door and asked the auto to take us to Sparky's for Rs. 55 and 60 if he was quick, he was very quick! Church was great, A/C restaurant, songs we knew (Strength Will Rise, Jesus We Celebrate) and a friendly atmosphere. After church went with Anju (a young Indian Lady who befriends all the GAT Teams) to the church Youth program, they provided lunch, we played games and studied 'words of encouragement'. It was great meeting new people, especially Josh an American who works with IJM (Intl. Justice Ministry), we could get advice and talk about things clearly with no translation/communication problems! We scrounged a lift home with Timmy (the Youth Pastor), well he offered and he lived close anyway. That evening we went back to Sparky's for dinner (20% off on Sundays if you went to Powerhouse church, bargain), it was amazing meeting Tom (the owner, he's from California, also a Christian) and eating some Western food (the hamburger was beautiful). Then we capped off our first week with diary entries, a brief (only for me) workout and relaxing on our sofa (we dragged the spare bed into the living area and added cushions & pillows, perfect)!

So this is all I have time for today because we're off now to Viji's (sports guy from Oasis) church for a youth meeting, in English!

Thanks for all your prayers and I'll be doing this weekly, so in theory on Monday a new post will be coming!

Take care and God Bless!

Tom xx