Day 2

I woke up at around 10.30am, having a very restless night. It is just too hot and I’m sweating from just lying still. I’m soaking through the sheet Raj gave me and the pillow is also full of sweat. I’m not used to the temperature at all. Had a shower and dressed in shorts and t-shirt. Even with the fans in the house (ceiling fans) it is still boiling and very humid.
Breakfast with Raj with was good. I’m not really a breakfast person usually getting up too late to have any. Raj is very hospitable and generous, plying me with much toast, scrambled eggs, tea and spicy sausages. I couldn’t eat too much but didn’t want Raj’s efforts to go to waste so tried to eat my fill. Tea is much the same as home, praise the Lord!
Two youths that Raj has connection with came to visit after breakfast, Andrew and Stanley. They seem nice enough. I’m not really a small talk kind of person, as with a lot of Brits, but I want to really make the effort over here. It was good to chat with them about what they do and their interests. Cricket and motorcycles was the main topics of conversation, both of which I nothing about.
Raj was very excited to show me his new motorbike, a Royal Enfield Bullet, and I have to say I was very impressed. It seems to be his pride and joy and I can tell he takes good care of it. It’s a really smooth ride and even without a helmet I still feel very safe. The traffic and the roads however, are absolutely manic. Not only are you contending with cars, buses and auto-rickshaws, but also with donkeys, cows, dogs and even people. Adding to that, there aren’t any lights at crossroads. Mayhem! It somehow seems to work though, with everyone always on the move. Hereford, your traffic problems seem negligible in comparison.
Arriving at the office, it was not what I expected. It was located in a back street of Bangalore just off the highway, on the ground floor of a three story building. I met Barnabas and Nandu for the first time. Barnabas is a man who is very devoted to praying, and he seems to have a lot of time for everyone. Nandu is one of Raj’s main climbing and activity instructors and seems like a very gentle and easy going person. He is 21 years old so I am hoping to connect with him well.
The prayer and worship was fantastic and very different to anything I’ve experienced in the UK. At home it seems that we don’t worship together if we don’t have access to a musical instrument. Here we cracked straight into worship, sitting on the floor. 4 men singing together in worship, without any apprehension or inhibitions, was really great to be a part of. We didn’t need words or microphones or instruments, just ourselves to sing in worship to God.
For a couple of hours afterwards I spent some time in the office just chilling and going on the Internet, whilst Nandu and Barnabas went to buy chicken and things for the BBQ, and whilst Raj thought of a recipe for the chicken. I’m already finding the pace of things here quite slow. It’s as if it takes a long time to do a little, but I suppose I have to see how it goes.
I met one of Raj’s teenagers from the church group called Kezi. She was really nice and interested in where I was from and why I was here. She taught me some typical phrases in Tamil (one of the local languages) and spent most of the afternoon laughing at me trying speak it. I didn’t mind though.
Barnabas and I went to a general store on the back of his motorbike, again the traffic is hell, but everyone seems used to it. The general convenience stores over here are much like ours, just much cheaper and surrounded by parked motorbikes and people begging.
I met up with the rest of the teenagers that Raj is sort of in charge of in Banaswadi Bible Church. They all seem pretty nice and well educated. It’s kind of hard starting relationships because they’re all so shy, but I just got talking anyway and showed an interest in them by asking loads of questions about themselves and answered any questions they had. They’re just normal kids really but with much more respect for their elders, unlike a lot of the kids in the UK.
Met a Hindu lady called Impa, who was really talkative and answered loads of my questions about the place. She also asked loads of questions, about me, the UK and what I was doing here. I was really open to answering and mentioned the fact that God was a big part of the plan. That is when I found out she was a Hindu, and I thought, ‘uh-oh, I’ve put my foot in it’ but she wasn’t troubled at all but just sort of changed the subject. She has offered to take me shopping on the main high street to show me some fine fabrics and materials and also to make sure I don’t get cheated. She explained that being white and British, people associated it with wealth and so knocks the prices of their goods up by 600%! CRAZY! So at least I won’t get cheated if Impa is with me.
Got home that night around 10pm and Raj and myself shared some of our testimonies and what God has done in our lives. It was god to hear this from Raj and I would’ve liked to have heard more, but I fell asleep on the roof terrace.....flipping jetlag eh?