Thursday, October 13, 2005

New friends

Met some new friends this week. They were here visiting India for only a few days, and I had been asked to accompany them and make sure they were looked after well. Turns out they are both really cool people. We had a good time getting to know each other and laughing a bit together while seeing some sights and helping them to begin to understand this complex nation. Thanks Jon and Emily. Blessings on you.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Big fun in the little things

The post man came today and informed us that we had two parcels waiting at the post office (they deliver mail on bicycles here, so they can not deliver parcels usually, you have to go get them).

At this information there was shouts of joy and a certain level of disbelief. Had they really come? Could it be true?

My wife got up right away and got in the car and drove to the post office. She returned with two parcels in hand. It was true. They had arrived.

My family had shipped us two new car/booster seats for the kids. The two were only worth $30 total, but cost 3-4 times that much to send. We were not sure they would ever arrive, and if so, in what condition they would be. But they were totally fine. The boxes looked like they had been used at a monster truck rally or something, but the seats inside were fine.

After opening the boxes the kids wanted to try their new seats, placing them on top of various furniture around the house and seeing which ones they were most comfy on.

Amazing how there can be such big fun in such small packages.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

A sweet father/son moment

I took my son with me the other day to pay the electricity bills. This was his reward fro being a good boy the night before. A ride on the motorcycle with daddy and a ‘big adventure’ to go pay the bills.

We went into the office where we needed to pay the bills and sat down in front of one of the open counters. I handed the bills through the window to the attendant. My son was sitting on my lap and began fidgeting, and trying to get something out of his pants pocket. He eventually retrieved what he was looking for and held out his hand and showed me a few coins (which he later told me he had taken off my desk). “Its ok daddy. I’ll pay this time.” He said. I nearly melted.

How sweet of him to have thought ahead and found those coins (how many others has he taken from my desk in the last 4 years?)and brought them with in order to try to help daddy with paying the bills. It was hard for me to explain to him that our bill was a lot more than he had in his hand, and so we made a deal. I would pay this time, and he could pay another bill some other time, one that could be paid with the few coins in his pocket.

Moments like this make me so thankful to be a daddy.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Near-death experience

I stared death in the face today.

While coming home from paying some bills I was approaching a right-hand corner on the main road when suddenly an auto-rickshaw (a three-wheeled mini taxi here, called an auto for short) passed me very quickly on the right side, missing my front wheel by only inches. He did so in such a way that I was forced to go straight, eventually skidding hard into the curb with the front tire of my motorcycle. I watched in horror as the auto also slammed into the curb a little further down the road and then proceeded to launch into the air and flip several times mid-air and tumble one or two more times across the ground. The sounds of metal scraping, glass breaking and people screaming filled the air. Two of the 5-6 people inside were ejected during this process, and the auto eventually came to rest on top of two more passengers.

I ran over with one other person and lifted the auto off the passengers under it. I noticed two of them were quite badly hurt, and so was the driver. All three were bleeding quite badly and lying among the broken glass and other debris from the wreck.

Then it occurred to me that in cases like this it is a very risky thing to be a foreigner at this kind of scene. I had not removed my helmet yet, so was not sure if anyone knew who I was. I looked around and saw a crowd of at least 300 people had already gathered, so I decided to ‘make a move’ and get out before someone pointed a finger at me. I knew there were plenty of people to help those hurt in the accident, but it was really hard to ride away. Sounds pretty pathetic as I write it, but that is the reality of life here. The foreigner must always be at fault.

I got home and sat in my chair on the office for almost 45 minutes trying everything I could think of to avoid puking. I had so much adrenaline flowing through me.

I am ever so thankful for God’s grace and protection over me. Reminds me that every day I stay safe is because of Him.