We have to pinch ourselves regularly to believe that we’re actually here and experiencing the things we are.
I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday. We cycled to the south of Delhi and visited a number of churches. We were meant to finish the day’s programme at 5:30 which would have had us back at home base by around 6:15. We finally rode through the front gates around 8:30 pm. The last hour and a half we were riding in the dark without any lights on our bikes. (Apart from my flashing red rear light.) If we thought cycling in Indian traffic was amazing, we went to a new level by riding in the dark. I decided to go up a few more notches on the weird-o-meter by singing a few numbers by Skyhooks and Van Morrison as we rode along. I figured that I might as well make the whole experience a tad more surreal. The traffic is just as intense, it’s just that you can no longer see if there is any danger out there. We had the support car and motor bikes travelling very close to us so it was a very safe operation.
We saw some amazing sights as we rode around yesterday. Some historical monuments, some oppulent homes and a number of slum areas. The contrast here continues to mess with our minds.
We visited an orphanage during the day where they look after quite a large number of children. They have no method of funding. They rely completely on God to supply what they need. They have seen amazing miracles of people just turning up on their doorstep with food, clothing, a new computer, a washing machine and many other essentials for the running of the orphanage and school. The pastor who runs the orphanage says that it costs about 12 000 rupees a year to accomodate and school one child. That’s around $365 Australian. Imagine that; $1 a day will clothe, feed, house and school a child. Without people like those who run the orphanage, these children would probably be taken to be used in brothels. Some very poor families will even sell their girl children. We have so much and these kids have so little.
Most of the people in the churches we visited yesterday only speak Hindi, so much of the time we simply sat when they did, stood when they did and clapped our hands while they sang. One of the highlights was being in a little church where they sang the old hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. We sang in English while they sang in Hindi. The two languages blended together beautifully.
After the long day of cycling we headed out to grab a kebab. We all had a Double Chicken – Double Egg kebab. It was extremely tasty but it was so rich that I don’t think I could eat another one ……. until we return from our trip to Punjab. While eating the kebab something went CRUNCH. I’ll need to visit the dentist for a filling when I get home. It’s not that the kebab was hard, it’s more that my tooth just decided to fall apart. I’m not sure if it’s a broken tooth or if I lost a filling. Either way it’s not causing any pain or problems. Strangely enough, one of our other riders lost a cap on one of her front teeth this morning at breakfast.
Speaking of this morning’s breakfast, we were treated to a South Indian breakfast. I can’t begin to explain what we had to eat, but I can assure you that it was delicious. I’m convinced that you could go to as many Indian restaurants as you like in Australia without experiencing the kinds of tastes we’ve been treated to over the past week.
I had the opportunity to call 98.5 Sonshine FM this morning to do a live phone interview. I chatted to Derek Whitaker for about 10 minutes. It was nice to have that contact with work and to be able to keep my regular listeners updated with our trip.
That wasn’t the only media attention we received today. I did interviews with 3 Indian newsapers and many more media organisations have been sent a media kit with a CD of team photos. One of the interviews I did was over the phone but the other 2 were done in person at Bible House. It was great to do the in person interviews because it gave other members of the team opportunity for input. The journalist from the Hinustan Times spent a very long time with us and asked a lot of questions. I’m hoping we’ll get a comprehensive article published tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. We’re off on our interstate journey to Chanigarh in Punjab. We should have a big ceremony for our send off then we’ll ride about 90km. It’ll take us about 4 days riding to get to our destination. Once there we’ll be involved in a number of meetings and we’ll get opportunity to take in a little sight-seeing. Of course, just the fact that we’re in India means that we are sight-seeing from sun up to sun down. Everything is so different here.
We probably won’t have interenet access again until we get to Chandigargh and even then we migh not get any. It might not be until we return to Delhi that we’ll get to spend time on-line again.
Please feel free to email me by clicking on the email symbol in the sidebar. Thanks so much to those who have already emailed. While I haven’t had time to reply, I can assure you that it means an awful lot.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
