13 hours later

We had a 13 hour day in India’s traffic today. We didn’t ride all that far but we spent a long day both on the bike and visiting about a dozen schools and churches.

India is a total assualt on the senses. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and even the feel of the place can’t be described. They must be experienced. I said to one of the other team members yesterday, “Tell me the truth. The video we showed you of our last trip to India conveyed nothing of this insanity did it?”

This place lets you know you’re truly alive. We’ve spent the day laughing and enjoying everything around us. It’s a total senory experience.

We’ve darted in front of cars, swung around cows, avoided pedestrians and just had a blast. There seems to be no system on the roads but it all works quite well and no one gets hurt.

We were split into two groups again today. Our group headed to Ghaziabad, a city in Uttar Pradesh. The traffic was insane and the people were wonderful. We had around 200 people join us. They were mostly on pushbikes with a handful of motorbikes and motor scooters. We also had a three wheeled ‘truck‘ which had a P.A. system and a couple of huge P.A. horns blaring at us. There were a few ladies who stood in the back with the microphone singing songs or talking about ‘Caring for the Girl Child’ which is the cause we are highlighting. The team members also handed out literature about Caring for the Girl Child.

Just about everywhere we went we were given chai (sweet, spicy, milky tea) and biscuits, with a couple of places feeding us more substantial meals. I just love eating the local food with the locals. It’s great when it hasn’t been made for a western palate. It’s so much fun having dozens of Indian eyes watching to see how you’ll react to their food.

Everyone on the team is tired after our 13 hour plus day but we all agree that it’s fantastic. Most are saying it’s the most fun they’ve had in their lives.

We’re making many good friends and we just wish we could bring many of our new friends home to see the contrasts in lifestyle.

Of course the other side of the journey is seeing some of the incredible poverty that exists here. It can be heartbreaking to see some of the slum areas. Each one has hundreds, perhaps thousands of people living under canvas, old hesian bags or whatever else they can lay their hands on. Seeing very young children sitting beside busy roads, wearing rags is a tough thing to face.

We have another day of cyling tomorrow. Once again we’ll split our group and I’ll be going with a few others to South Delhi. We went there last time so we’re sure to see a number of familiar faces. Already I’m surprised at how many of the locals I’m recognising. Some of these people I would have only talked to for ten minutes two years ago yet I can remember them and restart the conversation where we left off.

By the way, thanks to those who have sent me email. I’ll try to reply to you soon but tonight I’m very tired after a long day and I need a shower and a sleep. Please keep the emails coming by clicking the email symbol in the sidebar. We started the day at 6:00 am (which meant waking around 5:30) and didn’t get back until after 7:00 pm. By that stage it was already creeping towards 10:00 pm at home so I haven’t been able to talk to my beautiful bride or our kids.

I’ll try to write again tomorrow but, as always, I don’t know if that will be possible.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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