Back From India

Jeff and I (the DBCunderground team) just took a ten day trip to India along with one of the DBC pastors, Stephen Bandela. We were visiting a Bible School, run by Stephen's dad, that Dunwoody supports. What follows are some pictures and thoughts from our trip.

Leaving


So here we are starting our journey, saying goodbye to the kids. I had never been away from my son for even half the time I would be in India, so these were precious moments. We were flying from Atlanta to Amsterdam (which sounds like a fun place to stop over, but since we never left the airport we might as well have connected in Baghdad), and then from Amsterdam to Delhi.

I had to include a picture of this guy, our taxi driver from the Delhi airport to our hotel. Now, I've been driven around 3rd World cities before (or perhaps I should say 2nd World), and I know traffic in such places can get really wild with people following the rules loosely and lane divisions being completely ignored. I thought I was prepared for India... I had no idea. It was late and traffic was relatively light, which only allowed this guy to build up some speed resulting in the scariest 30 minute drive of my life. I might have felt differently about it later in the trip, but since this was my introduction to Indian traffic, it left an impression on me. We sped past people on bikes, and tractors pulling big tankers, and oxen pulling carts, and bulldozers going the wrong way on our side of the highway, and break neck left hand turns into on-coming traffic. But what really got me was the people just lounging around on the road, and our drivers complete disregard of them. At one point I told Jeff that we just needed to be prepared to kill a pedestrian, and not let it ruin our week.

Traffic was bad all week, but that first night really sticks out because it was new and because it was fast. More on the traffic later.

Our hotel in Delhi was too nice. I'm sure you all thought we were roughing it, and while things would get more earthy in Hyderabad, our accommodations were always very comfortable.

The next day we went to the Taj Mahal, and I call this culture shock day. I could take or leave the Taj, which is a cool building, but not as impressive as other buildings I have seen in Europe (The Vatican blows it away).

Supposedly the stone work is quite intricate and that may be what sets this building apart, but it wasn't overly impressive to my untrained eye. Apparently the king who built this was about to build an identical black one directly across the river and I have to admit that would have been cool. Unfortunately it never happened because the king was jailed by his son.
Anyway, the reason I say we had culture shock is because our drive to the Taj was 5 hours one way, and it was a non-stop reminder that we were strangers in a strange land. I always felt like a tourist among people who saw me as nothing but a potential rupee. It got really bad when we arrived at the Taj Mahal, and I had to tell about four or five street vendors 50 times each that I didn't want to buy what they were selling. Nothing short of me pulling a gun and shooting one of the vendors would have convinced them that I wasn't interested in their bull whips and bracelets (and even then I am sure someone would have started offering me bullets). I just never felt at ease, and even Stephen seemed at a loss. If we hadn't had him with us there's no telling how bad it would have been.

On the drive back I almost had a silent break down in the back seat of the car, and in that moment I prayed for God to give my soul peace and the ability to endure. From that point forward the trip was a dream.

I'll finish up this post with a picture of the Hyderabad airport and our welcome wagon.

This might be the nicest airport I have ever seen, and although it is not representative of the rest of Hyderabad, it set the tone for the rest of our trip. Many of Stephen's friends greeted us at the airport and Jeff and I went from being tourists to being guests. That makes all the difference in the world. (Are the flowers part of the greeting, or are we being married in some strange Indian ceremony?) Tomorrow I will get to the real business of the trip and show you some footage of the Bible College.