Taj Mahal

So we went to the Taj Mahal yesterday and it was pretty amazing. It's actually in Agra, about a 4 to 5 hours drive from where we are staying in Delhi. So we got up early and left at 6 and got back around 7:30 at night. On the way, we stopped at a restaurant and had french toast and scrambled eggs. (By the way, does anyone besides Brad and his family put honey on scrambled eggs? I think that's weird.)

The bathroom at said restaurant had a very helpful attendant. He literally ran across the courtyard to open the door for me and then followed me in. I was afraid to use the urinal since it seemed that he was coming with me, so I headed for the stalls. He then sprinted to the stall to get in front of me and asked, “toilet, sir?” I said yes and so he ran inside and wiped the seat with a pink napkin and then came back and held out his hand for a toilet wiping tip. I gave him 10 rupees and he just stood there looking at me, so I gave him 10 more. He made it clear he was not pleased with my tip, but did finally leave. Then I needed his help washing my hands. I apparently can't turn on the water or push the button on the soap dispenser on my own. These are very difficult tasks and best left to trained servants. As we were washing my hands, he asked if I was from America. It was something like, “America, sir?” When I responded yes, he pulled out a handful of American change and put it in my hand. He said, “Change?” I agreed that it was change. As he kept repeating his question, I began teaching him the names of the different coins, but he did not seem interested in this knowledge. I finally gleaned that someone had given him this change as a tip and he wanted me to trade him for rupees, which I did at a very generous exchange rate. Now I ask, who would tip an Indian bathroom attendant in the middle of nowhere $2.07 in US change. Oh well, I'll have money for the tollway on the way back from the airport.

Then, at another stop, our car was attacked by a monkey. Now we do our best to ignore those outside our car because they all want money. So we were ignoring the men with monkeys until one of them did this:

Now Taj Mahal is really beautiful. The pictures don't really prepare you for how big it is. They say it took 20,000 workers 22 years working 24 hours a day to complete it. For now I'll just put a couple pics of the three of us in front of it so you will all believe we've been. Our very expensive guide kept trying to rush us through Taj with very little information. We figured out later it was because he wanted to take us to many expensive stores that I'm sure he had some sort of arrangement with. So that wasn't cool, but overall I'm really glad we went.

We are almost finished working at the Leprosy Village. Tomorrow I think we are planting trees and we are just saying goodbye on Wednesday. Tuesday we are supposed to visit one or two other Hope projects around Delhi. Last week we did quite a bit of painting. It was pretty cool to do something that will clearly last past our visit here, and I think the trees will be the same way. So I have ruined 2 of the three pairs of shorts I brought with me and one or 2 t-shirts as well (and both hats I brought have paint on them too, epsecially the one Joe borrowed :-). Or, if not ruined, decorated with blue paint. Now the third day of painting, I was the only one painting. I didn't make nearly the mess that day and hardly got any on me. So, either I got better at it, working by myself it's easier to keep things clean, or Joe is just really messy with paint. I'm guessing it was the third option :-P

I also had a chance to work in bandaging. Seeing all those wounds was pretty intense, though I didn't get queasy like Joe and Brad. In all fairness though, the electricity didn't go out while I was working in there which meant the fan was on the whole time, keeping the smell and flies away. Most of the wounds were really clean. We wound cut off the old bandage, clean the area and the wound, and then put on a new bandage. I was able to do all those tasks. The guy in charge would choose what medicine to put on the new bandage each time and sometimes he would cut away some of the diseased area around the wound. He offered to let me try that, but I politely declined. I will include a couple of pictures of gaping foot holes so you can get the picture. :-)

My entertainment time has consisted mainly of watching Heroes on Brad's laptop (only four episodes to go!) and reading Lonesome Dove. Debra Bottoms lent me the most raggedy copy of Lonesome Dove there has ever been a few years ago and told me it was good. I finally have gotten around to reading this nearly 1000 page monster Western. I'm about a fourth of the way in and I must admit its good. Brad has asked what I keep laughing out loud at, but the humor loses something when I try to explain it. (Either that, or Brad just doesn't have a good enough sense of humor :-).

I'm so thankful that I have been able to spend this time with Brad and Joe. They are awesome to be on this trip with. Brad has really led the way most of the time. He is great with all these people who don't speak much English and has really been an initiator at the Leprosy Village. The kids ADORE him. He pretty much always has a crowd or children around him and ususally has them all laughing. He has made one really good friend in a kid named Yash. Yash is 18 and thinks Brad hung the moon. Brad set him up an email account, introduced him to pizza and McDonalds, and lets him use his camera constantly. Brad is also very thoughtful and is constantly wrestling with how we can best respond to the things we are learning and seeing on this trip.

Joe has been such a trooper. He is always the one with the great attitude--patient, kind, and gentle. He gets up every morning and is the first to spend time in God's Word. Joe never complains and is so dependable. He has a desire to help others and is always ready to laugh good-naturedly at himself or whatever funny situation we find ourselves in. And anytime Joe tries to communicate with an Indian person, there is always some good-natured laughter :-).

I am ready to be home and have home-food and do home-things and see home-people. I know this trip has been good for me, but the duration has been a stretch. (Of course, I chose the duration so that it WOULD stretch me.) God has been letting me practice patience and humility. But overall, I still have a great attitude about this trip and I'm excited about the things we have left to do. The last big thing we'll do is visit the village that FOCUS helps sponsor through World Vision. Our ministry sponsors 22 kids in that area and we should get to meet most, if not all, of them. It will be awesome to get to see them face to face and find out what the needs of their community are. Please be praying that all of our various travels will go work out and that we can get evrything into the next 10 days that we need to.