Broken Down Vans, and Bomb Squads

Yep, I said Bomb Squad! Yesterday, a bomb squad and multiple rounds of police officers searched not only our house but the houses, and the mosque on all sides of us.   Just another day in India.  You may be thinking what is going on over there?  But, the occasion was really a special one.  The Deputy Speaker of Guntur, the district we are in, came to have dinner at the house we are living in.  His job is similar to a Governor or an Assembly Men. Its was an absolute honor, but the night was almost trumped by a broken down van.  We headed into Vijayawada to get some supplies for the house that we were in desperate need of.  Bethany was very excited to find that they do sell whiteboards in India, and is now confident that we can be productive in our meeting times. 

All was going well until we were ready to be picked up, we were told that the van was in the shop because it had broken down. "Only five more minutes" turned into "only five more minutes" again and again.  At one point I did hear "fifteen more minutes" to which i responded jokingly, "so, the van will be ready in 30 minutes".  All in all, we left an hour and 45 minutes later then originally planed.


Now if the dinner is to start at 8pm and we needed to be home by 7pm to get ready but did not leave Vijayawada till 7:45 and it takes an hour to get home, chances are were going to miss the dinner.   We arrived home at around 8:15, thanks to our drivers who drove like bats out of hell, only to find that the Speaker was not there yet.  Thank You India Time!  We had just enough time for Bethany and the other girls to get  their saris on, a very detailed process.


The motorcade pulled up and the dinner was on!  It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed some good conversation over an Indian Feast.  I must add that I was very impressed with the Speaker's vision and burden for the poor and impoverished.  He spoke of his visit earlier that day in a nearby town where the government is investing in a micro lending program. Gathering women in groups of 10, and giving them loans as a collective which brings accountability. They use the loans to buy livestock that will then bring income to their families. Its something Bethany has been reading about lately and hopes to see it in action here in India. We were ended the night by praying for and over the Deputy Speaker. 


At that point we crashed into bed pretty exhausted, we didn't even wake up with the call to prayer this morning, but slept straight through it. 


Now we are off to a birthday party for Rajesh's 1 year old son Leo.


Taylor