5 days later

We finally made it! After an hour and a half of sleep last Tuesday night, we were up and off to LAX at 6am. With a 15 hour and 50 minute flight straight through to Dubai we were hoping we could catch up on sleep. It turned out to be the best flight EVER. Only being about 1/2 full, we were allowed to move out of our seats and take over entire rows. We each ended up with our own rows of three. Over the course of 16 hours Taylor managed to watch at least one movie on each of his three tv screens and
Bethany caught up on chic flicks.


With a 10 hour layover in Dubai we left the airport and hit the town. First we went by an old historic district and then went into the newer area where we saw the Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai - tallest building in the world.) and hit up the Dubai Mall. Another 4 hour flight and we landed in Hyderabad at 3am.


We spent two full days in Hyderabad, exploring, shopping, eating McDonalds (normally refuse that in the states), and even watch Gulliver's Travels in 3D (again, would normally refuse that one in the states.) However it was fun to watch a goofy American movie surrounded by an Indian audience. They laughed when we were silent and we laughed when they gave no reaction. Over breakfast the second day in Hyderabad they announced that the master break cylinder in our van had gone out. They would not confirm or deny whether we were in it at the time of the break failure, but sources close to Suresh have hinted that we were in fact in the vehicle. Kudos to Giovan, our driver. This did mean that instead of driving by van from Hyderabad to Tenali, we had to take an overnight "Super Luxury" Bus. While the title is arguable, the seats did recline, the lights were off, and the incredibly loud Tellegu movie only lasted for about an hour and a half. We arrived into Tenali at 5am, only 6 1/2 hours after leaving Hyderabad. Normally this drive takes anywhere from 8 - 15 hours depending on traffic.


The last three days have been Pongal, a Hindu festival which has basically shut things down. The benefit of this has been being able to see Suresh's children who have 5 days off of school, and empty roads, allowing travel time to be cut drastically. The downside - internet cafes have been closed, hence this being our first blog post, five days after departure.


Today we split into two groups and attended two different church services. Suresh let us know at about 9pm last night that he needed two people to preach this morning. Chris volunteered as well as John Brokenshire (his parents are visiting and we thought it would be fun to let them see him in action.) Church was a highlight for Bethany. It felt like it brought things back into perspective and it was amazing to see God move and bring unity to His children even among so much diversity.


It has been so much fun seeing the Harvest India staff again, as well as meeting new staff. We got to attend John Bob's church and later learned that he is on the Harvest India Residency Team. We will be partnering with he and his wife Naomi in everything we do over the next three months. Naomi is an AMAZING cook as we found out first hand when they invited us over to their house after church for lunch. Sadly this was not communicated to Suresh, so when we arrived home 2nd lunch was waiting for us. Lets just say, we will not be eating dinner tonight as we are still SO full from lunches 1 and 2. Oh India.


Taylor's highlight today was when he sat down to teach Tony and Funny, our 9 and 7 year old housemates, how to play Angry Birds only to discover that they are already Angry Bird pros.


sorry for the long post. if you want pictures, and more details of the adventures of our last five days, check out the team blog at http://rhindiaresidencyteam.blogspot.com.