About India

About two months... ok, perhaps that wasn't entirely correct, we'll get on Internet at uncertain times. Right now I managed to get on the neighbours WiFi.

Believe it or not, I have just fallen head over heels in love. (Pause for catcalls to finish.) Nah, she ain't always pretty, or smell nice for that matter, but still, there is something about her that's got me hooked.

I'm talking about India.

After leaving you with such a negative impression the other day, I decided to make up for it with this post.

It all started when I took a walk with my family through the over-crowded, dusty streets of Bangaluru. You see, every morning people here chalk a design in front of their doorstep. You would not believe the designs we saw in front of houses made of little more than concrete or tin. In India beauty lives alongside dirt.

Another reason for the change of mind happened with the food. I absolutely love the food. It is hot, spicy, organic and all food was made to be. Most of the time it is rice with amazing spices mixed in. There are also tortillas, and the most amazing sauces. The India culture doesn't make room for forks and spoons, so everything we eat is with our hands. Finger food!

The people here are amazing also. You see, they don't spend time bothering with a lot of things we do (including Internet) which means they have tons of time for people. They are open, nice and hospitable. Whenever they see white people like us, they immediately approach us and string together whatever English they know. They are amazing. Most of the people here speak three languages, some even more. Some of them don't even care what you tell them, they are just showing off their English!

When you drive down a typical road, it is very small with way too many cars crammed in it. Horns honk constantly, and sometimes you wonder how the driver managed to miss a car crash. There are tons of buses, three wheeled cars, and motorcycles but not a lot of vans or cars.

It is difficult to describe India with words, so I hope Brianna has been taking good pictures.

Well, now it's time to be eating that amazing Indian food. I better get off. Adios mes amigoes.

India

I am in a net cafe, frantically typing on a ridiculously stiff keyboard trying to communicate to you.

Important things first: we are in India.

At first, to be honest, I hated India. There is very little internet (difficult for a FaceBook addict that I am), packs of dogs run all over, open sewers lay by the side of the road, you have to shower out of a bucket, there is very little internet, it was hot at Christmas time, the houses are not very clean, you are only allowed three pieces of toilet paper to clean yourself with (you know how hard that is?!) and there was a whole new culture to get used to. You are not allowed to use your left hand to eat or wave, which is really difficult when you think about it. Also, some wisecrack told me the thumbs up here was like the middle finger. (It's not.)


That was my first impression, and was highly influenced by the jet lag. Looking back on it I realize I was too hasty. You get used to a lot of it.


Oh man, times up! I have lots more to say, but not enough time to say it. And this may be the last time I get on Internet for another two months.


Goodbye for another two months . . .

Leaving Hawaii

Looking back on our stay here in Kona, Hawaii, the first thing I think about are the people. Almost all the people I met here are crazy Christians, and have a very interesting stories to tell. I've met native Hawaiians, Koreans, Africans, a Kazahkstan woman, Chinese, Norwegians, Germans, Americans and Canadians. I've met a person who wanted to do high-jump in the Olympics, several (almost) professional ping-pong players, and a person who used to play ping-pong on marijuana! My best friend here can juggle five balls anytime, and on a good day can juggle seven. His little brother is even better but practices more. A lot of the people here are simply living on money that God provides, including my teacher who hasn't gotten a paycheck in eight years! (Most of them have sponsors though.) Two people I know simply asked God for a MacBook Pro, and both of them got it. (I've prayed for a MacBook Pro also; still waiting for results!)

I'm sorry if I appear to be bragging about them to you, but believe me, I brag about you to them. (How intensely good hockey and soccer players my class was, the good times we had in Cadets and Catechism, and such.)

As Hawaii was a port for ships, a resting place before the ships sail into the rest of the world, University of the Nations is like a port for people interested in missions. People have come here from all the world and are going into all the world. Kona is a place where they can rest and be trained before spreading out. (We are going to go to India; we will be working with an orphanage among other things.) In on of the assemblies called the 50th (a huge celebration with thousands of people coming from all over) there was a roll call of the nations. Over 100 countries was called!

Anyway, it's December 20 today and yet the weather's warm. I think I'll go take one last beach trip...

Hawaii

A first-timers first impression of Hawaii

Stepping off the airplane onto the ground of Hawaii at first felt like stepping off into paradise. And then two things hit me; the first was the heat. The second was the view. At first, for me, the tropical heat was really hot. I would get used to it. And the view, oh the view was terrible! It looked at first as if all there was to Hawaii was a whole bunch of broken-up pavement. It looked like a torn up parking lot! So much for natural paradise. And then I realized what the “pavement” was. It was lava! I was standing on an old lava flow! How cool is that? Only in Hawaii! I realized then that Hawaii was different from any other place I had visited.
When I got away from the old lava flow, and saw some of my first plants; that were all beautiful, and plants I had never seen before, I realized again that Hawaii was different. (70 to 80 percent of all wildlife is only found in Hawaii.)
And from my from my first beach, where I saw people surfing for the first time, I realized again that Hawaii is different.
And from the first volcanic rocks I saw, I realized Hawaii was different.
And through the five subjects of Volcanoes, People, Religion, History, and State Symbols, I plan to show you just how different Hawaii really is.

Aloha from Hawaii

When I started typing this update I wanted to go beyond the usual “Aloha from Hawaii” kind of thing. I mean seriously, they don’t even say ‘Aloha’ here much anyway. Sure some of the lecturers from Korea or where ever say it as a joke, but honestly it is a word not used much.
So here I am with the shockingly creative alternative:
ALOHA from Hawaii:
To all you guys freezing in Canada: yes, the weather is warm, the nature beautiful, and the waves high. It’s Christmas, and to be honest I miss the snow. But I’m not complaining. The stay in Hawaii was awesome and over way too fast. To say I loved it would be an understatement, I really really really really loved it here in Hawaii. There are just so many things to do here and so little time. On this campus alone is a soccer field, two ping-pong tables (which don’t get nearly enough use), a weight room (yeah!), tons of interesting people (all followers of Jesus), three computers, and an iPod Touch (all with dumb addicting FaceBook account), (and YES, I am trying to make good use of the excellent library.) I feel like getting up at 5 o’clock each morning to do everything I want to do.
That’s just the campus. There is a awesome little town called Kona right outside our campus (our school is called University of the Nations), and is RIGHT by the ocean. It has some amazing beaches: one nearby is the Kamehameha Hotel beach. (They have a forbidden temple that is KAPU to outsiders - long story short, I have now entered a forbidden ancient Hawaiian temple and got in a ton of trouble. Oops.)
We made several trips in a borrowed van around the island and visited a volcano, a lava tube, went snorkeling, surfing, and best of all went to a cliff called South Point (the Southernmost point of the US - look it up on a map) where I got to jump off a cliff. Seriously.
But that was the fun side of this trip. If this was a completely fun trip I would meet my friend’s expectations of super tan, bleached hair, etc. Most of this trip was spent in school. Here’s the catch; it was not the ordinary school. (Nothing is completely ordinary with YWAM). Brianna, Nicole, Alisha, Anneke and I all went in a school called Foundation School. Caleb was taken care of by a nanny. And my parents went to to Crossroads DTS.
These schools were not very academic at all (much to my dismay). But they taught things that were more important; things like relationship with God and others, hearing the voice of God, and teachings from the Bible. Every week we have speakers come in and teach on different subjects. There are topics like Hearing God’s Voice, Missions, the Bible, Forgiveness, Jesus, God the Father, Relationships, and others. We also learned Marine Biology. While I can’t say I learned a lot in the academic sense, I can say I learned a lot about life in general, and God in the specific. Especially in the area of people, I know I have changed. Let’s just say that I have not been socially active for a while. That changed a lot. (Perhaps it had something to do with eating lunch with several hundred other people.) 'Nuff said.
As of today, we have been here over two months. We are leaving in TWO DAYS for India on Outreach. It will be interesting. Everyone on our team will be serving, teaching, and preaching the Gospel to the people in the state of Karnataka. We are going three hours away from Bangalore (Karnataka’s capital city).

After spending two months in India, we are coming back to Hawaii for two weeks, then coming back to Canada for a while. We really don’t know what is happening after that but we want to be open to God's plans.

In closing I’d just like to thank the people who have been supporting us financially and praying for us.

Mahalo.
-Josh Kuperus