A normal meal at a restaurant... this one made my nose run it was so hot. I think it's called nan.

Sorry, one photo at a time is the limit... FaceBook isn't downloading my pictures either... I'll keep trying though.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

After a successful trip across America, we stopped a few days in Michigan, where we spent a great time with our family there. Our time there ended at 1:30 AM, on Sunday, February 27, when my dad woke us up to travel to Canada. He wanted to attend the morning service in his old church, and had asked the pastor if we could speak there.

At about 2 AM we were on the road, and everyone but my father (who was driving) was asleep.

At 4:30 AM, we woke to my dad saying, "Whoa whoa whoa!" and the movement of the car sliding all over the road. Black ice!

We survived though.

At 9:30 AM we were in Blyth Christian Reformed Church, and after the sermon we went up and talked of our travels. We had about 15 slides with pictures, and each one of us had to say something.

Characteristically, I chose cows as my topic.

I had prepared it about about 11 PM the night before with my cousin Ben.

And so I walked up in front of church with a little white piece of paper with the bold headline:

Message to Church about Cows

No joke. My speech went something like this:

We've all been asked to share something, and I'm going to share about cows.

At first, I wanted beef so much, that whenever I walked past a cow in India, I would yell, “Cheeeeese buuurger.” All we ate was rice. We never had beef because cows are sacred to the Hindu religion and 80% of India’s population is Hindu.

“Holy cow” has a new meaning there.

Cows would just walk down the crowded streets and cars had to stop to let them cross. Even though there are no speed limits, cows (and speed bumps) did the trick instead.

India has some very big needs. Only 2% of India’s population is Christian, and some people are so poor that they live in the same building as the cows. There is a lot more to India, but that’s that about the cows.

And now I'm going to hand the mike over to my sisters, dressed in beautiful Indian dresses.

I believe the presentation went over well.

After church we went back to our good friends, the Sparlings (whose house we stayed at while in Canada), then had lunch at Jack and Heinka Cortells' house.

I watched all 444 minutes of the movie Ben-Hur, (I had been reading the book) but fast-forwarded the Intermissions.

On Monday, we were planning to visit the school, but it was a snow-day and instead we spent the day sledding at the Sparling's house and playing Mario Kart on their Wii.

Tuesday, we visited the school which was absolutely awesome. I saw all of my friends except for Rick Pot who was buying a tractor.

Wednesday (today) we spent getting some self-school stuff in order.

Thursday we leave Canada :( to New Jersey :)

While there, we plan to meet my mother who stayed behind in Hawaii mentoring with a woman there.

After that who knows? As my dad says we certainly "don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future."

-Josh

Back

To: the readers who are left after this confession,

Yeah, so, umm, we're kind of in America right now ...

My sincere apologies for not keeping you updated. I had a post all written out on Google Docs (about two pages or so) and then I highlighted all the text to copy and paste it into this blog ... well, I hit the wrong button and completely demolished a good two hours worth of typing. I almost started calling the computer names - especially when I realized that Google Docs wouldn't let me undo it.

So that's my excuse.

I also apologize for how badly this post is written - I still have jet lag from flying 2/3 of the world in like 56 hours. I'm finding it really hard to write anything in my sleep-deprived state of mind - much less focusing.

But let's back track to India again. All of the team regrouped in Bangalore (where we had started) for about a week, then we boarded an airplane, flew to Dohar, then to New York I believe. It was a ten hour flight, and I watched movies the entire time! (each seat had a touch screen) I watched everything from Jaws to James Bond, and watched Megamind twice. From New York, we flew to Los Angeles, where we spent the night, then to Hawai'i where we are now.

From: Josh

A Jewish hippie town.... an interesting experience today and a reverse culture shock. The sun burned my face, and the tea my tongue, but I woke up freezing cold this morning. India always surprises you!!!!