Today was my first day off in shillong. So I had 2 goals. 1. to find a sim card for my phone without having to give out detailed information and copies of my passport (as legally required) and 2. to find a cyber cafe'. I headed down the hill where I'm staying and stopped by 2 or 3 vodophone places and all of them required lots of paper work. Then I ended up finding the king of all cyber cafes. It had new computers, windows xp, ear phones web cams, fast surfing and tabed browsing and it had yahoo messenger.

So the first thing did was respond to most of my emaiils, then I watched the grape lady video, then sufjans "lakes of canada" video. I my first hour I got SOOO much done.... then april got on.

I had a hard time talking to 4 people on AIM at the same time, but I wa so happy to be talking to april for the first time in 2 weeks. Then I realized I had a web cam and she did too, so we ended up talking 2 or 3 hours on Yahoo messenger. It was overwhelming seeing her face.. live. and we were trying to write eachother but not much was said. We just stared at eachother for most of the time. It was so hard to type when here face was right there. She was 10 times as beautiful as I imagined, and it made me really miss home. Just to know that this freaking beautiful Goddess was waiting for me at home, I could have burrowed strait down thru the center of the earth to be with her.

our goodbye was abrupt and unwelcomed the store keeper said "I'm sorry but I have an emergency board meeting to attend. I need you ti sign out now." being cut off so suddenly put me into a terrible mood.

2 days before i got april sick (as in missing april) I got the news that Jordans Grandpa larry had died and the funeral would be on monday. Had I been in delhi when I heard the news I would have paid for the next flight back to the US to be home intime. But it would take me 3 days to get back to delhi from shillong then another 2 days to get back to fresno, which would have been too late. But I really wanted to go. Not just to support his family, but because I felt like his family. I never knew my grandpa on my dads side and I only see my other grandpa a few times a year, so larry was as close a grandpa as I'd ever had. I've known him my whole life I've spent countless hours at his hous watching TV land and eating his carmel candies he always had on his table. Listening to his slightly less than politically correct stories. He was the funniest guy with the oddest sense of humor. I feel bad that I didn't say much to him the last time I saw him.

I wish I could be there for jordan and the terrys and I feel like shit for not. I wish I could have been there to pay respect to a great man who laid his life down for his wife, and excepted jordan as his blood.

sorry Larry.

Shillong

The last 48 hours have been pretty intense. Saturday morning we packed up and left st. Stephens. Ot was tome to say goodbye to all the nuns and the caretaker who became kind of a grandma figure to us. She blessed me and told me to visit here next time I came to india then gave me a kiss on both cheeks. It was also time to say goodbye to bobby Anu and Aaradana. Everyone was kissing huging and crying. it reminded me of the last episode of "Bugjuice" in the least corny way.

Me Alisha and mayang stayed the night at abels, ate pork, then went to julies, ate fish, got up siunday morning met andy sudha and yuvraj at the train station and then borded our train that would be our home for the next 33 hours. it wa a really plesent trip. It was nothing but good food, good conversation, and good views of farm land for the whole trip. We where on our way to Gohati and from there we would hire a taxi to Shillong. 3 days before was arived in gohati, 3 bombs went of and killed 80 people. We got there late and we knew it would be safer t drive during the day thather than night because it was montain driving on naroow roads. But we didn't want to stay the night in hogati because of the terror threats. So we found the taxi lot where there where 8 passenger jeeps, and they where loading our stuff into this nice new car while mayang wa nagotiating the price, but he didn't want to pay more than Rs.1800 and they where asking Rs.2000 ($4 differance) so they directed us to this older looking, beat up jeep that was in our price rance. The wole time Andi was fighting to stay in a hotel and leave in the morning, but mayany piled us ito the car and we left.

It was really hard for me to relax when we were driving really fast in the dark tru windy steep roads with no divider lines in the road and I just exepted that I couldn't make myself any safer by worrying about every set of headlights coming in our direction, so I turned on my ipod and listened to isreal... ki.. kimo....sa ... the hawian guy that sings "somehwere over the rainbow". I decided to look up at the sky rather than the down at the raod. I looked up and for the first time in 3 months saw stars, bright and brilliant and numerous. I came to the realization that, the longer you live in a place man has made, the more you are forced to keep your head dwon. All you can see is shit and cement. And during the day you see gray from the smog mans cars, and at night you look up and see orange from mans lights and smog. But the farther you get from mans creation the more you look up at the blue sky and brilliant white clouds, and at night you look up and see stars, and there you can see the great size of our universe the beauty of nature and the face of God.

When we were half way there we decided to stop and eat. We had a great meal and headed back to the car... but the driver wasn't in the car ....he was in the bar. He came out and said he only went in to buy some chew and so we got back in the car. As we were driving me and yuvraj starting thinking that maybe this guy did have somthing to drink. I didn't know what to do. We could't stop him.. we where in the middle of nowhere and there was no place to stop but on blind curves. I was praying that we would arive in shillong alive, or that we could stop somwhere safe long enough for this guy to sober up. 5 minutes later he polled over to a gas station and said that the brakes wern't working. So here we are in the middle of nowhere and our car is up on jacks as he was tring to repair the leaking brake fluid.

the stop took 2 hours and our driver seemed pretty level headed and we decided to drive the rest of the way without brakes. I was thinking "what are the 2 worst things to have when driving thru the mountains?" I think it's drunk drivers and no brakes.

we arrived safe and sound.

10/29/08

Yesterday was a bad day. I woke up in a bad mood, I was tired and stressed. The stress led to a cold and a break out. I set aside that day to sort out my airplane ticket issues.

This sounds like a meager task, but I had to go to the airport to do this, which meant taking the metro 40 stops, with 3 changes which adds up to be more than a 2 hour trip . It was basically like going from fresno to the beach, just to sort out my stupid tickets. Andi, my british friend went with me as she also had to re-schedule her tickets. We got on the metro, which was packed shoulder to shoulder with no place to sit and rode all the way to the last stop on the metro(s). So here I was with snot dripping out of my nose, coughing, drowsy on cold medicine standing in a shoulder to shoulder crowd for 2 hours. When we reached the end of the line I met 20 teenagers, and I could automatically tell they where from California. So then I had this erie feeling of being in Riverpark or something. So that plus being in a place far away from the city where there was land and no high rise buildings for the first time in 3 months gave me really erie feeling.

when we left the metro station we had to find an auto rickshaw (kinda like a go-cart if you have never seen one) to take us the rest of the way to the airport. When we got to the place where several autos where parked, and I saw all the auto drivers standing in a circle smoking, chewing and laughing together. I automatically knew all of then where in bed with one another and would charge us whatever they felt like without room for bargain... and they did.

We got to the airport and Andi went to the ticket counter first and her change literally took like 40 seconds. But of course, I was in a bad mood with bad health and in my pessimistic mindset, I just knew that I was going to have a repeat of my ticket trauma I had in Germany.... and I did. I was being switched back and fourth, this counter to that counter to this office to that office until they told me that they didn't have anyone there that could help me, and they didn't even have a United counter. They did give me a phone number, that led to an automated voice helpline that did not help.

We couldn't find any taxis that wernt overcharging for the trip back to the metro, and we ended up paying 4 times the amount we had paid the auto that brought us there. To worsen my mood, when we got to the metro station, I knew that if I got a Sikh security guard would think I'm a woman [My continually growing hair seemed like no problem until I finally got around to buying a razor. I despise my tiny patchy facial hair, but went without shaving because I had no time to shop for a razor. A week ago I finally bought one and started shaving. Soon after that ever we went thru security checks, which had a line for "ladies" and one for "Gents", if the guard was a sikh, he would look me up and down... look confused and gesture that maybe I should be in the ladies line. When I didn't comply, he would just shrug and give me a rather inappropriate pat down (which made me realize WHY there was a line). It turns out that my tiny patchy facial hair was the only thing securing my gender in india] So sure enough I got a sikh gard and he could tell that I was a "gent" but still laughet and said "boy or girl? or maybe a bit of both! ha your hair is to long my friend!" and I laughed and said "my hair is too long? You [being a sikh] never even cut your hair! you just have something to put it in [turban]!" he laughed I laughed but it still didn't help my mood. I decided to stop shaving until I leave delhi so I wouldn't have these awkward moments. (usually if they look at me and think I'm a woman I say "what? do you think I'm pretty?" in as low and full voice as I can muster.

So... yeah... had a bad day. But I ended up calling my grandma and she put some life back into me.

10/28/08

I know the time is coming soon for me to go home. I am having really mixed feelings. in some ways, time seems to have gone to fast when I think of these beautiful people that have been more than family , that I'll never see again. In one moment I don't want to leave and want more time with them, then suddenly my unstable pendulum of emotions swings to the other side and I start to think of april and jordan and my family at home (the blood family and also my soul family... if you get me) and then time starts moving to slow, every hour seems like an eternity. Throw in return ticket complication and I am in purgatory.

But I can feel the time coming, I'm seeing signs of the seasons changing.. example: Alisha has been singing "Rudolf the red nose snowman" and such renditions of his own songs. and then india is celebrating Dawali (hold that thought).

I wasn't having a good day today. I was getting really stressed about some complications in my tickets, and then I had to get on Abel to get me my phone back (ratjer then letting me use a cell phone that had a cracked screen or letting me buy a $10 phone to replace it, Abel insisted that he take it to the repair shop to have it fixed...2 months ago. Every day for the past 50 days he keeps saying "i'll get it for you tomorrow"... then last week when he finally remembered to get it... he lost my sim card) and then I have only time to use the internet once a week, which is slow and unstable and it makes it nearly impossible to get anything done, and the internet cafe' was closed. There is a possibility that I have to travel 2 hours to the air port (again) to have them fix my tickets and I don't have the time.

But for some reason I'm in a really good mood right now. today was Dawali and it is THEE holiday in india. I don't know exactly what it is bout, but from the looks of it, it's like a combo of Christmas, Halloween, and the 4th of July. We (me alisha mayang, and yuvraj were coming home from Amys house, abd everywhere I looked there were Christmas lights on all of the houses and apartments and kids in the street where all lighting off explosive fireworks, and major aerial fire works. It sounded as if we were in the middle of a combat zone and I told the guys that it was giving me flashback of my days in "naum". We couldn't find a rickshaw and we needed to get to the metro-station so we walked and I was getting really really giddy. I'm sure it was the the carbon monoxide coming from the heavy fog of smoke that filled every every crievis of Delhi... but more than anything it was the machine gun sounds coming from every direction as every citizen in Delhi was lighting them simultaneously, lights flashing off of every house, and the brilliant aerial fireworks exploding in every direction, hight and low.... I was loving it.
I started singing Christmas songs at the top of my lungs all the way to the metro starting, then when we found it was closed, we walked back and found a rickshaw to take us where we could found some autos. Then I was singing the national anthem the whole ride in the most ridiculous voice. When we were trying to find a taxi, none where stopping for us, so I started doing my best impression of a native american song and dance that I titled the "Auto rickshaw dance" that I claimed would send the auto's falling from the sky... and It kinda worked. 20 seconds into the dance, a taxi stopped , probably thinking I was a drunk tourist that would pay whatever he asked for. We made it home and by the time we reached home I had them all doing the "auto dance"

Now I'm home and our entire hostile is filled with fog from the the smoke, and outside sounds like a Gettysburg reenactment. It's 1am and there are thousand of fireworks going off every second and at least 4 aerial fireworks every second.

11pm on august 24th abel's bed

I've had a pretty packed week, So I'm only going to write about a chunk of what we did.

mayang (my naga) suddenly got a bad fever last thursday and we were monitering him here, and eventually persuaded (forced) him to go stay at the hospital (at the doctors urging). Ellen was pleased at how family-like our community has become. Andi the Britisher took on a quite motherly role as she spoke on his behalf to doctors and nurses, brought him food and clothes and nursed mayang in his sickness (that tuned out to be dengue fever). Alisha was by his side day and night, even to the point where he slept in the hospital with him for 2 days even though an extra bed was not provided. Mayang was worrying about worried about all his responsibility's and we decided to split up all of his (quite urgent) work between all of us and take care of it.

Last night I went to the hospital to bring Mayang a book and my ipod . He was doing alot better but his white blood cell count was still to low to have him realeased. they said he needed to eat and drink as much as h3 could but he was growing weary of the vegan hospital food. I asked him if he would like me to pick him up some KFC and instantly he started salevating at the thought of eating meat. I hopped on the metro 7 stops and grabbed a bucket and came back. There was another guy with dengue fever sharing a room with mayang, and I considered the big possibility that he was a vegetarian, but didn't think it would be a big deal. Mayang opened the bucket and right when the patient and his girlfriend (possibly wife) saw the chicken, they jumped out of bed and darted out of the room with frightened looks on their faces. Mayang was as surprised as I was. For a moment he paused, as if to put away the chicken and apologize. He looked at me.. looked at the chicken... looked at the empty bed... looked at the chicken again... and said "To bad..so sad" and devoured the bucket of chicken.

For anyone that didn't know, I'm leaving for shillong (in the north east) on Nov 2 for three weeks. A week from today we will be ending VDS and moving out of St. Stephens. it feels really weird to know that I'll be saying goodbye to Bobby Anu and baby Aaradana in 7 days and probably never see them again and to move out of the room that I've gotten so comfortable in, and leave the backyard which seems almost like the dwelling place of April (because thats where I always talk to her) and to break up our community that has functioned with such love for each other even though we are all from different corners of the world.

It just hit me today that somthing beautiful is coming to an end. It struck me as I taught my last session of english to the girls in the wazipur slum. I realized that this was my last time to speak into their lives. They will all grow up, some might get back into school and get out of the slum... but most of them probably won't. I looked at them and they were all so beautiful and smiley and shy. As I was leaving I said " this is probably my last time that I get to see you girls, and I just wanted to let you know that you are all such beautiful people, and that can do anything you set your mind on. Never give up, don't feel discouraged, I believe you are all capable of growing up to do great things. There is no obstacle you can't overcome. The sky is the limit, don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
I guess I'll never know whether or not they will ever be freed from their situation. I hope so. I love them all. Why am I so privileged to already have what they will spend their entire obtaining.... or never obtaining?

Didn't really write a date

It's late and I'm out in the pain part of the room where alisha is playing a game on his phone, abel is asleep with a pillow over his eyes, and mayang is in our cut off part of the room with the lights off. I was trying to sleep 30 minutes ago, when I got the sudden urge to hear a Bob Dylan song (mr tambourine man) that I only have on my pink taped phone , so I listened to a few songs, and then decided to look thru all the video's... consisting of titles like "blowing up a gnome", "jonn waxing", "spork" and "Jordan rapes Chris" (not as bad as the title makes it sound). then I started flipping thru all the pictures on my phone. Even though these pictures aren’t a great documentary of my life from 2006 till now, it really brought back some memories. As I flipped thru the pictures, I would look at the date which it was taken at and think "what was going on in that part of my life? what was my greatest concern then? what was her name (yes the concern was usually a girl) ? what class was I in? wh0 would I meet in the following months?

I turned off the phone to go to sleep and then thought "hey I'm not quite done going down memory lane. I haven’t heard any of my ring tones since I was home. And the first ring tone I played brought back a very vivid, very recent memory of my half dome trip with Jordan.

Okay... here's the set up, Jordan and I decided to get lost in Yosemite on the way back from half dome, and had been walking aimlessly for like 4 or more hours, the whole time without water. Jordan was very focused on finding the trail or being found by the ranger we had called (on my pink phone). I was incredibly focused on getting water and didn't give a rats behind, whether or not the ranger found us, as long as we found some drinkable water.

so that's the set up, and here is my memory, we were waiting in one spot, and the ranger had told us to make some noise so someone might find us. and then it started POURING down rain. All of a sudden it was dark and really cold, and neither of us had anything warm or waterproof to wear so we were instantly freezing. Try to picture this, me... the hopelessly cold, hopelessly thirsty one with both arms inside of my t-shirt (making me look like "torso boy") sees a crater in a bolder that was filling up with rain water. With both arms still in the torso of my shirt, I run to the boulder and fall to me knees in the most melodramatic way and then onto my stomach lying face down on the boulder to drink the water. While I was making this spectacle of myself, Jordan, the one focused on getting the hell out of yosemite, picks up a fat tree branch and starts beating this tree stump with it, hollering ridiculously at the top of his lungs. So I have my face in the dirt, soaking and cold and I hear Jordan *Thump* "Yahh!!" *Thump* "HEEY!" *Thump* "Yahhh!" *Thump* "HEEY!". Eventually I got up, and he stopped beating the stump, and we both got under this tree to find shelter from the rain (in vein). We look at each other and start laughing at the ridiculousness of our situation, and our behavior... both of us shivering with the cold rain pouring thru the tree we were standing under, when someone calls my phone and we hear this stupid ringtone, as if to mock us "And though it's raining more than ever, know that we still have each other, you can stand under my umbrella, you can stand under my umbrella (ella ella ehh ehh...)"

After thinking about this I started laughing hysterically and had to leave the room... so that is why I'm not sleeping.

you might be frustrated that I'm not writing about anything new happening in my life, and I assure you, there is much that is going on with me, not much that I can explain or even verbalize. But I have accepted that a duty, and a hobby in my life is to search for indescribable beauty in the most unlikely places, and to be content with appreciating the inexpressible.

9/24/08 in bed surrounded by moat

We've been visiting Ravendra (the man we look to the hospital) every day. He is doing a little better. Abel for the most part has taken responsibility and visits him 2 or 3 times a day bringing clothes or food. Abel was gone for the day so he told Mayang and I to take food to him.

When We got to the hospital, we saw that he had managed to completely defile all the clothes and sheets around him. They where covered with piss and blood and what mayang calls "su-su". It bothered us that he had been like that all day and the hospital hadn't helped him or cleaned him or given him a diaper of some sort. So, we helped him up to the bathroom to take a bath. The bathroom was so filthy that I almost vomited. The toilets (that are level with the ground) where all clogged and overflown, the urinals were clogged with what looked to be gallons of red Kool-Aid ("oohh yeahhh!") , vomit was clogging all the sings and drains in the bathroom, and the floor was a big fat mosaic portrait of the hospital's incompetence drawn with piss, blood, puke and "su-su". To top it off there was a malaria warning on the bathroom door. After feeding and cleaning Ravendra we left, promising we would come back with hot tea and cigarettes (we where happy he felt good enough to smoke..heh)

We came back to the hostile and Mayang and I where still upset and disturbed by poor conditions of the hospital. Mayang was ready to take a bath in rubbing alcohol when he we came back into our room (we now share an extended cut off to the Madelin room that is separated by french doors and leads into the garden outside) to find his bed covered with hundreds of ants. He wasn't in a great mood to start off with and now, needless to say, he was pissed. He tried in vain to brush all the ants off, and then lifted the mattress to find more underneath! He pulled his caut away from the wall and there where TWICE as many as he had already found! I looked at my bed and didn't see any ants, but I lifted the mattress and there were TONS! By now we were laughing in disbelief Mayang looked at me and said "Sy, mahn.... If we don't deal with these ants now.... we will die in our sleep tonight, and then be carried away".

We started to sweep the ants off the mattresses and underneath them, which sent the ants into a panic and they went all over the walls and covered the floor so that every step we took ants where climbing up our legs. Mayang shook his bed sheet swiftly to catapult the hundreds of ants off of his bed, and they flew into the air and landed all over his body.He started yelling and taking off his shirt and slapping every inch of his body (needless to say I was laughing head off. We pulled away a small night stand away from the wall, and behind it where twice as many ants as we had seen already, on this concentrated spot on the wall, all carrying their larva around with them. After an hour or so everything was clean. We swept the ants away and cleaned every square ince of our little room.

The next night before we went to bed, we searched the entire room for ants and didn't find one. I layed down in bed and thought "I should call april, but sleeping sounds incredible right now" so I went to bed. 40 minutes later I felt something on my arms and head and think "it's just my imagination recovering from last nights trauma" but the "creepy crawly/ebee-jeebees" got incredibly tangible and I turned on the light. There were ants all over my body and bed. I looked at mayang who was still asleep and saw there were none on his bed. I took it as a sign that I should call april... so I did. I turns out that mayang woke up at 2 in the morning to the same unpleasant surprise.

This same routine has happened for 3 days. The ants disappear during the day, and at night they cover your body and bed. When I told our "ant woes" to Aanugra, he suggested putting each leg of the bed into a bowl and filling the bowl with water, because ants won't try to cross the water, and if they do they can't swim. So now, as I write, I am laying on my bed with half of a water bottle on each leg of the bed filled with water. Call it superstition but I feel safe to sleep tonight.

Abel often laughs when Amy tries to speak in hindi, which is ironic because half the time I can't understand a word he says in english. He often mixes his "ss-ah's" with his "sh-ah's". The other day when we went on a group site seeing trip, Abel told us "let's stop here and shit together". we all laughed and assured him that there was no way we could all fit into one bathroom.

I realized that some jokes just don't make alot of sense in india. Like that joke "Which hand do you wipe with?.......(friend answers right hand or left hand)...... oh really? I usually just use toilet paper!" doesn't really apply here. If you asked them what hand they wiped with they would just say "left hand! Duhh!" or maybe even retell the joke "what kind of toilet paper to you wipe with?..... (wait for response)..... oh really? I usually just use my left hand!"

There are some other cultural differences and preferences that you come to recognize after you've been in India for a while... example- Did you know that "cow tipping" is frowned upon here? well I sure didn't!

9/19/08 St.Stephens bench on lawn

Friday we all took a 30-minute silent walk down the street, and on the way back Abel pointed and motioned at something cross the street and darted across to the other side. I followed him and it turns out that he was wanting to help out this guy who was asleep on the sidewalk.
Every day I see people sleeping on the sidewalk and if you didn't know better you would think it was because they were all destitute. But then you realize that everyone takes naps around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I've seen men in nice cloths sleeping on the sidewalk, it really doesn’t define you. So I had seen this guy from across the wide street, and figured he was just another rick shaw driver or beggar taking a nap. When we got closer I realized that there was something wrong.
The first indication was that he had a legion of flies covering his whole body laying eggs in the cuts in between his toes and in his eye lids, and aside from that...he was shockingly thin. He had no fat on him, and no recognizable muscle. He was a walking skeleton.... well except that he couldn't walk. Abel and I bought some food, a coke and water and brought it to him. He didn't have enough strength to tear thru the thin plastic wrapping that held his sandwich. He ate a small bite of the sandwich and looked at us and shook his head back and fourth and put it back in the bag. He was babbling, and the only thing Abel could understand was that he had not eaten in 20 to 30 days, and had no strength to walk. He was incredibly excepting of the flies that covered him. We realized that he was starving to death, wasn't physically capable of eating and that if we left him there he would die.
We then realized that there was a government hospital right across the street that I hadn't noticed before. We called a rickshaw and helped the man to it and then pushed it across the street. He didn't even have the strength to sit up. Abel helped him into the hospital, and when we had him sit down on this metal chair. He didn't have the strength to ease himself down, so he came down on the chair with a loud "THUNK" made by his protruding tailbone hitting the metal with great force, and with no fat or muscle to cousin his fall.
We went into the office to talk to the doctors. They had us bring him in, and after noticing he was homeless asked "Who is this man? Where did you find him?" Abel, not startled enough to loose his odd sense of humor said "Thailand!" ...."really?".... "no, actually he was dying right in front of your hospital. He hasn't eaten in 20 days, is no longer capable of eating, and doesn’t have the strength to walk or talk"..."well what are we supposed to do about it?"....."Why are you asking us? you're the doctors! He's not capable of eating, feed him intravenously"..... "sorry we can't do that, as soon as we give him any treatment we are legally responsible. The man said his whole family is dead, so who will take his body in the unfortunate event that he dies? If he has no family to claim responsibility we won't do anything".
We convinced them to take a blood test, and when the results came back they said "He doesn’t have any disease, so we can't admit him. He's malnourished... that’s all. If he eats he'll be fine" and so we said "well... he CAN'T eat... that's the reason he's starving to death! he needs to be hooked up to an IV!" and we had this back and fourth argument with the doctors. After Abel said he would take full responsibility for him. the doctors said "We can do some tests, but we won't admit him unless we see a clear problem. But we will only do the tests if someone stays with him the whole time. We don't know how long it will be till anyone sees him. Do you REALLY want to wait around all day? ".... "Actually we'd be happy to!". They were a little taken back, and then they said "why? he is a beggar. He starves because he is lazy. What if we help him? He'll just go back on the street doing nothing. These kinds of people don't like to work. Why waste the time?"....... "just make him well, give him some strength, get his appetite back, then he can decide for himself whether or not he wants to work" but they kept trying to talk us out of it.
after waiting 30 minutes in the waiting room they said "okay take him up to the 3rd floor for an X-ray".... "Can we get a wheelchair?"...."why?"....."umm, because he can't walk". So they gave us the worst wheelchair they had, with one small front wheel that didn't turn properly. So we spent a few hours running him around the hospital in this piece of s--- wheelchair getting tests done.
One thing I forgot to mention.... this guy smelled like had been taking baths in cow piss for a month.. and he stunk up any room he was brought into. When we had an X-ray done, we helped him out of his shirt and then threw it away because it was so rancid. Abel then quite literally gave this man the shirt off his own back.... and a pair of his underwear (sounds odd... but he needed it).
This guy seemed incredibly familiar, and I thought I had seen him before. I realized that he reminded me of pictures I had seen of holocaust victims. He also bears a strange resemblance to Abraham Lincoln.
After the tests where done and they said we'd have to wait, Abel had to leave and yuvraj (who had come over when he heard what we were dealing with) had to teach in a slum, so I volunteered to wait. After waiting by myself in the waiting room for an hour or two I think they realized that we were seriously committed to helping this guy, and we wouldn't stop being a major pain in the ass until Ravedra (the mans name btw) got the help he needed. They came out "you can leave. We're treating him now and you don't have to be here anymore". I got the doctors phone number and made sure they were actually treating him and not just BSing, then assured the doctors that we would be back to visit him often (to ensure some accountability) and then I left for Amy’s house, where we watched Dumb and Dumber in Hindi.
When they were trying to talk us out of taking responsibility for Ravendra, they kept saying "people like this come in all the time"... well something tells me that if that’s true, they kick they're starving butts back out on the street to die (unless a couple pesky lads from California and monipore badger them into it).
He's doing better now, though he still doesn’t have much of an appetite, he is being fed thru an IV and can now sit up, walk, talk, and bathe by himself. Mayang helped give him a bath last nigh, which was not a pleasant experience for him. He has a sensitivity to smell similar to Aaron’s, and he left that hospital with the look of "I'm going to go home and scrub my skin with steel wool until I have shed my first 3 layers"
There was a man in the hospital that I could tell from his screaming and moaning that he had appendicitis. I asked "appendix?" and he got silent, nodded, then went back to screaming and moaning. I almost told him "yeah the first times the worst" forgetting that it's only suppose to happen once. Then I thought to myself "Lucky skunk gets to have his appendix taken out!"

9/14/08 madolin room (on new bed in room extention)

So I know that I have been neglecting to write all that I am experiencing, and I'll try to write more and give you a clearer picture of what it's like over here. So far I have stayed away from posting my wittings that are sad or negative, because I'm sure everyone hears enough sad and negative things every day, and from every YWAM student that comes back to the states from a foreign country, telling you what terrible people you are for not helping. I didn't want to be just another beating drum. But as I talk to people, they seem to want to know about those kind of things, and they tell me to write about it more, so I guess I will. Starting...... NOW....no wait...............NOW.......no hold on.... not yet..... not yet.........................NOW!

As most of you know, I'm teaching kids in a slum English (take that Darwin!... and All the English teachers who never gave me passing grades! and to those of you sending this post back with all the spelling and grammar errors highlighted!). The place is called Wazzipor and it is a slum not to far from the metro. When I first went there with my Nepali friend Yuvraj the kids were chasing our rickshaw screaming "KALI!!" (WWE wrestler) at me and "JACKY CHAN!" at Yuvraj. I don't think alot of white guys come in their neighborhood. It's been pretty fun the few times I've gone. I'm scheduled to go there every wensday and we get to make up are own curriculum, which makes it really fun.

Last week one of our students died. I had only met him a couple of times, and couldn't picture his face until someone showed me a photo (he's in that big group photo with me and the rest of VDS if you've seen it). His name is Umesh, and although he looked like he was 6, he was actually 12 (malnutrition). He went to a cheap, unlicensed, untrained chemist to get an injection for loose motion (probably caused by the water or food he's exposed to). The chemist gave him either an overdose of the medicine, or an expired injection gone toxic. Umesh reacted to the injection and died. The injection he had cost Rs.10 (about 20 cents). He could have had the same injection done by an actual doctor for 20 more rupees. His death was cause by poverty; a social crime, a social murder. Amy said the more they ask around, the more they hear these kinds of stories. It's the "norm" in the slum.

A few days after his death, we visited his mother just to offer some love and comfort. I found out that she was already a widow and had already lost her eldest son a few years ago. Her husband and eldest child both died of suicides at different times. Now that Umesh is dead she only has 2 children left. One of them is a cute little girl that I teach, and the other is a 17 year old boy (who looks like he should be 11 or 12) who is a drug addict. It was pretty sad. The Mother would softly cry at different times of our stay, but for the most part, she just carried this blank, hopeless stare that seems so familiar to so many of the poor here in India.

After we visited Umesh's family, we went to a peace rally to protest communalism and the neglect of the government with the flood victims of Vihar, and the victims of persecution in Orrisa. One theme of the night was "How close does the bloodshed have to get before we hear the cries of the victims?".

Well... it got pretty damn close.

Saturday was my day off, so I slept in and spent the late morning talking to mayang. At 1pm when the cyber cafe' opened, I headed to the hospital to check my email. I was online for 2 or 3 hours writing friends and researching international teaching techniques. Ashley was on and I got to touch base with her for the first time in what seems like years. As usual she was very refreshing to talk to (when she talks it seems as if she's been reading my mail). Around 4pm I was about to get off the the web and I was just wrapping up a message to April where I said "I'm going to go now and look for a cell phone in CP (Connaught Place)."

And that was my plan. At 5 I walked to the metro station and planned to go to CP (which is like the most popular shopping place in Delhi) to look for a cell phone, an ATM and maybe grab a coffee at Cafe Day. But I was feeling extremely unmotivated. I hadn't showered since the day before, and just the thought of all that shopping drained my energy. So I decided to go home first and take a nap.

When I woke up everyone was glued to the TV where they were watching the news in Hindi. Mayang and Yuvraj translated it for me. There were five bombings in three different areas in Delhi. All of them at real central shopping areas where people all over Delhi go, and the bombs went off at the peek of the shopping traffic. 3 of the bombings happened in 2 different places that I can't remember the name of, and then two bombs went of in CP (Connaught Place) at 6:20. CP was where I had been planning to go. In all 30 people were killed and 100 injured. The bombs where simple small chemical explosives, lined with ball bearings. They where put there by a Pakistani, anti Indian Muslim terrorist group Mujahideen.

It felt a lot like 9/11 for an hour for me, and I seemed to be the only one the least bit shaken by this. I realized it's just the difference between the American mentality and the Indians. In India, there has been invasion and killing for thousands of years, and around the world these things seem normal. Death is real. Not to say they didn't care, weren't afraid or even that they were callused, it's just part of Indian living. their attitude and outlook differed from mine.

When 9/11 happened America was so stunned and paralyzed by fear. So shocked that people from another country had caused death and devastation. We rallied under our patriotism and suddenly revenge seemed biblically sound. Revenge is the cause of these terror attacks. Every time we take an eye for an eye it just fuels more hate and more death. I immediately felt compassion not only for the victims and their family's, but for the people that were behind the bombings. For the Muslim familys in India that will be vicariously associated with these bombings because of their faith and probably persecuted by the Hindus. Revenge and civil war have scarred India for too long, and the violence needs to end. The only way this can be possible is if we learn to Love. Perfect love casts out fear (terror). Perfect love casts out terrorism. I'm not saying that I don't believe in justice, I just think most of the world needs to redefine it. Revenge is not Justice.

I had the thought right after this happened "will my parents make me come home? do I want to go home?". I don't want to go home. I don't see why I should leave here when my family has to stay. I wouldn't forgive myself if I let something like this send me running for the hills, abandoning my new family. I love it here.


Ha I'm surprised I haven't been mentioned on the local news! haha. It seems like they are always trying to connect themselves national and international events that have nothing to do with Fresno by leeching onto someone born from there who happens to be there. "josiah siemens, our beloved, native son of fresno, was 10 miles away from the bombings.... sleeping." I don't know why this thought cracks me up so much, it just does. hahaha

9/6/90 12am St. Stephens

Today had it's up's and downs. Even though it was a day early (2 days if you count time zones) I decided to call it my birthday.

At lunch they gave me the massive box that my dad shipped and they all watched as I pulled out a 12 pack of trail mix, multiple bags of sun flower seeds (which I'm currently chewing), a nerf set, an 18 pack of trident, beef jerky, books, Aprils beautiful bracelet, and an air mattress with "air pump sold separately" boldly written on the front of the box . Yuvraj, who makes bracelets himself, was very impressed by the bracelet, and my Naga (Mayang) enjoyed the beef jerky
"Wow. Are you really missing sunflower seeds?" ..."no... haven’t thought of them since I've been here" "What about trail mix was it your favorite snack?" ... "no.. I rarely EVER eat trail mix". Then I opened the card and Abel read over my shoulder everything out loud that he saw me looking at such as “Ya'll suck butt!” and “Nigga for life!” .It was nice to see everyone’s face.

They thought it was really funny that you guys would spend over $100.00 shipping
a box filled mostly with food over-seas, but I appreciated it. The tastes gave me this weird high…a strange euphoria that lasted 20 minutes. I was very confused by the familiar tastes. It felt like I was in the hostel, but the hostel was located on my property in California. As I chewed the trident I was up in my dad's airplane on the way to oceano. As I chewed the trail mix I had my back up against a tree in Yosemite, desperately thirsty, listing to Jordan begging his dad not to call the rangers for help.

Shortly after I came off my trident high, I had to gather up a few people and leave for the antodia orphanage to do some English tutoring. When we got to the metro station, I swiped my card and then put my card in my pocket. Julie and me packed ourselves into the most crowded tram I had been in yet. I couldn't move. The pressure from the multitude of unbathed men compacted me from every angle until I was packed into a small concentrate of myself. I had the thought "wow they could all have their hands in my pockets and I wouldn't know the difference".....well..... they did.

As I got off the metro and made my way to the exit where you have to swipe your card to leave, I patted down my pockets for my metro card and felt nothing. "hmm I distinctly remember putting that in my pockets". I checked my bag... nothing. Luckily I had about 20 rupees on the card (about 40 cents). "Jokes on them" I thought to myself, without realizing that they had also snagged my cell phone my 2000-rupee long distance card. When I realized that I had lost both of those I was a little crushed. I hadn't talked to April in over a week, and the climax of this week was going to be calling her.

So I went on and tutored the kids, bought a new metro card and got back on the metro with Amy to her house where her and her family were going to cook a homemade dinner for me. I had mentioned a couple weeks back that I was kinda missing Mexican food. So... they decided to make it for me. Homemade tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, salsa, chicken fajita, and tortilla chips. It tasted great. Very sweet of them.

I felt bad that they were going to such great lengths to make me feel at home, and I think they were trying to cure my homesickness... when I'm not actually home sick. Home is here for me right now. The home that I came from seems imagined and made up. Not that I'm not looking forward to going back... but it just doesn't seem real.

8/27/08 Madolin room the futon

My health has offcially gone to the crapper. After my appendix felt better I stopped taking the pain killers, which, turned out to be strong narcotic prescription pain killers (that I got without a prescription). I had been taking them for 3 days, and when I stopped taking them, I had really painful withdrawls, so needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night. This morning I woke up with a huge headache and fever which I feared might be a sign of my appendix bursting. I called my parents and had them get information and they left me assured that if it burst... I would feel it. I'm now having a terrible sinus headache which gets better when I sit up. I made a make-shift futon so I can sleep sitting up tonight.

If that wasn't enough inconvenience, just to top things off, I have "pit-ne" or as medical professionals would call it: "acne of the pits". The cause of this being my "Prescription strength" antiperspirant I started using before I left. I thought to myself "well this stuff is amazing!" and it really was the first stuff I've used that stopped pit sweat completely. 3 days ago I woke up with these weird red-ish bumps on my right arm pit, which I wrote off as mosquito bites. Well today I took a closer look cause it felt really irritating to put my right arm down... FULL BLOWN WHITE HEADS! I actually started washing my pitts with cleanser! gahh..

Sooo .... yeah. hi.. I'm Josiah Siemens..... and I have pit-ne


On the bright side, my face is clearing up. Mayang asked " do you kno why your skin is clearing up?".... "because I started to wash my face 3 times a day with cleanser?"... "No mahn. it's the spicy food". I don't really believe him..... but I'm keeping up both rituals. Just to be sure.

8/23/08 12:00pm

Well... it happened. My appendix flared up. I'm not in as much pain as I usually am... it's pretty mild, probably because I've had it so many times now that I'm getting used to it. I felt it coming a few days ago and hoped it was just a stomach ache. Last night was terrible because I couldn't fall asleep. I went to bed early which meant there were lights on, and I couldn't cover my eyes because of a sinus headache.

People are asking me if I want to go to the hospital, but for the first time ever I don't want treatment. I fell that it is not as clean there, and the conditions people are being treated for seem pretty server compared to that of the US. I would rather wait it out then risk a staff infection.

It's kinda weird, because I am reading into the wild again, and I'm at the part describing him starving to death, and I feel as if I'm starving to death because of the abdominal pain. It makes it real 3-D.

Amy and Ellen took me and Andy out to dinner after church for "foreigners night out" to ask how we were doing and if there was anything bothering us... and there really wasn't. Andi and myself are both equally laid back about everything, so we didn't have much to complain about. Amy and Ellen told us that we were heaven sent, because of how we handle everything and how "chill" we are. I guess they've had some internationals in that past that freaked out pretty easily because of the conditions here.

8/21/08 madolin room st. stephens

Yesterday my group had an extra hour before our home group started, so we decided to buy hot food and give it to beggars. I fed drug addicts, amputees, lepers, homeless elderly, and a couple elderly leper drug addicts, and a guy that was just hungry (he looked like Gandhi). we fed a couple with what looked to be a crack baby. Everyone was really appreciative (except some addicts who were just not there). It was a really good time. We didn't preach, we didn't beat anyone over the head with a bible... we just fed them and talked to them. We were feeding them in this pretty popular shopping area, and guys were singleing me out of the whole group to sell me hash pipes. I guess them Indians know a hippie when they see one.

Later we went to a thai family's house where they served us AMAZING Thai food, which included beef. Let me tell you.... god tastes goood after not eating one for a month. They sent the leftovers with me and Amy to take home. Amy asked Abel "isn't it illegal to sell beef here"..."yes I think so". we excepted it and took the contraband on the metro. indeed we were "beef traffickers".

I still haven't come to grips with being on the other side of the world. And I've concluded that the earth is flat, and if it isn't then it should be. I could just dig a little and jump back and forth from india to... well I don't know exactly where the hole would go to. but it would make trips like these cheaper. I've also decided that when I talk to April, she's not in america. She's in a parallel universe. But if she is in a parallel universe then that would mean she would be a dude... which would make me gay... UNLESS... I turned out to be a girl in her universe.. and she turned out to be the guy. Well I guess that means she wears the pants in the relationship from here on out.... mostly because when I get home I refuse to wear pants.

I ended up switching back to my old bed for 3 reasons... 1. The wind from the fan wouldn't hit that part of the room 2. there were so many mats, it sunk in a bunch and I figured that I would need a chiropractor after using it for 4 months.... 3. there turns out to be a mold issue on the wall over there which means I turned asmetic and couldn't breathe. I found this out after talking to April till 5am i figured "I'll just sleep 4 hours and then take a nap the next day"... well I went to bed, fell asleep for like 10 minutes, then woke up not breathing. I couldn't sleep all night because I couldn't breathe. the next day I was really looking forward to taking a nap, I tried and again I couldn't breathe. I walked across the street to the chemist and got a prescription inhaler without a prescription and was fine. after I moved back to my old bed I stopped having issues. then I realized there was mold all over that wall and that's what probably did it.

April had asked me how many homosexuals I had seen in Delhi... and I told her I couldn't tell because all the guys hold hands.

My roomie Mayang reminds me a little of Ben Vandy. Mostly because he talks about meat ALOT. Where he comes from in Nagaland he ate meat every day for every meal, so he's having his withdrawals from eating vegitarian 5 out of 7 days. Mayang said that his tribe two or three generations back were head hunters. They don't do that anymore, but they still kill and eat just about anything that moves. We were walking in this beautiful garden with tons of exotic birds flying overhead. "Wow would you look at those birds man!" I thought he was going to start Ooing and Ahhing over their beauty "I show you what we do if this were Nagaland..." then he pulled out his imaginary shot gun and proceeded to shoot the parrots, complete with sound effects.

We were walking by a cow in the road and I'm pretty sure he actually started salivating..."My goodness will you look at all that meat!! I tell you this, man, you will never hear of a Naga starving in india, if we got very hungry we would just kill the cow." His favorite meats are pork, beef and chicken. but he has much more variety than that. when he listed off meats that he ate on a regular basis(might not want to let Bret in on this one), the included were, bear, sheep, deer, bird, dog, rat, monkey, elephant, snake, and to Aarons envy, house cat.

He said when you go hunt a dog it's like guys night out. all the bro's start getting routey and go out on the street and kill a stray, bring him in and feast. He has a really really disturbing way of making it sound appetizing. I was actually craving some shiatsu by the time he was done.

8/18/08 St. Stephens- Madelin room 10:30pm

Two Days ago it was India's Independence day. one thing we have in common with Indians is that we both celebrate our Independence from the British, which made it a little comical to celebrate it with Andy from London. Unlike us Americans, they actually remember the oppressors, and they actually celebrate their Independence, not just the ability to shoot fir works off and blow things up with piccolo pete's. I like their tradition more than ours: instead of fireworks they fly kites. As we boarded the metro I looked out and saw what at first looked like Hitchcock's "the birds". Thousands of birds. tens of thousands. I thought they were birds.

On their Independence day, every boy and girl, children and adults fill the rooftops flying kites. And not our sissy way of doing it....they had those kites so high that it looked dangerous to fly over Delhi in a plane. Kites higher than I thought possible. I swear every citizen in Delhi was doing it (I wonder if the youth groups here have kite stands)

To celebrate Independence day we went out to a park with kids from a slum. We played games and sang Hindi children worship songs with hand motions, told stories, flew kites, handed out snakes and soft drinks and just hung out. it was really fun. Afterwards we took rickshaws back to the Coffin's apartment and ate pork (imported from Shillong, they don't eat pork here), watched the Olympics and watched Bruce almighty. the reason we watched Bruce almighty was because of our guest speaker from Shillong (who brought the pork) kept refering to it and quoting and said (jokingly) that if you are a christian and haven't seen bruce almighty, then your life will only be half fulfilled and you risk the very fires of hell.

The man's name is Godfry Fernandez (not spanish, just a coincidence I guess) and he is a very relational,very outgoing, very funny vineyard pastor. He reminds me of a mix between Aaron, Mr. Bean and Inspector Clusso. After talking to him for a while I found out that he is very involved with vineyard and is good friends with Andy Park, Scott Underwood and the guy who wrote "Dwell" and is organizing a concert for Delirious? in Shillong. He came here for a week to teach us "how to build healthy a healthy relationship". Something he said on the first day was that "space is healthy and necessary for a lasting relationship to grow healthy and strong" that "space can be just as important as love, passion and all the things it takes for a relationship to last". I thought to myself, "Wow, I really hope so. I don't think I could put any more space than me and April without talking to NASA"

Right now I'm sitting on my new bed. In the corner of the room there was one cot with 7 matts on it where we putt the guitars and bags. I decided to transfer all that crap to my bed and put sheets on the "super cot". Everyone here is pretty used to sleeping on hard surfaces so they didn't mind me taking it. I guess I'm OK and used to sleeping on hard things and the ground(from my late nights crashing at the Hooves) but I thought it wouldn't hurt to be a little more comfortable.

I'm listening to Alisha play and sing. He is like an Indian juke box. Every song he sings reminds me of someone. JUST today he played Zombie by the cranberrys (reminded me of Jordan) then the ballad of john and yoko (guess who I thought of), the californication (Caleb), That Thing You Do (My dad), Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin (My mom), Mr tambourine man (Alex) and then "Roxane" (April again [in her banquet dress...heh]). It's kinda funny cause he sings everything in his head voice and in his Naga accent and he gets all the words wrong.
"It's been a hard days flight, and I've been working like a log" and "sleeping like a frog" "pretty shy for a white guy" and that kind of thing.

8/4/08 Madelin room St. Spephens hostle.

I'm now sitting on my new bed in my new room which I have dubbed the "Madelin room". It looks just like the room in that madolin cartoon with that girl living in a catholic orphanage. 20 foot ceiling with 2 rows of 5 beds (not from this entry, but since there are 10 beds for 3 people, I've moved beds 5 times since I've been here).

I came to india with pretty low expectations of how the bathrooms would be, but then I got to my room (old room) and saw a shower and a wonderful all to taken for granted, western toilet! Having a shower was so refreshing with all the humidity getting you sticky. I was taking quick showers twice a day. They shouldn't have spoiled me.

When they moved us to this room, I had my guard down so I was utterly disappointed to fine no shower. but there is a sink and a western toilet..... that don't have water running to them. so every time someone uses the bathroom we have to run outside, fill up a bucket with water, then carry it back and pour it in the toilet to flush. The worst part is that I was SOO ready for MUCH worse a situation and then they spoiled me with the other room... ha.

One of the rules we agreed to was to "not speak in our mother tongues in front of others that cannot understand it" excluding English and Hindi. The rule is mainly because it's a little rude, people think you're talking about them and using your tribal tongue to make sure you can't hear the bad things your saying. there are 16 people in the class, from 12 different parts of India each one knows 4 or 5 languages and they differ from person to person. I figure we have anywhere from 20 to 40 languages between all of us.

Mayang confronted me at dinner and asked "do you and Andy speak any other language besides English?" I told him that I speak a little Spanish and Andy probably speaks a few European languages. "do you ever speak Spanish with each other in front of Alisha?" I told him that no, and that I speak very little Spanish and he could think of me as mono linguistic "ok, because Alisha says that you usually speak in a different language than English in front of him". He can't understand my english. Right after that Yuraj asked me if I thought I had a very think accent. "no I don't think so". It turns out that we do have an accent, and he said people from California and New Zealand have the hardest accents to understand. We say "budder" instead of "butter" and "cenner" instead of "center" and "wadder" instead of "water". they could understand Andy perfectly though because the british are very persice (and ruled them for 300 years). I have to talk like Dwight Schrewt from The Office for some of them to understand (or under-sdand) anything I say. It's kinda fun

Turns out that not only can I not speak hindi, but I can't speak english either

8/3/08

I'm sitting in my bed in my funky monastery next to my new roomies Alisha (guy) and Mayang. It's really weird because I know I'm the youngest, but I feel older than all the nationals. the second youngest student, Allysha, is 24. He reminds me of Nate Vanderhoof mixed with that kid from little miss sunshine who took a vow of silence. Then there is Mayang (31) and Julie(28) and a married couple Named Yuraj(31) and Suda(28) and I don't know how old Andy is. I guess in her 40's. They are all older than Caleb yet they look like they can't be more than 17 or 18 or less.

I kinda misjudged Andy. It was hard for me to see the real person and look past all the stereo-types she seemed to fit (perfectly). She is a wonderful sweet adventurous woman who is open to any new experience. After chatting with her for a little bit I found out she was from the first UK Vineyard to come out of Anaheim. Most of the UK Vineyard music that I like seems to come from her church. I figure I have a nice new connection with the UK vineyard.

8/1/08 10:00pm Delhi catholic parish/ hostle/thingy

I've been in Delhi for 3 days and still haven't had much Indian food. We went to a KFC McDonald's and had pizza at Narula's. I went to all those places with Abel. He also took me to the Capitol and to India Gate. Then we went back to his apartment and I fell asleep at 6:30pm. at 3am he woke me up and brought me in the living room. His room ates were chillin with these northeastern girls (looked Filipino). Right away they asked me about my hair and if it was real and other odd questions then constantly chanted "love your hair, very nice". later Abel told me that they were crazy about my long hair and kept talking about it after I went back to sleep (the two nights I was there no on slept until like 4:00am. except me)

I went back to Amy's on an auto and met the other international student. Her name is Andi she is a token British lady strait out of walrus and grumet. She's pretty nice.

Amy told me that even Indians who aren't Hindu or vegitarian still find the idea of eating a cow repulsive just because it's so uncommon. She said it would be like eating golden retriever puppys or a horse in the US. Wonder if they say "I'm so hungry I could eat a cow!"

I'm laying in bed at St Something-or-others parish or something. This will be my home for the next 5 months, it's the nicest place I've seen so far. When I thought about going to India, I jokingly imagined myself joining a monastery and becoming a monk. Turns out I'm living in one....(the monastery, not the monk. that would be like in star wars when he cuts that thing open to stay warm....yeah). I think I'm sleeping in a room next to 15 nuns

CATHOLIC SCHOOL GIRLS RULE

7/31/08 Abel's Apartment - New Delhi 7:00 am

I'm now on a fourth story balcony in New Delhi at an apartment owned by a sweet 29 year old north-eastern man (looks Chinese) named Abel (pronounced "A-Bell").

Yesterday I just chilled at Amy's and read a little. Then she took me out for an Indian snack. We saw 2 cows on the way, and a couple Gypsy children who did pretty impressive acrobatic tricks for a couple rupees. after taking a nap she took me on a rickshaw to the metro, and from the metro to an Americanized coffee place. There I met a nice guy named Elisha. he took me on a three wheeled rickshaw to a Church home group. On the way I figured out that the drivers don't honk because they're too aggressive or inconsiderate (although they are), it's a common courtesy. there are stickers on the backs of cars that say "horn please" (heh). I am baffled how they can be such terrible drivers, yet can at the same time be amazing talented drivers.

When we got to home group I met Simeon and Abel . Amy gave a teaching on radical love and Simeon lead worship. He played 4 popular vineyard songs then 2 hindi songs. I think that it's pretty cool that I can go half way around the world and still worship and sing with my family. Elisha showed me a couple cool songs (he's really good at guitar), then asked me to show him something, so I played the rift for dwell and he picked it up on first hearing without any instruction. I showed them a couple jeremy riddle songs and some aaron struple songs and they thought i was the.... .doo doo..(gee wilikers).

amy asked if I would feel comfortable staying at Abels apartment and I said sure. Abel is a generous northeastern man with an accent that I can barley understand (I still can't understand a word that guy says mahn). He complimented my hair and told me his used to be long and that he would show me pictures. when we got to his apartment his roommates were watching VHI. We talked for a bit and exchanged pictures pictures. I showed him some of my house and then a few of April and he just kept saying "ohh very pretty" and "OHhh my god yes she is so beautiful". He gave me his bed and showed me his whole in the ground toilet next to a bucket with a measuring cup that I had read so much about. I woke up with him right next to me... with only the thought "wow... 24 hours in india and I'm sleeping with an indian man I just met"

I'm now up before everyone else on the balcony and I am thinking of how crazy it is that my youth group is meeting on the other side of the world, with their feet pointed up towards mine....... whoa.... gravity....

CaaRAZY!

7/30/08 8:30am Coffin Apartment- Delhi India

I'm sitting in an apartment i Delhi. I just had the most amazing taxi ride ever. have you seen the beginning of the Darjeeling limited? it was just like that, only way more intense. I think I was even in a similar looking taxi with a Punjabi driver. Even tho we were heading tword on coming cars, barley missed a few pedestrians and cows, I felt really safe. Everyone is very aware of the dysfunction, so people expect other drivers to do ridiculous things, so they're always ready for it. (not from this entry, but I've been here 18 days, and been in an auto rickshaw almost everyday and I think I've seen more accidents in the US in 3 weeks than here. I haven't seen one accident here). on a highway with 2 lanes, they fit 5 cars shoulder to shoulder, or even more auto rickshaws, or even more motorcycles. (may I also comment that with the traffic worse than LA I have not been STUCK in traffic once. everyone keeps moving and using any available space, on the road or off). There is no order here... it is very much chaotic, but as my dad would say, it's "poetry in motion". The taxi guy must have honked the horn 100 times in our 20 minute ride from the airport.

On the way to the apartment, they kept commenting on the bad smell in certain areas we were passing. I found everything smelling INCREDIBLE! New smells, smells I didn't think were possible. good smells. (Aaron wouldn't survive here tho)

when I got to this apartment 20 minutes ago, they gave me green tea. Feels like home already.

Frankfort Germany Runway 7/29/08 6:00 am

I am now aboard a 747 Air India in Germany awaiting takeoff.

I had a pretty pleasant flights yesterday, and even thought my plane was delayed 3 hours I didn't mind. It gave me more time to talk to April. I met a nice older German lady that looked strikingly like my Grandma-Dina. She commented on my last name and told me I should find out if I'm directly related to the company. In Denver when I showed my passport the the stewardess, she said "AAaaaahhh mister Siemens!" *flips a page and with a disappointed voice..* "from...California?". When I got off the plane the pilots were saying "Goodbye" to every person they thought wasn't German and then goodbye in German to the people they thought were German. and of course they looked at my ID and thought I was German, as did everyone in the airport I showed my ID to. I felt strangely close to every German I talked to. I felt distant bond.

Shortly after I got off the plane, I passed through the seven circles of German bureaucratic hell. First, no one knew where to find Air India, and those who thought they did sent me in the wrong direction. I was three hours later than expected so I had less than an hour to find my plane (which, lucky for me, had been delay). After I found it I waited in this huge line to get my boarding pass, and kept getting cut by indian people (a little taste of indian culture). after 45 minutes I got up to the counter and they told me that my ticket was no good untill united airlines updated it. After I went 3 floors to United, they told me they couldn't do anything until I got a boarding pass from air india. So I ran back down and waited in line again to hear "No, your ticket has to say "Frankfort to Delhi' to get a boarding pass. United has to update it."

With time running short I ran up three floors to the United desk "Sorry, we just closed. the only open counter is at the entrance of the terminal" "What? I have to go thru security again?" "Yes. Sorry". the entrance was ALLL the way down the airport, and it's the biggest I've been in. I found it only to hear from this Jamaican lady (Jamaican? I know right?) "sorry they should have updated it in fresno. There is nothing I can do. Take it to air india and they might give you a new one." "NO! I've been back and fourth to many times. They can't do it! YOU have to do it!" "sorry the ticket's no good. They should have changed it in fresno"..extremely frustrated and sleep deprived I yelled..."Well UNITED issued my ticket, UNITED screwed up my flight, UNITED is going to fix it! This shouldn't even be an issue!" And so she finally gave me my new ticket.

With no time, and basically late for boarding I ran to security and waited in a long line...got the random "please step inside the cubicle" search where they guy felt up my gootch and every crevice of my body, sent my shoes thru the machine twice and then sent me on my way. I sprinted all the way across the airport, went thru 3 or 4 floors of busy escalators and arrived to a HUGE line in front of air india. Luckily the German lady who talked to me before recognised me and let me come to the front. "OHH Mr. Siemens! are you related to the family? you should find out! they have LOTS of money!" she and the other workers had a good hardy laugh, then gave me my boarding pass.


I felt frustrated and abused, but I also felt somehow elite and welcomed my long lost relatives. Now I know a place in the world where people respect and LONG for my last name, and don't just make sperm jokes....haha.....semen(s). But what fun would that be?

Yo

I was planning on writing whatever i've written in my journal, but i am using a keyboard with a space button the dosn't work unless you pound it with all of your strength 3 times. it takes forever to write.

India has been pretty amazing so far, I've lead worship a few times, and have been teaching orphan children to read (at least 30 Jesus points for me), I went to an elderly womens home and prayed with them and listened them (15 jesus points) and went to a catholic girl school and taught them a couple songs.(alex or allysha, they knew "every move I make" and knew the motions, so I showed them our "la-la-la-la-la--lala" dance. it has gone international)

I got a phone and a bonus card that allows me to call the US for 2 rupees a minute (or 4 cents) I used all my minutes talking to april.

by the way mom and dad, the girls dig the long hair....

and aaron, I showed the guys that lead worship a couple newer songs and they thought I was the S&*% (sorry for the harsh symbols)

and jordan the driving here is alot like on crazy taxi, exept ten times as fun...

well, maybe next week I'll start blogging what's in my jornal (if I get a computer that works)....


Love yal, tell my parents I love them.............and to not touch my closet. I took pictures, and if anythings out of place, I will burn down your house.....or whine about it. jk. But don't touch my closet. I'm sending april there with her sword.....

Getting Ready

I can't believe that I will be in India in a little under 4 days. It's a little surreal.

Despite a few rough patches, I've had a really nice summer. I watched the fireworks booth with Aaron for a week. That was actually really relaxing. We had some good talks and some good times. I don't think I've spent that much one on one time with him before that. He is one of the few people I really look up to and I felt honored to be sharing that time with him.

I went up to yosimite with Jordan. We climbed halfdome and had a pretty nice adventure on the way down. However physically and mentally draining our little misadventure was, I felt really recharged and refreshed afterwards. I figure I got to spend all day with my best friend in one of the most beautiful places on earth. It was a nice finale to my stay here in the US.

I've also got to spend some time with my family. I took a 14 hour train ride from Anihime to Santa Cruz. After I saw the batman premier with April and Brandon I saw Coldplay with Caleb and got to spend some time with Courtney and Paxton. I've beend watching a movie about India almost every night with my parents. They've been running around frantacly trying to make sure that everything gets done before I leave. They've been supportive and very generous and caring... and quite a bit nervous.

And then there's April. I've been feeling extremely blessed to have such a beautiful girl with such a beautiful soul by my side for my last couple weeks here at home. She is so supportive and such an undeserved gift to me and I can't get enough of her. I think she is the assurance of my return home that my mom has been looking for.


I kinda feel like I have been reaping the benefits of a prisoner awaiting death row fulfilling his last wishes in all the best of ways. I didn't think I'd get to do the things that I've been wanting to do before I left, and for a while felt everything falling apart. Things have been working out for me, and I feel that I've tied up all the loose ends that worried me and I'm ready to go.
I feel pretty peaceful about leaving. I don't feel nervous or scared. I've always been keen with diving head first into the unknown and I'm pretty exited to explore this new world.