The day India rained more then England.

I guess I will begin at the beginning.. Thats usually what happens. 
We started our day going to the Victoria Memorial Hall which is quite famous here in Kolkata. The house and the gardens are so beautiful. 

After going inside to look around (spending lots of time in the air conditioned room, reading most of the painting descriptions just so we could stay cool!) we went out into the gardens to have a walk and a look around, we then sat across the lake and admired the hall. 

Then all of a sudden, It started to rain. And it rained for 40 days, and 40 nights... Juuust Kidding! But it sure did feel like it.

We sheltered under a tree hoping it would soon pass, we were greatly mistaken. The rain got heavier and heavier, the small tree we were under soon wasn't much of a shelter at all, so we made a run for the next one which looked a bit bigger, it was no better, the rain was so hard the trees couldn't even be bothered to fight against it. 

We stood for what seemed like an eternity, contemplating what our next move should be. The Hall was really far off (as you can see from the photo) and that was the only form of shelter around. There was a bigger tree a small run across the road but we couldn't decide if we would get more wet by standing where we were, or running across the path. It went from rain, to monsoon, to storm. By this time, we were pretty much as wet as we could be. You know, the 'water dripping off the end of your nose' kind of wet.. Where there is no hope of getting any drier. So we decided to take our shoes off, and walk to the entrance to try and get a taxi back. Luckily one let us in, charged us double the amount and more but we weren't going to complain as it was near 1pm when the one way system changes so he had to go the long way round, and we were so wet we were just grateful he let us in, and we wanted to get home! 

Home sweet home!! And this is when we had dried off a bit!! (note the Salwar Kamiz's me and Ellen are wearing! Pretty sweet! And these were just the cheap ready made ones!) 

The dye from my bag ran all over Ellens scarf that was wrapped around it for extra protection for my camera, and on my top! I think its pretty much come out but me and Ellen both have dyed underwear! Getting soaked through was worth it just for the comic value!

After drying off and having something to eat (no warming up needed, it was still fairly warm through all the rain) we headed back out again (the rain had stopped and the heat dried it up quite fast). We walked to the tailors to pick up our newly fitted and made Salwar Kamiz's, and on the way we saw a hearse.. But the wording was not quite as subtle or sympathetic as I was expecting....

Made me giggle though!! After stepping over a dead dog, a dead rat, and a pile of poo, we eventually made it to the tailors. Our Salwar Kamiz's are beautiful. So delicate. I have no photos yet but we are planning to wear our best ones to church tomorrow, so I will be sure to get a photo then. 

We start school on Monday so we have been planning lessons today. Doing 4 lessons a week is going to be quite stressful, it took us long enough to plan one! We are all quite nervous as we don't really know what to expect, but hopefully after a few days there we will get used to it. We have all heard good things about the children, so it should be good fun. 

Its Diwali on Wednesday, the festival of light. I can't wait, its going to be beautiful. We will celebrate it on the terrace with candles and sparklers. We were warned not to go out on the streets as people like to drink a lot, like New Year, and its safer to stay on the roof. 

 I think thats about it- quite impressive for one day! But as usual, heres a few more photos to enjoy :)

School trip to the Victoria Memorial

Our little friend

Ladies sat by the lake.

Man sweeping the floor... pretty self explanatory. 

So here's a bit of a spiritual input which has been on my mind for the past few days. As you would expect with coming to a place like this, there is a lot of poverty, and hunger and need. People crying out to you on the streets for food and money, and we are almost forced to just walk on by. I want to help all of them, I want to take them in my arms and bring them to a safe place. I want to show them Jesus and show them there is hope. I want to feed them and shelter them. But I can't. I have to just walk  on by, as if they're not even there. I always flash them a friendly smile when I can, but its not enough. I know you're thinking 'through God anything is possible' but its not always that simple. There is so much in the bible about the poor. Proverbs 14:31 says 'He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.' Proverbs 21:13 says 'if a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered'. In Micah 6:8 it says 'He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' How can I do this? Everyone says you can't give to the people because they will know you give and always ask for more. And I don't have much to give. AHH! I'm also reading Romans at the moment and it says somewhere there that you should knock down your door to the poor and needy, just as you would if it was Christ at the door.. or something like that. I think it was Romans.. I don't sound so holy any more! Anyway, its been on my mind... Any ideas? Do I give or do I just help the places I have set out to help? 

Anyway, there we go. Our crazy day in the rain, an Indian style hearse and a holy outburst. 

Church tomorrow! Looking forward to that. There is a church opposite the guesthouse that were practicing for tomorrow and they were singing 'One way Jesus' and 'Oh happy day'! It was so lovely to hear those songs! A little taste of home. Except imagine the lyrics sung in an Indian accent.. I'll leave you to make of that what you will! 

Hope you enjoyed yet another blog. Don't expect them to be as frequent when we start at the school and Freeset, I think our time will be far more limited then. But for now, keep praying, keep loving, keep smiling... Keep reading my blog!

Peace out! 

x

Our adventure continues...

We have had 4 whole days 'livin it up' in India. The weather is still crazy hot, but we had an outburst of rain today which cooled things down a little. When I say cooled down I mean its gone down from 30-35 degrees to 28-30 degrees. So 'cool' wouldn't exactly be the right word. 

Kolkata is still crazy, you can't walk anywhere without fearing for your life, and the 1 o'clock one way system change of direction is a little awkward when you get stuck in the middle of it!! 

In the past few days we have:

• Been exploring until our feet go black

• Been shopping
• Eaten lots of curry
• Seen the sights - good and bad!

• Skyped
• Studied the bible as a team
• Dodged cars

• Taken several modes of transport (including an auto rickshaw!)
• Tried out the local supermarket
• Laughed
• Prayed
• Sung
• Slept
• Drank fresh coconut milk 

Coconut man.

 Naomi.

 Josh.

Ellen.

Anu

• Visited Little Sisters of the Poor, home for the elderly
• Even washed each others feet!!

Naomi washing my feet.

Me washing Naomi's feet.

Tomorrow we are visiting the Victoria Memorial park, and then going for a picnic with Anu. We are also going to pick up our Salwar Kameez's!!! Very excited about that, photos will be posted in due course. And on Sunday we will be attending our very first church service, Indian style!

We pretty much know how the weeks are going to pan out now:

Monday am- GNCEM School

Tuesday am- GNCEM School

Wednesday all day - Freeset 

Thursday am- GNCEM School

Friday am- GNCEM School

Friday pm- Little Sisters of the Poor

Saturday- FREE

Sunday am- Church

We will also be volunteering at Entally Girls 2 evenings a week so that takes up a bit more time. We will also volunteer with some Mother Teresa charities, and we are planning on getting involved with other various charities whilst we are here, to fully make the most of the time we have.

And here's a few more photos for you to enjoy :)

A grubby building made beautiful with colour.

The heartbreaking poverty

Josh in the front of a Taxi

Josh playing catch in the garden.

Ellen playing catch in the garden.

Naomi reading in the garden.

I think that's about it for now. Still missing home but still enjoying my time here. I'm looking forward to Monday when everything picks up and we get to start working :)  Then I'll have more to tell/show you all. In the mean time, keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue on our journey.  

Lots of love :)

H x

We made it!

Josh, Ellen and Naomi on the plane.

After a long flight on Monday through to Tuesday, we arrived in Kolkata. We weren't just welcomed by Anu (the in country supervisor) but also but extraordinary heat (25-30degrees and very high humidity) and horns honking all over the place.

Me outside the guesthouse.

Its a beautiful city, so colourful and vibrant. But busy and run down. Its such an exciting city, and it never sleeps.

I am missing home, missing Chris, missing my family, but that was bound to happen in the first few weeks. Hopefully it will get easier as the weeks go on. Ive stuck photos and letters and stuff up on the wall to try and make it seem more homely :)

My wall and the gorgeous cushion cover Mum made me.

We went shopping today to buy a salwar kameez (If you don't know what this is then google it).  They are beautiful. They're being tailor made though so we won't get them until Saturday. Something to look forward to!
We don't start properly working until Monday, so we have this week to get used to everything and settle in. I defiantly think thats needed as no one has quite adjusted to the time difference.

I bet you're eager to hear about the food.... Its pretty much curry... Surprised? Didn't think so! 
And in case you're wondering, yes we have a toilet that flushes (ish) and a shower WITH hot water- not that you want that mind.
The bathroom is also infested with ants- but you have endless joy drowning them as they head for you in the shower. 


I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead, and for the ball to properly start rolling so we can get stuck in. I'm sure in time India will feel more and more like home. 


Heres a few photos from my time so far, enjoy! 


Thats all.

Down the street through a market.

The craziest way to hang fruit ever- can't say I've ever seen it done like this before!!

A pretty sweet car... And a man staring at me... Do you think he knew?

One of the thousands of taxis. 

Just a tiny tiny portion of the litter and waste on the streets.

Naomi in the front of an auto rickshaw - This was fun :) 

'I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...' (except I do.)

What a tiring week back home!! 'Twas a bit silly thinking I could chill for a week! Oh well. I think I've finally got everything I need- though you can never be totally prepared. Just gotta go and hope I haven't forgotten anything vital!! (You'll be happy to know I have defiantly packed pjs).


So today is my final full day in England. Its been one hell of an emotional roller coaster!! Saying good bye to Chris was so much harder than I thought it would be. I literally didn't want to let go. Gonna miss him a crazy amount, but knowing he loves me and will be here waiting for me on my return is whats keeping me going.  Also had to say good bye to Daddy, its gonna be weird, I've never been this far from home for this amount of time before! Let alone to a different country!! But he has been amazing and supportive throughout everything, good old Dads!
Got to face saying bye to Mummy and Rosie tomorrow. Thats gonna be hard. What am I gonna do without my mummy to look after me?! She's been my rock all my life and will continue to be, no matter how far away we are from each other. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DArtWpCU-IE


In other news, it may take me mum AND Rosie to close my case tomorrow!! And there was me saying I won't pack much. Then again, its half toiletries and medicines!! No doubt at some point I'll have a blog titled 'Curry hates me' , or something related to the after effects of a person not used to spicy food and/or anything Indian. 


I must be mental to still be awake, putting the final bits and pieces in my case and writing this and its almost mid-night!! 5am start tomorrow is not gonna be pretty!! I should probably go to bed, but I doubt much sleeping will get done, I woke up nervous this morning so I dread to think what tomorrow morning will be like! 


Annnyyywaaayyy, please pray for me and my team tomorrow as we head off on our adventure- You've all been amazing so far, thank you so much for all your support,


Remember.... Its not good bye, its see you later .. SO...


See you later!! x

Christmas come early! ... (And other stuff I haven't yet written about but feel like I should.)

A few nights before leaving IMC we all decided it would be a laugh to go out on a sober pub crawl around Selly Oak. It was a hilarious nights with dares including proposing, drinking through a sock, and wearing your clothes backwards. As well as me falling over mid-dance and Jess laughing so hard snot flew out her nose... Lush.

Almost everyone just before heading out.

On the last day at IMC the mission trainees and the staff there threw a surprise traditional English Christmas party for all the action teamers as we won't be here for a real Christmas. It was really lovely to celebrate it with everyone. We had a proper Christmas meal with all the trimmings, opened a present each (with a bit of a twist but I ended up with the tiger torch I wanted!) and played plenty of hilarious games. We then watched a film and had popcorn etc, and decided that if it could be Christmas in October, it could also be New Year.. So we celebrated that too. It was the perfect end to an amazing month. 

The Eastern Europe team with Santa wearing their mental hats.

Me and Polly at lunch.

Me choosing my present from under the Christmas tree!

Me, Polly and Lizzie enjoying an evening of fun and games!

I don't think there is much more to update you all on, just to say that I had a fantastic month at IMC, the people were fantastic and I'm gonna miss them all an awful lot. 

Thank you again to everyone who has helped in making this journey possible for me. 

ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL INDIA!!!

x

A few photos I've only just been able to get my hands on!

Me and Ellen after swimming for our food at Min-Y-Don.

Ellen, Josh, Me and Naomi sat around the campfire at Min-Y-Don. You can see how cold and exhausted we all are! We were all going a bit mental by this point.

Free hugs on the street with Chris Duffet

Sat in the middle on Birmingham talking to the lady about her life and God 'n' stuff.

The whole gang at the end of the evangelism day :)

And this is Percy. I made him today.

2 weeks today....

I think I can safely say I am over Min-Y-Don, yet there are some mental scars that I don't think will ever fade.  
On the 28th Sept, not only did we start a 2 day e-ban (no phones or computers) but we also met with Chris Duffet (Crazy evangelist... Google him.) and went out onto the streets of Birmingham, armed with 'FREE HUGS' signs and a tray. He set us 3 challenges:

1. Hold up the free hugs signs and talk to people if they ask why we are doing it (tell them about the love of Jesus) 
2. Spend £3 on something that we can hand out to people on the street (on the tray)
3. Place a £2 bet on something.

So we anxiously headed out on to the streets and held up our free hugs signs, getting more and more confident as people realised we weren't mental, we just wanted hugs. Then one lady came up to us and told us that a hug is just what she needed and then continued to tell us all about her life, and how its been so hard and shes never had anything positive happen to her and no one to listen to her etc (She has been through some seriously difficult stuff). Me and Naomi sat with her for over an hour. It was hard knowing what to say to her, but I think all she needed was a shoulder to cry on and people to talk to who wouldn't judge her. So we sat on the floor, in the centre of Birmingham, in the middle of the day, and prayed with a total stranger. It was pretty amazing.  

Other things I have done in the past week or so arrre:

-Visit a Sikh Gurdwara.

-Met a past action teamer who went to Kolkata 2 years ago. This was great as we found out a lot more about what we will be doing and we got to ask questions about how everything works etc.

-Spent a lot of time in the garden in the AMAZING sunshine.

Jess, Alice, Polly and Me.

-30th we went back to our training churches and spent 4 days there, helping out with boys and girls brigade, Met with another past action teamer from last year which again was really useful, prepared, served, ate and cleared up harvest supper at the church, did the "all age" slot at the beginning of the church service on Sunday, helped with the kids groups, had an amazing BBQ, attended the evening service at church and got interviewed, helped out at food bank aaaand delivered flowers to old people. It was a lovely few days and the couple who took me in for the few nights were so warm and welcoming, 5*! 

So... Its 2 weeks today that we leave for India. If you asked me how I felt I would reply with:

-Nervous

-Happy

-Excited

-Worried

-Anxious

-Sad

-Eager

-Scared

-Hopeful

...The list goes on. I think its just gonna be... Different. But an adventure none the less.