Indian culture-Cleaniness

Another major difference in India from home is in the cleanliness . On the outside environment one would find trash, feces, sand, dirt and whatever . There is no such thing as public toilets, trash cans, landfills, and water faucets. Garbage is piled up at road edges and then burned when its gets to be high and in the way. Rats are around and eat the garbage.We fling our garbage over the balcony into a green looking pond. No wonder we have rats and bugs.
People use the bathroom outside wherever they are. Streets, fields, sideways etc. so one has to watch where they walk. They do have Street cleaners and try to clean up somewhat . There is no garbage truck or day here. I noticed at the airport that they had cleaners doing the streets outside the airport .
Now once u get into ur private space the cleaning begins. You have outdoor shoes and indoor shoes. U wash ur shoes and they stay by the door.inside shoes never go out. 

We hand wash clothes and hang the on the roof top. We let the sun and wind do the rest. Now we have clean white clothes. 

We have noticed no matter how small the home it's always clean. They are honored to have u in. Just make sure things u drink hot-like chia tea. 

Indian culture 101

India is a culture that stimulates ones senses in many ways.  The eyes see bright colors in the buildings, fabrics and clothes and in their fresh fruits and veggies. The eyes are also irritated from the smoke and pollution in the air. It is the smell that is hard to deal with. We long for the clean, fresh smell of the US. The ears are always  being stimulated by noise. It can range from the Muslim call to worship which is on one side and the Christian loudspeaker on the other side of us. Once we are out in the city we hear horns on the cars and trucks making way though the traffic , people and animals all in tight spaces. It will be quiet going back to the US.    
Eating here is a sensory experience. The dishes are colorful and flavorful. The basics are rice, beans and lentils. Onions and garlic is added them spices and veggies. One can use everything or very little. We use tomatoes, sweet and white potatoes, eggplant, carrots, green beans and whatever we find in the market. Spices we use can be curry leaves, black pepper, black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chilies, turmeric, cinnamon.
We can get sliced , dry white bread as well as local bread. Rosti is like a tortilla but more flavor and nor is like a flat pita. We have loved Rosti because we can have our version of burritos.
Animal protein available is only chicken, eggs and yogurt. One goes to the chicken place and watch them kill the chicken, takes the skin and feathers off and hands u the bird. Warm and fresh! We cook them in a pressure cooker and uses the broth for stews and chicken for stews and burritos. There is very little beef and park available. The cow is sacred and the water buffalo is used for milk. It maybe available in large cities but not here. 

Lesson- we bought canned chicken from Costco here. But they don't have can openers because they don't use that form of food preservation. It's a good thing we have veterans on this team. They can get them open. Funny but difference in culture! 

I will address shopping in another time.

Food pre p takes a long time. It's fresh but lots of work. Chopping, cleaning, simmering,sautéing and making sure it's safe to eat. It's time to go and make chicken and dumplings.

India

We arrived with out problems . Our flight was fine without any problems . The issues are the same as in the states. Crowded, small seats, hot or cold temps, and rude people. In Holland we saw snow and had to have the airplane deiced . We arrived in Delhi on time and it's was 115 am.  Where did our weekend go? It was already Sunday.
Our trip to hotel ( only) 5 min cab ride took 2 hours. It took forever to get bags and a cab.
Arrived at the hotel at 430 am and we were exhausted and in bed by 5 . We forced ourselves up to a shower and lunch at 3 .
We made our way to the airport at 8 Pm to meet the team.  They were 2 hours late so we had the experience if people watch! Fun and interesting. We were excited to see them and off to the hotel we went. Bed came soon after.
After a brunch , we headed to the airport to go to Chirala. We loved our Air India flights- big seats, good food and great service. Andy and Elaine meet us and off we went with baggage on the roof of two vans and 14 of us stuffed in two vans. What a sight to see! We stopped at a KFC for supper which took forever!
We arrived at our house at 11Pm. A bunch of exhausted people. We got settled and off to bed. 

Here we go again!

Friday, January 13,2017

Off we go on a new adventure! India here we come. It's our plans to build an Aquaponics system for an orphanage.  But then God may have different plans or alter them. It will be an challenging trip from the cultural standpoint.  Our trust is in our Lord.
Please prayer for us:
Safe travels
Good health
Safety as we move around the country
Team unity

I will work hard to keep the blog up to date.
Thanks for all ur love and support.
The Kramers

Harbu visit- the site of burned church

Thursday, August 27

Our travels today took us to the village of Harbu which is a few miles up the road from the Yerer Preaching center and the market place. Today was market day so it was full of food, animals and people. They were butchering meat by the roadside waiting for people to buy the cut they wanted. What they were butchering? Beef, lamb and goats. 

Again we left the van and took off over the hill and down the valley. It was a 2 mile walk there. We meet with the congregation members for 1 hour. We had a great talk about differences between cultures. The parents only asked us to pray for two things: the church would grow and the kids do well in school. Like all parents they wanted their children to be successful and have it better than they have it. 

Many of the single families are sponsored by HMCHA. 

This church and community experiences daily opposition from the witch doctor and the Copic Christians. The church has a guard that locks the church and sleeps in it at night to protect it. Three years ago the original church was set a fire while a service was going on and everyone escaped. We visited this village on our last visit. 

We prayed for these people and played with the kids. We were told by the social worker/evangelist that these kids have no toys to play with. So we gave them all our toys- balls and flying saucers. 

It was a very satisfying day! 

Holes dug and an airport run

Wednesday, August 26

This morning we headed back to the community center to supervise our hole digging! The holes were dug well and quickly with a pick axe and shovel by 5 Ethiopians.  It was amazing to see them dig in the heavy wet soil.  

While they were digging, we played with the kids.  All of them loved the balls and running. The area is large enough to so we can divide up into sections so all can play. At times we had to break up a fight over something. Then we broke out the crayons and paper. It was surprising how they sat on the grass and colored for 30 minutes. There was some excellent drawers. Each child was so proud of their masterpiece and wanted their pic taken.  They love it when you take a pic of them and they want to see it. 

At noon we left the site and headed to Addis.  We had couple of stops to make- a Christian bible bookstore for Bibles and a coffee run. We had an excellent dinner at a sports bar and then left a team member at the airport to return to the USA. We will miss Micah! 

Visiting Dire

Tuesday, August 25

We started out for our journey to Dire . Dire is on the northwest corner of Addis in the Turkish Industrial park. But to avoid traffic of the big city we took the "back roads there. Because everyone has the right-a-away to the roads traveling is challenging to say the least! The roads are full of cows, horses, goats, sheep and donkeys. So one is always honking the horns, weaving in the road and trying to avoid the bumps in the roads. At times it is like a three ring circus trying to drive. The animals graze the sides of the roads so they are always see something looks greener on the other side! It takes time to drive here.

Once we got to Dire, we visited some sponsored children and their parent. We had another coffee ceremony and they popped popcorn for us. They added a little sugar to it went it was hot. It tasted great! We were blessed by our visit with the families. We were able to see how valuable a sponsorship is to a family. 

It was a long day- we spend 11 hours in the van or with the families.