A whirlwind of a month...

This past month has been full of many good times, but has been challenging... as expected. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again….life here is always an adventure.

Last month I met up with Mallory Dalton(who is currently in Abu Dhabi) in Thailand for my visa run. We had an insane amount of fun. It was such a blessing to reunite with my best friend all the way across the world. We spent about 4 days on the island of Koh Chang. Koh Chang is absolutely unreal. There may be a more beautiful place in the world, but I’m not sure what that place would be. Koh Chang had beach, mountains, and jungle. It was AMAZING. One day we got to ride elephants in the jungle, then go swimming with them. It kind of feels like a dream now. Here are some pictures from the trip! It was raining during the trek with the elephants, so I didn’t get pictures. Sad day.

Love.

At the beginning of March, my parents came to visit, which was so much fun. Watching them become familiar with this culture was so fun for me...especially their first auto rickshaw ride. An auto rickshaw is a bit like Mario Cart. It was very special having them here to meet all my friends and just see life. This was also the first time that I have had the opportunity to do all the touristy things that this city has to offer…which isn’t very much. The most amusing touristy thing we did was visit the museum/national art gallery down the street from my apartment. I think what happened with this museum was someone thought to themselves "hmmm, we are city of 10,000,000-14,000,000 (no one really knows the number), we should probably have a museum like every other big city in the world, but what would be put in it?" Let me tell you what they put it in it...Barbie Dolls. To be fair, this was the children's portion of the museum, but Barbies? Come on. The entire first floor of the museum had windows dedicated to different countries and the Barbie Dolls were dressed in appropriate attire for each country. It was weird...but I loved it. The highlight of the trip for me had to have been the weekend at Ideal Beach. It was just nice to relax on the beach and have an escape from the heat. 

Sorry Dave, another family picture without you :-)

St. Thomas Mount overlooking the city! Apparently, the apostle Thomas died here.

John Wesley visiting Mahabalipuram

The most random thing we did was probably visiting the crocodile bank. There were hundreds upon hundreds of crocodiles. Don't worry, I bought a t-shirt.

And they had big scary snakes. I hate them...I see enough of them in the village.

I love when my worlds collide. Some of my favorite people in the world. It was absolutely priceless having my parents meet all these people that I love so much.

I am sad to say that my roommate Kyleigh is leaving me on Sunday to go back to the states. I hate that that's going to happen. We have been doing as many fun things as possible before she leaves,  so the weekend after my parents left we headed to Mumbai. Mumbai is amazing. I forgot to take pictures, except for one night. Unfortunately, the only picture I took was of a couple of ginormous pigs eating out of a dumpster. I was thoroughly amused, but I have a feeling the general population won't laugh as hard, therefore I won't take the time to post it. 

This past week we had Freedom Training with 58 of our clients who have been rescued this year. I don't even know how to convey this week to you through blogging. It was intense, yet God's grace and goodness was so evident to me throughout this week. We had a pretty rough group of kids. They took part of my heart by the end of the week, but they have been through way too many tough situations for their young age. Their were a few younger girls that I connected with and I was shocked by how hardened they were for being 8-10 years old. I guess I shouldn't be shocked just based on the fact that they have been raised in slavery, but they are children! These girls didn't have that childlike innocence or playfulness that so many children have and this completely tore at my heart. It's funny though, because just when I thought they are hardened to most things in life, one of the young girls cried throughout the entirety of Finding Nemo, because she was so sad that Nemo couldn't find his dad. Precious. She still does have a childlike heart! I have to be vague due to confidentiality, but God's favor has been overwhelmingly evident with this group. There were some serious disclosures and healing that went on last week and I am absolutely humbled to have witnessed it. Have I mentioned that I still can't believe God is letting me work for IJM? Bah! He's so good! The highlight of last week (besides being overwhelmed by God's goodness) was the dance party that Alex, Neesha (the other Aftercare Fellows) and I had with all the kids. We did not have air conditioning and it's been in the mid 90's, but we danced our faces off. I just love thinking about the fact that they had been in slavery a month before and here we were we were laughing and dancing like crazy in a sauna-like room. SO FUN! I have some pretty awesome dance moves to show off when i get home.

I will end the blog with a few things I don't understand about this country:

1.) Isn't there a better way to save power than to have 2 hour power outages every single day in the middle of the afternoon? And then once a month we have the opportunity to go 8 hours without power? I'm not exactly complaining, but am more baffled that so many big cities DON'T have to have these planned power outages.

2.) How is it possible that I have been chased by a rabid pack of dogs on two different occasions and been able to escape? The oddest thing about it is there are people sleeping on the sidewalk and they don't mess with them. I think they see my white skin from afar. Not fair. 

3.) How are their cockroaches the size of small dogs and rats the size of small children? Seriously, I don't get it. I'm almost to the point where I don't freak out when I see these creatures, because it's completely bizarre that these beasts can become so unnaturally large.

Thank you so much for following me on this journey. I love you all. If there is anything specific you would like to see me blog about, let me know and I will see what I can do :-).

Officially Adjusted...I think.

Warning: My thoughts are all over the place. Please do not judge my lack of fluidity throughout this post.

The past few weeks have been quite eventful/busy, but they have proven to me that I’m no longer affected by the strangeness of this country. Life is no longer eventful because of the random things I encounter each day like seeing cows scratching the insides of their noses with someone’s bike handlebar (that totally happened), but because like is genuinely busy. All the strange/random things have become normal. Now that’s strange. Multiple things have happened in the past few weeks that have led me to believe that I am adjusted to South Asia.

1.)   A big group of us went to a wedding last weekend way down south and we were taking a sleeper bus to get there. A week before the wedding I realized that my bus tickets still hadn’t been delivered to me. Naturally, I called the bus company and asked what was up. This is how the conversation went:

Rachel: “Hello sir, I ordered bus tickets about 3 weeks ago and they still haven’t been delivered.” I give him my name, ticket number, blah, blah blah.

Bus man: “Oh, I’m sorry madam, we cancelled those tickets.”

Rachel: “Oh, you did? That’s interesting. Well, do you think you could rebook those tickets?”

Bus man: “That’s not possible madam, that bus is sold out.”

Rachel: “Oh ok. Well is there another bus that we could take?”

Bus man: “Yes, madam, we have a non A/C bus (not sleeper).”

Rachel: “Oh, that’s great! We will take those”

     I’m sorry if this was a bore to you, but this says a lot about how my mindset had changed. If this had happened in the states, I would’ve been like “excuse me? I’m suing or why the beepity beep did you cancel them?” Not really, but I would not have been pleased. In this situation I was like “well of course they are cancelled”, because that’s how things tend to go. It’s truly hilarious. We ended up getting on the sleeper bus WITH A/C WITH our friends and we got to visit this beautiful town! It was heavenly.

Sleeper bus! Loved it.

A beautiful town in the clouds.

I was very happy.

We had a picnic in the forest...those sticks were used for protection against the monkeys. I kid you not. You would've been proud of me mom.

2.)   The second way I knew I had adjusted to South Asia was because of a trip we took down to Pondicherry two weeks ago. Our bus ticket CLEARLY stated that we were to arrive at Central Station at 4:30 pm to depart from the station. Therefore, we arrived at 4:15 ready to go. We walk up to the counter and say “we are on the 4:30 bus to Pondicherry.” The response we received was “Sorry madam, this bus doesn’t stop at Central station today.” Our response to that was “well our bus ticket states that it does stop here at 4:30.” The man then responds “well it doesn’t, it leaves from Koyambedu at 5:30.” Koyambedu is an hour away. We just LAUGHED and got in an auto to Koyambedu. Thankfully, we somehow made it on time and enjoyed the rest of our trip. In America this would have been stressful and stupid. I would’ve been like “well, why the beep did you put Central Station on the ticket if the bus doesn’t even come here?” I wouldn’t have said beep, it just makes it more dramatic. Seriously though, in South Asia, I just expect things to not be the way they seem. Of course the bus doesn’t come to Central Station even though that’s what the tickets says. Ok, ok, I’m rambling. 

      The moral of these stories is that I’m no longer affected by the unexpected. I’m sure something could surprise me, but I’ll wait to blog about that when it happens. Oh wait, I didn’t expect this.

As you can tell by the look on my face, this was a surprise.

     I have had the opportunity to do many cool things with work over the past few weeks. I got to visit a few clients in the village a few weeks ago and it was a blast! The villages are just fun places to go, because they are like nowhere else I have ever been. You drive down the road and every 5 minutes you are dodging some kind of peculiar animal. That day we dodged cows, water buffalo, more cows, dogs, more cows, snakes (really big ones that give me nightmares), goats, and sheep. The Tulsa Zoo will not bring me as much joy as it used to…. because right now I live in a zoo.

 This day was wonderful, because I got to just love on the kids in the village. These were the kids from the rescue we had on Thanksgiving, so I knew most of them already. They took me on a walk around the village, then they took me to their school. Bad mistake. One of the kids ran ahead and told all the hundred kids at the school that white girl was headed there. When I arrived at the school, the entire student body was waiting for me at the gate. I could not stop blushing. I was receiving way more attention than I needed and did not know how to properly respond. Some people would say that’s not so bad. Let me tell you why it IS bad. The village doesn’t have bathrooms….or outhouses. I was watched the whole day we were in the village and the only option to go to the bathroom was in a field. I kid you not. My aftercare manager was like “Rachel, I can just ask one of the labourers to take you to the field.” I laughed…then waited for 5 hours. I refuse to be watched by a crowd in the field.

This was a rewarding and challenging day. So many of our clients are in an unbelievable amount of pain and have no hope to cope with that pain. Jesus is the only one who can heal the type of pain that they are in. The Lord has really been showing me the jealousy he has for the hearts of the Hindu people. He wants them so bad! He wants to be their Counselor and Comforter, yet they are not ready to accept him. I have regularly been praying for their healing and for their hearts. 

This past week was exciting for two reasons:

1.)           Our aftercare department held a Special Grievance Day for a few hundred of our clients. Most of our clients are illiterate so they are unable to fill out any applications for government benefits. This was a day where they could come and apply for 6 different government benefits and we had volunteers from a local church/our aftercare department fill out the forms for them. Our clients were so happy! It was such a joy to see them excited to have an opportunity to apply for ration card s and land to build houses on. This day could potentially change their lives. It was huge!

2.)           On Friday, we rescued 42 people from a rock quarry and 30 release certificates were issued. God is so good!

The next month is full of exciting events! Next week I’m headed to Thailand to meet Mallory Dalton for my Visa Run!!!!! I could not be more excited. Then my parents come in less than a month! Ahhh! Also, VERY EXCITED. Then in the middle of these activities we will be having a Freedom Training for these newly released people. You all are now officially updated on my life J.

I hope each of you are doing incredibly well. Thank you for following me on this life adventure!

Times of Refreshment

Let me begin by telling you that I have not been sick in almost two weeks! How much higher is my quality of life you ask? MUCH higher. I also just came back from a pretty great holiday season that was both restoring and rejuvenating.

Last month was downright exhausting. We had two trainings, one Freedom Training with the 50 we rescued on Thanksgiving and one Leadership Training with a group of 30 that have just finished our two year Aftercare Program. These trainings are so encouraging to see, because I get to see how IJM's work is truly changing lives. I am constantly thanking God for allowing me to do this work that has been a dream for so long...I can't believe HE is allowing me to do it! Leadership Training was awesome because I got to see all the differences between people just entering the program (Freedom Training) and people who are just coming out of the program. The people at Leadership Training were a blast. They are the clients who have been elected within their villages to be the "leaders" and the points of contact for IJM within their villages. It was such a blessing to see the confidence, independence, and better physical health that these clients had after at least two years of freedom. Our Aftercare program is working! The week after Leadership Training, we had Freedom Training, which I have written about before. Freedom Training is the program we put on for our clients within 30 days of their rescue. They learn about their rights as a human being, how to not get rebonded, and many other important skills. This Freedom Training was a blast. We were all still exhausted from the previous week of training, but this group was energized and excited about their 3 week old freedom. This is a group that had been in bonded labour their whole lives, as their parents had and as their grandparents had. This was generational bonded labour. I also liked this group because they found me very entertaining. I've been learning some Tamil, which they loved. I can't imagine why. Apparently I have an accent when I speak or something like that....All this goes to say that I love my job. I love seeing the results of my co-workers hard work and I love seeing people come to freedom and start dreaming of a future. It. Is. Beautiful.
This past month was emotionally exhausting as well. Missing Christmas and Thanksgiving was just rough. I tried to invent some Christmas cheer, but it was a difficult task. It got to the point where I would search for places that I had heard had Christmas decorations. Thankfully, a week before Christmas, the mall met my needs.

Pretty incredible, right? I was very pleased.

Yes, we did ride the train.

A few days after the hunt for Christmas Spirit, I set off to Sri Lanka. I have nothing, but positive feelings for this little country. Sri Lanka offered me endless Christmas cheer (decorations everywhere and they are even a Buddhsit country!!!!), hours on beach, elephants, some of the kindest people around and a time of restoration...not to mention I was surrounded by some pretty stellar people. It was an awesome Christmas vacation. If I couldn't be at home, I might as well be in Sri Lanka.

After Sri Lanka I went back to the office for a few days, then headed off to Goa. Another very fun trip where I had my first opportunity to stay in slum-like conditions. Yes, in Goa, India. We made reservations for this little beach hut, but they happened to give that beach hut away before we got there. Therefore, we stayed in the ghetto. The beach hut we had the opportunity to sleep in was actually tilted. If you have ever been to Grandfathers house at Silver Dollar City, you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a place where you almost fall off the toilet because the tilt is so severe. The walls didn't completely meet in the corners, there were cockroaches, and you could always see the great outdoors through the cracks in the wall, roof, and floor. We were quite upset by this in the beginning, but waking up in this place the following morning, we could only laugh at our misfortune. 

This picture doesn't really do it justice. It's all I have though.

I can't complain too much, because our little hut the rest of the week was perfect. Also, when you have a view like this, you just aren't allowed to complain. AND I got to kayak on that beautiful water. Yes, I'm bragging. When you are surrounded by trash and dead creatures everyday, you appreciate God's creation a bit more.

These trips were so good for my soul. It was great to just be in fellowship and community with so many wonderful people. I think community is my love language. :-)

I would like to close this blog with the Top 10 things you would not see in Oklahoma, but that have become a regular sight for me to see here in South Asia.



1.) Not only is liquor looked down upon, but it is said to "ruin country, family and life."

2.) Emu happens to be the heart healthy meat. I never knew! I wonder where I could find some emu meat in Tulsa?



3.) I may or may not have been in the entertainment section of the Newspaper. That would definitely not happen in Oklahoma.



4.) This is a man on a bicycle carrying a very large load of popcorn



5.) A family ride on the motorcycle. You can see this sight everyday during rush hour.



6.) Oxen with blue painted horns. Why not?  



7.) I got to pet elephants...and feed them bottles!

8.) Cows roam freely around the city...and spoon on the sidewalks.



9.) It is not strange to see people biking carts of chickens around.



10.) This is an elephant riding in the back of a truck down a main road.

I hope this top 10 list gives you better insight into my life in South Asia...peculiar and entertaining.



The Holidays

Hello everybody! I'm really sorry I have been better about my blog recently, but I finally have some free time to write one! I'm currently listening to Amy Grant Christmas Hits to inspire this blog. If things get weird, now you know why.

The past few weeks have been very busy and very strange. Strange in the sense that I am missing all the Christmas cheer back in the states and that I spent my first Thanksgiving away from my family. I hadn't really been too homesick until the week of Thanksgiving, but my fellow interns at IJM and I tried to make the best of it and celebrated two nights in a row. It is nearly impossible to find a turkey here...believe me we searched, so we had to settle with chicken, which was excellent.

My Thanksgiving Eve plate consisting of chicken, fried okra, mac'n'cheese, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. I have to thank multiple mothers for sending interns Thanksgiving food in the mail.

The special things about cooking here is that most kitchens only have two burners....and NO ovens. This makes for an entertaining experience. For Thanksgiving dinner we went over to another interns house who happens to have a toaster oven (this is a big deal). Her toaster oven gets so hot that you can cook things on top of it. Allow me to show you.

                                                 

I know you are probably thinking that this had have been impossible. I'm here to tell you that you are wrong. Cooking things on top of a toaster oven does take a bit longer, but it works! 

The Thanksgiving Eve Crew

The most memorable experience of Thanksgiving this year was that our office was able to rescue 47 individuals from bonded labour! The neat thing about this rescue was that we were only expecting to rescue about 20 people, but people from the neighboring rice mill started jumping the fence to be rescued. God is so good! I don't know if I have ever been so thankful for his faithfulness as I was this Thanksgiving. If you would like to read more...here is the short article. We spent the evening of Thanksgiving at Sparky's (the American Diner) for a Thanksgiving buffet. They somehow managed to find turkey...I was shocked. I have to admit, I was ready for Thanksgiving to end, because A.) I found a Christmas store that had some fun decorations B.) My Aunt Kelly added to my collection by sending me a box of Christmas decorations and I was VERY ready to decorate. Therefore, Thanksgiving night, I coerced my roommates into turning up the Amy Grant Christmas hits and decorating our cute little apartment. Here is the finished product. 

Our cute little tree.

I have some talented roommates.

THe flash washes out the best decoration of all....look below.

Why yes, that is a light up santa with his reindeers.

That is all for now. I will try to update again next week with the deeper things happening in life. Please continue to pray for my health. It seems as though I have bronchitis. My immune system is just not fighting the way it does in the states. I hope each of you are enjoying the Christmas cheer for me!

Heartache and Laughter

Disclaimer: This could be lengthy.

I do not even know where to begin this blog. I have been trying to write it for a few weeks now, but there is so much to say and so much that I am processing that it is quite difficult to write a blog. The past few weeks have been full of wild situations, times of heartache for our messed up world, and circumstances that display God’s faithfulness in a way that I can’t praise him enough.

Let me start with a weird story. Many weird things happen to me in South India, enough so that I will probably have enough material to write a book at the end of my time here…so if you are ever feeling down in the dumps and need a story to make you smile, please e-mail me, Skype me, etc. The second most recent weird thing to happen occurred last night (I say second, because a giant bird pooped on me on my way to this coffee shop. I won’t tell you why it was weird, because I will start gagging again). We had a few people over for a Spaghetti dinner last night and then we taught our friend, Ravi, how to make no bake cookies. Since it's Monsoon season, it rains A LOT, which is good and bad. Good, because it cools off outside. Bad, because it makes it difficult to go places due to flooding and getting really wet. Last night it was raining and felt very nice outside, so we thought it was a good idea to open our balcony door. This is rare for us, because it’s usually really hot, so we didn’t know that we actually have a bat problem at our apartment complex. As Kyleigh and I are cooking in the kitchen, we hear our friend Stephen say, “uh oh, a bird just flew in.” Little did he know, THIS WAS A BAT READY TO SUCK OUR BLOOD. My fellow roommates and I immediately start screaming (I have a cold, so the sound coming out of my mouth was quite humorous) and we immediately hit the floor. The bat was darting around ready for an attack. This went on for about 10-15 minutes. Here is a 30 second clip, so you can better understand what we went through last night.

Enough with the weird, I have some good stuff to tell you about. This past week was my first Freedom Training with our Bonded Laborers. Freedom Training consisted of 37 of our clients whom have been rescued over the past few months. Throughout Freedom Training our adult clients are taught many valuable life lessons. For example, they are taught how to save money, the importance of stopping domestic violence within their relationships, how to avoid being enslaved again, and countless other life skills.

The job of all the Aftercare Fellows during Freedom Training was to assist with the children’s program. This was emotionally and physically exhausting, but so rewarding. My heart overflowed with love for these kids. God was very gracious to me. He filled my heart with so much love for these kids that I couldn’t help but hug them and constantly pray over their futures. I couldn’t look at the precious faces of these beautiful children without being reminded of Isaiah 61 and how faithful our God is.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”

This scripture became so real to me this past week. I kept looking at these villagers, fresh out of slavery, thinking “You were held in slavery just a month ago, and now you are free! You are rescued children of God with a future that you can choose!” I can’t even begin to grasp this concept. I can’t imagine the feelings and fears of these unforgettable laborers, as they are free for the first time in, for some, years. My heart physically ached for them as I heard countless stories of abuse and what life was like for these children that I was growing so fond of. They didn’t even have shoes. Many don’t have houses. Some don’t even have parents. BUT they now have their freedom. They can dream of a future, knowing that it won’t consist of being stuck in a rice mill working 14 hour days. This was such a moving week for me and I wish I could put into words exactly what God was doing on my heart, but I experienced too many emotions to begin to explain them. What I find peace in is that God is good and He desires the hearts of those children and their parents. I couldn’t ask for more then that.

If I told you all that went on during Freedom Training (which I truly desire), I would be writing a novel. No one really wants that. I would be telling you details that range from visiting pigs with the kids to my roommate getting peed on 3 different times by the same baby to attempting to entertain the restless children with my “Tamil” dancing skills. I’ll spare you the details.

The biggest revelation that I have had over the past few weeks is my desperate need for Jesus. When everything in my life seems unstable and crazy, Jesus is my constant stability. Even when things are really good, He is still my constant! As I become more and more aware of the darkness that can surround me in South Asia, I am so thankful to know a God that is so much bigger and brighter than the darkness.

Look at the cute little monkey.

As I said before, there have been many reasons to celebrate this past week. The first reason being that our office had 4 convictions this week! This is huge. These were the first convictions of the year as they are very difficult to get. This has been so encouraging for our office, and could potentially affect how judges judge perpetrators of bonded labor. This was such a beautiful announcement to witness. I had coworkers who were dancing throughout the office in celebration, people singing, “You are the God of this city, you are the King of these people,” and many tears. Here is the article if you would like to hear more about what went down. The second reason to celebrate is that one of our former clients won the election in his village! This is another enormous accomplishment that has been in the newspapers throughout our state. Former slave turned leader of village. Seriously, isn’t God good?

I will end with a list of things I have learned while being in South Asia.

1.)   Pepsi CAN mold…even after just a few days without refrigeration. In case you were wondering, so can beef jerky. So much for rationing.

2.)   Cows and goats both love eating out of the dumpster. They also can cause major traffic jams.

3.)   Just because it looks exactly like a donut does not make it a donut.

4.)   Grown men DO regularly pee on the side of the road and it IS acceptable, although not appreciated.

5.)   Cars are unnecessary when whole families can ride on a moped together and it be considered safe.