Arriving in Delhi was a shock! Coming from the nice and cool temperatures in China we headed over to the scotching heat in India.
WE where surprised and many fell ill in the first few days. After a few days of exploring Delhi, dodging all the cars and cows in the busy streets we climbed in a train with a small fan above your head for 9 hours in the exhausting heat. We arrived in Kota and we were taken straight to the children’s home. We where so surprised by the friendliness and the willingness of the people to help us! We felt so welcome and at home, it was amazing!
The next two and a half weeks where filled with a tiring program, of starting work at five in the morning and working till eleven and then going over and spending time with the kids, resting and preparing for the evening program! At five in the evening we started with a two hour evening program with the kids. They really amazed me so, because on Sundays there would be a four hour program where they sit in the church listening in temperatures average of 38 degrees Celsius inside the church!
They also start at five in the morning, getting together in they’re separate hostels and having devotional time, sinning and praying. We where there during the holiday season, so in the beginning there was only about 300 children, towards the end of our visit the children who had homes started to return.
We also had room times in the evenings where we would go to the rooms of the children and just spend time with them. I was shocked by it. The kids lived in a room, some times 30 kids in one room, but my room, room 17, only had ten boys. They only had 5 beds, one small cupboard and one ceiling fan. The only form of entertainment was a radio they got some where, but it had no plug, so they simply plugged the two exposed wires into the plug.
At meal times the boys where served outside and the girls in a separate dinning hall. It would usually consist of mostly rice and maybe some vegetables if they where lucky. And yet after all of this they still had so much joy! they where ready to take us on in cricket any time (we lost both times unfortunately) they loved us so much and we loved them just as much.
We also had some friendly visitors from South Africa! We met up with the short term outreach team in Delhi and we where swept away by there understanding and love, the kind of love that reminded us so much of home!
After everything we can look back and testify that India is truly incredible, in many ways! It is incredible to be stetched to endure the heat and the small negative things, but it is so much more on the side of what was learned and what we gained from this experience.
WE where all touched forever by these people and it will certainly stay with me forever! I am very grateful to have had the chance to experience this.
Thank you very much for your prayers, it helped allot, especially in the time I was sick!
Blessings!
Janus