The reason for the break? I’m off to India for two weeks, in what has become my semi-annual trip oversees to learn something of the world. Jill and I decided if I was going to stay home and be the primary parent while she gets her PhD, I get to say yes to travel opportunities that come my way. Instead of cashing in my spouse chips one at a time, I trade an entire year's worth of being the taxi driver, the dinner maker and the schedule czar for a trip to somewhere exotic.
In 2007 I went to Guatemala to take a 3 week seminary class on Peace and Justice in Latin America. In 2008 I went to Colombia on learning tour and to visit our sister church. Now it’s 2010, and I’m crashing the vacation of two retired couples in my congregation: Cindy and Clark Breeze (Cindy just retired from being our associate pastor) and Thom and Martha Moore. I’m confident that between them, they will keep me out of moral trouble (not that that has been much of a problem in the past).
It's all made possible by Usha Zehr, also at our church and from India. She will be our tour guide for 2 weeks and drag us from one end of the country to the other, starting in Delhi, then Mumbai, then the southern coast, with some kind of camel ride in the desert in between. I'm psyched.
Since this isn't a seminary course or a learning tour, I don't plan to write long blog posts on the cultural, economic and social conditions of India. I'll probably just post embarrasing pictures of my travelling partners to prove to my family that I'm really there and have not yet been kidnapped by religious extremists. Maybe I'll answer a few tech support calls while I'm there, in between bites of authentic chicken tikka masala.
9 comments:
Awesome. If it doesn't blow your mind too much, you can actually eat beef on the southern coast.
Have fun. Be safe. Stay a veggie man.
Oh, and say hello to Shiva for me.
If you see my mother while you are over there, say hello. She's near Munar.
I'll shake Shiva's hand, but won't eat beef. And, actually, I'll be in Kochin at the end of the trip, which looks near Munnar. I have to be honest that I'll probably not make the trip over to say hello, though. What's she doing over there?
She lives over there. Her husband was born in India, and it is much cheaper to retire over there.
She lives somehwere right next to a national park at Paraluva (sp?)falls. I have wanted to go visit for a long time now, but given my economic situation, it isn't going to happen. Maybe once you start paying my health insurance bill...no wait, wrong thread. Scatch that.
"Maybe once you start paying my health insurance bill"
I tried Bob, by advocating for universal health care. You don't want that.
Oh yea, wrong thread :)
I pray God's blessings for you on this trip; for safety, spiritual enrichment, and that you will be a blessing to others while you are there.
safe travels.
You really should have let Robert S. have the last word ;)
Dan just called. He is safely landed and at the hotel. It is 11 1/2 hours later there. (So when it is 11 AM here it is 11:30 at night there.
Jill
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