An Overview of the Bangladesh, Thailand and India project
I visited 7-8 states in southern India including Bengal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Mahareshtra in eight months. I was the first in our small group to arrive in Thailand and I ended up being there for a whole month waiting for my traveling companions Johannes and Elisabeth (a German brother and sister) and Elisabeth's small son, Simon to get there. Gunther later joined us in India after we'd already been there a few months.
Between the short time we stayed in Thailand together and the time we spent in India, we also visited Bangladesh for several weeks.
While we were there, we visited and sometimes stayed in Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples, several gurus ashrams, yoga places, Moslem mosques, churches, with Indian families, and I even visited a Jewish temple and families in Cochin. We also stayed at hotels and youth hostels. Our mission as always was to pray, explore, learn, teach and serve and to discover the diversity of religious and spiritual thought and practices as well as the culture in these countries.
The Indian people wear their spirituality as visibly and as proudly as the Indian ladies don their colorful silk Kanchipuram saris or the men wear their homespun lungis or dhotis. The Ramayana and Mahabarashtra (tales of the Hindu gods and their consorts) are seen on television, in books, in the songs, at art museums, and in theatres. Every part of Indian cultural life is spiritual. Mostly, I experienced that the Indian people have a special reverence for God in everything they do.
Travels with Simon
Traveling in India is a challenge. Your every sense is assaulted night and day. Strange smells, weirder sights, noisy Indian music blasting your ear drums in the hot sun (we were there from April to November, part of the monsoon season and in the summertime). Going to the outdoor markets was an experience in Bangladesh and India. People would offer to sell me live chickens and as always the famous chai chai chai (tea) or cawfee cawfee cawfee sounds that become part of the background landscape of the place.
Spicy foods that you don't know the name of that make your mouth burn so much you think that you are going to die until you eat a cool refreshing coconut or a yogurt drink all contribute to the invasion and play havoc with your American or European sensibilities. But to travel with an 18-24 month old child with blonde hair and blue eyes, made it even more interesting.
Everywhere we went in India, Bangladesh and Thailand, Simon caused a sensation. It was like traveling with a celebrity. Crowds of people stormed at us at times, particularly in Bangladesh. They were all eager for the sight of foreigners and usually for our money, I might add. But Simon was an extra added benefit. Most of the people had never seen a child with such hair and eye coloring.
One day however, I had taken Simon out for a walk while Elisabeth napped or meditated. I don't even remember what city we were in. Things like that blur when you travel all the time. It may have been Calcutta but it could have been anywhere. All Indian cities begin to look alike after awhile.
But we were fairly new to India at this time and I didn't have my map or any sense of direction. I was enjoying my walk and walked around pretty far from the hotel and got lost. I had no clue where I was. I started to panic and as I did, Simon started crying as if he was upset too. He had been walking but now he wanted to be picked up and held. He was quite a big boy and heavy. I cuddled him but still he cried until he was really getting on my nerves.
Here I was lost in some city in India and had a crying baby to boot. I cursed Elisabeth as if it were her fault that I was lost. I panicked. And tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, it occurred to me. I could pray instead of panic. What a concept. Here I'd been traveling with this ministry for several years, and it had taken me a few minutes to realize what I should have done immediately. Oh well.... so much for being perfect.
As soon as I started praying, Simon calmed down and stopped crying. A sense of peace ascended over him and me. A man approached me a moment later and asked if I needed help. I'm sure I looked lost but people don't usually do that in India. Thailand yes, India, no. India they try to sell you something or want a handout. This man was nicely dressed and looked trustworthy so I told him my dilemma. He wanted to know where my hotel was. I told him. He instantly got a taxi for us, paid for it, and bid me adieu. Just like that we were safe and sound and back at our hotel.