Happy New Year!
We rang in 2010 with our church congregation. The evening consisted of a typical service, followed by a surprisingly upbeat party involving fire crackers, the Cha-Cha-Slide, and some hysterical children dancing on a temporary stage. On January 1 we boarded a plane for Delhi for a couple days of playing tourist before our month of school visits in the North. The flight was uneventful. We disembarked from the plane onto the tarmac, par for the course in India, and proceeded to board an airline bus designed to take us to the terminal. When the bus finally pulled away full from the plane it drove precisely 100 metres before parking in front of the terminal entrance. Useless! Just as Jon and I were beginning to discuss the ridiculousness of this journey...Jon spotted the Dalai Lama out the window, boarding his own plane! He had a little entourage and was waving as he climbed the steps. So, the IndiGo bus was worth it!
Before all this, the first thing we noticed about Delhi was how unbelievably COLD it is here! It seems Delhi has been cursed with all the awful weather in India: oppressive heat coming from the nearby Rajasthani deserts in summer, and then bitter Himalayan cold in the winter. The freezing temperature has had many consequences already, some comical and some tragic:
- Jon and I spent the better part of our time in Delhi shopping for warm clothes. Between us we acquired three long-sleeved shirts, a wool sweater, a wool shawl, a toque, a scarf, and gloves. We are now barely equipped to endure the next month.
- The cold brought with it a dense fog which led to dozens of planes and trains being cancelled, rescheduled, or delayed by hours. There was also a serious train collision. With the timetables in utter disarray, we were rather fortunate to board our train, punctually, from Delhi to Lucknow, where we are currently staying.
- Sadly, we learned this morning that 60 people died in Lucknow yesterday due to the cold. These were people who lived on the street, who had relocated their families to the city from their villages in hopes of a better life. We only hope they have found it now.
- The government of Uttar Pradesh has closed all the schools in the state until at least January 11 due to the bitter weather. This includes all the DFN schools.
Despite all this, we are sticking to our original schedule and heading out on another, painfully early train tomorrow morning. We will be visiting a relatively nearby school, where 83 students are sponsored by Canadians, for three days. Although we will not get to see the students in their classes, we will use the time to speak with the manager and visit many of the surrounding villages. We are very excited about the opportunity to see the students in their everyday lives and hope that these days will be rich in an unexpected way.
We know many of you are also back to work and school this week, and we wish you the best in that. We hope you think of us as much as we think of you!
Jon & Suzi