Only
28 days until we’re home. But
who’s counting?
We are – can’t wait. Hurrah,
hurrah. J
What Have We Been
Up To?
We
arrived “home” (Negombo) safe and sound on Tuesday 26th August
as planned after a busy 3½ weeks in India.
We had an enjoyable time. For
Dorothy it was fairly restful; for Ken it was flat chat.
Our Visas Expire
Our
trip to India was necessary in order for us to be able to renew our SL visas.
We had completed a six-month stint in SL and were not able to stay on
any longer; our visas had expired.
On Holidays – Supposedly
So
off to India and we started with a three day holiday which we extended out to
five days. We took accommodation
on the southern coast and while Dorothy could relax (read, swim and snooze)
Ken had to keep on keeping on as he had to prepare for a number of studies for
the coming two weeks. Ken had
planned to be all prepared before we left from SL but … not so.
Fortunately two of the three sets of studies he delivered were on
topics that he has covered before so there wasn’t as much pressure as
starting from scratch but nonetheless he still had quite a bit of work to do.
So while Dorothy spent 100% of the first five days relaxing Ken had to
put quite a bit of time into reading, thinking, making notes etc.
On
arrival we dumped our bag in our room and headed for the beach.
The beaches on the south-west coastline of India are open to the Indian
Ocean so they get some good swells. However
to describe it as a “swell” for the five days we were there would be the
ultimate understatement. The
never-ending surf was amazing. The
waves were rolling in almost on top of one another.
The smallest wave would have been 1.5m in height and the majority at
least 2 to 2.5m (Phil, Tim and Daniel eat your hearts out).
The
sandy beach area where we were was about 500m long and there were quite a few
people on the sand and some with their ankles in the water but nobody was in
swimming as it was obvious that the conditions were pretty hazardous.
There were a number of signs around warning of strong currents and
prohibiting swimming. The sand
wasn’t as white as it is on most Ozzie beaches and in fact there were large
stretches where it was really dark charcoal grey.
At first we thought it was discoloured by oil etc but we were wrong.
It is its natural colour.
We
went for a walk on the beach past the open sandy area along the base of the
cliff. We had only been walking
for a minute and were approaching a family of five (mum, dad and three kids
with the oldest being about seven); the children were playing near the water
line. Out of the blue a big wave
came in and wet us mid way up our thighs.
It didn’t matter as we had shorts on but of course the splashes went
a long way further up. The
youngest of the children was dragged by the receding water and just managed to
“break free” as her father came rushing across the narrow sandy strip to
grab her. Undeterred but very
watchful we kept strolling along and 30 seconds later (and just after we had
passed the family) an enormous wave came in.
We both ran. Dorothy
managed to scramble up on to a rock which was fairly high and which offered
some safety as she was able to hold onto other rocks.
Ken also took off but didn’t manage to achieve the same altitude as
Dorothy. Dorothy got wet to her
hips and Ken got wet to his ribs with splashes reaching above his shirt pocket
and leaving sand in the pockets of his shorts!
At
that point we decided to terminate our walk and made a dash back to the wide
sandy beach. We were relieved to
see that the family still had five members.
They were very fortunate; we really don’t know how none of the
children were carried out. If
they had been it would have been a nightmare.
The waves were certainly bigger and the under current stronger than
either of us could have tackled. Obviously
the parents would have done their best but unless one of them was an
exceptionally strong swimmer we think there would have been a tragedy in the
making
The Holiday is Over
After
our five-day break and lots on yummy Indian meals we caught the train to
Ernakulam (or Kochi or in the old maps, Cochin). It was about a four-hour trip and we passed through some of
the area known as Kerala’s backwaters.
There is a long narrow strip of land which forms the coastline.
Behind it there is a network of natural (and some man made) inlets and
waterways – sort of like the Lakes Entrance area of Victoria but much, much,
more extensive and of course in a tropical Indian setting.
So it was quite a nice train trip sitting there enjoying the scenery
and watching the people going about their daily lives both in villages and in
the rural areas.
We’ve
decided that we generally prefer Indian meals to SL meals.
There seems to be wider variety of flavours and a better blend of
flavours. That’s not to say
that some of the SL meals we’ve had here aren’t yummy – some have been
wonderful, especially the home cooked ones (not cooked by us but by local
people who have invited us home for a meal).
Our First Weekend Stop and Bible Studies
From
our hotel in Kochi, next morning we were out the door again heading for the
train to travel further north to Angamali (about 45 mins).
There is one Christadelphian family (George and Annie and their 17 year
old daughter Nigee) who live at Angamali and a number of brethren and sisters
who live nearby. They had booked rooms in a lodge at Angamali and we enjoyed a
study weekend with them there. Our
accommodation was quite good. Clean
comfortable rooms with attached bathrooms (western toilet, hand-basin and a
bucket for bathing). Often when
we stay in accommodation like this there is no hot water. Sometimes we don’t need it as it is warm enough to wash in
cold water but on the cooler mornings it is awful not having warm water.
We carry a trusty little immersible heater designed for heating water
in a cup to make a cup of tea. Well
ours gets a pretty good work-out when we travel.
We use it to heat bucket fulls of water, not just a cup full here and
there! We arrived at Angamali on Friday 8th Aug and left
on Tuesday 12th. The
study program (based on Isaiah 60 to 66) was held over Saturday and Sunday and
we spent time with George, Annie and Nigee on the Friday and Monday
afternoons. George used to be a
RC priest and Annie a RC nun. For
different reasons they both became dissatisfied with the church about 20 years
ago, discovered that they shared misgivings and both undertook the Bible
Correspondence Course. They
subsequently left the church and were married and later were baptised into the
Saving Name of Jesus. They have a
lovely daughter who has also been baptised recently.
On
the Tuesday we caught the bus to Ollur (a 45-minute trip) and stayed with Tom
and Suzie and their youngest daughter Seenia who is currently doing her
Masters (English). Their eldest
daughter Sonia and her husband Alex and their one-year old son Austin live
upstairs so we also saw quite a bit of them.
Their second daughter Sofia lives about 10 kms away but we also saw
quite a bit of Sofia (and a quick catch up with her husband Fraison). We were invited to Sofia’s for lunch, which was lovely, but
we found out that there is no such thing as a “free lunch”.
Sofia (who has a MA in English literature) has recently established a
“Spoken English” school for
ladies only. (Spoken English schools
are very popular both in India and in SL).
Much to our surprise we found that we were the guest speakers for the
day, classes were cancelled. Dorothy
had the honour of “opening” the school by cutting the ribbon while the
professional photographer took lots of photos and then both of us were asked
to address the students. We’d
caught the train from Tom and Suzie’s to Sofia’s and were caught in a
heavy shower as we got off the train so we were both looking like drowned
rats! We certainly weren’t
spiffed up for photos!
Fortunately
we didn’t have to deliver a lecture on the intricacies of the English
language. Instead we spoke about
Australia and the importance of English as an international language and the
advantages individuals can enjoy as a result of being able to speak English,
especially in the business world. Of
course we used the opportunity as most are Hindu ladies, to tell them about
the Bible and its extraordinary influence on the English language.
We also answered lots of their questions that were mainly about our
lives in Australia and our experiences in India.
So Sofia’s school, The
English Lady, has been officially opened by English speakers who have
Ozzie accents!
Essential Supplies
Our
next stop was Adimali (the toilet-paper-less town). It was especially great to catch up with Jayan and Nisha,
Karuna and Krupa again – they are the ones who took such good care of us
when we were there in January. Now
while you can’t buy toilet paper in Adimali you can buy batteries for hand
held computer Bibles/concordances! The
batteries in Ken’s computer Bible/concordance went kaput and we thought it
would be impossible to get the right batteries (those little flat ones) but it
wasn’t a problem at all. The
first shop we enquired at had them in stock and for much, much cheaper than
the ones we’d bought at home (Negombo) to keep us stocked while we were
away!
Over
the 4 days we were there Ken led four studies and exhorted on the Sunday.
The studies focused on David.
The Uneventful Bus Trip
The
three-hour bus trip back to Cochin from Adamali was uneventful.
We caught what is known as a “limited stop – passenger express”.
Unfortunately it was a “limited stop – passenger express” in name
only. It would have stopped at
least 10 times in the first 10 minutes. Fortunately
the stops were fewer after that but certainly not what we would call
“express”. Like most of the
buses in India it was a bone-shaker. A lot of the trip is spent dropping down
from the hills to the coastal plains so the road is pretty windy at times and
the driver was a maniac. Many of
the buses here in SL and in India don’t have side windows.
Instead they have shutters which can be dropped down from recesses in
the top of the window frames. They are made from a vinyl like material and are
dark brown (not see through) and they concertina when pushed up into the
recess. When it rains the passengers drop the shutters and the bus instantly
becomes a gloomy and stuffy tube. Of
course with insufficient ventilation the windscreen fogs up almost instantly.
Quite a significant part of our trip from Adamali to Cochin was in the
rain. The passengers dropped the shutters to stay dry.
The windscreen fogged up and so once every so often the conductor would
wipe down the inside of the windscreen with the palm of his hand.
However this didn’t help the visibility for the driver very much as
the bus didn’t have any windscreen wipers so the driver was trying to look
through the deluge as it poured down the windscreen.
We were glad to get off safe and sound.
Still we were even more relieved that we weren’t in one of the other
buses we’d spotted in Adamali that had a shattered windscreen.
In order to hold the broken glass in place the owner or driver had
covered the inside of the windscreen with wide, clear, heavy duty,
sticky/masking tape but the tape had been there for so long that it had gone
yellow! It makes our hair stand
on end trying to imagine what the visibility must have been like.
The Second Holiday – Delayed by Twelve Hours
Having
arrived safely in Cochin (Kochi) we had thought we’d be early to bed and
early to rise (4.30 am) to get the 6.00 am train south but unfortunately
something in Ken’s dinner that evening was off and by 4.00 am he was as
crook as a dog L. And
then to add insult to injury we couldn’t stay on, we had to be out of the
room by midday as the place was fully booked.
So despite Ken feeling like death warmed up we caught the afternoon
train and again headed back to the beach for another three-day break.
Thankfully Ken recuperated quickly and was able to relax much more
during this break. He still had
to revise the studies on the Epistle of James but it didn’t involve nearly
as much last minute preparation this time as most of the preparation had been
completed. When we had been
passing through Cochin two-weeks earlier Ken bought a complete set of William
Barclay’s studies in the New Testament for the bargain price of approx Aus
$20 with a weight of approximately seven kilos.
We also bought a pack of 100 syringes as requested by one of the
brethren here in SL who is a diabetic (the syringes in India are much finer
than the SL ones). When we bought
the books and syringes we thought it was our only opportunity as we didn’t
anticipate we’d be back in Cochin during business hours.
So not only did Ken have the unfortunate experience of being sick and
having to travel regardless but we ended up being in Cochin during business
hours after all. We had lugged a
big, bulky and heavy package around with us for a fortnight on buses and
trains when we could have picked up all the goodies when we only had a week of
travel to complete. Aaugh!
Our Third and Final Bible Study Weekend
After
the break we were back on the train heading to Kottayam.
We arrived at about 2.00 pm and checked into our hotel where there were
several brethren waiting for us and about 12 contacts.
We spent the afternoon with these people discussing a range of Bible
topics that the contacts were interested in or had queries about.
Next day we caught the train south to Thiruvella where we spent our
final weekend in India. Ken did
five studies and the exhortation on the Sunday on the epistle of James.
Attendance by two of the three ecclesias in this locale was very
good. On the Sunday
afternoon we were on the train again, this time heading south for our final
port of call, Trivandrum or the Indian name change is now, Thiruvanathapuram.
Say that with a mouthful of potato chips!! We spent the Monday all day in a seminar session instructing
about 12 or 14 contacts with whom brother Joykutty (he travels down from his
home town of Thiruvella) and a local brother Shaju have a fortnightly
programme.
“Home” Again
We
were up next morning early and out to the airport to fly back to Colombo.
We arrived back in SL with more work than we feel we can cope with in
the four-weeks left before heading for our real home.
Over the next four weeks we are supposed to:
§
Prepare
for and run a Bible Truth Study Day. Preparation
involves lots of administrative work (contacting everyone), development of
notes and overheads relating to each of the four topics on the program, the
development of discussion sheets and lots of domestic work; organising
cleaning, preparing for overnight guests if necessary, catering, etc.
And then of course the actual day is quite demanding:
three presentations and one interactive session that still involves
input, activities for Zenomy, catering, etc.
§
Visit
numerous contacts and brethren and sisters who we see on a regular basis and
who are scattered far afield.
§
Make a
further literature offer and respond to the requests received as a result.
§
Organise
car hire and pick up the car – sounds easy but it is time consuming.
§
Write
letters to a number of people on specific topics in response to requests they
have made of us.
§
Progress
the translation program.
§
Prepare
the regular reports to the committee in Perth.
§
Maintain
the database input.
§
Exhortations
for three or four Sundays.
§
Margaret’s
preparing for baptism classes.
§
Sunday
School for Zenomy.
§
Report
to the Melb based South Asia/Indian Bible Mission Committee on our activities
in India and on matters individuals have raised with us.
§
Have
time to enjoy our supposedly weekly “office holiday” – joke!
§
Enjoy
our 5th wedding anniversary!! J
The
latter we made no exceptions for and spent a lovely two days in a nice hotel
in Colombo and Ken as well this
time, actually relaxed and swam, read, snoozed, swam, them relaxed some more.
It was lovely!
The
brunt of the other work above is carried by Ken but we both have enough to do
to keep us out of mischief. The
reality is that some of it just won’t happen.
The Wonders of Technology
Technology
is wonderful until it goes wrong and then it’s a shocker.
Over the last nearly three months or so we have been plagued with
problems. Problems with the
software, problems with the hardware, problems with our internet provider, and
continuing problems with the database. It
has almost driven us to drink.
We
had been unable to maintain our internet connection for any longer than a
couple of minutes. Given we need
to be able to maintain the connection for in excess of an hour on a weekly
basis just to unload our updated database from Perth this alone has caused us
huge problems and frustrations and we have had to try to work efficiently with
out-of-date data. In addition we
haven’t been able to get the database to provide us with the reports etc
that we need to be able to effectively operate.
It
has also meant that even for our everyday use of email we have to repeatedly
dial in trying to achieve and maintain a connection long enough just to
receive the regular emails from the Committee, friends, family, contacts,
business connections, etc.
There
been times of total despair. It’s
been one of the most stressful factors of our operations here.
The worst part about it has been coping with it while knowing that each
of the problems can be fixed – it is after all only technology – but
without the technical support required it has been a total nightmare.
Finally
the problems with the hardware, the internet provider and especially our
connection to the internet appear to have been solved and some of the database
issues have been addressed.
New Phone Numbers
SL Telecom is progressively allocating new phone
numbers to every phone in SL. So
for those of you who have our number please note that it has now changed.
Our new number, when dialling from Oz is 0011 94 31 2238779.
The Mission has also purchased a mobile phone which we (and other field
workers) will take when travelling. So
it now means that even when we are “out of station” (as it is called here)
we can now be contacted on the mobile. Its
number is 077 612 4294. You
ring that when you get to Colombo airport and ask where we are to pick you
up!! We presume however when
dialling from Oz the number is 0011 94 77 612 4294.
Visitors
Peter
and Yvonne Jansen arrived in SL on 28th August for three weeks and
will be spending some of their time based here in Negombo and the rest of
their time visiting contacts and brethren and sisters in all sorts of
far-flung places. They’ve been
here many times before (for those of you who don’t know them, Yvonne is Sri
Lankan) so they are very independent of us.
It’s great having their company and their support.
It’s also great having a toaster, a kettle, a rice cooker, some
whiteboard cleaner, a good mouse mat and all sorts of other goodies they’ve
brought with them. Toast again
– yippee J.
Twelve Months in Review – The Highs and the Lows
The
highs have included:
ü
visitors
from home, many we’d never met before, but it was great to have their
company and their help.
ü
visitors
from home who we didn’t even meet! They
were here when we were in India in January/February and they made a huge
contribution to the work. Between
them they covered more ground in
the four or five weeks they were here than we could have covered in months of
hard slog.
ü
the
contact from friends and family. We
can’t begin to tell you how much it has meant to us to hear from home.
There have been times when it’s been dreadfully lonely and the
expected and unexpected emails, letters and phone calls have been wonderful.
Thanks.
ü
the
“care packages” we’ve received; fruit cake, liquorice, fruit jellies,
chocolates, shortbreads, iron on patches to repair torn clothing, wasabi peas,
toiletries etc, etc, etc.
ü
the
never-ending supply of pineapple, paw-paw and mango.
ü
our
trips to India and the subsequent interaction with others.
ü
the
beautiful scenery we’ve enjoyed as we’ve travelled to and fro.
ü
the
wonderful hospitality we’ve enjoyed from a number of brethren and sisters
and contacts and the relationships that have developed.
ü
the
antics of the twins next door.
ü
the
animals and birds we’ve observed and those immensely powerful and wonderful
thunderstorms that herald so belligerently, the majesty and awesome power of
our God.
ü
the
elephant orphanage.
ü
meeting
Tissa, hearing his confession of faith and being involved with his baptism.
This would have to be the highlight of our year here.
ü
the
popularity of and response to the Bible Truth Study Days.
ü
finding
a good cappucino outlet at last!
ü
being
in a country so different from home. Not
that’s is all been fun but it gives a perspective on life and an insight
into other’s lives that cannot be appreciated without having been
experienced.
ü
Cathie’s
support regularly receiving Negombo News, putting it and the photos on the
web-site, advising people the arrival of the latest “NN” and managing
every aspect of it.
The lows? We’re
not going to dwell on them but we will say:
-
it’ll be great to
be with family and friends when we get home and to be back into the
ecclesial scene.
We’ve really missed each of these
-
it’ll
be great to get away from the critter that visits our roof and wees on our
bed, floors, office equipment, etc.
-
it’ll
be great to not have to stress over technology for eight weeks or so and
hopefully by the time we return the last of our problems associated with
the database and its maintenance will have been remedied.
That’s
it for now.
We’re
not sure if this is the last Negombo News before we head home to Oz or if we
will manage one more. But …….
Cathie has agreed to continue on as our “webmistress” next year; so if you
want to keep up with next year’s activities then “watch
this space”!
Bye
for now … we’ll be seeing you SJJN
– or at least lots of you who live in Melbourne and some of you who live in
Perth.
Update
Did we say only 28 days to go and we’ll be home?
Well that was when we started this edition of NN.
As we send it off to Cathie the number has reduced to 24 J
Love
K
& D
Negombo
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