WilkinsGoToIndia: Adjustments

Our first day in India could only be summed up in the title above. We arrived at 5:00 am, which is 6:30pm in Indiana. Okay, we knew that, not a big deal. Next, we rode to our hotel in a minivan-ish vehicle. Here are the rules our driver obeyed throughout our day.

Drive on the left side of the road - most of the time. If someone is going slower than you, just go around them. Try to stay at least an inch from the cars around you.
If, by some rare occasion, there is a stoplight or stop sign, obey it.
Try not to hit anyone/anycow.
Right of way goes to the largest vehicle or to continuous traffic.
When there is no stoplight, inch your way forward slowly until you are nearly hitting every car streaming by and you can cut off a vehicle smaller than you.

*Sidenote from Vanessa - I could NOT drive here. About once every minute I really thought we were going to get hit or hit someone else! Also, horns are much more useful here. When someone is in your way, you honk at them. Sitting in our hotel listening to traffic we hear constant horns.

That being said, we will post some nice photos/videos for you to see the rules in action. I'll let them speak for themselves.

One of the things that I found unique in the best possible way is that reputation is of utmost importance. So, when shopping, the merchants go to great lengths to provide you with the best service possible while still keeping themselves in business. They actually get out and unpackage the clothes for you and lay them out for you to look at and keep doing so until you are satisfied. If they don't have what you want, they send someone to another shop to find it for you. At first it was kind of fun to figure out what to buy for the orphans, but after a couple of hours it was getting old. We bought one outfit for each of the 55 orphans we are going to see. Then after a bunch of haggling via our interpreter, Joshua, we got a very fair price and left with 4 large bags of children's clothes.

As I write this on Thursday morning, I am just anxious to get to the orphanages. Though we did a lot by finding clothes for the orphans, it all seems like a bunch of waiting. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to work in and through us today at the orphanage. Pray especially that we will have enough energy to give and that Vanessa and I can catch a little more of God's vision for us and our family as it relates to caring for the orphans. Please also pray for a decision about a specific home in India. One home that we aren't planning to visit is one where they literally rescue baby girls out of the dump. To get there means a flight instead of a car ride on a day that would otherwise be spent sight-seeing. However, it was one home that when I heard about it, I thought that I really wanted to be able to go there. So, pray for wisdom and discernment in that.

Until next time,

Andy