Our last few days in Varanasi were quite enjoyable. It's hard to believe that we were there for nine days. The time went by so fast. We had lots of great opportunities for sharing the gospel. Keep Lily, Sam and Simon in your prayers especially. We spent quite a bit of time with each of them. (I think I may have already mentioned Sam, we met him in Pokhara and, lo and behold, he turned up in Varanasi too. Praise God that he has decided to kick his Marijuana habit.)
Our 13 hour train ride to Agra turned into a 19 or 20 hour ordeal due to delays caused by fog. So we've been here for a few hours now and just had enough time find our hotel and settle in. Since today was cut short we'll probably extend our stay here to three days instead of two. This is the halfway point of our outreach (hard to believe, I know) so we're going to take some time to evaluate and discuss what we've been through so far and set some clear goals and vision for the next four weeks. Of course, while we're here we might pop into the Taj Mahal for an afternoon... maybe.
The area that we're in now has given us a small taste of reverse culture shock after coming from Varanasi. There are hordes of tourists and everything is quite westernised. We feel oddly out of place. The flavour is still definitely Indian but a boring, sanitised version. I feel like a homeless man who's stepped into the Disneyland of the Asian subcontinent without any interest in riding rollercoasters or eating cotton candy. Such places are where the worlds two most uninteresting and unoriginal people meet. Those who are only interesting in selling and those only interested in consuming. Blegh.
Our next stop is Goa. Which, if today's train is any indication, may take several days to get to. Regardless, I'm excited to get back amongst my backacker brethren. Apparently there's a big juggling festival going on while we're there. Heck yes.
No comments:
Post a Comment