Monday, March 30, Nagpur

Pralhad (silent ‘h’) Tandekar met us with driver. Subodh to MI building; me to MITS campus w/ promise that various people would visit me Tue to update me on plans: M. James, principal; Jimmy Samuel from MI office; Peter (Prakash) Abraham, transformational coordinator. On last road to MITS, another red truck stranded on roadway.

When I was in Nagpur before, there was a red truck broken down on the same roadway. We passed that truck every day, morning and evening. Always in the same spot--right in the middle of the road. Toward the end of the week, the truck had been moved a little farther away from the seminary. But still blocking the traffic so that every vehicle had to take turns going around it. Well, a year and a half had passed. I was traveling the same roadway. And lo-and-behold, here was a red truck stopped in approximately the same spot! It actually could have been the same truck; I don't know. But it just struck me as comically tragic that the same situation would present itself still or again after that much time. The next time I went by that spot, the truck was gone. So it was probably a very different problem.

Tue, 31 March, Awakened at 4:00a.m. Not sure if the dogs outside woke me or if they started after I awoke. When they continued, I knocked on the window and they ran. But then had trouble getting back to sleep. Finally arose around 5; first full length Bible study in a few days. Knew I should immediately pray; but devil keeps bringing up other legitimate things that ‘need’ to be done right then. Finally got on my knees and had a decent prayer time. Shower couldn’t get the hot water to work. Tried every knob. Finally turned shower part off and lever went all the opposite way and immediately had hot water. So maybe I just didn’t turn it far enough in the shower direction. Every country has its own procedures. I’m sure they would feel just as confused in our culture. And it would not occur to us to show them how different things work.

The other thing about the showers was that in some of the hotels, you had to turn on the hot water heater a few minutes before you wanted a shower. There would be a switch somewhere, in a very unpredictable location. As I would experiment with various switches, some would turn on lights and others seemingly did nothing. Then after a cold shower, I would discover that one of those switches that did nothing actually turned on the hot water heater. The heater was a tank, about 10 gallons or so, secured above the shower room ceiling. Actually, once I figured it out, I kind of liked the system. It saves having to heat your water 24/7 and wasting that electricity. At the same time, given the hot weather, if you wanted a cooler shower, you didn't have to heat the water at all. :)

I mentioned our hotel in Muzaffarpur and that we were their first international guests. They had worked diligently to impress us and succeeded in doing so. When we were checking out, I waited and spoke privately to the manager. I suggested to him that when they have international guests, it might be a courtesy to have a staff person orient the foreigners to what switches do what and other local procedures. He listened politely and said he appreciated that. And as my favorite brother would point out, that does not mean he will do anything about it. It just means that as manager, he knows he must listen politely to any stupid suggestioins made by any guest.


I should have expected to see people in Nagpur whom I had met before. But I was a little surprised instead. One of the first was this gentleman, Narendra Bansal. He just calls himself by his last name.

We immediately recognized each other, which especially pleased him--that a foreign "dignitary" would instantly remember him. Unfortunately, I did not recall his name. Fortunately, he did not remember mine either. :) But we enjoyed seeing each other again.

When I was there before, he was assistant librarian. Since then he was promoted to head librarian and has taken some formal training in that field. So I asked him if the library had internet access. He said, "Sadly, no." They needed 3,000RS to buy a modem. That converts to approximately $60. Well, I'm not a wealthy man. When I walk around the campus in Nagpur, I see this building and that subsantially paid for by one wealthy person or another. I can't pay for a building. But I had $60 burning a hole in my pocket. So I was happy to provide them with their modem. Unfortunately, they were not able to get it up and running until the day after I left. But I've received a few emails from Bansal. So I am pleased that God used BW and me to bless them in this way. :)

ttfn