Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Who are the 99%?

In the midst of the Occupy Wall Street protests around the United States (including at Keener Plaza here in St. Louis) there has been some discussion about the relationship between OWS and Mennonites (consider these two articles: radicals and wall streetRadical counterculturalismoccupy church), as OWS is an example of people forming community, challenging the power systems in society, and engaging in some radically egalitarian ideas.

I'm personally struck by the decision making techniques that OWS is using, including consensus building tools that are very familiar to this pastor of a consensus congregation. They include being able to express both basic reservations and to block consensus, paying attention to the differences between procedural and content based questions, and other tools of consensus building. Stephen Colbert has an amusing round up if you want a quick intro: Colbert Occupies Wall Street, here's the plan in OWS's own words: Consensus. These techniques are really useful for anyone looking to build healthy and enduring community, and I'm excited to see them practiced in the public sphere.

Finally, thinking about the difference between the 99% of society in America and the 1% that are gaining a larger and larger share of national income and wealth, I found this chart  in the New York Times particularly interesting: Income of the 10%, the 1%, and beyond. I thought it was worth thinking about where I can imagine myself in this income spectrum, and what it says about my own theology of wealth power and influence as I think about my own calling to follow Jesus in the world.

Monday, October 24, 2011

What is your morality style?


Hello everyone, no sermon this week, so I thought I’d work on a few much neglected blog posts.
Here is one idea that I found particularly fascinating:

One of the things that obviously comes up when we look at the world around us is all the different ways that people interpret ethics-the different ways we feel about questions from the political hot topics of abortion or welfare to individual challenges about generosity or parenting.

You’ll often see the same event interpreted in totally different ways-some thinking of it as a minor fault, and others a significant sin.

Naturally, there are people studying our moral codes as human beings, and this week I stumbled across this fascinating site called
http://www.yourmorals.org/

Where you can take quizzes to see how much you care about things on a five point scale, including harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity (I think these are pretty self explanatory, but the "Moral Foundations Questionnaire at this link has explanations).

My results are as follows:


The green line is me, the blue line is the liberal average, the red line the conservative average. I see my Mennoniteness coming out because I really don’t like hurting people (there is a pacifism question), and I think authority is silly, and while ‘disgusting’ does not register on my moral compass, ‘sinful’ does.

I share this for two reasons.

First, it reminds me that there are people who care a lot more than I do about authority and loyalty, and I should honor those virtues.

And second, because you should all take the quiz as well, and see what you find, since self knowledge is one of the key tasks of our lives.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Home safe

August 6th
We arrived safe and sound back in St. Louis last night around 7:00 PM. After most of a good’s night’s rest, we’re feeling like refreshed and rejuvenated is something we may feel someday later.
Our last day in Delhi was a wonderful one. We started out in the morning with a trip to Humayum’s tomb, where many of the royal family of the Mogul Emperors are buried.
It’s a beautiful place, with a huge garden, and elegant structures all around. It was a little warm, but we had a nice time. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the monsoon clouds opened up, and we got our first taste of real rain since Andrah Pradesh. We ran to a rickshaw, and overpaid for a trip back to Old Delhi, since Samuel wanted to see the Jama Masjid, the largest Mosque in India-it holds over 25,000 people. It’s in the heart of Old Delhi, and is a simple but elegant structure. However, we didn’t get to see it. After waiting out most of the rain in a local shoe shop, we ran over, only to learn that because it was Ramadan, the mosque was closing early for midday prayers, at 12:00 rather than the 12:30 our guidebook had suggested. We were a little sad, but we looked around from the outside, watching people getting ready to pray, and then finally had a successful orienteering adventure, when Samuel successfully took us back to the Subway station nearby.
We also managed to get back to the hotel with only one minor incident- Rachel slipped on the wet pavement and fell hard on her back, which has been hurting ever since (30 hours of travel over three plane flights didn’t help…)
In the afternoon, we went shopping. At lunch, we found a tremendously helpful woman (thanks Mina!) who introduced us to the Delhi official dish-Chaat, which is a big mix of lentils, bread, yogurt, chickpeas, and the red and green sauces you often get in Indian restaurants. Mina also pointed out the best shops for things like spices, art, and shawls in the market area in which our hotel was located- Karol Baugh. We had a great time looking through a local spice market, collecting various spice mixes to take back with us, and then Samuel indulged Rachel with a venture into a textile store to look at beautiful Indian scarves (Rachel has a thing for scarves). Finally, we went looking for the last thing on our list- some kind of art to hang in our home in remembrance of this fabulous adventure. We had already noticed a shop called Art Warehouse, and Mina had said it was a good place to look, so we went into the basement shop and spent some time looking through piles of work by local artists. This was by far the most pleasant shopping experience we had in all of India, with helpful but discreet salespeople who mostly just left us alone to browse. After a while, we found a beautiful painting showing a stylized Indian market, with women in beautiful colors which we both felt spoke to our experience of the chaos and beauty of India. We made our purchase and headed back to our hotel to take a short nap, and do a little packing and planning.
Then, for our final meal in India, we went to Swati restaurant, for an all you can eat Thali meal, recommended by Joshi, our guide from the mountains.
It was excellent, with all the wonderful things we’ve loved eating in India, with some new tastes besides. It was a high class place, and we really enjoyed being pampered a little.
Finally, we returned back to the hotel, for rest before a long day.
On our final day, we got up at 3:30, to get in the taxi for the airport at 3:45. Our taxi driver was as sleep deprived as anyone we’ve ever driven with, it was a little frightening to drive with him, but there was no one else on the road, and he drove very conservatively. The airport went smoothly, with a minor worry about the spices we brought (apparently, chili powder isn’t allowed on Indian airplanes, and many of our spices include chilis, but the security lady let me slip by).
The flight was uneventful, although the seats in the Air India plane left a lot to be desired. We sat next to a nice young woman getting her masters in London in Environmental development, something India needs a lot. She had come home for two months to do thesis research in a tribal forest. We both dozed a little, but not enough, we were kind of worked up after all our travels.
The transfer in London was SHORT, with less than 2 hours from landing to takeoff, with a transfer of terminals and another security check in the middle. However, Heathrow is clean, efficient, and polite, and things went smoothly, for us. So, we can say we’ve been in England now. It was cool, sunny and partly clouding, and green. It looked pretty much like England is supposed to look in our imaginations. Hopefully someday we’ll spend a little more time there.
London Chicago also went well, we had great seats- we didn’t get seats assigned until we walked up to the gate, but they offered us exit row seating, so we had all the leg room we could ever want! It was a treat. Sam enjoyed Kong Fu Panda 2 on the flight over.
In Chicago, we were happy to be welcomed back to the US by cheerful US customs officials, including a friendly greeting from the guy who welcomed us in line, a nice conversation about how we experienced India with the person checking our passport, and a wave through from the customs official we talked to. Rachel even almost started tearing up at the cheesy welcome to America video with patriotic music and Americana photos. (we had of course been at 24 hours without sleep at that point).
In Chicago, a disappointment. Our luggage did not arrive with us. We don’t know where it went missing, probably in the switch between Air India and American in London, but it didn’t make it with us. Sigh. That was rather disappointing. They told us to check in St. Louis.
Chicago to St. Louis was our last flight, where we learned our luggage was unknown (but this morning, they found it, and it should arrive here sometime). We were welcomed home at the airport by saint Cathy Lichti, who brought us back home. Home. Yeah. We are happy, though tired, and very glad to have gone on this adventure together. Thanks for reading along.
We’ll probably come up with some final thoughts, but for now, blessings on all your voyages, wherever they may take you.


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Taj Mahal and Back to Delhi

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
Taj day
we got up early to explore the Taj Mahal, so as to beat both the heat and the crowds. We succeeded magnificently on both counts, as the wait in line was literally non-existent at 7:00 in the morning. Since the Taj averages 20,000 people per day, it was nice for things to go smoothly. (although I don't think August is prime time to visit).
Our day started with a slight hitch-we were adopted by an official government guide, part of our entrance fee, along with a small bottle of water, and we didn't quite have the heart to tell him we'd much rather have the soothing British guy from the day before, and figured he might add some color to the tour. We were wrong-his command of English was pretty limited, which would have been OK, but he didn't have any stories that a) we didn't already know from reading The Lonely Planet Guidebook and b) often repeated stories scholars are pretty sure are false. Also, even if we did manage to communicate our questions to him, he didn't know the answers. So, his primary use was in showing us where to take silly shots like 'holding the Taj in your hand' or 'stand next to the Taj with your finger at the point' or the ever popular 'jumping in front of the Taj', which taught us that Rachel is not a good sport for silliness.
Eventually, we sent him off, informing him we'd like to wander around on our own (much to his frustration, since apparently he couldn't leave without us, and wanted to lead about 1 tour per hour).
However, the Taj is pretty cool-the size is mind blowing, the stonework immaculate, it really is well designed, and we do feel like we've had an experience. The whole grounds are really fascinating, and its fun to wander around and see everything from a lot of different angles. We wouldn't recommend going to India just to go to the Taj, but we would recommend seeing the Taj if you're in India, it was worth the trip to Agra (but get the audio tour).

After the Taj we went back to our guest house for showers and to clean up and check out, before spending the rest of the day wandering between markets and little cafes for ice cream and cool drinks. We also took a walk along the Eastern side of the Taj area, which we hadn't yet seen. It got very hot, but we had fun, and found stuff for almost everyone on our list (we still need something for Rachel's brother Andrew, art for our own home, and some spices in Delhi). We found that ignoring salespeople cuts prices dramatically, and that we're softies to people who just ask us to take their price when its already cheap for American costs.
Now, we're on the train back to Delhi- we are in an air-conditioned compartment with narrow upper and lower bunks for ourselves and our luggage, which is perfectly comfortable for the three hour journey. In Delhi, we've booked a hotel ahead of time and have both its address and phone number written down, so hopefully no repeat of the adventures of last time we arrived at this time of night.

Wednesday August 3rd
living in the lap of luxury
We arrived in Delhi at about 9:45 last night, about 30 minutes late, and later than we were out on our last Delhi adventure, which caused us some anxiety.
However, we came into the New Delhi train station, which had been our salvation last time. Thus, we headed straight to the pre-paid taxi stand, ignoring all the opportunistic Taxi wallas telling us that it did not exist. The amount of people lying to you in India is pretty numbing after a while, its a comment on how differences in power corrupt relationships.
Once we found the people who were official, however, our wonderful driver with his perfectly comfortable taxi found our hotel with minimal concern. And what a hotel it is.
We found an online hotel yesterday, because Rachel was getting nervous about the 'guess and check' method, and so we'd booked 3 nights at the Hotel Vista Inn at a last minute special rate that is actually cheaper than 2 of the other places we'd stayed so far at about 30$ a night, because it looked fairly nice. AND IT IS! Luxury is nice. AC that's not a window unit. Real hot water. Real shower heads. A glass door on the shower. Toilet paper. Water that isn't completely full of strange minerals. A big screen TV. Sheets. A soft bed. 2 trash cans! Made of METAL! With LINERS! Its literally nicer than a super 8, and in some ways nicer than a Comfort Inn or Raddison. While its possible Samuel mentioned something about not suffering properly along with the majority of people in India, we both appreciate the break, and slept well.
This morning we got up for a marathon tour of Delhi. We got on the AC tour bus (hooray AC!) at about 10:00, and they dropped us off at a random metro station to find our way back to our hotel at 6:30 (thanks guys). In between, we saw all sorts of wonderful and interesting things, as well as a Government shop that apparently subsidizes the tours and forced our business for 30 minutes.
Highlights include The Indian Parliament Building and government offices, which are kind of Like DC, with red sandstone. Indira Gandhi's home, and location of her assassination with press clippings and mementos from her long and influential life. The Qutb Minar, a 250 ft. tall 900 year old ornately decorated stone tower (tallest in India) created by Muslim rulers, because, hey, winners get to do this kind of thing.
The Bahai Lotus Temple, a beautiful and huge place of prayer and contemplation (we like the Bahai, they just want everyone to get along, have universal education, health care, and justice.

Another highlight was Gandhi's memorial at the place of his cremation, a quiet black slab of marble with the words "Oh God" in Hindi (his last words) and an eternal flame, surrounded by a courtyard with many of his quotes in different languages.

We watched a group of South Indian Men read one of his quotes in their native tongue of Tamil together out loud, and were touched by the act of corporate memory and honor, symbolizing the connection of all parts of India and the world.
While we missed a few monuments we'd have liked to see, and would have been happy to skip the shop, it was a good time, and we'll have time tomorrow to pick up some important stragglers. We'd recommend it, it was worth the 7.5$ each.
After we found our way back to the hotel (which involved walking in completely the wrong direction for a while, then asking a random person for help and getting rescued quickly-and Rachel would like to point out she was dubious from the beginning about this plan) we settled in for the evening. Rachel convinced me to stay in for dinner so we had room service again, she started some laundry (I get to feel clean on the flight home!) and we played on the internet a bit, for example, writing a blog post.
Tomorrow we're going to Humayun's tomb, apparently one of the most beautiful buildings in Delhi, and Jahil Masab, the largest mosque in India (it holds 25000 people), and maybe a giant Indian temple, depending on how time allows. Finally, we'll do a little more shopping before a planned Indian feast for our last meal in India. It should be great-all you can eat home style from different regions in India. We are very excited.
Its been wonderful being able to send our thoughts out into the ether-it makes us feel connected to home. We hope you too have appreciated our reflections. Tomorrow should be the last post, and then we'll come home (and add pictures on a high speed connection).

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Red Fort

August 1st 2011

Its August. wow, time flies when you are having fun!

The overnight bus ride went well, which is a testimony to how good we've gotten at sleeping. But after I was able to sleep coming down a mountain road in the Himalayas, this was no trouble at all. That's a bit of an exageration-the bus was much harder than the train, with more noise, including a horn that cheerfully blared an earsplitting hello to intersections, cars, cows, ghosts, you know, whatever, as well as playing Hindi pop music until about 11. But we both slept several hours, before being dropped off uncerimoniously by the side of the road 20 Km outside of Agra. We found an auto rickshaw willing to take us into town, and we headed in to see the city.

Our first sight of the Taj Mahal was coming around a bend in the river at about 6:45 AM with the hazy mist surrounding the building. We both thought, yep. That's the Taj Mahal. (People differ in their reactions-some are blown away right away. Its growing on us). Much more exciting was getting dropped off not exactly where we wanted to be, and hiking about 1km in to find a hotel, but finding one of the Lonely Planet recommendations that fit our needs perfectly, and was willing to give us a room for the night at 7:00 AM. We put our stuff down, and said to ourselves, selves, how hot it will be later in the day. Let us get up and go do touristy things now, and rest when the sun is high. And so it was.

We took a two km hike along mostly empty streets (they try to keep autos away from the Taj for polution purposes-its GREAT) to Agra Fort, the capital of the Mughal Dynasty during its heyday. 

We were pleased to have a guided audio-tour, though the human guides are clearly put out about this new competition for their services. Its hard to compete with a soothing British voice with immense historical knowledge who isn't trying to sell you anything. The fort is huge-30 ft. walls, 20 ft. moat, lots of palace things inside. A few highlights including seeing the Taj through windows and lattices down the river-the better light and more romantic atmosphere helped, seeing the harem area, where the wives (and female family members) of the Emperors lived, and the ornate marblework around the Emperor's private quarters. It was definitely worth a visit.


After Agra fort, we took a rikshaw back to our hotel. At least, that was our plan. Instead, we were kidnapped by a rogue rickshaw driver, who took us to a shop for the commission instead. He did give us fair warning, which we sort of appreciated. We didn't shop long enough to earn him his commission, unfortunately for him. We thought he was taking us off to a second shop, so we jumped out at a sign for the west gate of the Taj, where we are staying, but actually, our route just didn't allow rikshaws.

After a nice lunch in a place with free wi-fi (updated blog! Hooray!) we did a bit of laundry, and took a much needed nap. After our rest, we decided on another adventure-this one to the 'Baby Taj' a 17th century tomb of an important Empire official. It is a little older than the Taj, and a lot smaller, but is filled with ornate carvings and marblework and lattices, and we had a delightful time exploring, being amazed at all the geometric patterns we could find in the building, wandering by the banks of the river, and climbing the walls. Samuel stiffed the guys guarding our shoes, since he had no small change, and felt a little bad about it, but its hard to pay someone a dollar to watch your shoes for 30 minutes. This probably demonstrates a deep moral flaw in his character.

After enjoying the Baby Taj, we returned to our hotel, freshened up as much as possible, and went for dinner at a rooftop restaurant just south of the Taj, known to have one of, if not the best views in the city. The food tasted distinctly as if the restaurant had one of the best views of the Taj, but we had the best seats in the house for sunset, and sat watching the building change in the shifting light with a great deal of peace and enjoyment.

Afterwards, we found a little icecream, and now are ready for bed, with the plan of getting up early tomorrow morning for our up close experience before heading back to Delhi in the evening for another adventure.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Random Refelctions with Rachel (Ha! Alliternation!)

Things I've felt the the need type at one point or another over the past three weeks.  Fair warning: these are in no particular order, and are not meant to make a whole argument. They also have been written at various points in the journey, and are not necessarily in chronological order. Just thoughts I wanted to share with the world.
1. Sarah MacDonald was right. In the book Holy Cow (a travel log/memoir about her two years traveling through India learning about various religions) she mentions that 'India makes you incapable of doing things for yourself.' She is right. Indian standards of hospitality dictate that, when you are an honored guest (which we have been honored to be at Augusteen and Lalitha's), everything is done for you. Seriously Everything. It is a wonderful way of showing hospitality, but the good Mennonite girl in me feels very unsettled about sitting in a chair observing as anything I could possibly need or any thing I could do to help gets done for me. And I do mean sitting in a chair. Even after a two hours car ride, the first thing that happens when we arrive at a new location is someone produces a plastic lawn chair, puts it underneath me, and demands I sit. And gives us a coconut with a hole cut into the top and a straw to drink the coconut water with. One or two in a day is lovely, our record so far is 7 in a day (Sam only counted 6). One note on that, though- I am grateful that coconuts can be presented to guests to honor them- since this area of Andrah Pradesh is basically made up of coconut forests, they are free to anyone with the ability to climb a tree to gather them. I am glad we can be honored without great expense to our host some times.

2. India is a Man's world. Especially the cities and all modes of public transportation. My understanding is that Indian demographics are about 45% female/55% male. But if you watched the streets, restaurants, malls, trains, planes, etc, you would think it was 80% men. They are everywhere. Whats more, they often are everywhere and NOT DOING ANYTHING. Sitting around drinking tea while busy women hurry around them, filling glasses, doing laundry, watching children, and tending to various other things. I find it a little mind bending. Also, the men (or at least many men, especially the Shiva worshipping 18-25 year olds in the north) seem to think that any woman who is out and about in the world (or at least any Western woman- even one clearly traveling with a male companion and dressed very conservatively) is open season for copping a feel. I'm DONE with it. The end.

2a. Given that India is a man's world, it is interesting to be in the middle of a tiny little feminist revolution going on among the Christians in the Province of Andrah Pradesh. Lalitha is an excellent person to be with- she is subtly challenging the hold men have over the church in particular in many ways, from referring to herself as a pastor (a title rightfully hers, as she holds more theological education than most of the male pastors, and she teaches and preaches frequently), rather than pastor-amma (pastor mama/ pastor's wife), to only covering her head for prayers, rather than through a whole worship service (I have been following her lead on this one), to grabbing herself a chair putting it at the front of a congregation (the honored place for visiting pastors, where Samuel and I are both asked to sit), even when chairs are only offered to Sam, Augusteen, and myself. She has repeatedly commented on the egalitarian nature of my relationship and lifestyle, and shared her concerns for the women in India. In honor of the work she is doing (and in honor of my own strong convictions on this issue) I have been focusing the content of my sermons on Bible stories about women being church leaders, places where Jesus analogizes God to women, and texts that speak to the equality of everyone in God's kingdom. Lalitha and Augusteen have both mentioned that they believe the women who hear me speak are encouraged and given a new and important perspective, so I hope they are right. I feel bad that I can't do more to help the status of women in India, but maybe telling women and men that everyone is equal in the eyes of God is a good start.

3. I was very surprised to find myself being asked to do as much teaching and preaching as I was with Augusteen and Lalitha. You all know that I don't claim the title of pastor as my own- I generally leave that to Samuel, and that I often find myself suspect of what is going on in 'mainline Christianity,' so being asked not just to speak to children, but to preach in worship services in places that have rarely if ever had women speak before has been a new, stretching, and unexpected experience. Discovering that I have the ability to preach 15-20 minutes (and a decent 15-20 if I do say so myself) with 15 minutes warning (as in, sometime during singing, Augusteen

4. Because of these experiences, I have been thinking about the fact that I am not the first woman in my family to live out the role of pastor in a foreign place. I have been thinking a lot about my great-grandmother Matilda Kliewer Voth, who spent her adulthood as a Mennonite missionary in rural China, raising her children as she was doing the work of seeding churches and taking an important role in the running of the Mennonite Mission in China. What strength of character, faith, and good humor it must have taken. I hope that my time this week has honored her.

5. Samuel mentioned before that we are asked to pray blessings individually on pretty much everyone who comes to a service we speak at. I echo Samuel's sentiments regarding his feelings about this, so I won't repeat them here. One thing that I have noticed, however, is that anyone who wants a blessing for a "woman issue" comes to me. I have had widows, women who are childless, women who's children are ill, all come and ask me to pray with them. And I've also had pregnant women. Lots of pregnant women. In the US, when we pray for women who are pregnant, the first prayer tends to be for a healthy baby, however each time a pregnant woman came to me, the concern was the same: "please pray for protection for a safe birth." The reality of women giving birth in a place removed from medical attention is clear in this place (rural Andrah Pradesh), which has a higher rate of fistula and a higher rate of maternal mortality than India in general, much less the USA, where most women have access to quality obstetric care at least at the point of delivery.

Mountain adventures

Hello friends,
I hope this finds you all well. We are happily typing in a restaurant with free wi-fi in the shadow of the Taj Mahal here in Agra. It was a smooth trip, as much as unairconditioned overnight bus rides on a bus with a cheerful 90 decible horn used freely can be. We were dropped off a few Km outside of town, but an autorik brought us safely to the Taj, where we found a hotel, and went to explore the Agra Fort in the morning.

But we'd rather post our mountain adventures, since we have Wi-Fi again.  We gave you highlights last night, so here's the whole kit and caboodle.

Monday, July 25th
Well, we've had adventures. In the morning we road with Augusteen, Lalitha, Pastor Luke Basca, and some random dude (SRD) who apparently wanted to a) honor us by seeing us off at the airport b) earn brownie points with Augusteen by sitting on his lap for 1.5 hours, or c) see an airplane. We both think c), probably. I imagine that watching an airplane take off for the first time as a 16-20 year old would be pretty interesting.
We had a tearful farewell with our friends before heading off for Delhi.
In Delhi, we had adventures! We successfully navigated both the pristine and empty airport express subway (nice) the crowded but functional subway system (getting hairy) but when we exited the subway into the chaotic streets of Delhi, our plan fell apart. We had the name and address of a hotel three blocks from the subway station, and had high hopes of a) being able to see it, or b) finding it based on the directions we'd received from google or c) asking for directions from a taxi driver.
Unfortunately, all three plans fell through. (Rachel would like to insert an I told you so here, noting that she suggested that we get a pre-paid taxi at the airport, since it was getting late and we didn't know our way around yet). So we found ourselves captured by a strange rickshaw driver taking us further and further away from our location, looking for someone who knew where he should take us. Luckily, he took us back by the New Delhi train station, and at an opportune time, Rachel and I leaped out into the teeming mass of men (apparently, women go to bed at 9:00 in Delhi. Good to know) to try and find our way back where we belonged on our own. Luckily, we found a very helpful taxi stand, where a government official with a cell phone spent 15 minutes trying to find our hotel, and eventually succeeded, sending us back with our original rickshaw driver (apparently he stalked us to the taxi station) to finally find our hotel, where he attempted to double his price. Luckily, I'm pretty good at ignoring people at this point, and he didn't try to follow us inside.
Its a very nice hotel-it has real sheets, both top and bottom, tile in the bathroom, cold water bottles, but most of all, it is quiet and off the streets, so we are glad to be here after a WAY too exciting adventure, and look forward to getting up early tomorrow morning for the train.
We should be able to find internet somewhere in Hardwar, but if not, we may not update again until we are back in Delhi on August 2.

Tuesday July 26th
We got up before the crack of dawn at 4:00, and had the hotel give us a hand getting a rickshaw to the train station. That was quite an experience, the streets were mostly quiet, filled with parked rickshaws with their sleeping drivers. It brought home to me again the differences in wealth-to sleep outside, in contorted positions on your glorified bicycle because you have nowhere else to go, and because you cannot leave your means of income without risk of theft. However, we eventually found someone to give us the short ride to the train station. Along the way, we found where we went wrong last night on the way to the hotel-I was 90 degrees turned around. We had been three blocks away and gone in exactly the wrong direction. Sigh.
The train station was chaotic, filled with hundreds of sleeping people. We found a small patch of urine soaked ground to rest for the 40 minutes or so until our train arrived (we couldn't quite bring ourselves to cut it any closer). The train, however, was lovely. We got an airconditioned sleeper car, and it was cool, quiet, and fairly comfortable. We both slept a lot, catching up after a few nights that were far to short, Samuel until 11:00 in the morning.
We arrived in Hardwar at about 12:00, and immediately went to Lonely Planet's recommended tour agency, to set up the next stage of our tour. We are going to head up to the Gangotri temple, which is the headwaters of the Ganges river over the next 4 days. It should be an incredible adventure.
After getting that settled, we grabbed a bit of lunch at a nice little restaurant, and then found a hotel to rest overnight. After laundry and a brief nap we headed out into the chaos that is Hardwar. This is one of the Holiest cities in India, so it is swamped with pilgrims, all wearing orange. It seems like there are parades all the time, with people with massive incense carriers, loud noise makers, and a festive spirit. Rachel noticed that the average pilgrim seems to be between at 18 and 25 year old male, who have little qualms grabbing American women in inappropriate ways in the massive crowds, so she's feeling a little gross.

Hardwar is the Ganga Aatri, a sunset festival where hundreds of people send prayers and lotus flowers and candles floating down the river, at a spot where Vishu is said to have set foot beside the river, so we came back out in the evening and found a beautiful quiet spot where people weren't constantly crowding around or asking for pictures or trying to start conversation to watch the flowers and flame float down the river, while the monkey's played on the nearby buildings.
We also watched people collect water to bring back home, and send ashes of their relatives down the river, so Samuel spent a little time crying, remembering his father, and all the suffering that we've seen in this part of the world.
Because of the early morning, and the adventure that begins tomorrow, we are turning in early tonight after a dinner of fried street food that Samuel proudly brought back after negotiating a meal with no common words with the vendor.
Tomorrow the mountains, we are excited to be among 20,000 ft. peaks.

Wednesday, July 27th
The Himalayas are awesome. The end.
Actually, we have some more stories than that. In the morning, we went to Mohans adventures (who we would recommend for medium budget adventures for sure at this point) to meet our guide, named Joshi. His English is excellent, and we learned he also speaks 6 languages from all over India, and is working hard on French (French guides make 2x English guides). Go Joshi. We also met our driver. We don't know his name.
We started off very very slowly-we learned that July 28-29th are particularly auspicious days in the Hindu calendar, so everyone is in Hardwar, particularly those worshipers of Shiva (God of sex and destruction-there's a reason everyone who worships him is a 18-25 year old man). This is why we've found it particularly nuts on a stick there. We had lots of time to talk, because traffic meant that it took 2 hours to go the first 15 km of our journey-or just a bit below our normal jogging speed.
We learned they carry large sticks with pots on either end of them that are ornately decorated because pilgrims used to have to carry all their food. We learned they blow horns and make noise because hey, noise is neat. We learned that they are collecting water from the Ganges between 2:00 and 6:00 tomorrow because that's the most important time, and then they will all rush down the mountain as fast as possible to their homes to dump the water on their personal/community statues of Shiva, hoping to set a record time, and certainly in a time frame such that the water is still 'good' (its a little unclear how this is determined, but there are trucks full of people and tanks of water advertising how long they will take to get to their home places, and I'm guessing you have to beat them). So, luckily, we're not going down the mountain tomorrow.
After crawling through Hardwar, we went through the jungle a little ways (yield to Elephants) and then through Rishkesh, another holy city, before hitting the mountains. And we mean that literally. Hardwar is about 750 ft. above sea level. Rishkesh is 1050 ft, a gentle uphill from Hardwar. As we came to the last street in Rishkesh, Joshi said in 150 meters we'll start climbing. He was right. We went straight up the side of a mountain, at pretty much as steep a grade as I've climbed in Colorado, up to over 6000 ft. within 30 km driving (much less as the crow flies). We went from foothills that were basically rolling hills to a cliff going up. It was very exciting. Within another hour, the air was cool and crisp, the trees were decidedly deciduous, and we were deep within the clouds and fog. We went upwards and down in this magical land around cliffs and ridges and by a huge man made lake from damming the Ganges (actually something else at point, but I'm too tired to look up what its called). We were stunned at the many small villages clinging to the sides of the mountains, and the terraced rice and bean fields that had been under cultivation for generations. Rock slides have frequently blocked the road (we had to turn around once and find another way) and it seems like there were at least 10 road crews we passed repairing the road.
We ended up at 6:00 (after our best 10 hour car ride ever) in Utterkashi, a larger town which is a major way station for trekkers and pilgrims alike. After wandering the market to stretch our legs and getting a tasty dinner at a local restaurant, we're looking forward to bed, and an early start tomorrow, when we'll arrive at Gangotri temple and enjoy hiking, seeing the sights, and apparently sleep at an Ashram (have we mentioned that Joshi is amazing?)

Thursday July 28th
The Himalayas remain awesome.
We got up early this morning, hoping to reach our destination in time to really settle in and enjoy the place. However, nature conspired against us. The steady rain we woke up to caused the 'soft mountain' (as our guide likes to remind us) to slide down over the road. Don't tell Carolyn, but mudslides are a serious problem throughout our route, we saw where an entire town had recently been washed away, and the road was blocked at three places about an hour into our journey. Because of this, we stopped for a leisurely and delicious breakfast, took a hike along the road towards the mudslides, gazing far down at the Ganges below us, and looking up at the spectacular mountains, and the waterfalls cascading down from the peaks far above.
After a couple of hours, everything was cleared (the Indian road workers in the mountains are AMAZING, and they are EVERYWHERE), and we proceeded up the mountain, though the traffic was bad for a while as we had to pass everyone who had been caught on the other side. From there, we got into the really steep parts, enjoying even more spectacular views and moving distinctly into a coniferous climate. Along the way, we learned stories about the Ganges, including how it came to earth (it used to be a heavenly river) to turn 82 angry brothers back human from stone, and how Lord Shiva caught it on his forehead (at Gangotri, where we are now!) We had a lovely lunch at a small spot beside the road, and crossed over what is apparently the highest bridge in Asia (Our guide claims 1300 meters, or almost 4000 feet from bridge to riverbed, but it looked more like 1300 ft. to us). We arrived at Gangotri temple at 4:00, and the sun was shining, the air was blue, the sky had cleared up, and we could see snow caped mountains overhead. What an increadible sight! We were delighted, because since it is monsoon, we were worried we'd never get a good Himalayan peak vista.

We wandered around the village, watching the raging river, seeing the bathing Ghats (where we may take a dip in the snow melt Ganges, which is said as to wash away the sins of 32 generations), exploring the temple complex, and admiring the cottonwood fluffs blowing in the wind (seriously-we have no idea what cottonwood trees are doing up here). Rachel was pretty tired, and was feeling the altitude, so Samuel went off exploring on his own for a while as well.
In the evening, we watched the temple's nighttime ritual, and received food offered to the God's for our trouble. Its pretty good stuff-rice mixed with almonds, raisins, and maybe honey. Samuel found it just slightly odd to eat food offered to idols, but was also delighted to have such a profound interfaith experience.
Now, we are both completely exhausted, so we've ordered room service (aloo gobi and bindi masala) and are quite ready to crash before another exciting mountain adventure tomorrow.

Friday, July 29th
One week to go in India-we leave next Friday bright an early.
Today was a highlight day.
We began with a dip in the Ganga river at 7:15 in the morning. It is fresh snow melt plus rain runoff from the mountains, and is every bit as cold as you might imagine. Luckily, it was not raining, and there was even a bit of sun, so it probably was no colder than 55 degrees outside.
We hadn't really been planning to get in until yesterday, when Joshi, our guide, said 'do you want to take a dip?' and Rachel and I looked at each other and thought 'you know, it is sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity...(or multiple lifetimes, if you're Hindu)' and Joshi helped encourage, since he kept reminding us that all Hindus are supposed to do this once in their lives, and it is a great honor to do so. So we went from uncertain to willing pretty quickly.
I brought running shorts, which served as my swimming trunks, and Rachel wore a Salwar Kami, which after watching people yesterday were both clearly appropriate wear for the occasion. We got in, kneeled down, and went under, and then quickly got back out again, since it was freezing, then dried off a little bit, and went up the hill to the temple. Because we were fresh from the holy water, we were allowed into the temple, where we received a red dot on our foreheads, a few sharp slaps on the back, a taste of sweet water, and some holy rice puffs and candy, before walking around the whole temple to complete the ritual.
It was quite outside our area of experience, but we were guided well by the Priests running the temple. It was a bracing dip, and also a profound experience to think of the millions of people who have found meaning and connection to God at that place.
After our dip, we took a nice walk in the Himalayas, wandering through the alpine forest alongside the Ganges for a little more than a mile. It was a beautiful trek, very Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp, and we felt connected with nature and with the world.
After our hike, we headed back down the mountain. We were a little worried-no cars had made it up the mountain since early the previous evening, and for the first hour and a half, we passed no one, so we were pretty sure we were going to find a point where we would be blocked, and would have to take a break of uncertain duration. Luckily, before we found the landslide area, they had cleared it, and the vehicles passing us up the mountain testified the way was open again.
Going down is faster than going up, so we did some sightseeing. We stopped at Pilot Baba's Ashram. He is famous for 1) being a former India Airlines pilot and 2) converting Westerners by the bucketload, particularly from Spain. We saw a sculptor at work, which was pretty neat, and heard some of the stories of Hinduism.
A note on Hindu mythology. Its remarkably complicated, with tons of gods and goddesses who have a host of complex relationships. Just for example:
This is the fuller story of the River Ganga: an important king sent out a horse for a grand tour of India during a fire ceremony. This is apparently a thing. After 210 days, the horse didn't return, so he sent out his 82 sons to find the horse, and get it back. They found the horse at the temple of a particular incarnation of the emotion of anger, where it was resting comfortably, not at all impeded in its journey. However, the Sons thought that the guru there had stolen the horse, so they got very angry at him and yelled at him, disturbing his meditation, so he awoke from his trance in anger (as one might expect, being an incarnation of angriness, and turned them all to stone. One of their sons (grandson of the first king), after a time, wishing to save his father and uncles, prayed to Shiva about how to save them. He learned that only the river Ganges, then a heavenly river, could deliver them. So he talked to the river, who was willing to come down to Earth, in fact she wanted to, but unfortunately, she was so powerful that if she came to earth un-mediated, she would flood the world. Luckily, Shiva was willing to recline in the Himalayas, and catch the river Ganges on his forehead. Then the king Bhagira led her down to the valley, which is why the upper reaches of the Ganges are called the Bhagirathi river. Then, the river washed over the 82 sons, returning them to life. The end-of that particular story

It is very old Testament, with stories of families with hundreds of children, people being turned into stone, God's getting angry, and lots of warfare. One thing I find interesting is that I (Samuel) am curious, interested, and fairly warm towards the Hindu religion as a whole. It has a focus on family, devotion, ritual, and recognizing God in one another which I honor, and think Christians might learn from. There is a stream of patriarchy it shares with most major world religions which is troubling for both of us. Also, Rachel is pretty weirded out by lingams, the primary way that people worship Shiva (one of the three main Gods), which are spherical rocks meant to symbolize the penis.
However, the two biggest stories in Hinduism are really hard for me. The Baghavida Gita, the epic poem that is the most important Hindu book centers on a battle between cousins, where the core message from the god Krishna to the hero is 'if I tell you to kill your family, then do it. Don't worry about your conscience, do your duty.' and the Epic of Rama centers around a family torn apart by a demon who steals Sita, the wife, who eventually throws herself on a bonfire to prove her purity to her husband after she is rescued. The fact that she is later resurrected is a rather cold comfort, particularly since the practice of forcing widows to commit suicide on their husband's funeral pyres was widely practiced, and still happens occasionally (forced suicide is a contradiction in terms, I know, but its the traditional language around the practice). Now, I acknowledge that all of our primary myths have their challenges-Abraham and Isaac, Lot and his daughters, Saul committing genocide trouble me, and even eating the body and blood of Jesus is one of the things Romans often pointed out as odd about Christianity, so I don't want to be insulting or dismissive, but my Mennonite soul has a lot of trouble with honoring those particular embodiments of the virtues of duty and devotion.
Anyway, back to the narrative at hand:
After Pilot Baba's, we continued down to Uttarkashi, where we visited a couple of temples. One was the temple that Uttarkashi is named after. A lingam to Shiva, held in a temple in the Indian plains south of Delhi, was threatened by the Mogul invasion, so they took it high in the Himalayas to be safe. Also there is a large temple to the goddess, and the central icon is a giant weapon, her weapon. This apparently descends deep underground, and is made of a strange and unknown type of metal. After a discrete question from our guide, Rachel and I were invited to receive a marriage blessing there, so we purchased a plate of offerings, received a red dot and a yellow dot on our heads, and circled the weapon three times. Then we moved on to Shiva, where I poured water onto the Lingam (as you may remember, today is a particularly auspicious day to do so) and Rachel whispered the desires of her heart to Nandi, his bull. We both thought about our hopes and aspirations for our continued lives together, and honored the ancient nature of the worship here.
Afterwards, we took a walk through town, stopped for fresh pineapple and pomegranate juice (very nice) and got to check E-mail, learning that Rachel's cousin had a baby! Congratulations and blessings on Eleanor Joy. Now, we are again enjoying room service, and looking forward to finishing our downward journey tomorrow, before planning the final stages of our Indian adventure.

Saturday July 30th
a quiet day of preparation
Today we rode the rest of the way down the mountain, stopping for breakfast (deep fried onion and potato sandwiches with a savory sauce-quite good, actually), to take pictures, to eat at a famous lunch spot (we are going to miss mountainside food stands-full lunches including bread, rice, a couple kinds of curry, and chai tea for under a dollar each), and to wait out a landslide which blocked our path. The landslide was most interesting, watching the bulldozer at work, plus 50 or so people from buses helping clear a path, and watching rocks roll down the mountain into the Ganges. It feels a little unsafe up here, but only a few people die every year. As our guide says, only the best drivers die. They are the ones who go to fast.
One note on the people we see on our journey-since we have traveled to one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in India, many people want to come to Gangotri, and there are rituals about how best to go. Many travel on foot, walking all the way from Haridwar the 700km or so to the 4 temples, and we say people from the youngest to the oldest walking on the road. Often these are Hindu holy men, marked by their ragged beards and appearance, but frequently just normal people hiking slowly along. A particularly interesting incarnation of this was teams of barefoot runners, racing up and down the mountain at a good clip without shoes, trading off their bundles of materials to fellow team members and taking their turns riding the cars or motorcycles. Often, these were the same young men wearing orange we'd seen in Haridwar.
We also got to see a famous international resort, based in the palace of one of the old Maharajahs, where we could stay for the cheap price of 1000$ a night. We passed.
The causal sexism of our guide is apparently infecting Samuel, who has a couple of times answered for both of us before checking in with Rachel. Hopefully cutting off contact will cure the problem. Joshi always directs questions to him, prefaced with 'sir' and while he usually checks first, a number of times, he's just answered outright, not always in the way that Rachel would have chosen.
Samuel speaking, its not really a pattern I expected to be a problem, but the presumption of everyone that I'll do all the talking (and decision making) is insidious. I'm working on being more attentive, since I'd really prefer to be a quietly liberating presence, rather than the contrary. I'll be doing penance as well, I imagine.
After getting down from the mountain, we pumped Joshi for information and assistance in making plans for our trip to Agra, which will involve a double sleeper bus tomorrow night, getting us to Agra early in the morning. It will be great, much better than our previous plan of burning one of our precious days in India driving cross country for 12 hours.
There we will see the Taj Mahal, of course, and other sights around Agra, before returning to Delhi for our final few days, including shopping and various touristy activities. Then, home. We would be happy to stay in the mountains another week (or month) and we'll both probably enjoy Agra and Delhi, but we are beginning to think of and talk about home more often, and we are ready, I think, for our journey to come to an end.  After these arrangements were made, we went to dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel we were staying in.  We both agreed that we were not hungry enough for two full Indian meals, so decided to split one dinner and order a few appetizers.  The menu had a section (after the Hot/Cold Drinks section) labeled 'appetizers,' with a few salads listed, and then several Indian words we didn't recognize.  We decided to pick two things from this list that we didn't recognize.  When the waiter came back, he handed Samuel a lemonade, and Rachel a cup of something that can only be described as fowl ocean water with little fermented rice chunks on top.   So this is Jal Jerra.  We each took two sips and called it good.  But a new foodie expereince.

Sunday, July 31st
We had a nice day in Haridwar today-we were able to sleep in, before exploring parts of town we hadn't seen before. We enjoyed our first trips on bicycle rikshaws, and had a 2 mile hike up to the top of Chandi Devi temple, where the torso of Devi, Shiva's first wife, fell to earth (she was cut in 12 pieces, after she committed suicide because her father insulted her husband). It was incredibly hot, and we were both completely exhausted when we arrived at the top. After catching our breaths, we bought a Coke, unfortunately, an onery monkey stole it away from Rachel. We had a good laugh at him trying to open the bottle, and when he gave up, an Indian man opened it, and another Monkey came and stole it and drank. We took the gondola down (we should have taken it up as well) and returned for a nice air conditioned lunch. Samuel fulfilled a personal goal of ordering Chinese food in India-not as sweet, more of a kick, pretty nice.
In the afternoon we went back to Har-ki-puri, the most sacred spot in Haridwar, and the reason the Kumba Mela is here (a gathering of some 20 million people every 3 years at 4 different spots in India) when it wasn't completely overrun, and looked around, seeing the temples and watching people bathing. Then we went shopping a bit for friends and family and checked E-mail, before investing in a shower at a local hotel before our overnight bus ride (we decided a few dollars was a small price to pay to feel clean after a sweaty day on a 12 hour non-ac bus).
Tomorrow, Agra. We're going to try and do the Red Fort, and a few other sites. We'll see how hot it turns out to be.