Updates from India 66

Hello again welcome to our first blog of 2018.

Its been a strange month, plans derailed, unexpected happenings. Most important the weather daytime is starting to warm up. Still very cold at night, down to 5degC and believe me when you have adapted to 50degC summers then that really is cold.

We had a visit from some friends who were riding to Mumbai in the south for a big biker meet and then heading home 4000km!

Converted the bike to solo as Kris finds riding in winter to painfull on her knees. We will go back to two up when the weather is warmer.

 What Happens When You Take God Out Of Schools
I still think this is a very powerful piece of writing from the internet. It is based on American society but reflects on all of us. Please read and forward if you believe we should all look closely at what our faithless society is becoming. It is our society and our responsibility.  

Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained (In the USA) she didn't want any prayer in our schools, 

and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.... the Bible that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself. 

And we said OK.

Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. And we said an expert should know what he's talking about so 

we said OK, we won't spank them anymore.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued. (There's a big difference between disciplining and touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.) 

And we accepted their reasoning.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents.

 And we said that's a grand idea.

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said 

that's another great idea.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. And agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good. 

We said fine.

And then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women (and nude men) and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female and male body. 

And we said we have no problem with that.

 And the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex.

 Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers  (and the internet) say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says.

Funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow Satan who, by the way, also "believes" in God.

Funny how we are quick to judge but not to be judged.

Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail (and the internet) they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.

Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.

Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

Are you thinking?

Pass it on if you think it has merit! If not then just discard it....no one will ever know what you did, for sure. But, if you discard this thought process, then don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world is in.....

Garden.

Well it’s that time of year again. After a slow start because of unusually cold temperatures slowing germination things are at last beginning to grow.

It is still very cold here at night so we have been sowing in trays indoors. The weather here in India has definitely changed over the last ten years and that change seems to be becoming more obvious each year. Summers are later and hotter (up to 50degC here) and the monsoon, our only source of water has consistently been less than is used depleting the underground water stores that we rely on. More and more bore wells are going in drawing that water for Industry and private use. Nobody seems to care, ‘water is a right like the air, and we have the right to use what we need’ is a comment we often hear. It cannot go on forever; already many wells that used to be productive all year are dry in the summer. Lakes that are fed by run off from the monsoon are going dry. Water tankers are becoming a common sight visiting many homes towards the end of summer. And still apathy reigns. Not a single day passes where we don’t see water flowing down the street from a hose or an overflow. We have plenty of water….it’s just after monsoon! It’s like paying into your bank every month, and then you slowly increase what you withdraw. First your surplus goes, then you have to start being more careful, finally, the account is empty. If you are lucky your bank will let you overdraw for a while. If we run out of water people die, crops fail and famine visits us again. But its India isn’t it; they are used to famine and drought. Well don’t feel too safe, climate change is coming to all of us no matter where we live.

Rant over, back to the garden.

We have been trying every year to improve our crop of tomatoes. More fruit from less space. Adjusting sowing times and soil conditions definitely have helped. So has our method of pruning to only two main stems. This year we have seen the greatest improvement in growth and so far in flowers on the plants. We sowed early but kept the plants indoors until the ‘wild’ varieties popped their heads up. We then transplanted into bags of worm compost (normally used as a feed for poor soils). Since then Kris has regularly fed them on her secret mix. Dilute chicken poo from a 40gal barrel we have. The water is from the RO (Reverse osmosis) water purifier we use. Most users waste this as ‘bad’ water, not fit for use, probably as a result of the purifier manufacturers advertising the need for only ‘pure’ ‘safe’ water in the home.

Why all the bother when tomatoes are available all year around in the markets? Simply the taste, gorgeous fresh sweet tomatoes organically grown….nothing compares.

We have planted the centre bed with nasturtiums and surrounded it with a small flower border of daises and petunia

. For only the second year since we got here we have succeeded with Sweet Peas, they are growing well and looking strong in a planter under the sitting room window.   We are hoping the scent will drift into the house.

Kitchen Garden growing well.

The kitchen garden is looking good. As expected the brassicas are doing best in the lime rich soil, courtesy of six months of chicken poop in it, as are turnips and swede. Tomatoes here are immigrants from who knows where but we have decided to grow on and see if we like them. Seeds in the fridge again soon?

One other small border has been made in front of the chicken pen, two varieties of annual climber 

and one perennial moonflower.

The whole garden is looking good and even the dogs have learnt what ‘GET OUT OF THERE’ means so fewer holes!

Our only failures so far are herbs and melons. We have one more sowing of melon that went in today as well as sunflowers that we are growing (we hope) for the seeds.

The leeks are growing as is the garlic in the front bed. 

Our old friend is doing well these days.

 Both the dogs are well, Chilli is growing, soon be as big as Blue'

So, all in all things are going well here.

Our jeep sprang an oil leak!
Nothing serious, an oil pipe had blown. Just very messy. As luck would have it just as we came onto the colony returning from a wedding.

As you can see we had some visitors this month. 
Friends from the bike club Delhi chapter just passing through.
They stayed with us for one night so we did a quick oil change.

This was parked just outside visiting a neighbour, lovely bike but our roads in Rajasthan would kill it. Imagine this off road!

 Harley Davidson.

Bike converted to solo use

Back to two up as the weather gets warmer.

 It works by being able to bolt/unbolt this entire rear section with only six bolts. About twenty mins work. It took a few attempts to finalise this design!

In solo configuration

Warm Aid

We have been out and about again this month giving blankets to the needy in our society.

This time it was to an orphanage in the city, 40 new blankets for them.

We have also had a donation of Rs18000 about £200, anonymous from church friends. Fantastic, this means so much to us and to the people we can help. There is a government blind school we are going to visit, if needed they will be our next donation.

For details of Warm Aid please have a look at our Facebook page.

Comments from Kris

Well, I have been thinking about all the names I am known by since coming to India so I thought I’d share the ones I remember with you.

I am known as Christine; Kris, Mrs Chris Chris; Mrs Hyde; Mrs Hydeee; Ma’am and Auntie and these are just the ones I know about. I am sure eccentric foreigner would be in the list too but I have no intention of changing who I am to conform and become boring.

Chris and I were talking recently and I said that when we came to India at least I would have no further use for my nursing qualifications, how wrong I was.

Since coming to live here I have given IV infusions, IV medications, IM and SC injections, dressed wounds, a lot of this was for friends and neighbours who live on the colony one was even a doctor, I’ve taken out sutures, removed a catheter; removed a gun pellet from Moti the street dog, nursed sick birds and my hens, nursed a very ill street dog; assisted at road traffic accidents giving first aid, taught first aid to students, taught self breast examination seminars, given nutritional advice and taught hygiene to name a few. Chris falling off his bike and breaking his foot needing to strap the foot several times daily as we were in the middle of nowhere whilst on a riding holiday, I have to say he is still my hero we carried on with the riding and the holiday despite his pain but the strapping and high boots helped. That’s my Chris for you he will not give in and I admire him for that. 

There have been numerous accidents mainly involving motorcyclists not wearing helmets, some of the victims of these accidents alas died from their injuries but not all. I was most touched to receive an email a few weeks following an accident in Dungapor with thanks from an elderly gentleman via a friend whom we stopped to give first aid to. He alas was not breathing when we got there but after ensuring he had an airway he started breathing and Chris and I treated his wounds. He had a large deep laceration on his forehead where a stone was lodged, I managed to remove it clean the wound and put a pressure bandage on to reduce the bleeding, I bet he had a horrific headache afterwards. He also had lacerations to his hands and foot. What is most disturbing is that the man in the car who knocked him off his scooter just drove on never stopping. The locals took my advice and got him to hospital after they had all stood and watched me treat his wounds. After all, there is little to do for entertainment in some of the rural villages. The gentleman who was in his eighties or thereabouts alas lost his scooter as it was totalled by the cars impact.

There have been many opportunities to use my nursing knowledge that I am thankful God gave me the compassion to care for my fellow man and animals. So much for not needing my nursing, there are too many stories to tell.

Well, that was some of our month. Looking forward to next month.........Visiting GOA.

May God bless you all (even if you dont believe in Him)

Chris and Kris, Udaipur Rajisthan India.