Update 8

Hi all its us in India again!

Well its getting hotter by the day 32degC today, its now 2AM and I cant sleep, just one of those odd nights when your head keeps working and your body wont turn off. Sitting here I just thought it was a bit chilly, I must be acclimatising, its 18degC!

THIS IS THE NEW SIGN IN TOWN,

Its fantastic to be part of the birth of a new church. At the moment we  (about 60ish) meet in an L shaped room, one half of the congregation cant see the others so we are all praying for a larger more suitable building, please all who do pray say one for us if we cant find anywhere soon we may have no building to meet in as we have to leave here probably by the time you read this we will be in temporary buildings, or someones shed so please full power prayer required!.

Last time I wrote I talked a little about faith and the fact that God is real. I have been reading a quite small book by Don Stewart, '10 Reasons to Trust the Bible' ISBN (1-877825-03-4) but it has a big message. He looks frankly at history, the bible stories and shows how science is now beginning to see the bible more as an extremely accurate source of information than ever before without it becoming to heavy to read..

It always reminds me of my own experience when I read of Historians or out and out atheists spending months or even years trying to show the Bible is wrong only to become Christians themselves in the process. The bottom line is if you do the research you cant help but find the truth.

A friend commented on the phrase 'blind faith' from the last blog, he said 'Its not blind faith that's the problem, its blind denial' good point!

I spent most of my life that way until I was shown by God how wrong I was with solid unchallengeable proof, now my wife and I both live by  God's laws and try to become more like Jesus wants us to be, we constantly fail, we must, we unlike Him can never be perfect or sinless but we keep trying and in so doing we praise and honour Him. He brought us to India, everything we do is in praise of Him.

When you finally realise all your possessions mean nothing there is a great sense of freedom, you can do and go where  and what the lord wants you to , no hang ups about my nice new TV or my car, what does it all mean compared with the love of Christ. Nothing that's what you have the day you pass into eternity, no car no TV no bank balance, just one fact matters, do you take Jesus as your saviour? that's all there is, everything else is immaterial and transitory.

Home

This week we received from the UK a package of letters written to the boys at Panawar by school children from Durham Choristers School .They have raised money to help with the new building and bless them want to be 'pen pals' with some of the boys there. There was even a 'snakes and Ladders' game, I will laminate it before we go to make it more durable I am sure it will get plenty of use.

How this will work I have no idea, we are able to get the letters to them and in time send back the replies, there you go all so simple, remember this is India, its a truly wonderful country but things take a long time to happen.

Home while the painting was going on!

Well we did it, we have had the house partly decorated and done some ourselves to save some money, it is now looking lovely, pastel greens, so soft on the eyes after coming in from the bright sun.

 Kris has her studio almost up and running and plans to exhibit some work for the winter season.

I thought you might like to see this, its the forecast for the next week, note just above 35degC the description 'pleasently warm' no mention of hot enough to cook on the bike seat there! The temp in Udaipur on Tuesday 5pm...38degC!!!! Forecasters are as good here as in the UK.

Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
5 Mar	6 Mar	7 Mar	8 Mar	9 Mar	10 Mar	11 Mar
Weather:
Description:	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.	Sunny. Pleasantly warm.
High temperature:	32 °C	33 °C	33 °C	35 °C	35 °C	34 °C	32 °C
Low temperature:	16 °C	17 °C	18 °C	15 °C	18 °C	19 °C	18 °C

WORK

At last we are underway with a major effort to teach spoken English to the more outlying villages, cluster group leaders (PMF initiative to form groups of people with a common goal) are being trained both in English and teaching skills so that they can then pass on their skills to others. To read more about PMF and how you can perhaps help go to Pragati Marg Foundation on facebook or to their web site.

Below is the report on day one from the web page. (I'm the good looking chap on the left!)

Day 1 of Chringlish! 
Stretching the arm around, Mr. Chris Hyde (to your extreme left) is posing with the field volunteers of PMF after the launching session of "Chringlish" (Chris's Spoken English workshop for the Villagers). 
Mr. Hyde is PMF's international volunteer from Durham, UK. A man with a wide array of experiences. One of his special skills is teaching children of special needs. Well, the session today wasn't anything less to what Mr. Hyde would have experienced while handling his students of special need.

The use of an interpreter was restricted to an introduction and only used in the sessions to explain a difficult concept to the learners. At all other times Chris used a wipe board, mime, theatre and body language to convey meaning and assist when constructing sentences. The first session went very well with the learners and those observing being very surprised at how much learning took place using this method.

By the end of the first session all the learners had a basic grasp of the alphabet and plural and singular meanings. All could understand at least twenty words being able to identify normal household objects in English and construct a short sentence.
Chris said of the group, ‘Everyone worked hard to achieve as much as they did, I really enjoyed the teaching, and it is wonderful to have so much enthusiasm and effort from learners’.

As this group continues to improve their skills they will go on to teach others English in their Cluster groups, in that way many more people will gain from this training than just those who come here for these sessions.


In addition to this I also teach an English class at a local college for more advanced students who are struggling with the complexities of spoken English.



Things that made me go mmmmmmmm

You know you have married the right woman when she comes back with a bucket of cow poo (and a big smile) for your home made fertiliser.

Yep, its a three legged dog, it has adopted us (and the rest of the street) note the food bowl on the background. When we first arrived he came and sniffed, said hello and has been a friend since. Hates strangers and rickshaw drivers ...........maybe a clue to where his leg went? Loves a fuss and plays with the local children. Sleeps on our step or our neighbours, or anyone who feeds him! He is the best fed stray I have ever seen, note the lack of ribs..The locals call him 'pearl' Kris calls him 'hoppity'!

Buying a mower that you have to PUSH! Well I suppose it is good for Kris, needs a bit of real work ....instead of all this arty stuff she calls teaching!  (Joke OK, it was a joke, please can I have my tea now? Darling, sweetie where have you gone...............)



Watching these beautiful creatures, water buffalo graze, they are about about the size of a good sized bull but so gentle.

Having a conversation about making liquid cow manure feed for the plants with a neighbour, just like back in the UK. I once took a very good friends kids (family really) cow pat collecting, it was for all concerned memorable! Sas loved it, all gooey and smelly or am I remembering incorrectly (private joke, watch the comments box!)

Garden
Kris on the roof sewing our shade for the tomatoes, look at that sky, that's what we here call 'Blue'.

 

We wanted to tell the neighbours we were building a hang glider and were going to jump off the roof with it!

Only the front roller blind to go on now. 21st century C&K meet the East, tomatoes in summer,,,,,,,,,,,,,we will see.

Tomatoes in the back and cucumbers in the front, we will also grow capsicum here.

Sweet peas have started to flower, smell wonderful.

Food growing well, but will need shade soon as the temp rises.

Kris wanted bulbs so I planted her some.



The Indians are a lot more sensible than the UK about number plates, you get a number issued (that's the hard part, no, the very hard part) then as long as you comply with a few simple rules its up to you, so we made our own!

An English Rose blooms in India.

The Welsh ride again.





Front plates are the same!

Comments from Kris.

The gas bottle saga comes to a conclusion.

It is such a relief to have had it sorted out at long last. As we are not Indian citizens we can't get domestic bottled gas legally, and as Chris says they do not have a category for foreigners. So we are now  a Commercial company as that is the only alternative to domestic, I may need to employ someone in my kitchen hee hee.  (Wont be me! Chris) But it is good to get back to having gas and we are doing so legally and not on the black market so we are not breaking the 8th Commandment which is good. People still can't understand (some of them Christians) why we went Commercial rather than just buy bottles as we needed to at the market but it is a good opportunity to witness and explain about our faith.

YOU SHALL NOT STEAL.

Riding my scooter remains very exciting and interesting, how often in England do you have to avoid donkeys, cattle, goats etc, let alone the other riders and drivers coming at you from every direction, including head on. I have at last embraced the Indian way of transporting shopping, I bought several     7 ft long wooden slats for our diy project and tied them onto my scooter to get them home as no rickshaws nearby.  I still can't get my head around how beautiful Udaipur is and that we actually live here. 

I am getting to know lots of the traders locally including the English Wine Shop of which there are several. It is nice to go to the shops and market and be recognised, the local Dairy knows what I order now and automatically asks me if I want anything extra. I have found a really great bakery and frozen food outlet that is owned and run by the father of the bakery guys. Not to mention the chicken man.

Chris and I are well known in the garden shop and he made a video for them showing how our rotavator works, they were very pleased with it. Fame at last, directed by and starring!
I am getting excited that I can start my own painting soon, I have been teaching art but can't wait to do my own thing. I am still frustrated at not being able to get proper watercolour paper but I will continue to work on that one. (Oh I cant draw my pencils blunt!.....Chris) Chris has just drawn on the dry board happy faces, he is more artistic than he will acknowledge or admit to. ''Listen, I cant mess around here all night there's cricket on!''  Oh my what will I do I have lost my rubber. Bet J Pollock didn't have a rubber! Chris is very very cheeky he will pay for this later.

We have been getting into a bit of DIY, with both of us teaching now we need more room to work and prep so we are 'enlarging' our computer desk. To give some scale the back is 5feet x three feet. These are the new colours, I know it doesn't look it but the ceiling is white and the walls pale green. Really cool when you come in from the heat.

Well its 11.30 on a Sunday night, we are both teaching tomorrow so beddy byes for me. We will show you the garden again as it grows and how our computer desk turns out but for now we have to go so God bless you all and please remember to pray for a building for our church.
I just want to say one more thing, some years ago my life changed when I excepted Christ as my saviour, I am still the same person but inside I am changed forever, I cant explain it, all I can say is you know that empty feeling, that part of you that you wont even admit feels empty, well with Christ in your life its full.

God Bless you all
Chris and Kris