the trip

sarah's covenant homes

eMi2 project 8211

Our project trip took us 30 hours by train to the south of India. eMi's newly appointed CEO, John Dallman, flew into New Delhi and rode down on the train with Graham (our project leader), Christine (eMi2 long-term graphic design volunteer), David (engineering intern) and myself. It was a fun ride for the most part and went by quickly. When we first found our seats, we were all separated and language (or perhaps stubbornness) prevented anyone from switching seats with us. We accepted our fate and settled in, and then I just decided I would give it a try and speak to the men myself. To our surprise, a sweet older man switched with me right away and so Christine and I were able to have the two slightly separate seats near the window. It was so nice because we could draw the curtains to avoid unwelcome stares, of which there was no shortage. We read and talked and I stitched, and we drank lots and lots of chai with buscuits.

my cozy little train home

delicious egg biryani on the train

Before I knew it, 24 hours had passed and we were in Hyderabad...

We arrived at our guest house in the evening and our two volunteers were already there waiting for us! Nick is an engineer from Florida and he would be helping with the surveying and civil planning for our site. Mark is an architect also from Florida and he would be the chief of our design partnership for the duration of our trip until he handed over the reigns to me to finish our report. They are both wonderful and it was great to share a late dinner at the guest house and begin to get to know one another. The next day, we explored and took an auto into town. We visited the Charminar (four minarets). Once up inside, I was taken back to my time in Italy. The view was incredible and there were winding alleys radiating from the central Charminar. Just like Italy, but completely different.

the charminar

our CEO, John!
it was an honor to be on his first (of many) eMi project trips

We walked around the market just a bit and looked around. There were really interesting things being sold that I had never seen in the north. On one road, it was like a sidewalk, antique-junk fair. After we visited some pearl shops (Hyderabad is famous for its pearls) we went to our final and most exciting destination: lunch. Hyderabad is also famous for a dish called Biryani. Biryani is served all over India but originated in Hyderabad. So, we went to the best restaurant for Biryani in Hyderabad - in essence, we had the best Biryani in the world. It was delicious.

cool flea-market-esque things on the street

this guy I think wins coolest stuff on the block...
and best sneaky attitude

autos are painted differently in different regions of India!

just walking around getting everyone
acclimated to the hustle and bustle of India!

Then, it was time to head for Ongole to get to work! A 6-hour train ride and we were there!

the whole team ready to get goin'

Very early in the morning: 5:50 am to be exact. Some men from the ministry picked us up and took us to the flat we would be staying in for the next week. I have to be honest, the town and the accommodations were not quite what I was used to. The first night sleeping on my cot, I was mauled by ants and mosquitoes. I was a little nervous about how the week was going to turn out, but after getting settled in and learning to spray on the repellent before bed things started looking up!

Ongole was pretty different from the home we were used to in Delhi. Because it is smaller and more remote, it's far more conservative and I think it sees fewer white folks. 

Anyways, we had a devotion and then had about an hour to regroup and settle before we would go tour the existing facilities. Here I am regrouping... on a pile of towels:

oopsies

After we were refreshed, we began getting to know the people of SCH, mainly Eric, and touring the existing facilities. Mark and I took measurements of the facilities and observed the current organization, construction methods, and programmatic needs. The engineers observed the current systems (water and waste). 

After that, it was time to go to our site! It's about 15-20 minutes outside of town. Ongole is apparently growing rather quickly. There is a gigantic, brand-new engineering college across the street from our site, there are development plans for two of our adjacent lots and land prices are skyrocketing. It was excited to see the land as a blank slate, but over the course of the week, I realized that there is no such thing as a blank slate. Our site presents many challenges in many areas. As my watercolor teacher Gouranga always says, "we are never free." 

There is one building already going up on the site. It will be the headquarters for the parent ministry, India Christian Ministries. The vision is for the site to one day include a bible college, school, SCH facility and maybe even residential space. 

ICM building

We explored the building and the surrounding area and had the opportunity to ask someone from ICM who was with us tons of questions about the ministry, the vision, the site, etc. We looked around from the roof of this building and right as we were getting ready to walk our 11-acre site, it began to rain. We sought shelter for a few minutes while it passed.. .and then we walked the muddy, muddy site. 

crazy props to Christine Gerhart for this epic project team photo

We were a mess by the end of our exploration and so several of the guys from the ministry helped us clean our shoes before piling back into the car. It was a really moving way for them to serve us. Especially because shoes are kind of offensive in India.

david most likely said something funny
that david

So now we had the basis to begin our work. The engineers would spend the next few days in the field to survey and determine fixed boundaries, topography and to do perc tests for the soil. When I thought I was hot, I remembered that they were outside all day and stopped whining to myself. 

As for Mark and I, it was to the drawing boards to start laying out and programming the facility. Mark has a lot of work and life experience and coming straight from school, it was nice to be on a team with someone who was such a bank of knowledge. We worked sometimes in the ICM office and sometimes in the flat where we were staying. We were drawing mostly by hand in the beginning and then shifted more to the computer towards the end of the week. It was challenging to work in Ongole because there are scheduled power outages twice a day, though they are not always at exactly the same time every day. One from about 9 am to 11:30 am and then again from 3:30 pm to 5 pm. They were often longer than this. Because Ongole is more conservative, if we left the flat we had to wear kurtas and pants complete with dupattas (long shirt, big pants, and scarf). Ongole was around 93 F average while we were there - even hotter than Delhi! This made working throughout the day with no fans a bit of a challenge.

hard at work

I love Mark's sketches

Anyhow, we worked days and nights taking breaks to eat and to have meetings every now and then with Eric and Tisrah (sch) and James (founder of icm). It was great to get frequent input from them and really have a dialogue about the project, the needs and the design.

meeting with James + Eric one night

we worked late... but we had cake

One night after a particularly long day, I realized it was already dark and I would not be able to go out to grab any treats. As if he read my mind, David had gone out to buy ice cream!!! There were some very interesting flavors and it was fun to try them. It's not the same - not even close to the same - as ice cream in the states but, hey, it does the trick. This particular night, we were also having unpredictable power outages.. so we had to be prepared. And we had to eat all of the ice cream. Hey! It wasn't going to keep if we didn't have power!!

honeymooner's delight
just saying.. it was funky and fruity.

just in case the lights cut out
I was not going to let this go to waste

Before I knew it, our time in Ongole was coming to an end. The night before our final presentation, our friends from the ministry took us along with their friends and families to a private beach on some land that ICM owns on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It was wonderful. Completely undeveloped and in the middle of nowhere. There were huge ants and tiny crabs, but everyone just got along. We brought dinner with us and some s'mores ingredients. The kids ran around and some people swam. It was really beautiful and quiet and I got some time to walk alone down the beach in the dark. I could see stars but I couldn't distinguish between the water and the velvety-black sky. It was, perhaps one of the darkest places I've ever been in my life but I didn't feel scared walking alone. I felt so blessed and so free. Once I got away from our bonfire, I knew that no one could see me if they were trying and I think that was the first time I had been really alone in months. I just sat and took my hair down (scandalous and suggestive in small towns) and let the wind blow through it and I just reflected on the week and all the hard things God had brought up for me to face and address and grow through and I just felt so thankful that in the midst of chaos and difficulty, God brought us out here to just enjoy His creation and each other's company. I stood there and moved around letting the tide wash away the foot prints I had made, letting the water restore the sand to the pristine, smooth surface it was before I ruined it. I couldn't help but see this as a symbol of what God does for us. The world leaves it's mark on us, we leave marks on one another, and perhaps most of all we tend to leave marks on ourselves. We can take hope that our mighty God made the oceans and knows how many grains of sand there are and even how many are displaced by my every step. And in the same way that He can restore and replace that sand after I move and disturb it, how much more can He restore and redeem our hearts. We come to Him so warped and broken and lost, and as simply and easily as an ocean wave, he makes us whole and smooth and beautiful again. It was a wonderful, refreshing way to finish our week in Ongole.

We still had one more meeting - which I will tell you all about in my next post! I am off to Mussoorie this weekend for retreat from the heat and a little quiet time! 

Work on this project has been keeping me busy and excited, but I promise not to disappear for so long between posts again!

I miss you all and would love to hear from you!