Peoples is Peoples

Lots of things keep coming back to me from my time in India.

For example, a silly little detail, I was on an aircraft this past week and got a hot refresher towel. I was reminded of the incredulity with which I took the frozen towel on the flight to India and the joy with which I greeted the frozen towel on the flight out of India.

I was chatting to someone on the plane with a relative in the States. She said that many families in Phoenix Arizona install real fire places into their homes as a feature but need to switch on the air con whenever they use them because they live in a desert which is already too hot. Ahhhhhh! This reminded me of trying to explain to the Anandaloy lads that I don’t have a fan but in fact have to heat my home on occasions.

I had a pub lunch on Friday and the burger + onion rings were delivered in 10mins. “Incredible!” I thought, and then “well no, that’s about how quick it should be.” And again met up with friends for a meal on Saturday and we all got our meals at the same time.

I saw a neighbour’s cat the other day: a fat western pet cat. Doesn't know he's born.

And finally today on the way home from church traffic was a little busy (Bristol half marathon slicing the city into two with an impenetrable line of cones). We all followed the car in front. As I crossed a roundabout I heard a car beep its horn, the owner clearly getting frustrated in the mid day sun, with someone cutting him up. I smiled and remembered the traffic in Kolkata, where it sounds as if the horn is used for echo location.

I'm trying not to fall back into previous mentalities. I'm trying to change my culture away from a western task-driven approach to everything to one where the relationship is the focus. Not to get frustrated when things don't happen quite how I thought they ought, or the day doesn't go as planned, or something isn't done that quickly. The world is a beautiful place. God's in control.

Friday Club started at church last week. Lots there.

In some ways the same, in some ways different from the groups in Kolkata. Relationships are high on the agenda once any group gets to a certain age, but... there's a difference in the opportunities to express it. I can't recall anything I'd term bullying in the groups in Kolkata, whereas it can be a battle to quash it here. The Indian kids seemed to have a better, more healthy, self image and they are better at relating to and enjoying the company of everybody in the group. But it is definitely true to say that much is recognisable between them. "Peoples is Peoples" as a wise man once said in the Muppets Take Manhattan. These are all generalisations and I need to think a little more about it to see if they're really true.

They all need Jesus Christ.