What Goes Around

We were only away a week, but it is hard to get back into life.  My first full day felt like culture shock all over again.  The day started out with me having chai, but something in the chai makes my throat close up and I gag and vomit.   The first thing the girls at the home said to me after "hello" was, "What is on your chin?"  Well it was a pimple of course.  And it seems that my sweet Indian friends love to point that out to me.  Never have I had a pimple in India without it being pointed out.  I had tried to cover it with make-up but apparently it was very obvious.  In America we just ignore people's flaws. Then I had to go out to go to Bible study (which I really enjoy).  But there were no shared autos.  So I waited and waited and waited and finally walked.  The walk is about 15 minutes to get to the metro station and the whole time I am feeling like any minute I could get sideswiped by a car down the jam packed road. ...

Today at church there was a new lady visiting.  She wore a suit.  She looked a bit nervous, always looking around.  She sat down, looked around, moved to a new suit, looked around.  Every so often she would move to a new area.  Finally she sat down on my row a few seats away from me.  I smiled.  During our church we have a welcome time where visitors stand and tell where they are from.  One of the regular guys introduced his guest, which happened to be the Honorable Diane Ablonczy, a Canadian member of Parliament.  Never heard of her.  It isn't unusual to have high ranking officials at church, like Ambassadors or others, but maybe this was the first time for a member of Parliament. The lady by me didn't stand and introduce herself.  Maybe she was shy.  But she looked around uncomfortably.  So I decided that when I got a chance, I would scoot over and ask if she was new.  I got my chance during the offering. ...

Yes, one time I went to a sporting goods store and tried to buy a gun.  I was at a point in my life that I needed some extra protection.  I was scared. A few days before my trip to the sporting goods store, I was sitting in my apartment alone just minding my own business when all of a sudden some thugs (or teenagers) starting kicking my door, trying to break in.  There were 4 or 5 of them as I recall.  I could see daylight through the door.  I quickly called 911 but then thought, "Is this an emergency?"  So I hung up.  I dialed again and hung up.  The group had left by then and were going down the street.  The 911 operator called me back.  I told her what had happened.  She told me to call the police.  I told her I didn't know the police number and didn't have a phone book, so could she give me the number.  She said, "No.  Call information.  And only call 911 if they are IN your house." I got the police phon...

I was feeling artsy yesterday.  I found an interesting painting that I thought I could do something similar to and so I gave it a try.  Here is a link to the painting  http://www.artistrising.com/products/388445/Pink-and-Brown.htm   and here is what I did I nailed it!

Today in our staff devotion time we were looking at a passage about the wondering in the wilderness for 40 years.  And someone brought up the idea of the training we go through.  It made me think of an event in my life that I haven't shared with people.  I think because of this event, I am able to understand a small, little bit of some of the things the girls in our home have gone through.  So even though i don't look at it with thankfulness, I can look at it as a situation that God redeemed. I had a boyfriend when I was 15 years old.  He was controlling and abusive.  Not anything like what the girls in our home have gone through, but in a way I can relate.  One day this boyfriend got angry.  He was angry at me for wanting to break-up with him.  He was angry at himself.  He was talking about killing himself.  He had to drive me home from his house since I wasn't able to drive yet.  As we drove, he was mad.  He pressed t...

I often times put myself in the place of judge.  I am critical.  I am judgmental.  I may even try to do the work of the Holy Spirit.  I guess I can put this on my list of things to work on.  So now if I go on about something I am judgmental about it really shows that I'm not working on this issue in my life.  But I really want to speak.  I want to tell you how people bug me.  I want to tell you about the wrongs in other peoples lives. I'm a minimalist (in my opinion anyway).  Although Steve pointed out today that I have a lot of bags/purses.  I was pointing out an item that he had a lot of and then he turned on me.  It is true.  I have a lot of bags.  People give me some of them or I have purchased them.  Several have broken zippers.  Many of them I don't use.  So why not get rid of them.  So today instead of posting about the people who are purchasing expensive, unnecessary items, I will go home...

I now know the smell of melting wires.  Kind of a fish smell.  I don't think I ever had a plug or wall socket melt in America, but for some reason I have had several incidents here just in the last couple of months. Today the electrician came to change the plug and the wall socket.  I had smelled the wire burning when we turned on the hot water heater but we needed hot water so we used it a little more then we should have.  But finally we decided it would be safer to not use it.  The electrician pulled out the wall socket and showed me how it was melted and burnt.  And then the plug of the water heater also was burnt.  So both had to be changed. Why is it that wall sockets melt here?  What is different?  Why does it happen so often?  Why do all our houses have bad wiring?  Don't the electricians care about the work they do?