A Few First Impressions

The chapel is air-conditioned and near the Kaspers where we went today on our own. First Branch, one assignment, meets here. It is open all the time but does have a couple guards on duty. On the right is General Bazaar, narrow little alley between cramped stores (lots with fabric) but we still had to watch out for motor scooters. There's no peace anywhere. Kaspers took us all over Tuesday (four in an auto) to take care of some of the things we needed.

Pic below is Sunday in Bangalore when traffic is slower. Still this shows it much slower than it was for the most part. Electrical wires are exposed and twisted into all sorts of conglomerations--not so evident here. No wonder they have power problems.

Pic above is at photo shop near mission office where we had to get more passport photos to be used for our government registration in Hyderabad. Haven't done that yet but it's an all-day affair we hear. We walked here with a more seasoned couple and the little girl on the right tried to sell me her beads. As missionaries, we simply cannot respond to beggars or anyone similar because of various problems it has caused in the past. She was at least selling something but we have to ignore them. I talked too much to her and she waited outside to try again. We're told not to make eye contact and say "No" once and ignore them. This child was too wily and healthy looking to believe she was in the real poverty class. Still very sad. Beggars or street sellers are everywhere and go after Dad mostly. Guess they sense what a softie he is.

Cows are everywhere. I could have touched this one but didn't dare of course. Pic on the right shows the crowded street better than any I took. The autos are yellow and open. We took our first alone today--a 50 rupee ride or approx $1.25 depending on the exchange rate (about 15-20 minutes). The first driver said 150 rupees and we just said no and kept walking. He continued to lower his price but we weren't interested and climbed in another. Most have meters and a recent strike moved rates up 10 rupees so we add that to the meter. Mostly there are no traffic signs or lights (saw a couple but don't know why they exist as we flew through them). At larger intersections (no order to the streets; nothing so simple as going around the block) policemen will sometimes stop traffic to allow the opposite to flow. You tell drivers the areas and the landmarks and trust to luck they know. Our taxi from the airport (Kaspers picked us up) got lost and doubled the normal time.