Never seem to pass an uneventful day here. I actually am beginning to look forward to being bored some time in the future. This week we are still trying to get all the pieces put together. We applied for internet access at the house. We were told it would take over a month. We hoped I might be able to get that expedited so we went to talk to the manager. It was 11:00 p.m. when we got up to his office. Of course he wasn’t there and no one seemed to know when he would be back. We waited for an hour at which point the lights on the floor we were on where turned off for lunch. Ok subtle hint here so we left and went to get something to eat we came back and he still wasn’t in his office and surprise, surprise no one knew when / if he would be back. Ok I want that job.
However instead looks like I’ll be working in the IT industry. Posted my resume last night and I’m already getting calls. So it looks like it shouldn’t take long. Of course I have no Idea what the expectations are here in India so It will likely take me some time to understand the landscape well enough to actually land a position.
We did attempt to get started on the paperwork for the orphanage. We made an appointment with an accountant and discussed it. We learned 2 things from this appointment.
1. the process takes between 1 and 3 months
2. We don’t need an accountant we need an advocate.
So now we are waiting to get an appointment with him. In the mean time I’m job hunting and Mercy is out shopping for some more of the things we need for the house. What I wouldn’t give for a Wal-Mart, Target or K-Mart. Actually I’d settle for a Ben Franklin at this point. The number of stores we have to go to for the things we need is remarkable. We got the Coffee Maker from one store, the washing machine from another and the blender from a third. As I type Mercy is at a forth store looking for a refrigerator. Life’s definitely an adventure when just finding house hold appliances makes you feel like Indian Jones looking for the lost ark.
However it isn't all frustration and delays every now and then we get a chance to remember why we are here. I was walking through a local slum recently helping out a family. We were help to load a truck with all their possessions and move them into a better location. Unfortunately the closest the truck could get to the house in the slums was about a quarter mile away. As we took trip after trip picking our way through the sea of humanity living within what seemed to be rubble and ruins to carry their belongings to the truck children began to gather around us. Dirty smiling faces gleamed back as I stopped to shake each offered hand. They seemed thrilled that I bothered to stop each time I passed take their offered hand and say hello. As I took trip after trip the number of children that gather to shake my hand along the way grew. When we were finally done loading the truck I noticed a local shop with a jar full of peny candy(that really cost a penny) . I bought the whole jar and gave it over to the family we were moving to give out to the children the smiles were priceless well worth the $1.50 I spent. It takes such a simple thing to help lift a little of the load of poverty these children bare. Soon enough the candy would be gone and some of their stomachs would once again be empty but for a moment they smiled like any other child in the world does when they get what they wanted.