A Break From History

I'm taking a break from A.G. McGaw's journal as it seems like a lot going on all at once. I'm trying to find a way to expedite contact with folks in Etah, India. It takes 4 weeks for letters to travel to and from, and that is without counting any time one may take to answer. My search this morning did not yield a single e mail address for Etah. When I looked through my scanty journal from the 2004 trip I was reminded of an invitation our group recieved to stay overnight next time. That invitation was issued by Mrs. Lyall, who had acted as an interpreter for our group when we visited a school in Etampadur. Her husband is the Superintendent of the Christian Hospital in Kasganj, which is part of the Etah District. I have found his address and will send a letter in hopes of an invitation for the trip to come. She did say they could host up to 30 people....

This coming Sunday, Lois Netter and I are leading the church Book Club discussion. We chose "Dreaming in Hindi" by Katherine Russell Rich. The author enrolled in a Hindi language immersion program and recounts her experiences living in India while learning Hindi, a language so very different from English. She lives with a Jain family and shares her experiences with them and in a culture that has her thinking in totally new ways. What sets the book apart is consideration of the neurolinguistic implications of language learning as an adult and the changes to pathways in the brain as a result. I did read the book about 5 weeks ago, but feel duty bound to reread it as preparation for the discussion group.

Preparations for an India Mission Dinner to be held at the church on October 24th are well underway. Proceeds from the Dinner will go towards augmenting funds our church sends to India annually. Last year's donation was used to help support 10 Dalit children at Prentiss Girls' School. We expect to cook for about 100 people and will show an excellent animated film, "Sita Sings the Blues". You can find it online at PBS.org. The chicken curry recipe has been tweaked as much as possible to yield tasty results as efficiently as possible. Cooking will commence on Monday.