Well, not much has happened since we last added to this wonderful little blog we’ve got going here…We’ve really settled into the monotony that is everyday life here in Nuzvid. Don’t get me wrong, everyday has it’s new set of challenges but truthfully there isn’t much to do is this little town so we’re entertaining ourselves as best we can! Two weekends again, (Oct 14-16) we simply stayed in Nuzvid, went to church and enjoyed AY in the afternoon. (We still haven’t gotten used to being in meetings every weekend for a total of 8+ hours from Friday vespers to Sabbath late night prayer meeting) Anyway, we did laundry on Sunday and played some volleyball. It was a pretty dull weekend but a relaxing one at that.
Sunday night our good friend Raj Pitta came by with his wife and asked us if we wanted to go to Ranchi on Wednesday to preach on Sabbath and help with music. We were excited about the whole thing but skeptical since Raj is a planner and not a logistics kinda guy, if ya know what I’m talking about… I love Raj but he has great ideas that rarely seem to become reality. The waiting list for the train tickets was up in the 60’s so it was a slim chance that we would even be able to get tickets, but we tried. A couple days later we found out it wasn’t going to happen but no worries because we hadn’t really gotten our hopes up.
The rest of the week didn’t really have much going on with it. (Oct. 17-21) We did get invited over to the registrar’s, Robert Franklin’s, house for dinner on Wednesday. That was definitely something to look forward to! Wednesday afternoon I (Jeff) also had a great surprise from Dr. Prahbudas… He called around 4:30 and asked if I could give a talk at 7:00 (yup…2.5 hrs ahead of time) at the midweek prayer meeting. I initially told him yes but had forgotten about our dinner plans. I remembered Robert Franklin’s invite about 15 minutes after I told Dr. Prahbudas yes and immediately called him back to explain the situation. He answered and I began to explain that I couldn’t do it but he didn’t even let me finish… All he said was something to the effect of, “Don’t worry, no problem, you can go to Robert Franklin’s after giving your talk.” In dealing with Dr. P I’ve come to understand that to mean, “Don’t worry, what I want you to do is way more important than dinner at Robert Franklin’s…” Basically everything Dr. P does is the most important so this really wasn’t surprising. I ended up giving the same sermon I gave at the three churches we visited a few Sabbaths back so it was all right.
The talk went well and it was actually nice to give it without using a translator since midweek prayer meeting is really only for the nursing students and they all have class in English so I just gave my talk.
Right after the meeting Zach and I rushed over the Franklin’s house thinking we would be late…we weren’t. Mr. Franklin had gone out to get some last minute groceries so we sat and talked to his wife. It was really nice to sit on a couch again!
Mr. Franklin arrived and got right to work making his specialty, “parata”! It’s basically another form of naan or chapatti’s but so much better! He rolled out the dough on an oiled granite slab and then picked them up and slapped them down on the stone again. He oiled his hands between each parata by dipping his fingers in a bowl of oil. After slapping them down he bunched them into little balls by half folding, half rolling them. After that he rolled them back flat and put them on the flat, metal cooking plates on his stove until they were golden brown. The smell was amazing and the paratas came out light and crispy. Right after that Satir, the chaplain here at the hospital, came and so did the Franklin’s niece who is a nursing student and lives with them. She is from Maryland and speaks English with absolutely no Indian accent! It was really nice to speak English without having to listen carefully to what the other person is saying!
We sat down to eat and as expected it was phenomenal! We ate so much food and then sat in the living room and chatted for a bit. We then headed back to the hospital and headed off to bed. Eating at people’s houses here is where all the amazing Indian food is at!
The rest of the week went by without incident. We did however meet a man named George Kaligithi who is the brother-in-law of our good friend William Moses Enjati and also the grandfather of Anisha Sukrutham! He lives in Eugene, OR but is here visiting family. He also happened to be in the hospital due to his diabetes so once he found out Zach and Anisha had gone to UCA together and we had all been at UCA at the same for Anisha’s graduation we were instant family. He invited us over to William Moses’ house for Sabbath lunch so we headed over there after church. Lunch was great but the greatest thing about Sabbath was actually church this week…
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