Working Out / Not Working Out

At the gym we joined, a sign on the wall reads, "Make more friends: Wear deodorant / perfume while working out." You see, this is SO necessary in India.

So going to the gym is working out well so far, with our crazy schedule. We want to stay healthy and combat the stress that can quietly wrap its slimy, sneaky tentacles around you. But sometimes we go to feel less gross. Like, today Rebecca sent a mass text on her way home: "I'm bringing Cinnabon!" Rachel downstairs wrote back, "Oo can I have one?" Ali wrote, "Whattt that's weird," and I wrote, "Could you BE anymore awesome right now? Yea and gym later?" Such different reactions!

Some stuff has not been working out like we thought. We have not yet been able to help with the Oliver Twist Going Solo street kid theater project because of conflicting schedules. Also, my creative writing class kinda flopped because appparrreeenntttllllyyy dance and art are way cooler! No but, I have one girl, Hannah from downstairs, who is 11 yrs old and loves Lord of the Rings. We are going to ardently discuss JRR Tolkien's ideas about being a sub-creator, then create (via writing stories,) and then soak up in our awesomeness.

You may think I'm disappointed by these things. But wait until you hear about what IS working out!

We are currently in negotiations for a flat in the Red Light District. We want to have a day center where we could offer classes, activities, and homework help for the children of the RLD workers. The space is above people we know who run a medical clinic for the women. How perfect would that be? The landlord is giving us great rent. To give you perspective, it's about $1000/month less than prices a consultant had faced years ago, trying to do the same thing. (That is a huge amount in India). So what is wrong with this picture? Well, the landlord is refusing to put in a toilet! No, not a new toilet...just ah toilet.

In the meantime, we've been asked by the Joint Women's Program, a long-standing respected NGO in the area, to offer dance, art, and ESL classes at their school for brothel children.

We also have a possible, perhaps probable, flat that would function as the new live-in home for minors from the RLD. Plus an Indian couple that wants to live there and run it.

When our outreach workers visited the RLD recently, they were met with the pleas of some mothers, wanting to find a safe place for their daughters. How do you meet these pleas with BALANCE? i.e. balance between the urgency of passion, and the necessary patience of wisdom and faith? God has answered so many prayers this past month, so we wait expectantly.

"A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

I am okay with things working out / not working out.

Okay. I have to be ready at 6am tomorrow to catch a train. We are going to a family camp with a school for slum kids. The director of the camp told us, "be prepared not to shower in case you are too grossed out." Either she said this because it's actually true, or because she thinks we are pampered American sissies. We'll see...