With Premar I drove to Sri Kalahasti. We first saw his home and he introduced me to his mother in law and his wife. He then proudly showed me his farm and the village, where he comes from. He grows rice and groundnuts (Peanuts). I finally know how groundnuts grow (my phone was dead, so no foto, sorry!)
He has a guy, who gets 2500 Rupees a month (about 35€) and more or less lives on the farm. He watches over the water-system and takes care of it. He also makes sure, that no cattle eat the plants and the crop grows as planned. When they harvest, more people will help of course.
On Premars bike again, he asked me, if I wanted to see a childrens home, so we went there. A small building, where 18 young boys are living. They are either orphaned or semi-orphaned. The caretaker was very pleased to meet me (again the foreigner thing I guess). The children stared at me wide-eyed and always looked into their school books, when our eyes met. I probably was the first foreigner they saw in real life.
Premar, who always seemed busy making plans for my visit, toke me to see Pavans family. They were very happy and Pavan was proud to be able to show me his family and to take some fotos. He had told me the first day we met, that I was the first foreigner he had ever talked to. So this was probably the same for his family!
We had a small snack and some fun with the young kids of Pavans Sister. They were really frightened and/ or fascinated by me. I guess more frightened... When the parents tried to send one of them to me it turned away and ran to his father.
But really cure little fellows^^
Again alot of pictures were taken, to prove, that I was there and had some food.
The next morning Premar toke me to Naidupeta. Here is the second oldest church of the SALC (South Andhra Lutheran Church) and Father Mylius is burried here. He was the founder of the church and the first german missionary to come to Andhra Pradesh I guess. He and his team built the church and more buildings in the church compound, one is now being used as a girls home (we had visited the boys home the night before). Both are being financed by the SALC. And I saw a few signs saying the "Kinder Not Hilfe" donated here (a german organisation, which finances programs for underprivilieged kids).
The girls were a little more active than the boys and followed me around giggling. But were very shy when the men wanted to take a picture of the girls and me. But after the first was brave enough - quickly more followed (picture is below).
In Naidupeta we met 2 Bishops. One is the current bishop of the SALC: Michael. The other was Shekhar, they all call him bishop, but he isn't bishop any more, he was Michael predecessor.
Again here I felt the unbelievable kindness of the indian people. The wifes of the bishops were especially glad to have me over as a guest.
In the afternoon Pavan was supposed to show me Sri Kalahasti, he also got one of Sais brother to come aswell, who wanted to be our guide, because he knows alot of nice places I guess. But because the trip to Naidupeta toke longer than expected, we were late for the meeting.
So only a few hours remained for all the sightseeing. We went to the temple, which is devoted to Sri Venkateswarar and his wife Padmavathi, so people pray to both as a couple in this temple. Up on the hill tirumala they pray to the husband only and in Tiruchanor (another temple city) they pray to Padmavathi (the wife) "only" (one does not simply pray to one god in a hindu temple).
There was another shrine, which belonged to the temple (in Sri Kalahasti), here a hindu hero sacrificed his eyes to Shiva. A few monkeys were hanging around there looking for food and eating some of the sacrifices the humans left there. From up there you could see the entire city. A big Gopuram was being rebuilt after it had collapsed a few years ago. Supposedly its the second biggest in all of India, of course now under construction it is smaller, but will get much bigger.
On the way back to a pastors house - the pastor was on his way to Tirupathi, so he kindly offered me a lift - we visited a big pool near the temple. Here the god once was washed, but isn't anymore, because it isn't THAT close to the temple. Alot of fish live in it, especially because alot of people feed them. It seems like a nice retreat from the busy city life.
When I finally arrived at the pastors house (unfortunately late) he showed me the church campus, here they have started constructng a big church, it is supposed to be the biggest in the SALC once finished!
Vielen Dank, dass du uns an allem so teilhaben lässt, ist ganz toll. Das du mit dem Gefühl der Dankbarkeit, das die Inder gegenüber Vati haben nicht so ganz klar kommst, kann ich gut verstehen. Uns ging es ähnlich, denn wir wurden als die Nachfolger von den Gründern der Kirche geehrt. Das war manchmal auch ein komisches Gefühl. Die Kirche auf dem East Compound sieht echt groß aus. Da haben sie wohl die aus den neunziger Jahren überarbeiter. Als die eingeweiht wurde waren wir da.
AntwortenLöschenIch bin sehr begeistert von Deinen Berichten. Schön, dass Du so viel von der SALC und Umgebung sehen kannst! Da tappst Du ja wirklich in unseren Fußspuren. Da kriege ich richtig Lust, dabei zu sein. Aber wer weiß, vielleicht kommen wir ja ein ander mal wieder dort hin.
AntwortenLöschenIch hoffe, dass es Dir weiter gut geht - und hör nicht auf zu berichten! Auch wenn wir uns nicht immer gleich melden - manchmal kommen so ein paar Dinge dazwischen. Wir denken immer an Dich!