Yumm Yumm Eat It Up

I just ate pizza. mmmm, pizza. Surprisingly my pizza had mussels, squid, and prawns on it and I still ate it! I am really branching out. I am not sure that I ever told the story of my first pizza experience here in India. The day after I arrived we took the train to Kannur (the train with the icky bathroom). Kannur is gorgeous and right on the coast so I got to see the ocean which was very cool. While there I was still recovering from the trip over. I still had no luggage and sadly I forgot my shampoo so I did not wash my hair for four days..I'm sure they were all wondering if I ever showered at all..it was pretty gross.. but at any rate my family and the family we stayed with were kind enough to take me out for pizza as a reprive from Indian food. Kannur is a bigger city than where I am staying with a lot of huge coconut trees and beautiful green colors (not to mention a TON of mosquitos!). While there we visited a Hindu temple which was interesting, but also very sad to me. It was disconcerting to watch people worshiping a false god. But despite heavy downpour we left there and found USA Pizza. Should feel like home, right? Well, I was a little concerned when we pulled up because there was not a single person eating there. I wondered if this was really a trap for pizza loving tourists, but in fact, it was not. I did fear my life as the pizza arrived, having seen the bathroom and wondering if the cooks had washed their hands...but in the end I did not die and the pizza was fine.(Although I'm not sure they lived up to their name). But today's pizza was mm mm good. The closest thing to America since I have been here (other than eating at KenChick fried chicken.) So there is my pizza adventures! Normal food we eat here is rice, chicken, lots of fish (my family eats the bones, the head, everything! I was not that adventurous), chipatis, these white foamy pancake things, more rice, things like tortillas, curry. It is not that bad once you get used to it. I'm eating a lot better than I did when I first got here!

I do want to clarify something I wrote in my last post. I wrote that God could not have taught me the lessons I am learning here if I was in the States, but that is not true. What I really meant was that I never sat still long enough to hear the lessons He was trying to teach me. He had to literally take me as far from my busy life as possible, all the way across the world, to get me to be still and quiet enough to hear Him. Here I have had a lot of down time, which proved to be a blessing, and I have finally been able to hear the soft quiet whisper of my Savior. Everything has come together so that I would hear Him. I have no travel companion, so my thoughts are His alone. I brought a Nook with tons of books, but only three happened to load, so I spend my time reading through the New Testament. I don't understand the language so instead of thinking about my response I can be a quiet observer of His church. My communication is cut off with my friends and family, so I am forced to depend on God alone. All of these things He worked together so that this trip would be just me and Him. Finally, away from my constantly busy life, I have been able to simply listen. I am so grateful for that and  I encourage you to find some time to truly leave everything behind and just focus on you and God. It is hard to find time, I know, but I promise it is so so worth it. I see God's hand in every tiny detail of this trip and I cannot wait to tell anyone who will listen all about it when I get home.