Cute Babies and Praying dogs

On Monday night, each travelling consultant was to spend sometime with their local counterparts and their families. My co-consultant, Francis, took me to meet his family. I met his 2 sons and daughter and was treated to a lovely home cooked meal; daal, fried fish, curry chicken,rossum ( white rice with pepper water) and all kinds of goodies. During the meal, we were waited on hand and foot by his wife, who according to tradition demonstrates hospitality by doing this and waiting until the guest is done eating before she eats. I was struck by how much effort she had gone to just to make me feel welcome and made a mental note to self to double check that I also make sure that people feel welcomed in my presence.

The highlight of the evening came when after dinner, their huge black lab, Rambo, was allowed to join everyone and came in wagging his extremely strong tail very vigorously; I know because I got a few good whacks from his tail! Anyway, it was time to leave and we decided to say a blessing over each other and to my surprise Rambo quieted down, went behind the sofa and stood stock still. Apparently he understands the importance of the family blessing time and does that every single time they pray! Almost like clockwork, once prayer was over, he came out to socialize again. It was the funniest thing to watch.

My client also runs a home for abandoned babies and I met the three kids they currently have in their care. Looking at them I wondered how anyone could close themselves off from such vibrant lives! Apparently in some villages here, there are still a lot of beliefs practiced that either attach negativity to a girl child, or prevalent ignorance that allows a village witch doctor to convince a child’s family that he will bring bad luck to the family and therefore should be killed at birth! Thank God for people who can rescue these kids and give them a life! Looking at their little faces, I can’t help rooting for them and praying that they have a long and fulfilling life.

First week in India

As we start the second week of the venture I am amazed at how time has flown! It feels like the consultants have all barely had a chance to catch their breath and its time to dig back in.
The week was great! It was exciting getting to know our clients and their businesses meet their families and see how the Indians intertwine work and family. In quite a few cases, the businesses are family owned and run by the husband and wife. Some of them have amazing testimonies of what they’ve experienced in their businesses and could probably write best selling biographies of their businesses.

My client on this trip is Sitara music. Sitara music is holds sole publishing rights for EMI music in India. It is one of the family owned businesses mentioned earlier and has done quite well since it was started 12 years ago. The business model is an embodiment of the principles taught by rēp, the organization I am here in India with. There is a strong focus on empowering people to get out of poverty and one way they do this is by employing people who could otherwise not change their lot in life; 8 of their 15 employees are from various slums in India and just love what they do.

The other consultants have equally amazing clients and a common theme on this trip is actually how well integrated most of the businesses already were with their life focus. I think this venture will end up being an adrenaline shot for most of them to excel in what they were already doing great at. I can’t wait to hear and share some of the great stories I know will come out of this time.

India has met and exceeded my expectations in so many ways. It is just as I dreamt up in terms of hustle and bustle, the people and their genuine warmth, and the cacophony of everyday life here; auto-rickshaws, bicycles and motorcycles all vying for their place on the road alongside regular cars, overstuffed buses and an unbelievable mass of pedestrians, the incessant honking which is not a sign of aggression but more of an acknowledgement of the other users of the road, the noise and smells from the street vendors peddling a wider variety of sweets, foods and snacks than I have even seen in my life!, and the variety in people and languages that all somehow are related. What a thrill ride!

Enroute to Chennai

As I wander around the ghostly edifice that is the Changi airport at 12am local time, I am attentive to things that are not commonplace for me.
I learnt a new word today... "travellator" It caught me by surprise for a second till i realized it referred to the moving walkway!

Airport workers are putting up Christmas decorations, people milling from one terminal to the other, strangers having conversations; I am fascinated by humanity and how we can all appear so different yet are the same even if we use different words for the same thing.
Call me mushy in my old age, but I just don't see why there is so much strife in the world. I do believe that with just a little bit of an explanation/dialogue, people can get to understand each other and avoid all that mess . <>

This is my first time in Asia so I am doubly excited that I get to experience something new in addition to working with Rep on the India venture that starts on Monday. I can't wait to see if my imagination did an adequate job of creating Chennai in my head, meet all the co-consultants from the other parts of the world that I have not met yet, and see who my client is this time.

I eagerly anticipate all that I know God will do in their business and lives and being able to partner in that and I look forward to a day when you will be able to be on a venture physically with me!!