Present and Future

Another week has passed…like lightening it seems! I wish I could adequately express all that is happening inside of me, despite the fact that the external events have not been nearly as busy this week. However, there are several things to share about my activities… and hopefully these will also give you a window into the inner processing of Sara.

I actually have been working on my thesis a lot this last week. It is still an exciting and fun topic for me, but my perfectionism and all the detail work (not to mention the computer troubles or power cuts) makes it take such a long time. I can spend hours in front of the computer and come away with just one new or revised paragraph. I try to be happy with the fact that most of it is done and that I do have time this week to work on it as well. I’d just really like to finish it this week, if at all possible.

Over the weekend, I had a very fun time with my friends Shashi and Shobha. Shashi and her husband live in the city (Hyderabad) and she has hosted me overnight several times now. This time was a planned slumber party for Shobha and I to come and help lead music with her church ‘choir’. It is a group of young adults who have just come together in the past few months to help lead praise and worship music and Shashi has brought them a long way in their musicality. On Saturday night, Shobha and I attended their rehearsal and I taught a few new songs. Then, we went back to Shashi’s place where the three of us prepared a special song to be sung at the offering time at the worship the next day (Let my prayer rise up like incense before you…- from Holden Evening Prayer). It turned out very well and was fun to put together. The three of us also talked until late in the evening. I had forgotten what slumber parties were like because it had been so long since I had one!

On Sunday, we participated in the very long service and then relaxed in the afternoon with Shashi’s family. In the evening, Shobha and I attended a Christian rock concert, led by a local band. It was a mostly college and high school aged crowd, with very loud music (I sound like I'm getting old!) and a rather evangelical feel to it, but the band was very musically talented and I enjoyed seeing the choreography (dance by a group of people similar to what I saw our highschool danceline would do, but smaller groups. The thing that is different here is that men often do these choreographies and I rarely, if ever, have seen that in the States. So many Indian men can really DANCE!), skit, and other aspects of the performance.

At HMI, I did a lot more editing work for them, which taught me more about the many programs that they do there. It ended up fitting along with my future planning in some ways as well. I decided to apply for a two week basic course on Interfaith Relations and Islam (HMI’s specialties) to continue my own learning as well as to watch their approach to the subject matter and how they run such a program. This will take place just before I return to the States (April 23-May 6). I also spoke with the director at HMI to at least find out about possible opportunities at HMI for work in my future. Since I need to start thinking about my next job very soon, and since HMI is one of the places that I could see myself fitting well, I needed to at least explore the option while I’m here. He seemed encouraging, but of course it is not an easy process, so we'll just see what happens.

I also want to start searching the internet for openings in the States and elsewhere in the world, but I have not had the time yet to do so. Feel free, my friends, to let me know of anything you hear about in the intercultural communication world for me! I am open to both administrative and hands-on jobs, within church organizations or in the secular world, in the States or overseas.

I left Hyderabad and arrived back in Bangalore on Wednesday morning - especially so that I could attend a special worship service which celebrates the New Year in several states of this region. It’s called Ugadi. However, I completely missed the worship… because I made a terrible assumption somehow that the service was in the evening rather than the morning. While the event was going on, I was twiddling my thumbs in my room, completely unaware that I was missing out. This started off my stay in a rather unsettling and frustrating way. While I have gotten used to miscommunication happening regularly here, I could not blame culture or language differences on it this time. It was my own stupid assumption.

So, in addition to working through this matter personally and apologizing for not being there as I had promised to my friends, I also had to work through another difficult friendship issue as I returned here. I sat with one friend for several hours trying to work through personal, cultural, and communication differences that have been causing tension for quite some time. I think we finally worked it through for the most part, so now I am trying to move on and enjoy my UTC community once again. I am happy to see friends again and look forward to celebrating the end of their school year with them.

The campus is busy in a quieter way as students have been finishing their final assignments and are now preparing for exams. It is a good environment for me to be in as I try to work on my own project. Speaking of which, I think I’ll go work on that now instead of babbling on and on here…

Thinking of you!

Sara