November 9th

This day started out so great with staff devotions and my chat with Akter regarding his daughter. As the day progressed, I even had the chance to help both Akter and Chiradeep with some of the work that they are currently doing in the office. We helped Akter stuff letters into envelopes to be sent out for a rally that is coming up in December. That was great to be able to do something small that saved him a ton of time. I also had the privilege of helping Chiradeep by typing some English handouts into a Word document so that he could edit them. He is teaching a type II training course this coming week and was preparing. He said it would have taken him hours to type in all the information I did in 10 or 15 minutes. It was great to be able to help out.

And then the 2 "worst" parts of the day happened. The festival started and the power went out. Festival. Loud. Obnoxious. Annoying. That about sums it up. The festival is for the Hindus. It is an amazing party time for them. It is not so fun for the rest of us. They fire off "crackers" (fire crackers) and fireworks, bang loud drums for countless hours, and just make a general ruckus. It is pretty crazy. The most unfortunate part for us was that one of the idols was placed directly below our window. Let me tell you, it was LOUD.
Not long after the festival really got going, the power went out. So now, not only is there a loud ruckus happening right below our window, but now we are hot because there is no fan blowing in our flat anymore. Oh boy! From what we have heard, the power usually is off for 10 minutes to 2 hours. Last night, it went off at 6:30. And it came back on at 4:45 the next morning. 10 hours! Boy was that fun. So the night's sleep consisted of noise and heat. Not great sleeping conditions. All in all, it wasn't the best sleep we have ever had. But we survived. The power is back on and life is good. I am not really trying to complain here, more just explain to you what it was like. It certainly wasn't enjoyable, but it wasn't unbearable either. God is definitely good in all situations. He certainly has not and will not give us more than we can bear!
We are going shopping later today (10th) for some candles. That will be nice for next time the power goes out. Currently we are using flashlights, but they just aren't bright enough.