Orissa

Well, we made it safely through the Kandhamal district in Orissa and visited about 5 Christian villages that had been affected by the violence in 2008 -- we saw the burned homes and churches and interviewed the families. Every village gathered in its entirety to meet with us and they were so receptive and loving. It really was a wonderful day, possibly the best of the entire trip. The roads were rough and it was about 6 hours in and 6 hours out so it made for a 19.5 hour day. The vans were really comfortable, though, and we did not hit any issues that slowed us down -- just one brief incident where we rounded up and headed out quickly from one of the villages that was closer to a big market. The hope and faith of the people was remarkable. I captured some great images and we also had a videographer who taped our Q&A sessions with the villages.

Yesterday we had meetings with a long table of lawyers (that made me happy :) -- some Hindu and some Christian -- who are handling the cases being filed against the perpetrators, and heard about their various difficulties and struggles ... namely, coordination, which was interesting to hear about. We brainstormed creative solutions for them and hope that at the end of our 8-hour long day of meetings, some progress was made.

Today we are having meetings with some of the major government leaders in Orissa, trying to get in under the guise of talking about promoting cultural tourism. It should be really interesting. We may get to meet with the Foreign Minister and Governor. Our 2-hour flight back to Delhi is around 9 p.m. tonight. Then three more days of meetings and we will be headed home! It has been a lot of long nights, early mornings, and not much internet time, so we will have more updating to do when we get back.

In the meantime, thanks for your continued prayers. Erin and I have both been feeling under the weather here and there but not enough to slow us down -- we are managing just fine.

Much love,
Val