Wednesday 4. March

Departure day! Vi got up at 07:35, and I was first in the shower for once. We put all the luggage in Tone and Lars Erik's room. Then we watched the video from the service last night before we left for breakfast at 09:00. After breakfast we left by autorickshaws to do some shopping. We had to exchange some money first, so we were taken to an exchange office. It was way up in the floors, in the innermost office in a large office building. It took some time, so we had to sit down and wait. Lars Erik read Business World while he waited.

In a rickshaw Then we went on with the rickshaw to a kind of western shopping centre. We were a bit disappointed, as we would rather go to some local stores. But, we did the best of it. I bought something for Inger Johanne and some shoe polish and batteries. 26 Rs for 2 AA (LR6) batteries isn't too expensive!

Back at the hotel, Benjamin gave us some information brochures that we'd asked for, about Mission For the Interior. We're planning on supporting the ministry with a monthly amount, so we need to figure out how to transfer the money the cheapest way.

Christopher had been to see a piece of land that Benjamin is considering to buy. He had taken some tests of the ground and plants. He's taking them to Norway to have them analyzed and then make a evaluation for Benjamin, who's planning to grow oranges.

We went to have our last lunch at the bible school, and Rolf Daniel found a guitar that he tuned and played while Tone, Inger, Glyn and Benjamin talked about singing and using the voice for different forms of singing. On the way back we talked about americans and plastic surgery and such things. We were also thinking about going to a zoo or something to see some snakes, but it's not so sure they have such things here. But we might see some tigers and elephants and such. We'll see. Some of us would like to do some more shopping also, in a more Indian area. Let's hope they'll wait till I'm finished at the toilet.

Filemon, Francis' son, took Rolf Daniel, Lars Erik and I to a couple of zoo's or parks after lunch. Francis is a teacher at the bible school where we're eating lunch.

First we visited Maharajbagh - King's Garden. We saw a flock of deer, a tiger, lions, leopards, bears, squirrels, apes, peacocks, dows and geese. But no snakes or elephants. The place was in pretty bad disrepair, but that was also an interesting observation. The entrance fee was only one rupee per person.

Then we visited another park, which was a bit nicer, but there were only deer there. Both some small, brown with dots on them, and some big, dark. And there was no entrance fee.

On the way back, the rickshaw went out of gas, so we had to take another one. The price was maybe 100 rupees altogether. We went up to our room to relax a bit when we got back, and there we found Christopher. Our sisters had been out shopping while we were out, and they came back and took a picture of us boys in the bed.

We also got a last heart-to-heart talk with Benjamin, who once again emphasized that it's better to take good care of the visitors so they can be healthy and efficient. If they get ill, Benjamin and his people will have to take care of them, and that's wasted time.

He also emphasized that just the fact that we're coming is a blessing for the local people. Many village preachers is frustrated and tired, and it's a great encouragement for them that somebody come and pray for them, lay hands on them and show them love. In many villages there's maybe only one family of christians, and that may be hard. So when somebody comes from far away and encourage them it means very much. And of course, he sent his greetings to Tormod, our missions administrator, and Åge, our pastor, and our church.

So we went downstairs to say goodbye to Glyn and Betty Thomas, Bernhard, Francis and Benjamin once more. They were leaving for a meeting at the same place where we were last night, and they left at 18:30. We'll go have some toast and drinks in the restaurant before we leave at 19:30, heading for the airport. We got served at once today, we were amazed at the quick service. But there was only one waiter today, so I guess that's the solution.

We've got quiet a long journey ahead of us now, first from Nagpur to Bombay with Jet Airways, then from Bombay to Zürich, and then from Zürich to Oslo. The last two flights are with Swissair.

The bus to the airport left when it should, and we arrived at the airport and checked in at "Jettair ways", as they said. We just made it through security check with Christopher's fake leatherman. The flight went fine, and the food was OK. Just after takeoff, they slowed down a bit, but speeded on again after a few minutes. One place, it was rather bumpy also, but we got through and the landing was nice.

The luggage came at once, and a lady from Swissair met us and followed us to the bus that were taking us to the international airport. We've got three hours to wait for the next flight. We ended up in the wrong end of the queue for security check, so it was quiet a job getting through. But we did fine. Then the computer system crashed just when they where printing Tove's boarding pass, so Lars Erik had to wait for it. They demanded an extra fee of 100 Rs also, so it took some time to get through. While we waited, Tove talked with a lady who accepted Jesus and got saved. She worked at the airport, and she was ready to receive.

We filled in the disembarkation forms and went through the immigration control and got our boarding passes stamped at the customs desk. Quiet a lot of papers and stamps. The name of the airport is "Sahar", by the way, according to the stamp in the passport. I got through the last security control also, and I found a decent European toilet. Not exactly delicious, but within the limit of what I could stand. I covered the worst areas with toilet paper and let go. What a relief! When I left the toilet, the others had come, they were having crackers, oranges and coke.

And since it's way past midnight, it's time to start a new page of the diary.