Before the Beginning

I have longed to go to India since grad school.  September 2010 I traveled to North India on a tour: Jaipur, Taj Mahal, Varanasi, Delhi.  I knew then I wanted to return, especially after I visited the Anglican Diocese of Durgapur in West Bengal.  The projects to educate and make life better for the very poor there touched me and I wanted to be a part of it.  The Bishop there told me he wanted a Western music program in the schools the Diocese runs.  Would I do it?  After recovering from the shock  of hearing the
Bishop's words, I replied, "Yes, of course I will do it." This Call to serve combines all the things I have ever done and wanted to do in music.  The Episcopal church sends people to be Partners in Mission with a host church, and I was given the opportunity to go to Durgapur.  Two weeks of intensive training gave me some insight into what this Call might involve besides conducting rehearsals.  Adaptability, humor and complete trust in God's plan seem to be key ingredients in this journey.

Six weeks to go!

Creating a blog:  one more test of technoknowledge!

I am in Green Bay preparing to leave for Durgapur at the end of Sept. 2011.
I do believe there is order amidst the chaos of packing, visa, packing, vaccinations, planning and packing! 

It is clear to me that in order to answer this Call to Durgapur, I must surrender many things which have been dear to me, including my cat Jennifer.  She is going to a loving new home, but I will miss her nonetheless. I don't think I have ever trusted God's love as much as I do these days, because I am traveling to a world which is totally unknown to me.  Talk about the 'worm-hole!  Talk about a leap of faith!

Studying Bengali with a tutor is exciting, tiring and one of the best uses I have made of my time.  Bengali is a soft, beautiful language, and has characteristics of German, French and Italian.  For instance, the verbs are at the end of the sentence, like German.  There are nasalized vowels like French, and pronounced double consonants as in Italian.  For those of you singers out there, I was thrilled to discover that the language text I was using (written in 1958!) used the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to teach  you how to pronounce the words.  Who knew?  Now I know why I studied all those languages!