India Narasaraopet

February 2010 Part Two

compassion 4 kids international  

Written by Joseph Burke

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On February 1, Joe left for Hyderabad, India. The first stop was in Houston, Texas and then a 9.5 hour flight to Frankfurt Germany. Leaving on February 2, he flew onto Hyderabad, India arriving at 1:00 AM. On February 6th Joe continues on to the airport at Vijayawada on the coast of the Bay Bengal.  Upon arriving there at the small airport, he obtained his luggage and went through two rooms to the sidewalk out front.

The following is in the words of Joe:

I walked to the end of the sidewalk but all I saw was the entrance for flying out of Vijayawada. So I returned to the building to see if there was any telephones but there was not. So I returned to the the room outside of baggage pick-up. I returned to the sidewalk and all the other passengers had left the area. So I pulled out my cell phone for India and as I am dialing about 15 taxi cab drivers came and encircled me to get the fare when I was going to leave. As I am talking to Kiran's father, the people I am to meet, one of the taxi drivers is pointing behind me. When I turned around an airport person asked if he could help. Palli, Kiran's father, spoke very fast and I could not understand him so I said "Yes" and handed him the phone with a little explanation.

Soon he informed me that they were mixed up on the pick-up time and I would need to take a taxi to Narasaropet. He asked how much the cab fare would be. One of them said 1,200 rupee. Then many drivers began to ask for my fare. I asked for one with air conditioning. Only one said he had a/c. So for 1,500 rupee, off I went for a 2 hour ride.

In Narasaropet these are the most used types of conveyance, foot, 3 wheel taxies, bicycle, and motorcycles. Driving through town I saw about 100 total motor vehicles.

Vijayawada has a population of approximately 1 million people. Narasaraopet, even though having a population of approximately 1/2 million, the traffic is totally different. As we arrive just outside of the city, we meet up with Kiran, Palli, and two other men. We follow him to the house where they have so many people waiting for me to arrive.

What a reception it was. There must have been 20 or more people with the hostess putting a wreath of real flowers around my neck along with what I thought was rice, but was flower pedals. I had never had such a reception before. The time past very quickly and it was time to go to the hotel.

The hotel began on the 3rd floor. Up these stairs was the first set and then another set inside. There is an elevator but it was very small and very slow with a regular door and a scissor gate. It was faster to walk the stairs. The room was almost wall to wall bed. It had two twin beds up to the entry wall. On the opposite wall was a window A/C and two chairs for the suit cases to sit on. in front of the door was the TV and to the right of it was the door to the bathroom. The shower had only cold water for the shower so had to call for a bucket of heated water every morning. But that is still modern compared to the homes.

Here we are crossing over a bridge that goes over the rail road tracks. Here we see two people that are sweeping the street of dirt and trash. Joe saw a number of people sweeping the street in front of their businesses from time to time. They leave the piles on the side of the street and a truck comes by, once in awhile and removes the trash and dirt.

Once a month there is a Saturday that they have a Hindu celebration in the city. actually they call Narasaraopet a village as it only has about 600,000 people. To help give those visiting something to chew on, they sell stalks of sugar cane which is their type of candy bar.

When driving through the city streets, stay to the left except when getting around something. The pedestrians may or may not move out of the way. I did not see any vehicles hit each other but I am glad I do not have the live of a cat. For I think the Lord saved me from dying in 100 instances, or maybe they were just near misses.

Here are the typical neighborhoods as we travel over the bridge and look over the edge. this is a block off the main street.

You will see many buses going between villages like this one. I do not know why the ladies are not much shorter being you see so many of them with heavy items carried on top of their head. I had a hard time with a black board eraser on my head let alone carrying something in one or both hands. Most of the trash is put along the streets and some day that truck will come buy and pick it up. It does give the dogs a place to search for food. One thing I did not take a picture of is that it is lawful for a man (did not see any woman) relieve himself along the streets, whether in town, in the housing areas, or along a road. I noticed that the women paid the men no mind as they just kept on walking down the street.

This is the end of chapter one about the Narasaraopet visit. I will be adding chapter two soon and a link from here to there.

Check out our other pages and learn the plight of orphans and street children  and how you can bet involved in taking a child off the streets.

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