holiday with kelli - part 2

Anyway, we went to St. Thomas Basilica, where his remains were once buried. Chennai is one of two places where it is believed that the apostle Thomas arrived in India. It is a beautiful church. We spent a couple of hours there. We then went to a hill spot (St. Thomas shrine) where it is believed he was martyred. The first day there was both encouraging and disappointing: Christianity is much more visible here than in the north (window stickers on cars and driving by churches) even though less than 10% of Tamil Nadu is Christian; some of these Christians here seem to be worshipping St. Thomas (or even more sad) or a statue of him instead of the only one how deserves our worship. Besides these architectural things (which I found fascinating) and an abundance of, to me, random relics (which Kelli, as a learned clergy person and master of divinity, found intriguing), we spent time at both a snake park and reptile park – what do you expect while being escorted by four men? I enjoyed it, and Kelli even pet a baby crocodile. On our second and last day in Chennai we went south of town down the coast to Dakshina Chitra, which for my San Antonio friends is like a really cool Institute of Texan Culture. The complex showcased traditional living of south India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh). We saw potters, weavers, painters, housing, worship, wedding, and such all in traditional South India style. I even got a henna tattoo there. Awesome place.

Then it was back to the airport to go once again back to Delhi. This time (Sunday) we stayed around and toured about. We got an early start so that we could go to a church that my sister’s Austin church supported. It is in the north part of Delhi and we were staying in the south. So after a rickshaw, metro, change lines to another metro, and walking around, we arrived … somewhere. I had gotten us lost. After an hour of wandering, we gave up and headed back to find a metro station to continue with our day, when lo and behold! There before our eyes was the landmark that we had been looking for. So an hour and a half after the service, we got to church – took pictures and left. We went to Delhi’s Red Fort and Jama Masjid (the largest mosque in India). Then utterly exhausted, we went back to our temporary home. The next morning, we got up at 4am to catch the morning train to Agra. Upon getting off the train, we were found by two of the interns at eMi2 (Ryan and Ryan) who came along to see Agra with us. First stop: the Taj.