"A cup of coffee commits one to forty years of friendship"

Two friends of ours have met us in Bangalore 4 days into our time here. Peter and Elizabeth Brown flew into the not-so-organised chaos yesterday morning.

This is significant to us for many reasons: Jeremy and Peter flatted together for most of three years. “It was generally a good experience... at least until the day we decided to start rooming together.” It was at similar times that they “found” the girls who are now their wives. The two couples got married a month apart. I think that both Peter and Jeremy decided that living with their wife was neither as smelly, nor as demanding (?) as living with each other!

Yesterday we adventured together to the local village where Peter and Jeremy had haircuts and shaves at the village barber's – involving a traditional barber's blade which ended in more than a couple of nicks! We also discovered that by asking for a shave, it doesn't include the removal of hair from the upper lip (the local fashion), so Peter is now sporting a local, colonial, blond caterpillar just below his nose. Karina and Elizabeth got to know the local supermarket and vegetable stall, where a kilo of tomatoes cost NZ$1 and two flat bread pizza bases cost 40 cents. Today we ventured further into Bangalore, braving Indian traffic and the public transport system by bus and then rickshaw - the first one we caught took advantage of our naivety of rickshaw fares... that won't happen again! Besides shopping for some local clothing and jandals (known as chappals), we had our first raw exposure to beggars and a yummy 'thali' experience for lunch.

 

These friendships go much deeper than just a catch up with old mates in a foreign land. We are all here with one heartbeat – to spend some time serving our neighbors and Lord outside of our everyday surroundings. We are convinced that as we spend 2 months here studying, sharing and learning together we will find ourselves being part of a story that is world wide.

A Kurdish proverb (in the title, above) talks about how eating or drinking together obliges you to be their friend. There is a beauty in the simplicity of having a cup of coffee, but also something deeper in the sharing, something else that unites us together as well. We are looking forward to sharing many more coffees with Peter and Elizabeth, and with others here at SAIACS as the study year begins.

Last Saturday also marks six months of marriage for us – another relationship that began with a cup of coffee!

4 where there are meant to be 3: easy by Indian standards!