Wednesday July 18th
Clean – or actually the lack thereof, I have found, is one of the greatest discomforts in all our traveling. I have never really been paranoid about cleanliness. We’ve often camped “roughing it.” But with the heat and humidity in which we have been traveling, even when we have the facilities to clean up, I feel Grundy again so soon. I am here in the rainy season so what should I expect? Besides the heat and humidity, dust and fumes are blowing everywhere. I would think that dust and the rainy season would be a contradiction. However, one person explained that the rains wash dirt out on everything which then dries and is blown everywhere. And the traffic of every kind stirs and casts it everywhere. This combines with all the fumes so many are wearing masks. Quickly, “grimy” is the only word to describe me.
In Agra the government had erected a small monument: “Green Agra, Clean Agra.” Yet, ironically that monument was surrounded by a refuse pile! There are refuse piles everywhere, yet the one at that spot is quite a commentary. Where there is the collective will, green and clean can be achieved. No combustion fumes are allowed anywhere near the Taj Mahal. Neither is food or trash. Similarly, the Dehli freeway and airport are models of green, clean.
We are now in the Nilgiri hills national forest and the air is clean. The bamboo forest creaks in the wind in a very peculiar manner. The birds are singing. The deer are out grazing. The elephants left fresh evidence of their passing in bamboo pulled down so they could graze on the fresh growth on top. A bear left his markings where he had been eating janan fruit. Even the tiger had left his prints where he came and went from the creek. On the next day we saw a mongoose, a wild bore, an elephant with rather large tusks, a malabar whistling thrush which whistles a melody just like a human, and multiple bears, a pair of which apparently had a cub because one of them charged us.
Unfortunately, our souls have a greater lack of “clean” which perpetrates grime everywhere so quickly. But the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. His blood not only gets us clean. It preserves the same now and eternally in that paradise where there will be no pollution and the lion and the calf will lie down together.
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