McFreakinDonalds!

Last night Pastor Sagar’s wife made me a great meal, the best I have had in India. I think Carole broke them in for me because he actually knew what “no spice” meant. She made me an omelet with boiled potatoes and raw carrots. For dessert I had lady finger bananas and apples slices, it was heaven! The only problem is that, as a guest, I had to eat first, not something that ever happened in our house growing up. When I was young you had to get in there and fight for the food or go hungry. Feeding 5 kids on a ministers salary ensured that mom didn’t have to deal with leftovers much. Then to add to my guilt, they gave me their bed! That is the kind of hospitality I encountered all over India and I am grateful to all.

Today we left at 8:30 for Hyderabad, traffic was light, but I saw two very bad accidents. We made very good time and ended up at the airport at 3:30 for an 8:00 flight (which was 45 minutes late) but that is ok, because the Hyderabad airport has a McDonalds! Well it sort of has a McDonald's, it has a McDonalds that serves no beef, I know, I know, how is that different than McDonald's in Canada, very funny! This “no Beef” policy really shortens the menu, but they still have fries! A chicken burger and fries later and I was a happy boy. I don’t particularly like McDonald's, but I love that it is exactly the same everywhere in the world. After two weeks of different food, there is comfort in the familiar even if it's not that good.

After going through customs for my 4 hour wait I discovered my next surprise, a Pizza Hut! My initial enthusiasm waned when I saw that everything was “spicy” this and “smoking hot” that. In small print I found “Hawaiian Chicken” that turned out to be very nice, no heat. In Delhi I found a Subway, this did not taste like home, and I don’t care for it much in Canada, so it was a bit of a letdown. I am well on my way to my goal of eating myself into a junk food comma for the 9 hour flight to Amsterdam.

Well it worked, I got 5 hours sleep on the flight and now I sit at the McDonalds in Amsterdam, I will be sitting here all day, so if you are reading this it means I found both a plug in and an internet connection. I even found a place to have a shower, but it is $30 bucks! I might be too cheap much to the chagrin of my seatmates on the next leg. Come to think lf it, I haven’t had a real shower since Aizawl!