We arrived!

After 30 hours of flying and waiting in airports Moriah and I arrived in New Delhi. The heat and smell hit hard as you walk out the front doors. It was almost midnight, and still nearly 90 degrees (I guess it had cooled down from 110). My phone died along with the phone number and address for the hotel. So after driving around for an hour Moriah busted out her computer, recharged my phone and google sent me the address via text message (thanks for the tip Curtis).

They pushed back our meeting with the CEO at Ekgaon Sunday morning, so Moriah and I decided to rush to church. We took an auto-rickshaw (best mode of transportation in the city. side note: no lanes or apparent traffic rules other than stop lights, so getting anywhere is a rush). We bartered with him after our hotel doorman flagged him down (50 rps,or about a dollar).

Apparently, four different places have the same address (this is a recurring theme). Our rickshaw driver was diligent though and we eventually found the place. It was AWESOME! They had a strong little branch with a couple families, doctors and young kids. We had an great testimony meeting which included the little Indian children marching up and giggling through their testimonies. Great experience! We couldn't stay longer because we had the meeting at Ekgaon, but not before we snapped a typical missionary picture (minus the name badge of course).

The meeting went well. The CEO, Vijay Aditya, is leaving for the rest of the time we are here, so we had to go in today, to get a better understanding of the company and project. It's changed significantly. There were two aspects of it, changing the business model and doing market research for them. I thought we'd be reworking the business model through research and then meeting with business partners in Mumbai, but we are actually meeting with business partners here in Delhi and Mumbai to do the research and then reworking the business plan as a result of our findings. It actually sounds like it will be fun. We are going to try and meet with some of the largest agricultural companies in India and the world.

The gist of the company, Ekgaon, is to bring information to poor, rural farmers so that they are more efficient with their fields and don't get ripped off at the market. They are the "last mile providers and make a huge difference to the rural population (70% of the country's population is outside of the city). I hope we can make an impact.

Another side note: We had our first curry bagged-lunch at the company. We had some curry potatoes with their flat bread (paratha). I tried some of their curry soups, but one was too hot to handle (I'm not the toughest when it comes to spicy). Overall, pretty good for a vegetarian meal (Vijay is vegetarian), and I can't wait to try some of their chicken curry dishes. Courtney, you would hate this food ;)

This is the start of the blog, I will try to post daily. Please leave comments, feedback, and suggestions on how we could do our project better. I want this to be informational AND interactive!