Today I walked down the road to go to a colleague’s housewarming party. He is getting married in November and he and his fiancé just bought a house. Although they haven’t moved in yet and it is barren of any furniture at all, they invited us over to warm their new home. It is the spacious 2nd floor of a newly-constructed, brightly-colored house, an apartment that costs 3,500 rupies a month. In dollars? About $70. Two bedrooms (one is a really cool tower room that is shaped like an octagon and has lots of windows), a living room and a kitchen. Cheap for you or me. But to an Indian? The equivalent of about $437 (For you economists, that’s looking through the lens of purchasing power parity).
Now this housewarming party was unlike any that I have ever been to. We came, greeted the new owners, walked through all of the rooms, and then sat down in the living room (correction to the earlier furniture comment: there was a futon-type sofa and a few chairs set up in the living room). I sat next to a man who is the pastor of the church, and he stood up and welcomed everyone to their new home. We sang “Give Thanks” (a Calvin Christian School favorite), and read some verses from Psalm 90. The pastor prayed a blessing over their home, that it would be filled with joy and overflowing with grace, and then we prayed the Lord’s prayer and had some snacks and left within 10 minutes. It was definitely different than our housewarming parties, and I was surprised by the presence of the pastor and the prayer. But it was really neat…and hopefully, I will be invited to the wedding in November!
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