Let’s be honest: India has been hard for me.
But sometimes the Lord makes me laugh.
Like tonight.
My friend Stefanie and I went to dinner to chat at a café about 15 minutes away. We ate. We talked. We enjoyed dessert. We paid. We caught a taxi – which is just a glorified (very fast) cart – to come home. He took us to the wrong place. We had to have a long discussion which involved lots of pointing to get him to head in the right direction.
We started out again.
….Only to run into an inspection stop.
And then our wonderful, awesome, totally great driver told us to get out of his taxi because he didn’t have papers for his auto and wanted to avoid the police.
Awesome.
We hopped out in the dark on the corner of a road in India to wait for another glorified golf cart to show up.
One did.
…With two Hindu women inside + the driver.
We negotiated our way inside and started on our way…
And then in a country full of people who have never even heard the name of Jesus the woman beside of me who is clearly Hindu bumps my arm to get my attention…
… and makes the sign of the cross over her chest like Catholics do when something bad is about to happen.
Thought process: What the crap? Are we getting kidnapped???
(Form quick plan of escape with Stef which involves jumping out of the taxi when it is close to dirt or waiting for speed bumps because for some reason in India there isn’t just one… there are fifteen in a row… and it’s the ideal place to jump if necessary.)
Meanwhile, while the plan of escape is being formed, Stef and I realize that we probably aren’t being kidnapped, but we might actually die from a head on collision because our driver is an idiot. No wonder the woman crossed herself.
Me too, lady. Me too.
Stef screamed.
Our driver turned around and shouted, “Silence!”
We screamed quieter…
And spoke the name Jesus in between gasps and holding onto each other for dear life.
He asks us, “Jesus?”
To which I replied, “Yes, Jesus!”
Thankfully, Jesus got us home. We would have kissed the ground, but people throw their trash everywhere here don’t you know, so we settled for a laugh and ran quickly inside just in case he was a kidnapper.
Oh, Life in India.
