Holy cow, I’m in India. And in case you didn’t know, cows are thought to be holy here. They are not owned by anyone and roam the streets causing plenty of traffic disturbances.
As I’m writing this blog, I’m surrounded by ants the size of a man’s thumb nail. We are sleeping on the cement floor of the church; and I don’t think the ants are happy that I’ll be lying on their territory. They especially aren’t happy that I keep mashing their friends that get too close to me. I’ll be defenseless in my sleep; if they get smart and join forces, they’d be strong enough to carry me off and I’ll never be able to post this blog.
We eat our spicy curry with our hand; but make sure it’s the RIGHT hand. The left hand is the unclean hand because it’s the one Indians use to wipe with after using the bathroom. I know the question you are all thinking right now, and the answer is.. yes, I have tried this. They don’t sell toilet paper in our village.. don’t judge!
(went for a walk and this is how many kids ended up joining along the way)
The dress code here is really limiting my already limited wardrobe. Apparently ankles are incredibly sexy, so must be covered at all times. It doesn’t seem fair that the men get to wear skimpy skirts, while the women must cover ankles, chest, and shoulders. But I didn’t make the rules, I guess. So that leaves me with my one pair of pants for the whole month, which are so stretched out that I now have to tie belt loops together to keep them on. Considering laundry takes several days to dry in this humidity, I’m going to guess this will be one of my stinkier months. I’ll also note that I have to duct tape my Chacos together on a daily basis now. Even the kids on the street point out to me that my shoes are broken…I know! Poor shoes have been suffering a slow death since Rwanda.
(head coverings for chruch)
So far my team has all stayed healthy! No stomach issues. We were told that many teams that come here spend a lot of time in the hospital. My prayer before meals on this trip is: ‘God thank you for this meal. Help me to get it down with out making any faces, and protect our bodies from sickness. Amen.’
Last funny little side item I’ll give you on this culture: the Bobble. It’s this subtle movement of their head back and forth which they do ALL the time. Like a combination of a nod and a shake. So when you ask someone a question, and you get the bobble response.. do you think they mean yes or no? I don’t know either, and I’m living here. The bobble makes me laugh and leaves me really confused.
(everyone watching me get my hair braided. Fascinating!)
This month I’m a nomad. My team is spending 5 days living at each orphanage. The children’s homes each have 10 kids living in them whose parents cannot care for them. While the kids are in school, we are doing manual labor building a fence around each of the properties. This includes weeding in buffalo manure (aka soil), mowing the lawn with our hands and a machete, and planting plants. After the first day we asked for gloves because there are huge thorn bushes, so they brought us surgical latex gloves for the following day. This was funny…although not very helpful. We also have to pray individually over each plant after planting it; in one day I planted 30 plants…
After school we tutor the kids in English and give them lots of love. This ministry began in 2007 and now has 40 homes across the state of Andhra Pradesh. It’s an incredible light and hope amongst the darkness.
This is Samuel. He’s 6yrs old and is a little heart breaker. He’s got the highest pitch voice when he gets excited, which is all the time, and he wants to be a pastor. His dad died of AIDs and his mom is currently dying from AIDs. Miraculously, Samuel is healthy. Yesterday I taught the boys how to do the Macarena. Of course their favorite part is when you get to shake your rear-end and scream, ‘Heyyyy Macarena Ayy!’
(this poor butterfly sacrificed its wings for our play date)
