Today is my squad’s 6th day in India! I’ve been wanting to share with everyone my first week of experiences here in this country.
The Journey to India
We began our journey to India from Atlanta, Georgia, on the 11th. Our flight was at 7 pm and was 12h45m. I am happy to announce that I was able to sleep a lot on the plane ride to Qatar. We arrived in Doha, Qatar at 5 pm local time (before our stop there, I didn’t know Qatar was a country…I thought it was a city. I’m learning so much already!) and waited two hours to get on our 4 hour flight to Hyderabad, India. We arrived at 2 am on January 13th and drove about 45 minutes to the house our squad stayed in for 3-4 days.
Staying in Hyderabad
The house is a worship school in the city that records music and holds a church service on Sundays (that we got to attend!). The owner of the school and home is American and moved to India 4 and a half years ago. She was first called to India 13 years ago. The worship school is part of a bigger organization in India that has many different ministries throughout the country. Some of the teams, including mine, are partnering with some of these different ministries this month. Their goal is to plant 25,000 churches in India and have already established 7,000! Its called Operation Saturation, and you can follow their efforts on Facebook by searching for that name.
When we arrived in the early morning, most of the squad went to sleep but some of us decided to stay up since it was already 5 am. I sat on the couch and read and journaled. Later that morning we went out for breakfast and got some street food. They warn us against street food since it can make us sick, but we decided to risk it and got masala dosa.
Indian Food
Dosa is a crepe-like food made out of egg with some vegetables inside (kind of like an omelette too). Masala was the spicy dipping sauce and it also came with curd to relieve the spice. That was my first authentic meal in India and I was happy. I was nervous, because I had only eaten Indian food twice in America.
Everyone in my squad is in love with chai. Indians have tea time at least twice (usually thrice) a day and its wonderful. I was expecting it to be spicy but its not. Its so good and we’re already thinking about ways to find and make Indian chai back in the States.
Another Indian food I’ve tried and really liked is paneer. Its a type of dairy product, that at first I thought was chicken since it was in chunks.
Indian food equals rice, bread, and potatoes. CARB CITY. They scoop up rice with their chapati (pita-like bread). This and chai and the fact that Indians force you to have seconds and thirds is going to make me gain 10 pounds this month! The rest of the Race is going to be very similar.
Indian Sights, Sounds, and Smells
India is such a beautiful country with so many vivid colors! The weekend we arrived in India, they were celebrating Pongal, a four-day holiday celebrating the sun god. We were introduced to this when we walked through the neighborhood and noticed pretty drawings and designs at the ends of people’s driveways. It looked like it was made from chalk but on closer inspection it was crushed flowers! The picture I used for this blog post I found on Google because I unfortunately didn’t get one.
The clothing that Indians wear is so ornate and colorful and there are so many patterns! Its interesting to see how much the woman care about what they wear even when they are living in slums and villages with not many resources.
It was fun to go shopping for kurtas, which are every day long shirts that cover a woman’s bottom. You can wear jeans and leggings with kurtas as long as they cover the shape of a woman’s knee. In India, ankles, shoulders and armpits are especially scandalous to be left uncovered. Not stomachs. Indians where saris for every day clothing but also special occasions, which leave the sides of the stomach (and thus, fat rolls) exposed. My team has the privilege of attending at least two or three ceremonies while we’re at our ministry site and we went shopping for saris on our first day we arrived. I am excited about the material I chose! Its like choosing a prom or wedding dress! It was fun to look through the colors and patterns and see what my teammates chose based on their personality.
There are so many motorcycles here and no traffic laws! No designated lanes on the roads. Drivers weave in and out. I don’t think Indians know the meaning of “stop” or what the brake pedal is.
Besides motorcycles in the streets, tuk tuks are the other popular form of travel. They are like taxis on three wheels. And like taxi drivers in the U.S., they will try to rip you off. Our tuk tuk driver we used to go kurta shopping didn’t know or pretended to not understand the concept of “no” when he told us he would wait for us for one hour at the store. We told him it was okay and he could go. He followed us into the store to verify that he would wait for an hour. And when we were checking out an hour later, it was like he was waiting for us and came in to bring us back to his tuk tuk. We tried to tell him in 300 different ways that we would find a different way back but he was the most insistent person I’ve ever met. And when he dropped us off, my teammate gave him a 500 rupee bill ($7 USD), since he was charging us 400 rupees and we got a 100 rupee bill back. We walked 10 feet away and were talking when he called us back and said we hadn’t given him the correct amount; he had a 100 rupee bill in his hand and said we had given him it. We were confused and apologetic, forgetting we had in fact given him a 500 bill, and so we gave him another one. As we sat down to eat, we realized the impossibility of it, since we didn’t have any bills smaller than 500. But we also realized that even if we had remembered and told him, it would have been his word against ours and we knew that he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Oh the smells of India! Mostly unpleasant. The smell of urine and sewage and trash. But also the smell of campfires which reminds me of toasted marshmallows because they burn their trash on the side of the street. They don’t have a trash disposal system in India so that is what they have to do. It made me super thankful for the systems we have in place in America.
On our bumpy drive to Medak on January 16, we saw a whole bunch of monkeys on the side and middle of the road! My team and I were in so much delight in seeing them, although the two Indians in the van were probably rolling their eyes and wondering why were so excited. They’re kind of like squirrels back in the U.S. But they’re also dangerous. They have showed up in front of the building we’re staying in and our ministry host tells us to stay inside. I am trying to upload a video of the monkeys!
Waking up in Medak the first morning, we heard the sounds of singing and worship in Telugu (I assume, since its the local language here). It was such a “You’re definitely in India” wake up call! I also recognized monkey calls that reminded me of bird sounds. Its easy to get used to because they sound like familiar noises back home.
I’m especially thankful that we are here during India’s coldest month. It reaches the high 80s every day! I can’t imagine what it would be like to be here in the summer! So, so thankful.
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I wrote a lot, and I hope my friends, family, and readers back home now have a better picture of what my first six days in India have looked like!
Please don’t hesitate to contact me this year:
- You can email me at sara.guenevere@gmail.com
- Find me on Facebook and Instagram (@saras_simplejoys)
- Write your responses to my posts in the comments section below
Prayer Request:
If you would like to pray for my squad, please be praying against spiritual warfare in the physical sense of getting sick. I’ve been having a slight fever the past two days and one of my teammates had to go to the hospital last night. I’ve heard that some other people are experiencing the same kind of symptoms my teammate had: stomach pain, diarrhea, and throwing up. It might be food poisoning or their bodies adjusting to the food, etc. But please be praying for physical healing and renewed spirits for the people who have been feeling sick and weak during the first couple days of ministry. Its especially uncomfortable and scary in a foreign country!
My Blog
As one of the Story Leaders for S Squad, I will be trying my best to post stories once a week, as well as a couple of update posts. Hopefully I can post between 5-6 times a month. I’m not going to let this intimidate me or feel pressure to perform. I want to use this so-called gift that the Lord has evidently given me and asked me specifically to steward this year. It will definitely keep my accountable and be a needed motivation for me to not bury my talent in the sand (Matthew 25:14-30).
My next post will be about our ministry for the month and the wonderful woman and children I’ve had the honor of getting to know during my time in this country. They definitely are what I’m going to love and miss the most about India.
