I’ve come to realize I have a lot of fun stories or experiences that have happened, but each one does not constitute an individual blog post. I would like to share some of these stories here.
For Thanksgiving, my team ate a normal rice and curry meal and then we had a friendsgiving of desserts. We had root beer floats, candy, cookies, banana pudding and a traditional Indian dessert that tastes something like doughnut holes.
Speaking of food, we eat so much. It is unbelievably rude to leave food on your plate after a meal because it signals to your host that you don’t like them or their cooking. This wouldn’t be as big of a problem if they didn’t serve us SO MUCH FOOD. Now if you’ve ever gone out to eat with me in America, you might notice that I often order off the children’s menu or take half my regular meal home afterwards because I just can’t eat very much. So India has been a stretching experience for me, literally. But for anyone who is wondering, Yes… the food here is amazing!
My current host site has the added bonus of a street where we can run. This helps balance out the extreme portions of our meals. There is one hitch though: the water buffalo. Every day the herdsmen take their cattle to and from the fields by way of our road. Sometimes I go outside and there are 30 or more water buffalo and brahmas meandering down the street. This poses a problem when running. You see, the cattle can become frightened when a strange person runs toward them while they’re minding their own business. We mostly just jog around them or try to exercise when they aren’t there. But trying to exercise and dodge confused buffalo will always be a funny memory for me.
Transportation to our work in the evenings has always been an interesting experience. One time our auto broke down and we didn’t get to ministry until almost 11 o’clock at night. We also have occasionally had to fit 8 people into a regular sized 5 person car. One night we had the driver, 2 people in the passenger seat, and 5 people in the back with 4 sitting down and 1 laying across. Another time we put 4 in the back and 4 in the front. There were 2 people in the passenger seat and 2 people in the drivers seat. Our driver couldn’t reach the gear shift since his arm was pinned down by the other person in his seat, so our translator in the passenger seat shifted for him. In Swaziland, I would freak out when our ride was slightly unsafe, but now I just put my headphones in and laugh at the whole situation.
One day we asked if we could see where the children went to school. Our host obliged and drove us over. We thought we were just going to drive by and see the location, but the headmaster invited us in. He was so excited that Americans were at his school. We ended up visiting every single classroom and talking with the kids. After that, we went to the headmaster’s house across the street where he gave us chai and snacks. We mentioned that it was cool that the school had a volleyball court and before we knew it, we were playing an extremely intense game of volleyball with the 10th grade boys. It was so fun! We were invited back the next day as well because they had such a fun time. I’m not very good at volleyball (I consistently drop the ball), but I think this is one of the few times I’ve truly enjoyed the sport.
Women here wear sarrees every day. Sarees are so colorful and fun to wear, despite the fact that they are incredibly heavy and hot. I only have one saree though. But this is no problem. The women of the village graciously offer up their sarees to the 3 girls on my team. It’s so cool to get a chance to wear the traditional clothing of all these beautiful women.
So here are a few sweet memories for me. Hope you enjoyed them!
