*Just a disclaimer that I will not be talking about ministry this month for the protection of the people we’re serving alongside here*
We wake up in already toasty on our sleeping pads on the floor church we’re staying in.
Breakfast happens around 8 or 9 in the morning, and it could be a hard-boiled egg and savory cream-of-wheat-type dish (which you eat with your right hand), or maybe rice and a curry (curry, by the way, just means “sauce”.) Our first chai time comes after breakfast, which comes in a tiny metal cup that is HOT.
For brushing our teeth, showering, or washing our dishes, we draw water up from the well next to the church. Showering is dumping water on yourself, or, “bucket showering”.
This month is, by the way, the hottest month in India. The highs every day are between 102 and 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
We have time in the day to work on sermons and testimonies, to have team time, to journal and have personal time, to work out, to have a jam session. We aren’t allowed to leave the church compound because too many people will ask why we’re here and it can be suspicious.
Lunch is also rice and curry eaten with the right hand.
Sometime between lunch and leaving for day we have our second chai time! Woohoo! We are all on board with chai time.
Every day we head to a village! We take our trusty little van to a village 1-2 hours away. We are served dinner there, and the hospitality of these people is astounding. Since we’re there at night sometimes, frequently the power will go out. When that happens, there’s always someone there holding a flashlight over us so we can see what we’re eating!
The food in the villages is noticeably spicier than the already spicy Indian food! We eat it and sweat and tear up and we can’t do anything but laugh through it while someone comes by with more water for us.
After about a week here, it seems that monsoon season has started early, which means that every evening we have a majestic lightning show to watch in the downpour.
We head back to the compound around 10 or 11 pm, and try to fall asleep in the heat!
