This blog is absolutely random, but then so has been my experience of India in the 6 days I’ve been here. I’m sorry if this blog reads chaotic or disjointed- it absolutely mirrors the hilarious, challenging, heart-tugging days of last week.
Getting to India was the picture of Murphy’s Law. Our original flight was cancelled 10 minutes before we were scheduled to board due to a damaged plane. My whole squad (plus a few AIM leaders) were put up in a boujee (WR lingo for fancy/extra/too much) hotel and given $45 each in meal vouchers to compensate for the fact that we no longer had a ride to India.
The next morning, we got an urgent text from our logistics team asking us to quickly make our way to the lobby with all our stuff- there was a flight and we were on it! We hustled and quickly loaded (a few too many racers) onto a bunch of shuttle buses and were dropped off at the international wing of the Atlanta airport. We made our way through security (we’d already been there done that once the day before) and made it to our terminal with enough time to get settled and grab some food.
When World Racers travel (or eat meals, or do anything in public really) we draw ALL THE ATTENTION. We look distinct because we travel with giant packs and day packs and a whole host of other “required” traveling paraphernalia. We all also tend to dress really similarly- World Race t-shirts, travel pants (either of the cargo or elephant variety) and the same 48% excited 51% terrified looks on our faces. We also have a distinct look about us because we carry the same Spirit of the same God. I wish all of you could have traveled with us, because you would have gotten a kick out of all the attention we drew!
Later, they called for us to board and we were filled with a mixture of nervous excitement and skepticism that everything would actually go according to plan.We boarded without a hitch and walked all the way to the verrrry back of a giant international airplane to take our seats and wait for three hours. Yes, we sat on an airplane for three hours waiting to depart. The catch here is that we had a connecting flight waiting for us in Qatar (look it up…it’s one of the wealthiest countries in the world and is located next to Saudi Arabia). Our layover wasn’t very long, so we knew we were going to be cutting it close to make the final flight to India.
We finally took off and flew for a whole bunch of hours. I’m not sure how many because I lost count after the 10th hour. It’s super challenging to sleep in an airplane for me, so even though we were losing half a day by traveling forward in time, I barely slept. They served us lots of interesting food, and I watched 4 movies.
Sometime after the fourth movie, we landed in Qatar. We got off the plane and were met with the most suffocating heat I have ever felt in my life. I live in Texas, where it is common to continue normal life while it is 110F degrees outside. Qatar is much. much. much hotter than Texas. I wish that I had an internet connection while I was there so I could have figured out the temperature. The heat was truly impressive.
We rushed through the airport to the next gate and found ourselves in a very long line to board the plane to India. We miraculously made it through check-in with only moments to spare before they started boarding the flight. The flight was another long flight with little sleep for me. And then suddenly we were in India at 3 in the morning!
The next few days are kind of a blur. Highlights: made it through customs with no problem, got our bags and boarded a couple of buses to head to our housing for the last few days of training. We slept for a few hours when we got to the school we were staying at and then jumped into our final training before we’d leave for our individual ministries. It was a lot of cultural information, training on spiritual gifts, and a quick “how-to” to survive living in India for a month. (All the AIM staff admit that India is the most opposite culture from American culture out of all the places they’d been…and they’ve been to a lot of countries!) We ate lots of Indian food, slept very little, and shopped for traditional Indian clothing.
After a year of prep, months of training sessions and time with our squad, my team and I were finally headed to our own ministry! We had another smaller training with our host and got a tour of our neighborhood. We settled into our room, thrilled to find we have beds and our own bathroom.
On our second day alone in India as a team (Sunday), my team decided we wanted to go to church. We went to a church in the city we are living in and were blown away by the service. They sang contemporary worship songs, and served communion. It was so humbling and powerful to take the Lord’s supper with my Christian brothers and sisters of India. I was moved to tears realizing that God sees me and has me exactly where he wants me. It wasn’t an accident that I ended up on a WR route that started in India.
After church, we asked a local for a suggestion on a place to eat lunch. He suggested we eat at a “beef restaurant.” We hailed some autos (tuk tuks) and told the drivers some rough directions and then we were off! As we loaded into the autos, it started to pour down rain. Let me tell you about monsoon season in India. It rains harder than I’ve ever experienced, and remember I live in Texas. Texas is known for it’s “monsoon-like” rain storms. In India, it rains so hard and so much that within seconds, the streets are flooded and you find yourself walking in ankle/calf deep water with little to no warning that the water was coming. Monsoon season in India is no joke. We careened down streets clinging to the hope our auto drivers knew what they were doing! We arrived (somewhere), got out, paid the drivers and began to walk in the downpour.
Two things were funny: we had no idea where we were, with no beef restaurant in sight, and we were walking down a flooded street soaking wet with no direction to head.
(Let me paint a picture for you about why it was just so funny that we were walking down the street in the rain. I am on a team of all girls. American girls, who are light skinned. We were all wearing traditional Indian clothing-leggings and tunics- with our sandals and purses. We were wading through flood water giggling and wiping rain out of eyes absolutely soaked to the bone. Again, racers tend to draw attention, so add all of the above to the fact that we already stick out and you’ve got your opening scene for a really cheesy comedy film.)
One of my teammates spotted an Asian-fusion restaurant, so we scuttled over and dripped our way through the door. The maitre d’ laughed as we entered looking like we’d jumped in a pool, and led us upstairs to a back room. Our waiter brought cloth napkins for us to dry off with, and we sat down to order food. Little did we know, this was one of the priciest restaurants in that part of town!
An hour later, after much deliberation on food choices, we were handed a bill that equated to $42 USD, which is ASTRONOMICAL for food in India. Seriously, it would be the equivalent of walking into a fancy steak house and ordering the most expensive items on the menu. We had been duped by our waiter-conned into ordering much more food than we actually needed.
Two problems: the language barrier situation is MUCH harder than I anticipated. And second, cultural differences are such that things don’t mean quite the same to an Indian that they do to me…even when we are both speaking English. My team walked away promising to never again be duped by a clever local.
The reality that I am in India is finally hitting me full force. It’s been a very hard transition/adjustment for me. Indian culture is different from anything I’ve ever experienced and it’s challenging to understand. India is a country steeped in tradition, with beautiful, interesting architecture and people, spicy and delicious food, and land that is rocky, hilly, and captivating.
Getting here was the struggle of the year, but we made it. My squad is in India and God has big plans for us and for the people here. Many days are going to feel hard. Most days there will be reasons to doubt, cry, and beg God to send me anywhere but here. But He knows exactly what He’s doing, even if I don’t.
My hope is that the posture of my heart over the next few weeks here in India is “yes!” and that my posture for the rest of my race is “yes and amen!” I followed God’s call to go on the World Race. I’m still not exactly sure why, but God is good regardless of what I know or don’t know. I am putting my trust in Romans 8:28 right now: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
So here’s to Month 1 in India. May my answer to the Lord always be “yes” and may God give me enough love for people- both my teammates and the people of India- to carry me through one of the most challenging times of my life so far.
