At launch I was introduced to the 5 love languages: words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, gifts, and physical touch. I still haven’t taken the test, but I have since been able to figure mine out, along with the people I live with. I like to receive quality time and acts of service, and as a result that’s how I love others. Lots of girls here feel loved by physical touch, and it’s also how they show love. Frequently I will be pet, hugged, leaned on, or have my hand held. If you know me well, you know physical touch is not comfortable to me. I believe in hugs hello and goodbye, and prefer to not touch the person sitting next to me. A big part of this is the heat, I’m sorry, but sweaty hand/leg contact is gross, but I still love you very much. I was very excited to get out of my comfort zone on the race, and that has been achieved in many ways. I had a conversation with a friend who is now on another squad, and she told me sometimes you have to be uncomfortable for the sake of another persons comfort. I wish I could say it more eloquently, but that’s the truth. I don’t want my friends here to avoid touching me because they know I will freeze up, because then I am not allowing them to show affection. Slowly I am becoming more comfortable and accustomed to having my hair tousled, and I have seen how I’ve grown closer to people by letting them touch me.
Something I wasn’t expecting in India, is the complete lack of physical touch. People here shake hands, and that’s it. We went to a wedding, and the couple did not kiss, instead they put flower necklaces on each other and held hands. At the end of each night when we leave the villages, all the people who waited outside the building while we ate come to see us off. As we do they shake our hands and give us a respectful head bobble. One time, a woman I prayed for threw her arms out and embraced me. Once I realized she was attempting to hug me, I tried to adjust my body to hers and show her how to hug someone. The woman standing next to us then pushed her aside and came in for a hug. The next minute was the most stiff, awkward, and beautiful minute of the whole night. Any woman who was nearby came and hugged Kendra and I. As their uncoordinated arms got tangled in my scarf, and I accidentally pulled their hair, we became closer than I could have imagined. We are strangers to them, but they reached out to us with such a simple action, and it conveyed more than words ever could. We have only been hugged in a couple villages, and we don’t expect it, but in my mind the women who reach out to us physically are the bravest we have met.
