The drive in was daunting….my team landed in Varanasi, India (which is in the north) after being awake for 36 hours. We were thrilled to have finally reached our first ministry point on the World Race, only a bus ride separated from getting started…
None of us had anticipated a 4 hour bus ride on Indian dirt roads. It was HILARIOUS. The theme song from Gilligan’s Island kept going through my head. A tidbit about me….when I feel like I might cry, I laugh. It gets inappropriate at times but I feel like this year it might come in handy. The 4 hour bus ride after no sleep was the first such example. A little note about driving in India, they continuously honk their horns to let other drivers know that they are present, on the road, even from 200 feet away. The bonus to this is that they have horns that sound like songs and are even louder than the horns in America.
We are the first World Race team to visit this ministry contact and so no one knew about the 4 hour bus ride. I am so thankful for it, at some point another girl on my team commented “I just want to see where we are going to be staying…”, to which I replied “I just want them to keep driving.”. I have never seen anything like India. I figured that living in Panama, doing some mission work in Mexico, and being aware of poverty would prepare me for this. It did not.
The smell was the first thing I noticed, burning trash everywhere. We are in Bihar this month and in the 1st and 2nd weeks of January it was record breaking cold. Cows were roaming everywhere, there are no lanes, no windows on brick buildings, I really am lost for words on how to describe it. I was TERRIFIED. I couldn’t help but think to myself “What have I gotten myself in TO?” I never imagined it would look like this. I feel like every racer at some point early on meditates on thoughts similar to mine.
Bihar is one of the poorest states in India and the poverty doesn’t escape anyone, anywhere, or so it would seem. There are small children walking around, unaccompanied, looking desperate and cold. The cows are even covered with burlap sacks to keep warm because you can see every bone in their body. I have forgotten what a healthy cow looks like.
It started getting dark and we pulled off the road to get some tea, for which I am grateful. We then were informed we only had 30 minutes left and continued on. We arrived around 8 and I breathed a sigh of RELIEF as we drove on to a gated compound with finished and even painted buildings. It felt as though it were heaven on Earth. We were fed a nice warm meal and went straight to bed. Just another reminder on this journey that God will provide….and in the most amazing ways.
