Hello All!
I have officially arrived at the final month of my race!
To update you on what I’ve been doing since my last blog…
Travel day!
2 weeks ago we took 4 trucks into the villages of India. It was 16 hours total, and I spent 13 of them in the bed of the truck with 4 others! It was actually awesome, until the last three hours. Our driver was wild. It felt like he accelerated and ran into each pot hole he could find, which on Indian roads is every 3 feet… It was a bumpy ride. The last three hours, it got dark, we got tired, and sleeping on our backpacks is less than comfortable. We arrived and my team spend a week in this village, accompanied by one other team.
Lungthuleim:
Our week here involved teaching in the school, leading devos for the kids who lived in the dorms, learning a tribal dance, cheering on soccer, and eating meals together. Our first day they told us that we had three hours with the class, and we had about 30 minutes to prepare. Sarah and I took on class 3, ages ranged from 8-11. The first day was a bit overwhelming as we walked into a class with 30+ students who didn’t want to respond to any of our questions.
The next day I was by myself and this time I was ready and prepared! They were so happy when I walked into the room, which was a fun confidence booster. We sang songs, learned about the fruits of the spirit, played hangman, duck duck goose, and sang more songs. Those quiet shy kids from day one proved their abilities to be loud on day 2!
We also spent one day with preschool kids and those sweet children couldn’t understand a thing we said. We got blank, scared stares the whole time.
(Fun fact: at the preschool, they just send the kids outside into the grass and they all pull down their pants right there and go to the bathroom. Who needs toilets, or much less a bathroom in the first place??)
We spent three days in class 3 and although we weren’t able to name all 30+ of our students, we did grow to love them!
Every evening, we learned and practiced the Mar tribal dance! And on our last night, we had a farewell party and performed the dance for our whole squad and the students! We even got to dress up in the traditional wrap skirts and head-ware.
Travel day
Our next travel day was moving to a different village. All we were told was we would take a 8 hour boat ride. We were all nervous about our stuff getting wet, we didn’t even think to worry about HOW we were getting to the boat.
A large construction sized truck arrived and loaded all of our big backpacks. As we awaited our transportation and joked about sitting on top of our backpacks for the ride, we realized that that was actually the plan. So we piled in on top of our bags, and it quickly became apparent how little space there was for 37 people with their big packs, day packs, and miscellaneous purses or guitars. Me and a friend, John Mark, sat on backpacks and put our feet out of the truck and held on tight while the rest of the group sat on each others lap. It was like this for two hours. In that time, we hardly made it past a giant boulder that had fallen in the road, a truck that had gotten stuck, and the terrible road conditions.
We finally arrived, and one of the two boats expected to meet us there had left. So they packed us onto one boat with all our stuff. THEN we had to get out and walk to the other side of the dock area. Then we waited in the sun for over 30 minutes waiting for who knows what. THEN we boarded the boat.
Ha. ha. That 8 hour boat ride turned into 13 hours. There was no space, I spent most the night curled up on 3 feet of the plywood seat. At one point, the military made us all get off the boat. We were ready to answer questions, but it was just to take a picture with us. The life of being white people in India… Travel taking several hours longer than initially announced to us is not a new concept to us on the world race. For that reason, we arrived at my exact estimated time of arrival. At 1:20am we pulled into dock at our destination just to see that we had to carry all our stuff up a steep, muddy hill… At 2 am we sat down for a large meal they had prepared for us. Then we set up our tents, due to the amount of bugs in the rooms, and went to bed.
Needless to say, it was a bit of a rough day. There were good moments! The boat was a very pretty ride, as was the truck ride. It was just stressful not knowing anything that’s going on and never being able to be comfortable and being crammed near that many people…
Hmarkhawlain:
This week has been hard for me. We are all squad once again, and this is not my favorite. As much as I love my squad, we never seem to accomplish much ministry when we are together, and everything becomes dirtier and more complicated.
Also, India is so different from anywhere we have been. It is dirty, all the food is the same, the people are either taking their photos with you cause you’re white, or giggling as you talk to them because they are nervous, because again, you’re white. I looked at prom photos of girls who look so clean and nice, while I’m proud of myself for wearing a clean pair of pants today…
2 lessons
I’ve learned 2 main lessons from my homesickness.
1. It’s not a sin to be homesick.
2. Look for the sweet moments
I love working with ministries because they are running every day. Working with churches has been consistently harder for me because they run out of things for you to do. The first few days all we did was move dirt, which I know is helpful to them, but it just doesn’t feel like I’m doing much. If I’m going to be here sleeping in my tent because there’s too many bugs in the room, and sweat like crazy, and sleep on a little mat, and feel incurably gross, I want to have something to show for it, something that keeps me running, a reason for it all.
SO, I have learned to look at the sweet moments of this week:
-We got to do house visits! In one of the houses, the man prayed for us and said that we were like angels visiting him, and he sang “this is the day that the lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it”
-The next house visit, I got to laugh and smile with the grandma as she asked me questions in Mar, and I tried to explain to here that I didn’t understand!
-During church, the little girl behind me kept poking me, and I would try to turn around and poke her back. She was a sassy little thing! It’s one of the games that are fun to start but hard to end because you are in the middle of church and doing that for too long during a sermon might not look good! But it was fun!
-One morning, we got to go visit some of the hostels that house kids that go to the school, but live too far away to live at home. One of them, we played games and it was so fun! At the next one, it was us five girls, and five girls at the hostel! It was so much fun! We played some hand games, then sang some hymes (amazing grace, how great thou art) and they braided our hair and let us taste their rice sticky bread!
-I absolutely love my team, and any time I spend with them is fun. Whether we are playing games, reminiscing about America, eating curry and rice, walking around the market, looking through people’s camera role, laughing and talking, or whatever it is, it is fun to do with them!
-We are teaching in the schools for our last three days and I got class 3 with 21 students. They are so sweet and full of vigor and life!
-I got to talk to some high school girls. One of the girls loved Zain Malik and said, “If he came to this village I would be so happy and I would run up and hug him!” They asked me about my family, and if I saw famous people all the time, and asked why I don’t wear makeup because all the movie stars do.
This week has been a struggle between loving my now and desiring the future.
(I scroll through Pinterest food items, just wanting the freedom and ability to make something! When I get home, let me come to your house and I’ll make you something!)
I love the people I live with, I love getting to travel, I love this opportunity, I love the people I get to meet, but at the same time, I am excited for what is to come when I get home.
I found this quote and I love it. I think it well captures the confusion of homesickness.
“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”
P.s. I wanted to put pictures in this blog, but my connection wasn’t strong enough to upload them… I will try to post them on Facebook later so you can see what I’m talking about.
Also we leave for Nepal TOMORROW
