I made it to India last week, and to the first major culture shift of the Race so far.
When I started the Race back in January, I knew what to expect – at least in regard to the culture that I would be living in for the first three months. Having spent a good amount of time in Central America before, I was familiar and comfortable with the environment that I walked into when I got off the first plane, and, even when I struggled with aspects of that culture that were different than my norm, at least I had dealt with them before.
It’s a different story, now. I’ve been to Asia before a couple times, but never to this area, and never as anything other than a tourist. This is a completely new experience for me, and I’m honestly loving every minute of it.
- The weather is hot. All the time. A common thought throughout most days is that I’m not drinking enough water to make up for how much I’m sweating out, and if you think that is an exaggeration, I promise you it’s the truth. The highs haven’t been any lower than triple digits, and one hundred and ten is the record so far. It probably goes without saying, but we don’t have air conditioning. It’s also culturally unacceptable to wear shorts outside of the home. I’m melting.
- One aspect of the culture here that I was looking forward to most was the food, and so far, I have not been disappointed. Our hosts cook for us three times a day, and it is absolutely incredible. And hot. Even breakfast. One thing that’s taking some getting used to is the amount of rice I’m consuming (it’s almost every meal), but I’ll get used to it – if not now, then in the next few months, after spending four months in Africa over the summer.
- Speaking of food, eating has been a struggle for me. The norm is to eat on mats on the floor, off of paper plates, and with no utensils but your hands. Once you get passed the messy factor, it’s honestly not that bad. However, the left hand here is considered ‘dirty’ and is not used for anything in social settings, especially eating. My team has gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of watching me struggle to become right-handed for the month, and there are a lot of curry stains that are probably never coming out of my clothing from dropping rice all over myself.
- The way food is prepared and how meals are done speaks a lot to this, but community is also very important here. Nothing belongs to one person – everything is shared. That means that no one has their own water glass at dinner, and we pass large bottles around and practice waterfalling, to avoid lips touching the edge. It also means if you leave anything in the fridge to cool off, it’s fair game, and whenever we buy anything from the stores around here, we need to be ready to share with everyone.
- The hospitality here has also been incredible, and not just in regard to food. Everyone, adults and children alike, want to get to know us and make sure we are comfortable and have everything we need. The kids will regularly come up to where we are living and collect our water bottles, take them downstairs, and return them full. We do laundry by hand out of buckets here, and the first time I attempted this, several women sitting outside laughed and watched me struggle for a bit before taking over and sending me upstairs. I was happy to let them.
- The lack of running water has been an adjustment. We were spoiled over the last three months with our living conditions, and this is our first month of really ‘roughing it.’ Laundry is done outside by the well in buckets, we take showers by filling up buckets and emptying cups of water over ourselves, and the toilet is level with the ground. The same buckets we use for showers and laundry we use to flush by dumping it down the drain. It sounds bad, but after a week, I’m (almost) getting used to all of it.
- One of my favorite cultural norms here is that shoes can’t be worn around the house, and no one really wears shoes outside, either. It’s sandals or nothing, so we’ve been living in flip flops all month. Even though we are expected to dress nice for church, we don’t have to worry about wearing nice shoes to match – they just get left outside anyway. It’s honestly been great not having to wear socks at all.
- Getting to church each evening has also been interesting. No one really owns cars, as we are in a tiny village where everything is within walking distance. If you need to get anywhere, you just call a tuk-tuk, which is a little open-air vehicle with benches for seats. We rented one for the month, and each evening we drive about an hour each way. It’s not the most comfortable experience, but it’s not terrible either. On these rides, it’s pretty common for us to get stopped because a farmer is leading his heard of goats or water buffalo down the center of the street. I don’t think being in that situation will ever not be funny to me.
- The language barrier is also hitting pretty hard. Having a bi-lingual Spanish speaker on our team was great for the first three months, but we are quickly learning how inconvenient it is to not have that around all the time. We tried to get him to learn Hindi, but he didn’t quite pick it up in time. We hired a translator to hang out with us all month, and we all love him, but it’s still been a bit of an adjustment.
- I notice the language barrier the most during church, which is every evening. It is not uncommon for the services to last three to four hours, and I never have a clue what is going on unless one of our team members is preaching. Even when one of us preaches, it’s usually just a fraction of the total time. In South America, I knew enough Spanish to piece together what was going on most of the time, but here, the fact that I can’t understand anything makes it seem so much longer than it actually is.
- A big part of what we are dealing with this month is a culture of Hinduism, which is something that no one on my team has ever really experienced before. It’s significantly different than the Catholic culture that we spent the last three months in, and learning how to adjust in the way we preach and act has been difficult as well.
Overall, the month is going well so far. There are adjustments, but we are all handling them well, and as far as I know, no one has offended anyone here yet. We are doing our best to learn and adapt, and our hosts have given us a lot of grace.
