This blog was written Saturday, February 9.
And finally, after a week of ministry, we RESTED. Our rest days are every Saturday (which worked out completely because the following week, aka last Saturday, was my birthday, and was totally awesome so I'll write about that ASAP 🙂 ), and this Saturday I took time in the morning to do some cleaning and laundry. I finally organized all of my stuff and unpacked, and the girls in my room (Meredith and Stefanie) and I all "decorated" –meaning we put Meredith's saree on the wall behind our bed. Believe it or not, this is the most decorated room I've been in thus far on the race, and it feels awesome. Her saree looks a little like my tapestry in my bedroom from college and it made me feel right at home. We set up some incense, turned on our "mood lighting" (our room has inlaid ceiling lighting with blue and green light bulbs…what the heck?), and put on some chill indie/folk music in our newly decorated and clean/organized room. It was so relaxing and I didn't feel like I was in India or on the Race. It really is little things like that that help combat homesickness or feeling completely uncomfortable and out of my element.
When I finally stepped out of our home away from home, I was pleasantly surprised to find half of my squad outside in our family room area. About five teams are in our general area, and I'm pretty sure at least one person from each team was at our place for a good portion of the day. It felt almost like a little debrief/family reunion. My team has been on our own for the past two months so it's been such a blessing to have other squadmates in the area this month and have the ability to hang out and connect with them.
Around dinnertime, my friends Alex, Isaac, Amie, and Stefanie and I went to get some biryani for dinner and ate it on our roof during sunset. It was so fun to connect with those boys (the girls are on my team so I see them every day) and goof around with them.
[Our roof is legit and we hang out up here all the time. Photo Cred: Beth Barron]
Later, Isaac, Sharisse, Stefanie and I set up some blankets on the roof and watched Slumdog Millionaire. I couldn't believe how much from the movie was actually like the India I've experienced this month! If you want a visual idea of where I am, please watch this movie. Here are some things that are in the movie that I see and experience every day:
-The head wobble. It's everywhere and very real. A 5 minute wobble means maybe. But a 30 minute wobble means absolutely. Nodding doesn't happen here, wobbling does. I still haven't completely figured it out quite yet but I have noticed a lot of my squadmates starting to subconsciously wobble their heads and it makes me smile.
-Horns. The horns here are RIDICULOUS. Instead of turn signals and checking your blind spots before you switch lanes, people honk their horns. To distinguish yourself from the sea of "regular" horns, you can install a crazy noisemaking horn different than all the rest. This results in a constant orchestra of car horns playing all around us (even as I'm writing this I've heard about 10 different car horn noises..and before posting this I heard a reverse/backup horn to the tune of "Happy Birthday to You" haha).
-Eating with your hands. Indians don't eat with forks or spoons, but you eat with your hand–and only your right hand. The left hand is used for washing/toilet paper. This makes things hard for me, a leftie who doesn't use either of her hands for toilet paper.
-Shoes. Jamal steals shoes at the Taj Mahal because everyone's shoes are outside of the door. When you walk in to buildings, it's customary to take your shoes off.
-Beggars. I haven't seen too many child beggars (I have, but not as many as I have seen in videos), but I know there are more in bigger cities such as New Delhi. We've been told to not give to beggars because they really do give their money to a "boss" type person like in the movie.
-The slums at the beginning of the movie. This is really what it looks like. I remember being shocked when I first saw Slumdog about the slums, and now after being in 5 other third world countries, I'm not at all. I had the reaction of, yep, that's what it looks like. Like it was normal almost. It's definitely been a huge worldview shift to have seen things like this in person and to have walked through them and shook the hands of people living in places like this. I'm really grateful for it! If you ever get the opportunity to do something in an area like that, I would take it, because it's way different walking through the slums than seeing it in a movie.
[We travel in "Tut tuts" like the one in the second picture]
That's all I can really think up or remember, but I'm sure there are other similarities that would seem abnormal to me living in America but have become normal to me now. It's incredible how quickly we're able to adapt to another culture after 6 months on the race! I have a feeling I'm going to have to go through the same adapting process coming home because American culture is so different than what I'm used to now, even though I represent American culture wherever I go.
I totally recommend watching the movie if you get a chance this month though, just to get a little taste of my life out here. I'm not running around committing crimes, but I pay for things in Rupees and walk streets similar to the ones on the movies, and I'll be going to the Taj Mahal at the end of the month (!!), so it's still a little glimpse into my world.
[Sometimes I feel like this with the hygiene conditions on the WR]
