Day in the Life: India
Hey team! Each month I want to give you an overview of what a day in my life looks like while on the Race! Here is mine for India!
5:00AM: Wake up to the sound of dogs barking and people beginning to stir.
6:30AM: Take a bucket shower. They provide hot water, but I am normally too impatient to wait for it, so I generally get up the courage for a cold bucket shower.
7:00AM: Head up to the main area where we have chai tea and morning cookies waiting. I have already written about this chai, it’s the thing of dreams. Sit down and have quiet time until breakfast is served. (Our hosts are AWESOME!)
8:00AM: Breakfast, normally a bread puff and curry or oat meal or toast or eggs
9:00AM: Meet up with our team liason and get ready for ministry for the day. On the day I am writing about, we are doing VBS in a neighboring village.
10:00AM: Pile into the ambulance used by the hospital on site. Generally try to get 16 or so people into it to transport us to our VBS site. We first drop off the other team in town at the church they are doing VBS at. Our team drives further out into the country to a small village of 1,000 to host a VBS.
10:45AM: Arrive at a small church to be greeted by kids running around and adults ready to shake our hands.
11AM: Realize they speak a different dialect than our local liason and many speak very little English, pray that they would understand us.
11:15AM: Sunday School Chairman welcomes us, tells us about the town, and invites us to introduce ourselves.
11:25AM: Begin VBS, have the kids sing silly songs, do a skit about Noah, do a craft with rainbows teaching the kids that “God Always Keeps His Promises,” learn songs from the kids in their local dialect, and hear kids share bible verses.
1:00PM: The medical check up bus was supposed to be here, but is late and we are out of things to do…so we run outside to play with the kids.
1:15PM: Lunch gets dropped off from us, they walk us across the street, knock on the door of the homeowner, and invite us in to eat our lunch there. We sit in the main room of the house while the homeowner stays outside. It is normal in this culture to provide food and host for anyone who may come knocking. This may be a policy I create at my future house in the US, as long as people like frozen meals.
1:45PM: Lunchtime over, back to playing with the kids. I make a best friend named Roland who makes fun of how I walk and likes to play freeze tag (here called Ice Water). I spin little kids around until I am about to puke. We play the afternoon away.
3:45PM: Ambulance arrives to take us back to where we are staying. The kids run after the ambulance as we leave and I am super sad to leave my new friends behind. As we drive home in the sun, a tiring and good day coming to a close, I have the realization that’s what it’s like to be a son and daughter of God, that we get to go around the world and meet with other believers and play and sing about the hope we have in our God, knowing that it’s a tiny glimpse of heaven (of course in heaven we won’t have the awkward language barriers)
4:15PM: Arrive back at where we are staying. Go up to my hammock hung in the woods and journal and have some more quiet time until dinner.
6:00PM: Dinner, usually rice and a type of curry.
7:00PM: Sun is far down and my 5AM wake up call is starting to catch up with me. We go have team time to talk about the day, give feedback to one another, and talk about what we are doing tomorrow.
9:00PM: Dead asleep
That’s an average day here! Thanks for reading! We know details are my love language, so hopefully it’s some of yours as well. Now we are wrapping up our first debrief in Kathmandu and about to head to our ministry for the month.
