Indian Train Experience!
Trains are not something I am accustomed to. However, my newest train experience will be an experience that will be engraved in my memories and in my heart forever. A 32 hour train ride from New Dehli, India downward to the southern trip to Ongole, India is not something you "get to do" in every lifetime. Man, I sure am lucky!
As I boarded the blue metal "box" with wheels, I grabbed onto the rusty metal "help me" bar and pulled myself up the steps with 70 lbs on my back. I quickly let go of the railing just in time to avoid the next hand to grab the rail- reminding myself to pull out my hand sanitizer asap when I got to sit down. As I followed my buddy Frank infront of me, (we shared the same cart), he stopped suddenly and threw his bag on a bench to the left. He turned and said, "this is it". I almost fainted. So I threw my stuff up to the top bunk on the left and climbed on up. At least I would have SOME personal space and my things wouldnt be so easily in view to be stolen; not to mention it was cleaner up there… less dirt. (so i thought).
( my thinking when I got on this train was impaired and extremely OCD- DISCLAIMER) haha
By this point, we had been traveling for about 3 days with very few hours of sleep and many time changes so I jumped to the top bunk with my 3 bags, hoodie, snacks, and hand sanitizer and fell asleep. When I woke up, we were 5 hours in and to my sheer excitement I had three fans blowing air on me! "Thank God!" I thought to myself. The sun had set by this point and I looked down from my bunk and began to analyze my new situaion.
Picture this:
I look down. There are two benches ( covered in about 2 in. of padding and vinyl covering) one of the left and one on the right. So on each wall, there was a potential to unfold three bunks, which would ultimately be six beds. BUT if the other people sharing your cart are not READY to sleep, you are plumb out of luck unfolding your bed because it was part of the bench everyone had to sit on. ( Unless you are on the top bunk… you always have a bed- yes.. im learning to be smart!) To my right, there were two more beds made into one bunk by the window. The good news is that the cart was about 8 of us and 6 of us were from the WR- that was fun. But there were two Indian men that had no idea what they were getting into- but ended up playing pictionary telephone, uno, and had great conversations with us.
I'm not going to lie, 32 hours was very long. But I do have some very memorable moments on that train. Some thoughts, some visuals, some joys, and a broken heart at the same time. Some things never become real until you see them with your own eyes, and thats how it is with me.
Because I had slept a little during the day, I was up pretty late that night. A friend of mine and I stayed up for a while letting the others sleep on the beds. We did not really talk, but just looked. We looked. We looked out the steel barred windows at the moon, at the rice patties, at the people, towns- both thinking almost the same thoughts ( I think). But for me, I was thinking while listening to Kim Hill's "consume me" ( her music is AMAZING and has been my soothing touch from the beginning of this trip). I was thinking, "Is this real? Am I really in the heart of India on a train from 1790 that may break down any second, with nothing but peanut butter, cipro, and hand sanitizer? I am INSANE! Ok, but I still have peace, I still have rest, I still have such faith that I am on an adventure of a lifetime and this is right. Since that moment I have not feared, I have not worried. I have loved it.
On the other hand, we would stop at train stations every half hour or so and I would scan the people, the station. People on the ground everywhere, dirt, filth, trash, newborn babies weighing no more than 2 kgs. Women would put their little hands through the steel bars on the train to ask for money trying to convince me the baby they were holding WAS in fact theirs and they needed money. I saw a man almost dead while everyone walked right over him. I have experienced a hemiplegic boy scoot down and sweep the dirt from my feet, look up at me to see if I would give him a couple rupees for the good deed he had done. Humbling. Horribly humbling. Makes you feel sick.
Once unloading the train, wherever we would go, people would just circle us and stare. They would get out their cameras and cell phones and take pictures and videos of us. I've never seen anything like it. Always being stared at is a new thing for me… as it would for most people- takes a little getting used to. The Indian people have been nothing but kind, sweet, loving, and extremely generious to us. I have loved this culture and the people that live in it. More coming soon. Check out pictures on facebook page.
love you all!!! kait
