So I know that I am in India and I should probably have some sort of earth-shattering revelation or something that is remotely meaningful to talk about, but seriously, yesterday was too ridiculous to not talk about. Saturday is our day off this month in India and yesterday was our first one. As some of you recall, in Rwanda, Tricia wrote a blog about a “day in the life” of a racer, because to be honest sometimes it’s ridiculous… I wish for a second that I could teleport someone from home and just live a day with me. I will attempt to recount my day off in Bangalore, but I promise I won’t be able to explain half of it I’m sure…
* Woke up to break a beginning of the month fast with three other team members.
* Breakfast is at 7:30, so I woke up early for the momentous occasion excited to eat Indian breakfast.
* Went upstairs to find bread and jelly… strawberry jelly (which I can’t stand the sight of since working at McD’s for two years…)
* So I ate cookies and went to a bakery to find out that no food is sold until eleven.
* Came back home and had devo’s with the team… worship on the rooftop which was probably hilarious sounding because I lost my voice day two of being here.
* Paired up and prayed for each other and about the things in our life that we saw as hopeless.
* Yes, we still do God stuff on off days
* Got dressed and decided to hit the city for the day and find something awesome to eat
* Without any real plan or guide, we of course got on the wrong bus to start
* Luckily, we ran into a YWAMer and he helped out… thank God
* Arrived at the city center and successfully navigated ourselves to the nearest McD’s which we spent the rest of the morning marveling at our ability to travel well and to know where we are going
* Ate a chicken Big Mac (because the only beef around is alive and well roaming the streets) which of course was very spicy but went well with the ice cream I got afterwards.
* Left to wonder around looking for a movie theater which we again successfully found and were so excited… didn’t watch one, but we found it anyway
* Handed out food bags to the homeless we passed
* Prayed for the homeless that we passed
* Shopped a bit
* Reached the end of a road and saw avid India fans celebrating the coming Cricket World Cup game
* Watched Amber run into the middle of traffic to wave flags with them…
* Sighed in relief when she came back unharmed.
* Split from the guys to go hang out with just the girls
* Wondered around, tried to get our faces painted with Indian colors, but settled on shouting “INDIA!” at every passing fan that we saw
* Found a shop that did piercings… the sign on the door said “turn oww into wow” with the O’s indicated with smiley face stickers
* Met the young Indian woman, who was really nice, inside
* She assured us that if we got any piercing “you look nice, it look nice”
* We all fretted about doing something, so she gave us free chai which sealed the deal
* So… all together we collectively received five ear piercings for about 5 bucks and I still can’t sleep on the left side of my head… but “it look nice”
* Met the boys to eat cheese garlic naan and have a coke while watching a game I’ll never understand
* Got tired of that, walked around some more and waited for the boys as they settled the bill that was wrong for like an hour and a half
* Started to go home around 8… 8 o’clock
* Rickshaw took us to the wrong bus station… full of people, beggars, sellers, and police that never help or know where our bus is
* Met a nice old guy and just talked for a bit while the guys wandered amongst the fifty plus buses to find ours
* Gave up
* Tried to get a very expensive taxi
* Gave up
* Started laughing a lot at our very lost state… almost 10 by then
* Still screamed at every passing fan because India was winning… cricket lasts for about 8 hours
* Walked and walked… to where, I am not sure… still laughing because curfew is at 10
* Found two rickshaws willing to take us home
* Drove for probably 2 hours home stopping every five minutes to ask for directions
* Got out during one of these times to find out that India won and danced with locals in the street while drivers tried to figure out where we were
* 12 AM-finally made it home and were charged more for the trip because we were so lost…
