So…I finally made it into India…but it wasn’t the easiest to travel to…trust me!
So…we left Nairobi around 3 p.m. on Friday on a plane…Qatar Airlines (which is prob. my favorite airline thus far). I entered that flight knowing that in a few short hours I would have to say goodbye to one of my sisters…I had to say goodbye to Lindsay Heston, a sister who has been with me on the race for 5 mos. now. Well…about 4-5 hours later we landed in our transit airport and everything moved so fast after that. We were being ushered into the line for check-in which left Lindsay out because she had a 12 hour layover in that airport…so, then the realization of having to say goodbye to a sister that I have come to love dearly was setting in! Next thing I know it…we’re making the airport officials/workers a little mad because all of us are blocking the line to say goodbye to Lindsay…but I really could have cared less at that time…so..after a few tearful (and I mean bawling my face off) goodbyes….we parted! And then I made an emotional goodbye…I bought a $7 coffee…what! But it was a very good coffee…and it was real…not like that NesCafe stuff we’ve been drinking a lot of! Ha!
Well…then it was time to board another plane (which is fine…at least it’s better than riding on a 10 hour African bus ride…I think everyone should experience on of them) to India! When we got to the airport in India, we had to part with half of the squad as they flew to their next point and three of us teams (Lunchbox, Holy Bandits, and Clay) went to the train station to get to our next point. Well…at this point we could tell that traveling and the atmosphere of India was beginning to effect us all…everyone was barking out commands which was just agitating everyone…all tempers were rising a bit….and then I experienced my first aggressive Indian….we had finally gotten our tickets and were moving as a group to the loading platform…and of course there are always a lot of people moving around you and cutting in front of you and then all of a sudden a homeless man just shoved me backwards as hard as he could and was pointing to a spot on the ground that had a blanket laid out….I guess he thought that I was going to step on it, although I was nowhere near his home….I just couldn’t believe that I had just been shoved…and it made me angry! At that point, I didn’t feel much like showing him any kind of love….I was far from being Christ-like…and I hate to admit it…but that one incident made me angry at all of India…and made me not excited about being there…I was judging all of India and all Indian people from that one incident with that one guy! I eventually calmed down and realized that I was overreacting a bit…and just prayed to myself!
We then took our train ride to our common contact….and was able to rest for a couple of days before heading out again on an Indian bus ride. Our contact met us and rode with us to our city that we are placed in. But on our way to our place….we were riding through one of the cities with our windows down….I was just enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden i heard bangs on the side of the bus…and then I was hit….I was bombed…I was bombed with a water balloon! I’m not kidding! There were a group of boys that attacked our bus with a bunch of water balloons and I was one of the three that got hit. My whole left side of my body was soaked! I was initially confused, then angry, then slightly amused….I found it kind of funny afterwards…but I def. didn’t want to get hit with another balloon! So…after that…we finally made it safely to our city, which is gorgeous! What a travel day…or days!
