Ok,
here are a whole bunch of random things that have crossed my mind since I
arrived in India 2 weeks ago:
Dance
I love Indian dance
culture! We’ve been dancing in the
streets before our open air meetings and during our 24h worship sessions, and I
absolutely love how people of all ages get involved. I love how it’s not sexualized the way it is
in the West. Granted, there are certain
types of dancing that are sexualized, but the general type of dance that the
average kid and youth do is just pure fun.
Sharing
I like how people here
really look out for others. If they have
a cookie, they’ll snap it in half to share with you. If they have a bottle of pop, they’ll give
you a sip. The only thing is that
sometimes I don’t like to share. The
other day, we ran out of drinking water at the pastor’s house where we were
eating. I was about to go out to buy a
bottle, but one of the guys bought it for me.
I was glad to be served by a gallant gentleman, but at the same time, I
secretly was a little unhappy that I’d have to share the 1L of water with 15
people since he’d be bringing the water back directly to where the DTS team was
(yes, I’m a great team player!). When he
came back, I made myself drink half the bottle before passing it off. Needless to say, they finished it off for
me. The next time I was thirsty, I snuck
out, bought myself a bottle, and drank the whole liter before going back to
join the team. Yes, I am a little
stingy.
The Girl from the
Village
I was sitting in
church, looking out the door when I saw this 10-year-old girl with special needs
on the ground, her navy blue skirt dusty.
A slightly younger girl, maybe eight, pulled hard on her right hand
while a five-year-old pulled at her left hand, as if trying to lift her up. As I continued to observe, I saw a
three-year-old tug hard at her feet. The
girl with the learning disability was grinning at the others. When the younger girls failed to lift her up,
one of them began using her fists to pound on the head of the girl with special
needs.
That’s when I leapt to
my feet, ran out the door without pausing to put on my sandals and grabbed the
hands of the younger girls. I found out
that all 3 of them were hitting her. The
girl with a learning disability couldn’t speak clearly, and even if she could,
my Telugu is too limited, but I can imagine that those same girls were the ones
that pushed her to the ground. Infuriated,
I reprimanded them sharply and told them repeatedly, “no hitting.” The girls still had little smirks on their
faces, so I asked a friend to come and translate for me.
It always amazes me how
cruel children can be sometimes. Cruelty
and bullying—especially to those who are weak and unable to stand up for
themselves—is something I absolutely detest.
Just in case you didn’t
know…
Even
if you drink 4L of water, you probably don’t have to go to the washroom when
the temperature is 40C because you sweat it all out. Seriously.
A
buffalo here generally gives 15-20L of milk per day and they cost around $1300+
The
best cleaner and the only one that is free is ants. What other product will diligently run around
and sniff out all the crumbs and dead insects to remove? What other product will work day in and day
out removing the undesirable items from your floor?
Sweat
stings when it drips into your eyes.
Corrugated
roofs make the room HOT. Thatched roofs
and concrete roofs are less hot. It’s
even better if you have a false ceiling instead of your ceiling being the roof.
When
it’s 40+ degrees in the day time, your bed sheets will feel like they’ve been
just taken out of the dryer even at midnight.
It
sucks being a girl because then you get extra bad heat rash in places where you
have to wear an extra layer of clothing.
When
it’s 47C out, and you’re under the sun, wind blowing in your face is not that
fun. It feels like you’ve just opened
the oven to take out the roast beef and the heat has come surging out to the
point of singeing your eyelashes.
Your
arms can sweat, your legs can sweat, your face and neck can REALLY sweat, and
even your feet can sweat. Oh, did I
mention your bottom?
Chameleons
have really cool hands. It looks like
they’re wearing mittens. Their eyes look
like skin covered volcanoes with a little black opening at the peak.
It
is possible to dance in the pitch dark without anyone getting hurt.
The
sweetest sound on earth is when you hear water dripping into a bucket after 36h
of no water coming from the taps. 4h of
continuous water flow a day is surely not too much to ask, is it?
The
most joyful shout people make is when the refrigerator starts humming, the fan
starts whirling, and the lights turn out.
“Electricity’s here!”
The
grossest thing is when you have an open cut on your foot, and it starts
stinging like crazy. You look down to
discover that it is black. You bend down
to discover that there are a whole bunch of fruit flies (that’s what they look
like) that have landed on your foot to drink deep of your pus.
Ok,
I lied. The grossest thing on earth is
to open your bedroom door to discover ants swarming around a dead baby
lizard. There are so many ants that they
formed a circle around the lizard. I
didn’t want to deal with it, and everyone else was asleep by then, so I left it
till morning. By then, only the head and
an arm was left.
All that being said, I'm still loving it here and I feel like I'm doing what I was made to do.
