Day 40

Day 40

July 3, 2011

Today officially marked the end of my final weekend here in India and honestly I could not have imagined it any other way. I had the best time going to church in the morning, going to this amazing craft fair, hard rock café (our 4^th of July party), and the rickshaw ride on the way back was seriously the icing on the cake!

            Church here on base typically poses as a struggle to stay awake. I love the worship, but it’s just very traditional, conservative, and instead of focusing on lessons that can apply directly to your life they focus more on building up the church community. I agree, it is something that needs to be addressed and worked on, especially in India, but I am the type of person who always needs direction and guidance on how I personally can build my relationship with Christ, or sometimes I just need to be reminded that I am not worth to sit in the presence of God alone. Jesus came and died for me so I need to accept the gift and accept the forgiveness that I am offered. Some lessons are harder to hear than others, but also needed for self humblization (if that’s even a word). Today however I realized how much stuff I have encountered and in a way how I don’t want to leave. I know going back home poses its own challenges. I am preparing myself to face them, but I wish I didn’t have to face them. Ultimately it is by choice and just something I know that needs to be done, but in the end it does not have to mean that I personally want to do it. However, by following though with my intended plan, I see the bigger goal ahead that will make a larger impact on my life and mission.

When the songs were playing today I couldn’t help but see the faces of people I have interacted with. I don’t know if you have ever had that feeling or sensation, but this sort of reflection for me served as both happy memories and sadness for leaving it all behind. I got a lot of journaling done during the sermon, whether that is a good or a bad thing, but either way I had a chance to really be honest with myself and God, although some things I admitted were difficult to swallow. It helped remind me that God does have a plan. He always has. He continues to be faithful to me no matter what direction my life takes, but why is it that I still don’t trust Him? Why is it that I still try to live for myself and convince myself that it is from God? I realized just how little faith I have. Like anyone else who tries to pursue a relationship with Christ, I don’t want it to be this way, but my own sin is what is separating me and making me feel distanced from God.

Anyways, enough with that little rant…let’s move on to brighter subjects of the day. So after church we met a group of girls who are here for 4 weeks from Seattle Pacific University. They seem really nice and all, but in a very mean sort of way I don’t want to get to know them. I basically have like two days left and let’s be honest... how great of a relationship can you form with jet lagged Americans in two days (especially when you won’t be working with them). It sounds bad, but once you’re here for a while and you continue to see people come and go, you have to learn to invest your time in people and friends who will be there for you. If I were here longer then sure I would get to know them more, but my final days here are really going to be filled with though goodbyes. Why add to that list right…? From there we went to this really cool craft fair near high-tech city. You have to pay 25 rupees to get in which comes down to like 50 cents but to pay or not pay… it was totally worth it! It was about and hour rickshaw ride to there from base and there were tons of begging kids outside, which made it difficult, but once we got inside… I can’t believe I am going to say this… but it was like shopping heaven. They had so many different neat little booths filled with everything from amazing hand carved furniture, silk scarves, tapestries, wood work, cloths, food…anything you could probably imagine! The best part was that it was so inexpensive and the haggling of prices was very easy to do. It really is like an art form. I think I have mastered the bartering skill since I have been here…and jay walking.

After our shopping extravaganza we made our way half way back to base to Hard Rock Café. Why would we go to a place like this when you could get some great Indian food…? Simply because it was our way of celebrating America’s Independence day! Call me crazy, but I went for the veggie burger. I honestly do not think my stomach could handle a huge slab of meat right now, especially since I have not had meat in do long. Basically since I have been here the only nutrients I have been getting are carbs, carbs, carbs, and sugar.  Rice with everything. (they give you heaps of it!) Bread such as Nann or parata. Chi tea!!! Although probably one of my obsessions here…I’m pretty sure at least half the cup is pure sugar. We get veggies every once in a while in the curry, but on base I can guarantee you the nutritional value in them is ZERO because they are cooked til completely limp. Desperate times calls for desperate measures! I cannot handle curry in the morning so I have a few things that I make to at least get a little something in my stomach. I have been making this AMAZING chi French toast. I bought some eggs and some honey and yogurt. I beat and egg with a little chi…dip some whole wheat bread that I bought in the mixture… cook it on the skillet… and while it’s still warm I top it with a little e bit of peanut butter (which melts) , honey, and plain yogurt! So yummy! If they have bananas that day as well, I also top it with bananas. This may be one thing I make at home as well. It’s really good! But then again that is compared to curry.

After Hard Rock Café it was on to find the best rickshaw deal. Anything under 200 I would have taken but most of them were trying to charge us 500! I know we are white and clearly not Indian, but we are not dumb to the real cost it would take to get us back to base. By meter it would only be 120, but given the time of night and with traffic I would expect them to charge more. After being surrounded by 15 yelling rickshaw drivers we finally found one that settled for 200 Rs. At one point during my time we here we had a rickshaw race which was so much fun, but I think this rickshaw trip might have topped it! This guy had a full blown speaker system in the back of his rickshaw! It was legit. There were 5 of us crammed into this tiny thing holding shopping bags and all! 4 in the back and one in the front who happened to kind of get hit on by the drive. This guy started out playing some bollywood rap, but it only got better when he put on some Akon…Chingy…and wait for it…Brittany Spears!!! Haha moments like that make me fall in love with the craziness of India. We basically had a club in the back of our rickshaw! In appropriate to be dancing…maybe…but sometimes we can’t help but let our western traditions shine!