It is 100 degrees every day. Not a cloud in the sky. I will melt like butter one of these days and no one will find me and I will become like an unsolved mystery.
Yesterday I was walking home from the coffee shop I frequent, and the leader of my base was driving by...with seven children in his car plus one other adult. It reminded me how different everything is here (as if I could ever forget). But seriously, entire families drive down the road on one motorcycle. 3 year old child in front, followed by Dad driving, then infant, and finally Mama. AND if Mama is wearing a Sari, then she's riding the cycle side-saddle with the infant in her lap.
There's also this great "normal" thing to do for men who have been driving for so long and have to go to the bathroom. Pull the car over and pee anywhere you want in public against a wall! Totally acceptable. If I had a dollar for every accidental glimpse of an Indian man's private part I'd have at least 14 dollars right now. It's gross and disturbing.
The other most shocking and sad thing is the way people litter. They don't even think about it. They eat a candy bar and simply drop the wrapper to the ground. On trains they throw their garbage out the window, in cars, same thing. Walking down the street they just throw any garbage they might have on the ground. Even the "Christians" do it. It's so heavily engrained in their minds from when they're kids and in the culture as a whole, that even Christian people here throw their trash on the ground.
Sometimes it is hard not to let these cultural differences frustrate me. I could get so angry and upset that I never want to come back! Instead I am constantly confessing my bitterness and challenges with the culture. I am constantly trying my hardest not to flip the bird to passers-by who feel the need to honk and stare and shout at me simply because I'm white. It can be hard to look for the good things this country has in its culture, but when you find something which is inevitable, it makes you fall in love with the people and place even more.
I love how anyone will invite you to their home and insist you stay the night. Most people are more than willing to help you get where you need to go or pay the right price for something so you don't get ripped off (which tends to happen as a foreigner a lot). When traveling on trains people love to share their food with you and children want to know your name and why you are here. They love stories, so this country is the perfect place to share stories of Jesus or even in the Old Testament, Moses, Abraham, Ruth, Esther, all these are just exciting stories everyone loves to hear! I love their curiosity. I love that everyone stares at my lip ring like I'm crazy and asks what it is because they've never seen one before. I love that one aunty thought I was hiding a bag of Lay's chips up my sleeve because of my color tattoo. They have never seen color tattoos before either. I love that every woman in this country is beautiful. Literally, every woman. This place is so colorful. The houses, the clothes, the big goods carrier trucks, even the cows sometimes have colored horns! I love that there is a mango tree in my yard and it is almost mango season!
Sure there are so many things I could complain about and grow frustrated with, but if I just learn to focus on the good...if I just stop seeing myself as "superior" which most Westerners tend to do when they come here...then I only fall more in love with this place. I know this is my home. Now I just have to figure out what my purpose is in India.
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