Warning: My thoughts are all over the place. Please do not judge my lack of fluidity throughout this post.
The past few weeks have been quite eventful/busy, but they have proven to me that I’m no longer affected by the strangeness of this country. Life is no longer eventful because of the random things I encounter each day like seeing cows scratching the insides of their noses with someone’s bike handlebar (that totally happened), but because like is genuinely busy. All the strange/random things have become normal. Now that’s strange. Multiple things have happened in the past few weeks that have led me to believe that I am adjusted to South Asia.
1.) A big group of us went to a wedding last weekend way down south and we were taking a sleeper bus to get there. A week before the wedding I realized that my bus tickets still hadn’t been delivered to me. Naturally, I called the bus company and asked what was up. This is how the conversation went:
Rachel: “Hello sir, I ordered bus tickets about 3 weeks ago and they still haven’t been delivered.” I give him my name, ticket number, blah, blah blah.
Bus man: “Oh, I’m sorry madam, we cancelled those tickets.”
Rachel: “Oh, you did? That’s interesting. Well, do you think you could rebook those tickets?”
Bus man: “That’s not possible madam, that bus is sold out.”
Rachel: “Oh ok. Well is there another bus that we could take?”
Bus man: “Yes, madam, we have a non A/C bus (not sleeper).”
Rachel: “Oh, that’s great! We will take those”
I’m sorry if this was a bore to you, but this says a lot about how my mindset had changed. If this had happened in the states, I would’ve been like “excuse me? I’m suing or why the beepity beep did you cancel them?” Not really, but I would not have been pleased. In this situation I was like “well of course they are cancelled”, because that’s how things tend to go. It’s truly hilarious. We ended up getting on the sleeper bus WITH A/C WITH our friends and we got to visit this beautiful town! It was heavenly.
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| Sleeper bus! Loved it. |
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| A beautiful town in the clouds. |
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| I was very happy. |
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| We had a picnic in the forest...those sticks were used for protection against the monkeys. I kid you not. You would've been proud of me mom. |
2.) The second way I knew I had adjusted to South Asia was because of a trip we took down to Pondicherry two weeks ago. Our bus ticket CLEARLY stated that we were to arrive at Central Station at 4:30 pm to depart from the station. Therefore, we arrived at 4:15 ready to go. We walk up to the counter and say “we are on the 4:30 bus to Pondicherry.” The response we received was “Sorry madam, this bus doesn’t stop at Central station today.” Our response to that was “well our bus ticket states that it does stop here at 4:30.” The man then responds “well it doesn’t, it leaves from Koyambedu at 5:30.” Koyambedu is an hour away. We just LAUGHED and got in an auto to Koyambedu. Thankfully, we somehow made it on time and enjoyed the rest of our trip. In America this would have been stressful and stupid. I would’ve been like “well, why the beep did you put Central Station on the ticket if the bus doesn’t even come here?” I wouldn’t have said beep, it just makes it more dramatic. Seriously though, in South Asia, I just expect things to not be the way they seem. Of course the bus doesn’t come to Central Station even though that’s what the tickets says. Ok, ok, I’m rambling.
The moral of these stories is that I’m no longer affected by the unexpected. I’m sure something could surprise me, but I’ll wait to blog about that when it happens. Oh wait, I didn’t expect this.
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| As you can tell by the look on my face, this was a surprise. |
I have had the opportunity to do many cool things with work over the past few weeks. I got to visit a few clients in the village a few weeks ago and it was a blast! The villages are just fun places to go, because they are like nowhere else I have ever been. You drive down the road and every 5 minutes you are dodging some kind of peculiar animal. That day we dodged cows, water buffalo, more cows, dogs, more cows, snakes (really big ones that give me nightmares), goats, and sheep. The Tulsa Zoo will not bring me as much joy as it used to…. because right now I live in a zoo.
This day was wonderful, because I got to just love on the kids in the village. These were the kids from the rescue we had on Thanksgiving, so I knew most of them already. They took me on a walk around the village, then they took me to their school. Bad mistake. One of the kids ran ahead and told all the hundred kids at the school that white girl was headed there. When I arrived at the school, the entire student body was waiting for me at the gate. I could not stop blushing. I was receiving way more attention than I needed and did not know how to properly respond. Some people would say that’s not so bad. Let me tell you why it IS bad. The village doesn’t have bathrooms….or outhouses. I was watched the whole day we were in the village and the only option to go to the bathroom was in a field. I kid you not. My aftercare manager was like “Rachel, I can just ask one of the labourers to take you to the field.” I laughed…then waited for 5 hours. I refuse to be watched by a crowd in the field.
This was a rewarding and challenging day. So many of our clients are in an unbelievable amount of pain and have no hope to cope with that pain. Jesus is the only one who can heal the type of pain that they are in. The Lord has really been showing me the jealousy he has for the hearts of the Hindu people. He wants them so bad! He wants to be their Counselor and Comforter, yet they are not ready to accept him. I have regularly been praying for their healing and for their hearts.
This past week was exciting for two reasons:
1.) Our aftercare department held a Special Grievance Day for a few hundred of our clients. Most of our clients are illiterate so they are unable to fill out any applications for government benefits. This was a day where they could come and apply for 6 different government benefits and we had volunteers from a local church/our aftercare department fill out the forms for them. Our clients were so happy! It was such a joy to see them excited to have an opportunity to apply for ration card s and land to build houses on. This day could potentially change their lives. It was huge!
2.) On Friday, we rescued 42 people from a rock quarry and 30 release certificates were issued. God is so good!
The next month is full of exciting events! Next week I’m headed to Thailand to meet Mallory Dalton for my Visa Run!!!!! I could not be more excited. Then my parents come in less than a month! Ahhh! Also, VERY EXCITED. Then in the middle of these activities we will be having a Freedom Training for these newly released people. You all are now officially updated on my life J.
I hope each of you are doing incredibly well. Thank you for following me on this life adventure!
