A walk through culture

Our boatman rowing at sunrise

It was our 2nd day in Varanasi, our 4th day of travel, and for the first time since we started, I felt the exhaustion of jet lag. But the excitement of being halfway around the world had definately not worn off. We woke up bright and early at 4:30am to go on a tour of the city. We all met down in the lobby and met our tour guide who is an American native but moved to Varanasi after he met his Indian wife and he uses his job to meet new people and as a ministry. Everyone was a little groggy eyed, but sites of the city quickly awakened us. Thankfully it wasn't as hot because of the brief rain the night before. We passed early morning worshipers chanting their songs and spending time in prayer. Hindus splashed and dipped in the water and stared toward the sky praising the sun, awaiting it's rising.

One of the ghats where people started gathering to worship

We stepped into a boat and made our way down the river. The sound was so peaceful with the dipping of the oars in the water. But, the further the day came along, more people filled the ghats and priests took their spots under their umbrellas. People's chatter and bells made up for the silence. I of course snapped plenty of pictures and a few videos of all the people that within an hour had completely flooded the waters and the steps along the bank. As we continued, our guide explained everything we were seeing and explained more about the history of the city. After about an hour we took the rest of the tour by foot.

Part of our team along one of the side streets waiting for chai.

Once we left the ghats we walked through the nooks and crannies of the city. Every building was colored in earth tones but the people and fabrics surrounding them radiated colors. One pathway led to another and doorways were filled with people carrying on with their everyday life of washing and sweeping or just relaxing. Even in our Indian clothes, we were very clearly foreigners and captured the attention of just about everyone we passed. We stopped at a little stand making chai tea and people watched as we sat and drank our tea. Women were thrilled that we were white! They would come up and touch our faces and speak a slew of Hindi phrases that none of us knew, but we just smiled. We walked in and out of temples tucked away in the streets and saw our first glimpse of the idols that they worship. A "healing pool" much like biblical times was one stop along the road.

Heading back out along the river, we got our first glimpse of the burning ghats. Hindus do not bury their dead, they burn them. 24/7, families bring their dead, wrapped in cloths to be burned at this spot. At that time there was one body being burned and only a few men from the family watched. It left everyone in a respectful silence walking by.  We got to see so much more of this process later on in the trip, but I will tell that story later.

A few of us girls at breakfast

After our 4 hour tour, it was still only 9 a.m. so we headed to breakfast at a local cafe that opened early just for us.  After cooling down and downing a nice breakfast we headed to the English school that we would be teaching at for the first time.  We briefly met the students and explained a little bit of what we would be doing in our time there.  They were very shy and quiet, but by the end of our trip they were by no means those shy little kids anymore. 

Later that afternoon we got to walk through a few local shops and get a feel for the area (of course taking our shoes off before going into any shop).  Many of the shops were filled with carved idols amongst other handmade items.  I escaped with a Hindi-English phrasebook from a bookstore which we had a lot of fun with later trying to figure out.  Our walk took us to the outdoor pizzeria down by the river where we had a wonderful Indian version of American pizza to end our day.

There was so much to take in since our just before 5 a.m. start, but we had truly begun to experience India, and the tiredness was completely worth it!

Some of the structures along the river.  Varanasi is an ancient city.

Katie and Me on our tour with a temple behind us.  It was windy!

Guess who's back from India!?

Namaste!  Well, I am finally back from India and I do not even know where to begin.  I'm still processing everything that I experienced.  People have already excitedly asked me how my trip was and it's overwhelming to try to pick a place to begin.  So, I am going to start at day one, and through a series of posts, cover the different parts of my trip.  We did so much, and I couldn't have asked for any greater experience than these last 2 1/2 weeks.  But before I start, I just want to THANK, THANK, THANK all of you a million times over for all of the support both prayer and financially that you have given me!  I consider myself so blessed to have been able to have this opportunity and it would have happened without God using you through this process.  I cannot possibly express my gratitude through a blog or in any possible way, but know that I am so grateful for you!  I hope to share all that I can that you helped to make happen!

I finished my sophomore year of college just a few short days before leaving for India.  So, my summer was kickstarted in a whole new culture.  Traveling there wasn't too bad in terms of jet lag, even though there was a 10 1/2 hour difference.  I think we were all just so excited to get there that we tricked ourselves into not being jet lagged.  After 20 hours of flight time plus layovers, we arrived in New Delhi in Northern India around 11pm.  When we stepped outside we were hit with a wall of heat!  It was about 100 degrees at 11 at night which none of us were used to.  We ended up staying in New Delhi for the night at a hotel (which was interesting) before we flew out to Varanasi the next morning.  New Delhi was definately more of a "city" than Varanasi and so it had alot more newness to it.  However, the traffic was just as crazy and people were just as much in need.



Just a little snapshot of the traffic going every direction.
The auto is to the right of the picture.

 We got on a small plane the next day and arrived in the very much older, and religiously-rich city of Varanasi.  We spent the 1st day in the city getting settled into our hotel and the city.  We had our first "real" Indian meal which thankfully didn't mimic the plane food we had, although it was still really spicy.  After lunch we had our first auto experience. In Varanasi they don't typically drive cars.  Most people get around my bicycle, motorcycle or a small yellow and green beat up "car" with no sides which you can see in to the very right in the picture.  People drive like maniacs, driving on the wrong side of the road and weaving in an out of each other. In our time there we had knocked people off their bikes and hit cows. They honk their little horns just to let people know they're coming, so the city is filled with a constant noise day and night. But, to them it's no big deal!  We got lots of laughs out of our moments in the autos and it has made me appreciate America's driving (which I never thought I'd say).



My friend and roomate Katie in our
Kurtas, Salwars, and Dupattas.

 So our auto drivers drove us to a local shop to get our clothes for our 2 weeks there.  To better blend into the culture and show our personal respect we wore Indian attire which consisted of a Kurta (a long cotton top with 3/4 length sleeves), Salwars (a type of baggy, pleated pants), and a Dupatta (a scarf to wear over our shoulders/head which was considered your virtue in that culture).  We searched through stacks of kurtas and salwars and finally picked out our three kurtas, one salwar, and one dupatta which we made last for our whole trip with only one washing.  It was definately hot to wear, but it was fun to be a part of the culture in that way.

On our way back from shopping we stopped at a very familiar place...McDonalds to grab some water and ice cream.  It was only 8pm, but we were all so exhausted. Everything about Varanasi was different than America and while I was excited to be there, all I could think of was what in the world the Lord could possibly allow me to experience in this new culture.  We headed back to the hotel and called it an early night.  This was our 1st day in Varanasi.