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.