The Beginnings...

I've been doing some thinking. My family's too-comfy-for-words recliner has become my spot for reflection. I feel like Steve off of Blues Clues sitting in this epic recliner pondering over my memory of this past week or so. I'm back home! One 15-hour bus ride, three air plane trips half way around the world, and one 6-hour car drive later, I find myself back in a familiar place with my laptop and super-sweet fruit basket at hand. My family knows where my heart is, directly in the bottomless pit I call a stomach. Instead of a flower arrangement, they gave me a fruit arrangement that looks like flowers!! Family, you have been missed.

While India is still fresh in my memory, I want to share with you what I experienced as best as I can. So, let's start where all epic, adventurous stories start with-- the very beginning. :)

I had no idea who I would meet when Mrs. Sonya directed me to "The Pit" Saturday evening by e-mail. I was in North Carolina, about to meet a group of strangers I would be spending the next two weeks with. My nervous stomach did acrobatics that even a pro-gymnast would be envious of, but those nerves quickly subsided after I shot my newfound friends multiple times with a laser gun in our epic laser tag game. :) Nothing speaks friendship more than a battle of stealth and agility in an enclosed, dim-litted room with a plastic gun at hand. Did I lose? Awfully. But it was still awesome! I met half of our team, and I became friends with Casey, the second person in our team from Florida, almost instantly (the other person from Florida is Israel). She gave me a ride to our mission team meeting with our mission coordinator, Justin Brock and I was able to see the rest of our team for the first time up close and personal. I will quickly go through who is who in my little picture I posted towards the upper right corner of this paragraph! In the back from left to right: Catherine, Mr. Tom, Nate, Israel, Isaiah, Rory, Justin, Dakota and Mr. Mike. In the front from left to right: Casey, Mrs. Debbie, Me, Merrit, B-rad, and Mrs. Sonya. I learned a lot from this meeting, most of it made me slightly nervous and I had flashbacks of the multiple scenes I saw from Slumdog Millionaire, but this didn't take away from my overwhelming feelings of excitement. Everyone knew it! When I get excited, I'm like a kid and I just can't contain myself. I wanted to see as much of Manali as I could. I wanted to meet people from different walks of life and make relationships with them that would stick with me years after this trip ended. I wanted to see what God was doing in North India. For the next 24 hours, I would sit in anticipation plane after plane, wondering what my first look at North India would be like. Nothing could prepare me for that first-day-experience in New Delhi, India.

A wave of hot, thick air hit my face as I took my first steps into the New Delhi airport. The air was so palpable, that I felt my eyes and skin dry almost instantly to the touch from the different atmospheric conditions in New Delhi. Years of living in Texas prepared me for some of the weather conditions we came in contact with, but they were still very different from what I had expereinced back when I lived in DeBerry or Dallas, Texas. I kept thinking to myself, 'Is this how it's going to be in Manali? Why did I pack so many sweaters!' This still had no effect whatsoever to the excitement that continued to grow in the pit of my stomach throughout the rest of my body as I looked around at all of the different people passing by, dressed in clothes that I only saw on TV or Bollywood movies before that moment. Our customs experience went by smoothly, and so did the money exchange (rupees!!! foreign money is so cool) so all that was left was our first meeting with one of our hosts and moving our team to a bus that would take us to a nearby hotel. Our host guy G. is a very chill person, and I think all of us liked him instantly. He knew what he was doing, we didn't, and so he was our one way ticket to an awesome experience in New Delhi. Rory, our crossroads team leader, knew all sorts of things about North India as well, so it was neat hearing him talk about the things he learned prior to coming here. G. took us to a really nice hotel that gave us a good view of the city from our backyard. I loved it! The beds made me think of a tempurpedic mattress (not that I have ever slept in one, but it felt so so so nice). The bathroom was pretty neat as well, because I saw for the first time in my life a faucet sticking out of the wall beside the toilet for us left handed users. People hardly ever use toilet paper in India, that's what your left hand is for! A different look at what it means to be conservative. This is also why our mission team leaders strongly insisted that we do NOT use our left hands in public. Especially if that means shaking a persons hand with your left hand in an attempt to be courteous. I found this very interesting. 

After our night in the One Star Hotel in New Delhi, we had one of our first experiences eating an Indian breakfast in the dining room downstairs. I loved it! In my opinion, I'd eat dahl and dosas over pancakes and syrup any day. I don't really like pancakes, but that's not the point. Try some indian foooood.  After that, we took a tour around an outrageously ginormous mall about 20 min. away from where we were staying. It was huge! So huge, that my team of people went to the wrong food court for our meeting place. But before that incident happened, I took the opportunity to buy some kurtas with my new girl friends. That was an experience entirely on its own. The employees are so courteous and hospitable there, that I was completely blown away by it. You know how hard it is for me to say no? Well... this problem took new heights when we went shopping. On my search for a chuni (scarf) I accidentally went to where all the sari's were. People ask me how I mistook a sari for a chuni, and honestly I'm not entirely sure, but things happen! Saris are like dresses, you wear a skirt and a small top covering the necessities that need to be covered, and wrap around your body with the material in the sari. It's pretty formal, and you don't see natives to North India wearing them on a regular basis. This is mainly worn in South India I think. Before I knew what I was looking at, one of the women employees picked out a beautiful blue color and took me to a mirror where she instantly began to dress me in the sari. I had no idea what to do! She was so helpful and kind to me when I had searched for kurtas prior to the chuni, so I wasn't sure what to tell her when she was wrapping me in the sari we had just picked out together. So I did the only thing I could think of doing in this situation. I bought it. It wasn't a bad price at all because, guess what? It's buy one get one free day! So I got two for the price of one. I kept assuring myself this when I went to check out the rest of my things at the counter. It is really cute though, and now I have a sari from India! Yes, I am wearing this to church Sunday. Thank you youtube for your helpful directions. :)

After our mall experience, we took a tour around some stunning sights in New Delhi. What stuck out to me most was the Lotus Temple, a temple in the shape of a lotus flower. This is a very holy place where people from different religions come to pray, and you take your shoes off near the beginning of the trek up a straight forward pathway, laden with stairs covered by a mat so your feet don't melt off from the extreme heat conditions. Do not wear boots! They take forever to remove, and you end up looking slightly silly if you're prone to hopping on one foot while attempting to remove them. The Lotus temple was surrounded by pools that I don't believe are for swimming, besides the occasional dipping of feet. When you enter the temple, everything is dead quiet. Like the expression says, you could hear a pen drop! It was a very unique experience, because while our group sat down on rows of wooden benches to be alone in our thoughts and prayers, I took the opportunity to look around at the numerous people praying near me. I did pray, but it's hard not to be a little curious of what is going on around you. I thought to myself, who were they praying to? I thought of the 33 million gods found in Hinduism and wondered what the lady in front of me was meditating over. So many people around us were lost and praying to others gods, and I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by this.

Something else that stuck out to me- on our way to a wonderful and slightly hidden cafe, I ran into a family of monkeys chilling on the trees that just so happened to line the sidewalks we were walking on. Monkeys! I've only seen monkeys in zoos, and sitting beside me on a fence was a baby monkey. Baby monkey, baby monkey, riding on a pig, baby monkey~ I felt like bursting out in song when I saw this, but I didn't! Oh, and you haven't seen driving till you have walked the streets of New Delhi, India. Or anywhere in India, for that matter! It's so incredibly awesome and slightly scary at the same time. You have to take a bus or jeep through the streets, sit back, and enjoy the ride if you ever get the chance. Anyways... back to the cafe- The cafe was neeeeat. You have no clue that you're walking into an upscale place (in my P-O-V it's upscale) till you walk through the doors. The drinks and the food tasted sooo good and I felt like it was the perfect chill space after a long day. I could sit there for hours.

Now comes the hard part! Around 300 miles from New Delhi, our ultimate destination waited for us in Manali, India. 300 miles doesn't sound like much, but due to traffic and beautiful mountains, this trip was estimated to take us around 15 hours. What we did not expect were the lines of stopped little trucks that transported goods throughout North India. They were sleepy, and there isn't much space to pull over on the side of the road and stop on the mountains we went around, so we had trucks lined up almost in the middle of the road for miles and miles! Our 15-hour trip took a total of 19-hours, more than our plane trips half-way across the world combined. I took this as the perfect opportunity to spy on the people beside us. The transporting trucks looked so neat, and I have never in my life seen trucks so beautifully arrayed like the ones we past on our way to Manali. Not only that, but it's interesting watching what people do in situations like these. Guys were getting out of there cars and helping others navigate through the litter of trucks. I felt the sweat drip off of my forehead from the heat, waiting for our air condition to cut on as I watched for sign from the cars in front of us to move. What frustrated me the most was myself. Why couldn't I just sleep like Merrit? She impressed me the most out of all of us, because she slept throughout the whole bus ride there! I was so excited, that I couldn't get myself to sleep or even cat-nap for over 30 minutes. I was told that there were many instances my head bounced back and forth from the window beside me, but I can't recall any of this. Though, this does explain the minor headache I experienced after our first stop. But the best stop ever? Lunch.

What made this stop significant and amazing is not the fact that I got the chance to use a squatty (which is more convenient btw, and I think it's physically healthier) but this marked my first experience drinking chai. No, not starbucks chai, or the little cups of chai you put into coffee machines, I mean real, authentic chai you get in a small cup that has to be gripped at the very top edges unless you want to burn your fingers off. The chai that warms your toes and costs hardly even 25 cents. Indian chai is amazing! I could drink it with every meal, and then some. After my chai and lunch, I got back on the bus and continued to look out the window as we passed village after village, seeing little compartments of peoples lives. I felt overwhelmed in the best way possible, and continued to build my anticipation for when our bus would take its last stop in Manali. I felt the bus slow down, and heard one of our team members say, "We're here!"I quickly stood up, put on my backpack and felt the biggest grin spread across my face. I'm here!

Note to viewers: Not all the pictures are taken from me. I've borrowed some from C. ma'am and Is because I didn't take as many as I should have! :) Thank you, guys, for some of the wonderful pictures (like the monkey!!).