If I were to sit here and type out all of the “first” experiences that I have had….well, you would get bored and skim to the end where I would have some kind of conclusion and witty thought. So to spare you the details of my first shower in India, my first Chai in India, and so forth, I will simply record some of the most notable.
My First Solo
Excursion
I decided that I needed to get a card for a friend
and that I needed to venture out into the neighborhood on my own. While this may seem so adventurous, you must understand
that Tammy* sat me down and drew me a detailed map to the card shop first. With my map in my bag and something slightly
less active than butterflies in my stomach, I whisked myself out the door
before I could get nervous. The card
shop is literally a 5-10 minute walk from the house, but along the way I could
just look around. I had no children to
hold on to or other people to talk with as I went, so I could just look. It is amazing how much more you see just by
yourself. It was a nice little moment
with just God and me. The shop owners
were so kind and even asked if Tammy sent me.
I got two cards, one for good measure.
This is a little embarrassing in retrospect: but I was so proud of
myself. Proud in the way a baby is when
it first stands up...
My First Hindi
Rickshaw Directions
After a wonderful corporate retreat in a suburb of
our city, my business associates and I were coming back to our neighborhood in
the city. You must understand that
between all of my business associates, there are eight children. So traveling in crowded trains and rickshaws
is quite the adventure. When we arrived in
our area at the train station, we still needed to take a rickshaw back to the
house. We all scurried to shove our
luggage and children into two rickshaws and hopped in before they had a chance
to tell us no. As soon as we started
driving, however, I looked around the rickshaw.
Then I asked my business associate who was visiting from another city,
“Do YOU know how to get to the house?”
“Well, I should…but, no.”
“Uh, ok…I’ll do my best.”
Everyone who know how to get there all ended up in
the other rickshaw. At first I didn’t
know if I could do it. But then I
started to recognize landmarks. I had
seen Tammy do this a dozen times. So I
just started spouting out directions in Hindi.
Magically (actually by the Lord’s provision), we made it straight home
with no problems. Nothing like necessity
to figure out how to do something.
First Ganesh
Festival
So I’m not a pro at explaining this, but I arrived
in India on the first day of the Ganesh festival. I think it spans the course of 11 days. Every night there would be dancing and
firecrackers in the streets around a large Ganesh statue. It is a time of extreme idolatry. On the 9th and 11th
days everyone takes their Ganesh to a body of water to immerse it. These are called immersion days and the
traffic from them is terrible. Just
imagine maybe 8-10 million people all flocking to the water at one time. So strange.
So sad. To echo the words of a
very wise 4-year-old , “I will never ever bow down to those statues. Only bow to God!”
*The names of people referenced in this blog have
been changed to protect the brothers and sisters in India.
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