After 20 hours of travel, we landed in Delhi at 1:30 am on Saturday December 29th. Though when you're getting off a plane trip like that, the time really doesn't even matter! We easily made it through customs and immigration and were able to get our money changed. Hooray for Rupees! Pastor Abhi was waiting for us outside the airport (in India, you can't even get into the airport without a ticket), and he got us two taxis. We threw our luggage on top of the car and headed to our hotel. It was a rough night. For some reason, the water was not turned on, so the sink didn't work and the toilet didn't flush. At that point I was too tired to worry about it anyways and just went to sleep. We met Abhi around lunch time and headed to KFC. This time we got to ride in little autos, or tuk tuks - the real Indian experience. They were great! And KFC was delicious!
After lunch we got to do what girls do best - some shopping! Abhi took us to a market so that Bailey and I could get some Indian clothes. We needed Kurtas to wear and wanted some "balloon" pants. This first market was busy, but not too overwhelming. It was great to have Abhi with us to bargain for our stuff. He would explain to the sellers that we were college students and we needed a better price! A couple times we had stuff picked out, but the price wasn't good enough so he had us just leave. Oh well! I ended up with enough clothes to last for the trip, and barely spent any money. We ate real Indian food that night and it was served family style. Abhi used the meal as an example to talk about the difference between book culture (individualistic) and oral culture (community). In an oral culture, what one person does affects everyone else. So whoever ordered a not-so-great dish caused everyone else to have to eat it too. Of course, he didn't tell us this until after we got our food! It's a good thing we all ordered mostly-yummy dishes.
Bailey and I were super excited to wear our Indian clothes to Church on Sunday! Mark and Stephen dressed up with us and wore their indian man-dresses too. Fun times. Church was really enjoyable. It was mostly just siting and watching for us, but I loved it. I loved the worship and also enjoyed hearing Abhi preach. He threw enough english words in so we could understand at least the gist of what he was saying. The church eats together after the service and so we got a chance to eat some home-cooked Indian food. SPICY!!! Our noses were running and our mouths were on fire, but it was delicious. Fortunately we were brought some sprite. After church we went to another market, but this time it was insane. So many people, I was overwhelmed. Eventually I figured it out though and was able to buy a few things. But still. So many people. After I dreamt about meeting Adrian Peterson, we left early Monday morning to fly out to the village. I'll admit I was a little anxious. I was definitely out of my comfort zone these first couple days and I had no idea what to expect for the coming week. Butterflies!! Little did I know how awesome it would be!
After lunch we got to do what girls do best - some shopping! Abhi took us to a market so that Bailey and I could get some Indian clothes. We needed Kurtas to wear and wanted some "balloon" pants. This first market was busy, but not too overwhelming. It was great to have Abhi with us to bargain for our stuff. He would explain to the sellers that we were college students and we needed a better price! A couple times we had stuff picked out, but the price wasn't good enough so he had us just leave. Oh well! I ended up with enough clothes to last for the trip, and barely spent any money. We ate real Indian food that night and it was served family style. Abhi used the meal as an example to talk about the difference between book culture (individualistic) and oral culture (community). In an oral culture, what one person does affects everyone else. So whoever ordered a not-so-great dish caused everyone else to have to eat it too. Of course, he didn't tell us this until after we got our food! It's a good thing we all ordered mostly-yummy dishes.
Bailey and I were super excited to wear our Indian clothes to Church on Sunday! Mark and Stephen dressed up with us and wore their indian man-dresses too. Fun times. Church was really enjoyable. It was mostly just siting and watching for us, but I loved it. I loved the worship and also enjoyed hearing Abhi preach. He threw enough english words in so we could understand at least the gist of what he was saying. The church eats together after the service and so we got a chance to eat some home-cooked Indian food. SPICY!!! Our noses were running and our mouths were on fire, but it was delicious. Fortunately we were brought some sprite. After church we went to another market, but this time it was insane. So many people, I was overwhelmed. Eventually I figured it out though and was able to buy a few things. But still. So many people. After I dreamt about meeting Adrian Peterson, we left early Monday morning to fly out to the village. I'll admit I was a little anxious. I was definitely out of my comfort zone these first couple days and I had no idea what to expect for the coming week. Butterflies!! Little did I know how awesome it would be!
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