Observations of a Foreigner

Here are some things I've learned while living in India:

Sidewalks are not to be walked on. They are reserved for sleeping, setting up stalls to sell fruit and veg, or just sitting for a while. Pedestrians should walk in the narrow space between the traffic and the sidewalk.

As many people as possible WILL be crammed into a tempo, rickshaw, elevator, bus seat, or public bench. There is ALWAYS room for one more. Personal space is for sissies, anyway. Scoot over and get to know your neighbors.

If you're eating out, don't be surprised if the thing you ordered that "isn't spicy" is very, very, very spicy. To them, it isn't spicy at all.

If the rickshaw driver charges you an arm and a leg and then your destination turns out to be 50 yards away, don't feel bad. You aren't the first.

Crossing the street is remarkably similar to playing frogger. Don't bother waiting for the gap in traffic, there won't be one. Either don't look and just run, or find someone who lives here and follow them across.

Traffic lights, staying in your lane/side of the road, and turn signals are completely optional. Turn signals can also be replaced by sticking your arm out the window and pointing.

If the horn on your car doesn't work, don't even think of driving. It's as important and frequently used as the tires.

Motorcycles and scooters will fit into gaps in traffic you NEVER thought possible.

It is possible to fit four grown people on a bicycle, along with two kids and six bags of groceries, and still navigate traffic like it's nothing.

When they call the thing attached to your shower a "boiler", they mean it literally. Don't put it all the way on hot to make it warm up faster. It hurts.

When the man selling things says "sixteen", make double sure he isn't saying "sixty" before you agree to the price.

At 1 am sharp, the guards at our apartment building MUST blow their whistles loudly to each other across the courtyard for at least ten minutes. Why? No one knows.

"Widespread dust" is a weather condition as much as fog or rain.

It's not 'hot' until it reaches 45 C/113 F.

If you say "I don't speak Hindi" in Hindi, it is a guaranteed way to get them to speak Hindi to you at 100 mph and expect you to understand.

"Right of way" means nothing. Unless you are a cow. In that case, expect all traffic to halt until you mosey your way across the road.

No problem!

Well, I definitely have things to blog about, now!

While I'm here for these six months,  I have two weeks to take and travel, rest, or hide in my room under the bed. This past week the school closed for a kind of spring break (which made me feel very much like I was back in school!), so Emma and I took some of our time and headed out for Delhi and Jaipur.

I've decided to call this post "No problem", because I've found that here, even if people have broken or no English, they almost always know and use the term "no problem" at some point in the conversation, and they say it quite cheerfully. I adopted it as my motto for this trip and used it quite often. Walking down an abandoned street at 4am? No problem! No prepaid auto? No  problem! No train ticket? No problem!
 
Saturday we headed out for the train station and arrived without incident. To make sure, we asked a guard to confirm that we had the right platform and car number. H helped, and then kindly asked us to give our names, home addresses, and passport numbers for official records- in a visitors' book. Now, maybe we're just suspicious, but that seemed weird to us. We gave fake ones.

The train to Delhi was fairly uneventful, with the exception of inexplicably stopping for 45 minutes and then going again, but no one else really seemed bothered. That and the fact that the man next to me seemed to think that his elbow belonged in my seat digging into my side. Wasn't overly impressed with that idea...
We arrived safely in Delhi at around 11:30 at night, and proceeded to look for the prepaid auto booth. We'd been told that prepaid was the best option and so had decided that's the only way we really wanted to go. We stepped off the train expecting to be mugged by all the rickshaw drivers, but instead found only one very polite man asking if we wanted prepaid autos.
Why, yes! Hurray! So we followed him.
Now, for those of you back home having a panic attack: I never said I was clever, but I'm not stupid. We did not follow this man into any dark alleys or deserted areas. I'm okay. That being said, read on!
So this nice man led us to the area where all the taxis and rickshaws are parked and kindly opened the door of a taxi-van for us. When we insisted that we wanted prepaid he said yes, this was prepaid. We insisted again, and he said that there was no prepaid. Then there was prepaid, but it was very far. Then it closed at 11.
And so on and so on...
By now, we are surrounded by what very much resembled the flock of seagulls from Finding Nemo. "Madam, madam, madam, madam, madam..."
So I got fed up and dragged poor Emma back to the station to ask a guard where the stupid prepaid was, and he kindly directed us back to a spot not ten feet from where we'd been having the argument with the mass of rickshaw drivers. So we walked back again, all the while followed by said flock of seagull men.
"Madam, madam, madam, madam, madam..."
Eventually, one lost rickshaw drive later, we made it to our hotel and collapsed.

The next day was spent visiting the Gate of India, dodging the vendors and women trying to put henna on my hands and then charge me money. They are unusually strong and fast, but I prevailed and returned without henna! And I only bought one thing (for about 150 rupees cheaper than he was charging...).
The rest of the afternoon we wandered through a market called Main Bazaar and looked around. It was nice not to be the only white faces around and therefore go without being stared at for a while, although I cringed often at the tourists. I can understand now many of the perceptions people here have of white tourists, which is sad.
We had dinner in a little cafe and then headed back to pack before our train the next morning. It was nice to have a lazy day and wander around after an insane week in the school.

The next day we left our hotel and walked to the corner at 4am, breaking almost every rule my mother ever gave me about traveling. But hey, we used to buddy system!
We arrived at the train station by five for our train at six, but the man at the gate wouldn't let us into the station. He told us that our tickets were not valid because we'd booked online, and that we had to take a taxi to a ticket office and get it sorted.
Off we go, not sure whether to believe him or not. At the ticket office, the employees are sleeping on couches (fair enough, it's 5 in the morning) or sitting on desks smoking, and most of them are clearly hungover.

Fantastic.

The man behind the desk tells us the same thing, and offers to book us more "shdigeds" (I'm pretty sure he meant tickets...). We say, no these should work and we don't want to go anywhere else, thanks. So he says fine, take it back to the train station and we can figure something else out. So we leave.

At the NEXT office, the man tells us the same thing. After arguing with him for a while, he calls a number, gets a code, writes it on our tickets, and says it's all worked out. So we got on our train with a few minutes to spare and were off to Jaipur. I still have no idea what happened or what was achieved... but I feel like that a lot in India, so I wasn't really so bothered. Just another example of God's provision!

Jaipur!
Jaipur is the capital city of the state Rajistan, and definitely one of the most beautiful places I've seen in India so far! We arrived in the morning, fought off some rickshaw drivers, and made it to our hotel without incident this time. After exploring the hotel a little we ate lunch and rested before attending a cultural event at a resort (sounds fancy, huh??). We got to see traditional dancing, storytelling (even though we didn't understand it), eat nice food, and ride a came.
The next day we headed for a place called the Amber Palace: a beautiful old palace on top of a mountain. As per Emma's wishes, we rode an elephant to the top. It was fun, despite my dislike of looking like a tourist! To make myself feel better about looking like a tourist, I took pictures of all the other tourists dressed like crocodile hunter while we waited in line for the elephants. Also on the way up, I got to put my camera to good use and get some good shots of the people and scenery. I had fun!

At the top, I started really feeling ill. We wandered through the palace and took pictures, and by the time we reached the end, I was not well at all. We cancelled our other plans for the day and went back to the hotel, where I slept and had a fever for the rest of the day.
The next day, I was much much better, and we did some calm shopping before our train left that afternoon.
Thankfully, the train back home was a sleeper train, meaning I had a bunk and was able to sleep most of the way home. We also had better neighbors and were able to have a really nice conversation on the way.

I enjoyed being a tourist for a while in India! It was nice to see different places and practice my traveling and "ok, plan B!" skills. It was amazing to see God provide for us in such "small" ways that ended up being so big! It's amazing to be in a country, in a situation where I HAVE to depend on him for everything. Not only on our vacation, but every day that I live here in India. When it's 104, and there are no rickshaws, God provides a rickshaw. When the power is out and we have no fans, God provides a breeze through the windows. When you really need an encouraging conversation and prayer with a friend at home, and the connection refuses to work, you pray and suddenly it's as clear as day. It's amazing to see His hand in everything.

This week, we're back in the school and teaching. To be honest I've missed it, and I'm excited to get back to it! My schedule may change a bit after this break, and I may be up to different adventures soon! I'll keep you posted as we go.

1) As for prayer requests, health is still definitely a big one! This is the season for sickness and bad water, so please keep us in prayer for that!
2) Dealing with the heat. Normally, I'm not one to complain about being hot, but we're currently relying on public transport. At the moment we're walking, then getting a rickshaw, then another rickshaw, then walking to get to school. Then on the way home we sit in a rickshaw for a bit (they won't go unless full), which is like sitting in a plastic box, then sit in another rickshaw (at this stop they generally take 15-20 minutes to fill up), then walk. Patience would be a good one, also!
3) Relationships that I'm building with people here. That God would give me the words in every situation, and that I would have an answer for every question because of it.
4) That I could continue to live intentionally here, even when it feels like I'm doing absolutely nothing productive, particularly for God.

And with that, I leave you for now. Instead of uploading more pictures, click on the link below to see our pictures from India, including the ones from our Delhi/Jaipur adventure!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150233490276885.359382.687786884&l=92ec192ffa

God bless!
Kaitlyn

A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

Here I am, sitting down to update, and I'm not sure at all what to write about.

Classes are going really well here! I'm much more confident when I teach our beginner class now, and I'm really enjoying getting to know all the staff and students at the school as well as neighbors I've met in the building. I learn just as much through teaching as the students do, or more. It's exciting when I'm preparing a lesson, and I can say: "Ah! So that's what present continuous is!" There have been some very amusing moments in class both when I make a mistake and when the students make a mistake. I'll have to post some of the more memorable quotes some time.

Spring is now officially here! Temperatures are usually around 97 degrees F during the day, and when I look at the future forecasts, the temps just steadily increase as time goes on. We'll be around 102 F by the end of this week… yippee! And I'm told this is nothing compared to what it will be later! It isn't bad since it isn't humid at these temperatures like it would be at home, and so far we've made it without turning on any AC in our flat, which makes me proud. (Of course, it does help that the temp goes down into the 60's and 70's at night and we have ceiling fans that could double as jet engines…)

I think I've either gotten over my culture shock, never had it, or haven't had it yet, because I find that I'm increasingly at ease here. I can cross the street without flinching, ride side saddle on the back of a motorcycle through Indian traffic without thinking I might fall off, ignore people staring at me, and have small interactions with people without constantly thinking I'm going to humiliate myself (though that doesn't mean I don't…).

Saturday before last was a Hindu holiday called Holi, a celebration of good triumphing over evil and spring time. On Friday night there were lots of bonfires and fireworks, and on Saturday there was a country-wide war of colors. Picture a typical summer-time water gun fight, except instead of water, colored dyes are used. I didn't participate, since the colors tend to leave you looking tie-dyed for a few weeks, but I watched from the safety of my balcony. My roommate played, and she's still pink, with nice burgundy-pinkish highlights. The roads and walls of buildings are still stained pink, yellow, green, and purple, as well as the goats and cows in the road. I think if I'm ever in India again on Holi, I'll definitely play.

In other news, I've been through my first sandstorm! Not terribly amazing or dramatic, but worth mentioning! And the temperature went down afterward, which was very nice! I've also begun to pick up random bits and pieces of Portuguese from some friends I've made here. It's amazing the vocab you can pick up from a two year old who speaks no English. I can now recognize "I don't want it", "It's mine", "daddy/mommy/aunty said no", pink, bottle, thank you, I'm sorry, good night, NO, "come with me", princess, pink, mine, aunty (that's me!!), spin, jump, no, pink, and some more pink." It's a lot of fun to pick up and use, since two year olds couldn't care less if you understand them, as long as you're willing to play with them!

This post is a bit rambling, but I hope that's all right! I'm seeing God move in amazing ways here, and I can't wait to share more in detail when I come home! He's showing that He is sovereign, no matter what the circumstances seem. He's also showing very firmly that He doesn't NEED us to work, He's perfectly capable of that ion His own, but He wants us here and following Him.

I'll post again very soon! Until then, here are some prayer requests, as well as a promise of more photos soon!

1. We continue to battle occasional illness. Colds, bad stomachs and the like. Please pray for protection and health, as we don't want to spend any time bedridden!

2. We're currently planning to travel a bit and see more sights in India, which is very exciting! Pray for plans to go through and for safe travel, as well as a good rest when we return before we continue teaching.

3. At the moment, I find that I am not sleeping well at all for some reason, and I can definitely feel it during the day. Please pray for good sleep and rest at night so that I have energy to teach and do what I'm supposed to be doing!

That's all for now, folks! Thanks for your prayers and for keeping up with my adventure. God bless and keep you all!

Kaitlyn

Snapshots of India





जीत मसीह की (Jīt Masīha kī)

Jīt Masīha kī! (A greeting I've learned that is used here. It means "The Victory is in Christ")

Things have been going really well here! During the week I've been teaching English a few times a week: one beginner course and one 1-1 beginner as well as helping here and there with other classes. I find it a bit intimidating sometimes, but I really enjoy it when a class understands something. Right now I'm just learning how to teach. It's one thing to know the language and be able to speak it, it's another to teach the grammar to someone else and give them advice on why they should use it that way. I think some of the upper-level students know more about English grammar than I do. It's good to have the team and all their experience, otherwise it would be a train wreck!

There have been quite a few interesting moments in class, including trying to teach the "TH" sound, which comes out "Tuh", and imitating cars to practice the "V" sound. I've also discovered that using sarcasm, however mild, is a very bad idea in beginner English class. It confuses people. One student thought he had offended me by sitting at the same table, and jumped up faster than I've ever seen anyone get out of a chair. I felt bad, then tried to explain that it was a joke, which I didn't do very well at all. I think he got it in the end...

Weekends are for relaxing and getting things done around the house. Iwent with a group to the zoo last week, which was a lot of fun! It was nice to just wander around and talk to the girls I was there with, even if we did have to constantly decline requests to have our pictures taken instead of the animals.

I'm struggling a little with the amount of staring I get, but I'm learning to let it amuse me when people nearly trip or run their bicycles into poles instead of letting it bother me. And it does make you feel good when a crowd of small children runs up to you shouting "Hello! How are you?" Other than that, I haven't experienced as much culture shock as I thought I would yet!

I've had quite an adventure learning to do day to day things here. Getting to-and-from places, shopping, cleaning, communicating (we're still working on that one) and cooking for myself. Not a lot of baking really goes on in India, which is my preferred method of cooking, but we do have a toaster oven, so I can improvise! I've also learned to get creative with rice and veggies. I'm going to come home an expert on fried rice!

Getting around has proved to be the biggest challenge. It's easy when you know exactly where you're going, how to get there, and how much to pay for it. But when you just climb into a taxi and tell him the name of a place, the results can be interesting.

I think my favorite part of going anywhere is travelling in the kamikaze auto-rickshaws (picture below). They're made to seat three people, but like any transportation in India, you can get at least twice that many people inside. So with six or seven people (including the driver) we speed through traffic (speeding through traffic in this city means you go a whopping 15 mph), playing chicken with things five times our size, managing to never hit anything and get there in half the time it would take anyone else. Adrenaline is a good way to start the day!

Well, that's all for this update. I leave you again with a few pictures and prayer points!

1) Health again! I'm battling some kind of stomach bug at the moment. It seems to be getting better, but prayers would be much appreciated!

2) English teaching. Emma and I are teaching a class of total beginers, and we're finding it challenging to have that as our first experience. Pray that we would be able to teach well and that they would really understand the material.

3) Rest. That we would get enough and be energized!

Thank you all for your support and keeping up to date with me! God bless!


 

All dressed up for a wedding!

 

  

A tempo. A taxi designed for six, but can fit about eight, plus three up front.

 

Auto Rickshaw. Six people WILL fit in there.










Rikki Tikki Tavi??

 

Improvising for a movie night!





Paddle boats at the zoo



यह भारत है (yaha bhārata hai)

This is India. At least, I'm pretty sure...

It's been an amazing first couple of weeks. I've settled into my apartment, learned to buy food and cook for myself, started helping with the school: teaching English and helping out with lots of other things, as well as getting to know my way around town.

Our apartment is right in the middle of a mostly Muslim area, so there is no shortage of mosques around us. During the day we can hear the call to prayer if the windows are open, but it doesn't wake us up. We do, however, hear the wedding ceremonies and the holiday celebrations in the night. These past few days there have been loud fireworks all around and singing/prayers coming from the mosque nearby in honor of Mohammed's birthday (at least I think that's what it is...). Whatever it is: it's very, very loud...

My roommate and I have officially had our first (and hopefully only) experience getting completely lost. We ended up wandering the city for a good hour before we made it back. I was not impressed at all!

Since that experience, I've figured out how to use the taxis (tempos, auto rickshaws, and cycle rickshaws) without getting lost! My next step is buying food and clothing in the market without paying a fortune. Since I'm obviously not from around here, the prices can get jacked up to ridiculous amounts and I'm still trying to figure out how to negotiate prices. Thankfully, my Hindi classes start tomorrow and I can learn some numbers and vocabulary so I don't have to rely on finding someone who speaks English.

This will be a short update for now. Here are some prayer requests and some photos for you!

1) I'm currently battling a really irritating cold that makes it hard to sleep at night and a little bit dizzy during the day. It shouldn't last long, but prayer will make it go faster!

2) For continued good relationships with the team and that we would really be a blessing while we're here. They are absolutely fantastic people and it's wonderful to be working with them!

3) Language learning! I'm working on refreshing/ relearning Spanish in the school, and next week we start our Hindi classes. Pray for quick understanding and that we would be able to retain what we learn despite the information overload that comes with switching continents!

Thanks, everyone! God bless and I will update soon!







Weren't we in Wales a minute ago...?

Goodness, I don't even know where to start! Last time I updated, we were waiting on a visa to come through for India. We expected a three month visa after at least a few weeks.

Well, last week we found out that our visa requests had been processed, but we didn't know if they had been accepted or rejected. In the span of about two hours we decided that it would be best to take everything with us to London when we went to pick up our visas and fly out from there if we were accepted. We booked a train to London for the next morning, a flight for two days later, packed, said a very hasty goodbye, and were off the next morning to London. We parked our stuff (we had a LOT of stuff) at a Starbucks and went in to get our visas. We found out that we were approved for the full SIX months and that was pretty much that! Now we had a whole day and a half until our flight.

I thought I had packed very lightly, but I still found it very difficult to navigate the London underground with a massive suitcase and a backpack. The entire way around London (we went LOTS of places trying to sort out paperwork and details) we got ONE elevator and maybe two escalators. Many, many, MANY staircases, though... after spending six or so hours in a library and making the poor librarians nearly bonkers trying to shoo us away from fire exits and telling us that sitting on the floor looked bad, we crossed town (again) and crashed at a wonderfully hospitable friend's dorm for the night. Two flights later, we're here!


When we applied for our visas, I had just begun to feel very comfortable in Wales. I was building awesome friendships with girls in my knitting club (yeah, we had an actual knitting get together on Saturdays! Stop laughing.) and generally loving living there. I no longer wanted to go to India, really, for many reasons. So I prayed for peace. Over and over I prayed for a peace with the decision to go. But I continued to feel stressed and grouchy about the fact that we might get visas. The day we were ready to leave for London, I was just plain angry. I didn't want to spend lots of money to go to London on a "maybe", I didn't want to lug a massive bag all over the city and look stupid, I didn't want to fly AGAIN. I wanted to stay in Wales, darn it, leave me alone. All I felt was stress and a terrible sense that this was the wrong decision. Somehow I must have gotten it wrong. God couldn't want me in India. I couldn't do anything good in India. In fact, I probably couldn't do anything good anywhere. Why wasn't God giving me this peace I had asked for?

So, on the advice of a lovely woman at the center who kept me from having a nervous breakdown, I went ahead as if I already had the peace I had asked for. God would give it to me in his time.

Along the way, God put little things in my path that really let me know he was watching out for me despite my disinterest in speaking to Him. Someone to help me with my case on the subway stairs (THANK YOU random men from London that DIDN'T try to run me over and get on the train first!), ease of travel, a member of the team to travel with...

Two flights and a few days later, we find ourselves settling into our new apartment. I'm sitting here in the dining room by the open door to the balcony listening to the Muslim call to prayer drift over the traffic horns and the people shouting to each other in Hindi, and I remember how much I loved this place when we came back in November. I've met with the team, and I feel really at peace here. I'm very excited to begin tomorrow, with a small amount of nerves but that's okay.

These first few days have been crazy, but they've been fun! I've managed to survive cooking for myself with few familiar ingredients and get around a small bit with LOTS of help. I'll keep you all updated! I have wireless in my apartment, so I'll be able to update often, I hope! In the mean time, here are those prayer points:

1) That we would really mesh well with the team here. They are a lovely bunch of people and I can't wait to work with them!
2) For language learning to go well. You can usually find someone who speaks English, but we'd love to know some basics to communicate better with everyone else!
3) Continue to pray for finance! God is really working and doing some crazy fish and loaves provision! It's great!

4) Another that is not related to Gap Year, but that I mentioned a while back: Kelsey that I asked you to pray for went home to Jesus Feb 2. We'll miss her here, but praise God she's no longer in pain. Please pray for her family as they celebrate the amazing impact she's had for Christ. http://www.kjkdancingthroughtherain.blogspot.com/

God bless you all! I will update soon!