Average Every Day

Yeah, I know this is long. But TOTALLY worth it!

Yesterday started out like almost every other day here in India: waiting for the bus. Earlier this week, Cami and I had been a mere 2 minutes late for the bus and ended up being an hour and a half late for the rest of the day. But, such is life without a vehicle. So when yesterday morning arrived, we were determined to be early for the bus. So as I rolled out of bed at around 6:00, my thoughts turned to, ‘ugh, this is going to be a long day.’ And it was, but in a very good sense.

Cami has been appointed as the new art teacher for an entire preschool of about 65 kids. She is so talented and patient with the kids, and thus far has succeeded in teaching them how to draw a flower and an angel. The kids are so impressed and hungry for affirmation at each step they take. After each direction, i.e. ‘draw a circle for the head,’ they all proudly hold up their pictures shouting, ‘cheecher, cheecher, I did, I did.’ It’s a constant game of going around making sure everyone gets his or her little nod of approval. ‘Ah cha hai, that’s good,’ we respond over and over. It puts a huge smile on their faces.

So in the midst of art classes yesterday, we hear a crazy amount of drumming going on. Cami and I look to the other teachers and they say with a big smile, ‘It’s a wedding!’ Of course we go out to the street to be onlookers, but all we see is a few people waiting for the bridegroom. Talk about being nervous that your future husband was coming. The amount of anticipation those drums were giving me created an immediate nervousness. I couldn’t imagine what the bride was going though waiting inside with her family.

So we returned to the preschool and finished up the art class to begin our adventures for the rest of the day. We again hopped a bus to go to the market because we were desperately low on groceries.

Now, the market is a totally different story because there again, we are charged about 10 rupees extra on every kilogram of fruits or vegetables because of our white skin. It’s actually fun walking away from one fruit vender as he shouts, ‘madam, forty rupees, madam,’ after he tried to rope you in with a 50 or 60 rupee price to begin with.

We loaded up on fruits and veggies, grabbed a quick lunch, and hopped another bus to go out to the Rahab’s flat. After taking a short little rest from the morning’s busyness, we began a deep clean of the whole apartment. We had recently moved some things out, so there is a lot more room. Also, a second stitching class has started in the morning, so we wanted to ensure the women that there would be extra space for them to come and do some of their own stitching if they don’t have a sewing machine in their house.

So after about 2 ½ hours of moving heavy objects, sweeping time and time again (What? How did I miss a whole half of the room?), mopping, and rearranging things, we went down to our clinic nearby for the health and nutrition class for women. I had this strange sense of excitement and joy come over me even after an exhausting day where I had been hard at work for already 8 hours. After the class, one of the older women invited Cami and I to her home. Through a series of gestures and the minimal Hindi I know, we asked her to wait for our friend a translator. He ended up having to go to a meeting, so we went along with her just the two of us.

Normally on Fridays, we will go around and visit the girls’ houses that come to our classes. We try to visit several of them dispersed throughout a large slum area, but are to shy to go without a guide who speaks the language and can translate for us. So this Friday, without a guide, it meant just going to one house. I was okay with that but wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Boy, was I in for a treat.

The auntie took us through the small alleyways with roofs so short I had to duck to avoid hitting my head. Somehow through all of the twists and turns, we ended up right at her house where her two daughters were hard at work. For their livelihood, the family strings flowers that all the people use here to decorate various temples, shrines, vehicles, etc. You name it, then it probably has flowers decorating it at some point in time.

But our surprise was that when we stooped into her house, there was barely room to sit because orange flowers covered the entire floor. I suppressed a laugh as I saw the man I imagined was their father sleeping on the bed in the midst of a fairly crowded room full of noise and chatter. We managed to have some good laughs when auntie went over to the sleeping father and fished out a 20-rupee bill from his shirt pocket without him waking and knowing that there were 2 strangers in his house. We sat amazed watching the girls thread flowers so quickly onto strings that it was as if they could do it and cook at the same time without a second thought.

It also was highly entertaining when one of the little brothers started singing and dancing just around the corner where we couldn’t see, but everyone else in the house had a clear sight of the silliness. We kept trying to get him to dance for us, but he just shied away. I couldn’t keep from laughing when the Father woke up from his afternoon nap and was dumbfounded why 2 white ladies were sitting in his house drinking chai. His look of astonishment and barely-awake eyes combined with my wondering if he knew he was less 20 rupees were just too funny.

After about an hour sitting in their house chatting and drinking soda, then chai, and having them give us snacks, we prayed for their family. The two girls go to Sunday school and the mother is a regular church attendee, but their house was still marked with the darkness of the gods pictured in the main room. We prayed for protection, for wisdom and knowledge, for a closeness with the Father that they could not deny, and a gracious thanks for the our Father teaching us what hospitality is through them. I’m sure if we hadn’t left when we did, that they would have tried to feed us dinner.

As we walked back again to the bus stop, Cami commented on how it had been a great but long day. I glanced at my watch and said with a smile, ‘only 12 hours ago we were getting on our first bus of the day.’ The total day included 6 bus rides, 4 kilos of fruits and veggies currently in my backpack, loads of sweating and hard work, and full tummies from the hospitality of our sweet friends.

That is what a good day in India looks like.