Part 2 of India

Day 4 of India

So after a long day of visiting buildings and constantly being on the move we got only a few hours of shut eye and met with our group by 5:30AM to head to the Delhi airport. We took a flight to Varanasi which only took a couple hours. When we reached Varanasi we headed to our hotel on a big bus that said TOURIST on the front in huge letters. All of the big busses had huge TOURIST signs on the front. It was pretty funny. We would joke and say "We're not from around here" sarcastically. My eyes were glued out the window as we headed down the streets of Varanasi. I was in awe. Everything about Varanasi was so…different. So indescribable, once again. Varanasi was so different from the rest of India I had seen before. There were cows in the road. Everywhere. Cows are holy in the Hindu religion so they just let them roam casually around. There was trash everywhere and the cows could be found digging through the trash. The streets were complete chaos. Everyone drove everywhere and there was constant beeping. Every vehicle or bike would come extremely close to one another. I'm so amazed I didn't see any accidents. There were many families sleeping in shacks or under tent-like homes. There were so many children, filthy and by themselves on the side of the road by their "shack." Everywhere we went there were beggars, and they were mostly children, or mothers holding a baby. Sometimes small children would hold a baby and beg for money. Their parents were nowhere to be found. There were children as little as about 3 years old begging for money by themselves. It was awful. It was most prevalent whenever we'd get on our tour bus. Many little children would tap me constantly.  It was so hard..you don't know what to do and you want so badly to help but you don't know how. Varanasi was so unreal. I'm thinking back now trying to figure out how to explain it and I just can't. It's like something I couldn't even have imagined, or even have seen in a movie before. I don't know what to compare it to. The streets were just completely packed with vehicles, people, vendors, trash, food, everything. There was trash on roofs. Everywhere. Speaking of packed, India has a HUGE population. The population of India is 1.2 billion! The size of the US is only 100 million and the country geographically is a lot smaller than US. India is the 2^nd most populous country in the world!

After we checked in to our hotel we headed to lunch at this cute outdoor restaurant that had just opened. It was in the middle of these tall buildings, in rough shape, which appeared to have really tiny apartments with poor living conditions. People watched us from up above as we ate. The 32 of us and our tour guide, Konar, were the only ones eating there. We had a delicious buffet. They toned down the spiciness of the food-I was a happy camper! Our guide, Konar, and another guide who joined us for Varanasi, sat down at the table with Andrea and I we got to chat with them and learn a lot about India from them. Konar was such an adorable guy. He was always so friendly and always had such a pleasant expression! Some of the things I learned was that Arranged marriage still happens a lot. Divorce is very, very rare, and it is difficult to get a divorce. This is the case even with arranged marriages! Women rarely work and are usually in the home. The women's family must pay the new husband when they marry. Women don't have much power at all. The only women we saw working were a few in the markets and ones who did henna. It only costs $800 a year to attend college (But that is a lot of money in India).

After a great lunch we headed to a silk shop. We saw workers making intricate silk designs. It was so fascinating learning how making pictures and designs out of silk works. It takes years to come up with a certain pattern, which is translated to a punch card type-thing and then that is passed down and used over and over. So elaborate and mind blowing! We then went to the saree shop upstairs and Katie, Andrea and I got to try on some beautiful sarees. One of the workers put a red dot on my forehead, so my Indian outfit was complete.

Then comes my favorite experience of India! We headed down towards the Ganges River at an incredibly populated and packed area! The tour bus could only take us part of the way. We got out of the bus and 2-by-2 climbed into rickshaws powered by a man riding a bicycle this time instead of a motor rickshaw. The rickshaws were like mini carriages and were painted and decorated. We then rode through the streets of Varanasi towards the Ganges. I will never forget this experience. There were 2 lanes, but no room for cars. There were rickshaws, bikers and pedestrians all sharing 1 road and weaving in and out with no order. There was constant beeping, and if you didn't watch out as a pedestrian you will get hit. Everything was so close and compact. So many people! There were still cows everywhere. There were also goats and monkeys everywhere! Running wild! The streets were lined with vendors, selling anything and everything you can imagine. The cool part was that nothing was touristy or catered to tourists. Everything was catered to locals, or anyone really, and we were just about the only foreigners to be seen. We got a lot of funny looks of course, but a lot of smiles. I felt more comfortable in India than Ghana and Brazil. I felt more welcomed and I didn't feel like it was dangerous to smile at a man in India, in contrast to Ghana and Brazil. The ride was probably 20-30 minutes if I had to guess. I was so overwhelmed in awe at how completely different everything was. Everything. I couldn't find one thing that reminded me of the US. A whole new world! It was so fascinating! When we got off the rickshaws we headed for the markets and shopped around for a couple hours. We went off the main path and went through these markets that seemed to go on forever and ever. Here it was still very packed and there were very few tourists. This was such an awesome experience because we were shopping alongside locals and shopping for the same things that locals shop for. Lots of times in these countries you feel like you're wasting precious time if you're shopping, but here, it was one of the greatest cultural experiences I had in India. Most women in India wear the traditional sarees. Andrea, Katie and I went to a few shops and looked over the colorful, bright fabrics for sarees. We asked local Indian women which ones they liked. We chatted with the shopkeepers. We did a whole lot of bargaining. Every single person overcharged us, so bargaining skills were key. My friend Ryan is a film major and is filming a movie. In each country he's getting someone to say a line from Dr. Seuss's "Oh the Places You'll Go." While in the market, with people scurrying by I said a couple lines from the story in front of the camera. Indian men thought it was for a legit movie. We bought some beautiful things in the market and made our way back to the group. We then headed to the Ganges river which was right next to it and watched the Aarti ceremony. Hundreds of people flocked to this ceremony, which occurs every evening. Hindus believe that one's entire existence and all of material creation are symbolically offered to the Lord during the Aarti ceremony. It is performed and sung to develop the highest love for God. This is performed on the Ganges river, called Ganga by Hindus, who believe that bathing in the river causes the remission of sins and stops the cycle of reincarnation. People travel far and wide to come to the river and place ashes of their family in the river. At the ceremony there were men who lifted up fire and played some sort of bells. There was chanting/singing in Hindu going on the whole time. There were so many people around, watching with all of their attention. There were tons of people in boats on the river watching the ceremony as well. It was surreal. During it, a girl about 5 years old starting tapping me, and persisted for a few minutes. I walked away when it was finished and she started to follow me. It was so sad. What to do? There has to be something..

After the ceremony we walked a ways to get to the rickshaws. Now I thought walking in Manhattan was bad. OH MY. This was crazyyy! We squeezed through the streets, crossing our fingers we wouldn't get separated from our group. Everything was so tight. SO MANY PEOPLE! What an experience. We got to the rickshaws and had a nice ride back to our bus. People were constantly trying to sell us things. You have to just look away and not even respond, not even say "no" most of the time. After coming back to our hotel, we headed to a nearby hotel that had a rooftop hookah bar. This was a nice way to end the night. I sat on the edge with Andrea and we took in the atmosphere and chatted before the place closed at a ripe hour of 11PM.

The next morning we were up by 4:30AM. This time it was because we were headed back to the Ganges again, but this time for sunrise! We walked down the same packed streets when it was dark, but this time they were completely deserted. What a difference! We took a boat and road along the Ganges while the sun rose. Unforgettable.  A lot of Indians come to the river by sunrise and bathe, wash their clothes, brush their teeth and meditate. It was such a beautiful sight, with the stairs leading down to the river, the beautiful Indian natives, going through their morning rituals, unique buildings, a crematory, the beautiful old boats floating along with us, and of course my favorite-the sunrise itself. Everytime the sun rose and set in India it was a dark orange that usually turned bright red! The sun rise was so spectacular! It was a beautiful red, and was unlike any sun I had ever seen before. Pictures definitely didn't capture it-I wish!

After the beautiful riverboat ride we walked back to our bus and headed back to the hotel for breakfast-where I had 5 cups of coffee! Yippee! Ali, Andrea and I decided to walk around by ourselves for a bit after breakfast. It was interesting exploring just by ourselves-without the large group. We passed by children on the street by themselves..at their "home." We didn't see too much so headed back. We then headed to a cricket field and played cricket with locals! This was a lot of fun. Some people rode on motorcycles around the field with locals. I watched the first game, and during it, something interesting happened to me..

There was this girl, Emily who I had bonded with just this day. Andrea and I discovered how great Ali and Emily were the last day, and wish we had discovered them earlier. Throughout the trip we would occasionally get annoyed by a large group of girls on the trip who had, well, different intentions than us. They were clique-y and closed off. They talked about shallow things, and were rude to us sometimes.

Here's an example of "rudeness": I was sitting behind some of these girls talking to Emily, who is also Christian. We were talking about how great Hillsong church in South Africa was and then I was telling her how I felt closer to God than ever before on this voyage, and that I was really seeing God everywhere. The girls in front of us could hear what we were saying, as they weren't talking, and one girl rudely, and in a very mean tone says "I don't!" And all of the girls burst out into laughter..for a while. Emily and I were very taken aback. I've never felt so free to be myself than on this voyage. Most people seem to be so open to everyone, and not judging..but apparently not everyone. I went on the cricket field shortly after this, and was feeling a little down about it, and I prayed that I wouldn't let it bother me and that I wouldn't like resent this girl who said that..and all of a sudden Addison Road's song, "Always love" popped into my head. A few minutes later I realized I hadn't thought about the incident, because that song was stuck in my head. I realized also that it really shouldn't have been the first time something like that happened. Talking openly, and proudly about God is what we should do, and getting attacks like this is expected and is what the bible says will happen.

Playing cricket was fun. A bunch of cows, and even bulls would walk through our field as we were playing a lot of the time. It was hilarious! After cricket we had time to explore Varanasi ourselves. Ali, Emily, Katie, Andrea and I ended up together, and it was such a blessing. They're all great girls, and it was so refreshing to spend time with such nice girls, who were on the same page as me and who weren't like those other girls on the trip with us. We chilled at a hotel pool, had a glass of wine, I had a full body massage (really cheap in India) and we got Henna! I got a pretty design that wrapped around my upper arm. After some nice chill time we met up with the group and ate dinner at the same place we ate earlier, and had another delicious buffet! We ended up eating there 4 times, but the food was different each time and equally delicious! After dinner we had to hurry to the airport. Our guide, Konar was afraid we'd be close on time, and we did cut it kind of close! When I got on the plane I had to listen to "Always Love" because it was stuck in my head all day! After listening to it I thought to myself, I want to listen to more Addison Road..but I decided to just push next and randomly shuffle my ipod. Out of 3,000 songs what comes up next?!-an Addison Road song! (I only have 2 albums) I was like-oh hey, God Wink! But then  look at the title of the song..it was My Story. HOLY CRAP! If you read my other blog posts than you know what I'm talking about. The whole "my story" thing has been coming up a lot in my life and in a lot of God wink ways. Now I know this song and I've heard it a lot, but when I saw this title pop up I was like, "Ok I really need to listen to this song word for word." And I was blown away. It was like I wrote the song. And a lot of the song pertained to whats been going on in my head lately and my life..what I've been praying about lately. It was crazy. I just have to share the lyrics with you:

My Story-Addison Road

If this is my story, if this is my song
Then I want to be a part of something beautiful
If this is my journey, then show me your road
Wherever You lead me in this WORLD I want to go

Theres just too many times I only think of me
cuz I get so consumed by my opportunity
But when my last breath brings met to the feet of God
I want to hear Him say I lived for His glory

If this is my story, if this is my song….
Colors in the evening sky
sun is shining give a light
stars light up the atmosphere
we're the reason God came here

We are His story, we are His song
A beautiful melody that shows the world is love
When we're on this journey, when we're on this road
We are a part of the greatest story every told

 

Side note.."if this is my journey then show me your road…" I've been praying more about my future, because traveling the world makes me realize theres so much I could do out there and so many places I could go. My eyes have been opened really wide, and I realized how narrow my vision was before. And I've just seen a small part of the world! There are so many possibilities..it made me really realize lately that I can't possibly know whats best of me-only God does..and I wherever He leads me in this world I want to go! Another commentary on the song-I really do feel a lot that there are too many times I only think of me because I get consumed by all of these crazy opportunities, and its been something I've prayed about as well! And last commentary-evening sky, sun, and stars are things that most everyone enjoys, but I'm pretty sure I enjoy them more than the average person. They give me such joy! Nature just gives  me such joy and closeness to God. Anyways the tangent was necessary, because it was a big part of India for me, and such a huge God wink, a time that you're just like, WOW, hey God!

So we flew back to Delhi and I was feeling pretty chipper because of the whole God-wink experience, so I chilled with Ryan and my new friend (and roomie throughout this trip), Ali, who I actually met the first morning in the Bahamas, but hadn't hung out and gotten to know her until now. We hung out in the lobby. Once again, theres not much to do at night in India, especially anything safe for women.

The next morning was our last of many flights! We woke up really early again! We were out of the door by 6AM and flew back to Cochin by noon. When we got back to Cochin we had just a couple hours, so we chilled at this really nice hotel right next to our beach and had lunch and enjoyed our last hours in India.

India is a wonderful place. I loved the bright colors, sparkles, smiling faces, food, the gorgeous architecture, spirituality, sunrises and sunsets, and of course, God-winks. I learned so much about the culture, and was in awe of everything I saw. Everything was like nothing I had ever seen before, or even close. I'll never forget that wonderful place, nor the feelings I had of awe and wonder when seeing everything for the first time.