The ABCs of our India Trip - Part 4

T is for Trash! I guess I knew that India has somewhat of a trash issue, but it was still a shock to see it. Some places there were just big trash piles. But mostly it was just spread out everywhere. In the road, on the grass, piled around a tree. The big city and the countryside were no different. By the end I didn’t really notice it…I guess my eyes just saw past it. I was shocked our second day here when I realized that the ladies cleaning our apartment were just dumping our trash cans into a pile right behind the house. And then later we smelled something burning. Every few days they would just burn that pile. We often felt we were at a camp-out. Our clothes hung to dry right next to it so they smelled like we had been roasting marshmallows. What an unusual experience for us. I think that the young generation in India have realized it is a problem and that much of the rest of the world calls India “Dirty” because of it. So there is a campaign that started on Facebook called “Dirty India” where people are committing to be in control of their own trash. To recycle. Not to litter. They are hoping it catches on and the rest of the country will follow.

Here are some random pictures where you can see the trash in different places.

I was taking this to have a picture of the trash around the poles and by the wall, but a picture is always cuter with Micaiah in it. :)

A side street in the middle of Bangalore.

A small alley in a village.

So here is a picture of our house, our laundry hanging to dry and our trash pile. You can see all of the old ashes and the new trash that has been dumped on it.

Another view of our trash pile...with the road behind it.

Tea is also for Tea Time. Tea Time is what the kids miss the most from India. I enjoyed it – but they lived each day for 11am and 4:30pm to have tea. By the way, lunch was at 1pm and dinner at 7:30pm which was so late – at least for us whose kids are usually getting into bed at 7:30pm. We got into the habit of baths before dinner.

Men from our workshop chatting during tea time.

Orin walking carefully with his tea. We always used the metal cups which got SO hot once the tea was in them. The boy got good at carrying the cup right at the top so they didn't get burned.

U is for Upset Stomach. Before we came my biggest worry was tummy issues. I figured it was inevitable that we’d all be throwing up at some point. But overall it was not as bad as I had thought it would be. Orin ended up being the only one who go really sick. Vomiting for a few days – he couldn’t even keep down water. They gave us some medicine which was supposed to help him to keep water down but he couldn’t even keep the medicine down. We started to think we might have to take him to get an IV because he was dehydrated when he finally started being able to drink. Apart from minor tummy issues (probably from eating spicy food for 3 meals a day) we were surprisingly healthy. So thankful God gave us that blessing.

V is for Volleyball. Damien loves playing volleyball but hasn’t really been able to do so in the past 5 years since we left D.C. It’s not much of a sport in Thailand. But the men here played every day. And they were good too. Damien was so excited to be able to play since he’s been wanting to for so long. Now if he could just find a volley league in Thailand...

V is also for Village. I didn’t realize we’d be staying so far out in the middle of nowhere. Basically, to get to the center we drove a few hours outside of the city. We actually weren't all that far away (maybe 40 kilometers) but the roads were so bad it took a long time. We drove through these tiny villages on the way. Most of the people work as farmers, but their houses would all be located next to each other and then they would walk to their fields. It was so hard to see the poverty and trash and having people come up to you asking for food. But there is also a beauty in it and I find it so fascinating.

A dirt road (that may soon be gravel?) as we drove into a village.

A fruit stand in a village.

This little girl in this tiny house was just standing there crying while her mom was bring sticks inside and making a fire. The picture is awful because I took it on my phone.

W is for Westerners that we didn’t see. After leaving the airport – which only had a few - we’ve seen a total of 6. One was a woman on the center who is married to an Indian pastor and came for the graduation. One was another consultant who came from the US to help with the workshop. The other 4 we saw when we went to the mall in Bangalore. Not one other Westerner outside of the city. And of course it is the kids who draw attention. Touching, kissing, pulling. It’s amazing how fascinated people are. It’s good that we’ve been in Chiang Mai to get used to it because it was so much more extreme since many of these people have probably never seen another Western child.

X is for... Well, I couldn't think of anything that starts with X. But I was seriously eXcited

Y is for Yummy Indian food. Really, we loved it. Well, for the first 4 or 5 days – which is about all we could handle of the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, it was a little different each day., but much of the same spices were used in each dish. I think I gained weight the first week from eating so much yummy food and lost weight the second week since I just didn’t feel like eating it anymore. What can we say, it’s a blessing and a curse for Americans to have such a variety of style of food at their fingertips.

Z is for Zero. The bottom floor of the few buildings we went in that had an elevator was Floor 0. Then you went up to the 1^st floor. Maybe it’s like this in other countries but I had never seen it before.