on the other side of the world 🇮🇳🇮🇳

     Surprise!!! I’m actually posting and I’m so happy to finally announce my location for the past 5 weeks!! drum rolll…….

INDIA!!!

    Due to safety reasons I’ve only been able to update on where I’ve been until now. There has been so much that my team has done since Nicaragua or rather, what the Lord has done through us. Here is a major recap of the last month In Kolkata India!

     Unlike in Nicaragua, going to India was only with our team (for those that don’t know our squad is about 35 people and within that we are divided into 6 teams). We had only ever known life as a squad so the teams being divided amongst India was a huge change. My team was in Kolkata (also spelled Calcutta), the third largest city in the country. *see more facts about Kolkata at bottom of blog.* Our hosts were an American couple who have been In India the last 8 years. We stayed in a small apartment not too far from them among the noisy streets. This was vastly different from the quiet, slow pace of life in Nicaragua, the previous two months, but adjustment came quickly. We had to learn how to live in a smaller space. How to find the quiet and be at peace despite constant noise. I learned that even though I was used to the beautiful mornings with the Lord in  Nicaragua, I could still have the same stillness In India!! Every morning was a great opportunity to be with my team and spend time journalling/ reading the word. We also were able to cook  2/3 meals a day at our place so naturally that ment pancakes every morning!!

What did we do exactly??

     Our American hosts were best friends with a local not far from where we stayed. We went 4/7 days a week spending time at his home, being with his family and helping with a community center. We left around 2:30 and came back about 10:00 pm (India is a very late night culture). The community center was located below their home where they had all kinds of events. Computer and english classes, Christmas parties, Church, kids events, etc… My team taught classes and spent time doing whatever was available. Most of the time we showed up having no clue what the evening had in store. We just got to be present and relational with people. Their home was open to anyone, so although they were a family of 5, I came to realize there family extended much farther. There was never not kids from the neighborhood there. I got to know many new faces through simple things. Playing the game spoons became a nightly tradition when I wasn’t learning Hindi worship songs on the guitar and Cajon. Through all of that we got to share the gospel with people which came so naturally. towards the end of our time there, we visited a few houses in the neighborhood to encourage them. Besides going over to the community center, we also went to our American host’s house church on Sundays. Some of the time I sat in for service and other times I watched kids. After church we continued watching and playing with kids ages 1 1/2 to 6 years old the rest of the day. This brought me so much joy and really blessed couples to have a day with each other!!

India was truly so much fun! The culture is so bright, lively, and overall just exciting! I loved getting to eat various Indian dishes and street food. We took public transportation almost every day and I’ll never forget those bus rides. I wasn’t expecting how much we would get into the culture. From the music to food to dancing and language, we did so much!

fun facts about Kolkata:

• capital of the Indian state of West Bengal
• The largest city in the state and third in the country. 4.6 million people.
• main religion- hindu and muslim
• where Mother Teresa did most of her ministry and died
• famous for the best food in all of India (including price). The street food was so so good!
• spoken language- mostly hindi and Bengali but there are many others
• biggest red light district in Asia
• cheapest place to live in India

     That was a big recap but there’s still so much more I didn’t share simply because it’s too much! India was a whole experience I will never forget. I can’t even begin to go into how much I adored our hosts either… just a very hard goodbye. I will be posting another about how God moved also so stay tuned!!

THANK YOU FOR READING!!

pictures!