Indians love to invite people into their homes. They are one of the most welcoming cultures and are quick to get up and offer tea and anything else they have to munch on. Our house helper Rena was such a sweetie. She would come over around 10:00 AM every morning and make us all tea and cook our meals for the day. She always greeted us with smiles and an attitude ready for hard work. In the first home we stayed at during my trip, Rena would walk a couple miles to get to. The journey was rough in the stifling heat but she never complained and I will always remember that. She was humble about all the things that were difficult in her life. And that's what made her so remarkable. All the floors in India are marble and with little Judah just learning to walk, we would lay out styrofoam tiles as a mat for his head in case he were to fall. The pieces fit together so simple and literally required no thought process. But when it came time for Rena to put the pieces back together after she finished sweeping, she just put them all in a pile. Indians are never taught problem solving in India. So they can't do any sorts of puzzles or mishaps. She couldn't and wouldn't put the mat together. Another example of this is when it came time to move furniture out of the storeroom into another home. We hired a couple Indians to help haul things and load onto the truck but they couldn't figure out how to get furniture out the door. Jake would be holding one side of the couch with an Indian on the other end, and Jake would say, "rotate it to the right so it can fit through the door" and the Indians wouldn't even try it! They couldn't comprehend or even believe that rotating the sofa would allow it to fit! It was just crazy that they refused to even try it because they had no belief that trying it would work.
The kids from the slums melted my heart. They were so sweet. There was a lot of trauma going on with the older girls there though and that made working in the slums a little disheartening. Some of them were running away with taxi drivers and such and that was a downer for awhile and made everyone pretty emotional. There was this one girl in particular who had been under this missionary family's wing for quite awhile and was 17 when she ran away with a man. When she returned she had been beaten and raped. And I had spent some time with her so I was pretty upset with it all. One day, we painted all the children's faces with face paint and we all had such a blast. They were all trying to be creative as to which animal they wanted to be. It started getting hectic when the older boys got aggressive and couldn't wait their turn (Indians don't wait in lines). But this little boy Usher sat next to me, holding the paint, saying he would go last after everyone else. I was very attached to him. He was short and around the age of 5 and he was selfless. He always shared his crayons and let everyone go before him. And in a culture where people shove and cut lines, this was a golden attribute to have.
One gross factoid about Indians is that they grow their ear hair out because it is a sign of wisdom and authority. Oh man, is it nasty! Especially at the airports, you'll see older Indian man touching and fixing their ear hair so that it will stick out more prominently. I had to sleep without air conditioning when it was over 100 degrees for 6 weeks. Count your blessings, folks. Air conditioning is luxury.
I love the Indian culture. It's so different from Western culture and it's intriguing to learn everything that they are passionate about. They are a very welcoming and exciting culture. One day I'll go back.
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