A warm welcome...

Welcome to India! 

They use this expression---Welcome to India!--quite frequently here. I've heard it so much that I find myself saying it too. The Indian culture is a community-based one, with much importance given to welcoming people with warmth. We have been welcomed into the homes of all the people we meet. They generously give of their time, feed us to excess, and lavish hospitality on us.

I am especially blessed by the wonderful family we've been adopted into and feel as though I have returned to a second home. Prabhudas and Ruth specifically don't discriminate with their love... they give it freely to all and spend themselves to the utmost serving others. They inspire me to be more like Christ, receiving everyone with true welcome.

But sometimes "Welcome to India" is said more in a witty spirit of sarcasm. Like when you discover a contrast in culture that boggles your western mind. For example: 

Not having access to clean or running water, but having WiFi. Welcome to India!

Girls not being permitted to show their shoulders... but a bare stomach is fine. Welcome to India!

People treating cattle like royalty and low-caste people like dirt. Welcome to India!

That happens a lot here in India, this boggling. It seems like every hour there is something new to perplex, baffle, astonish, astound. Being relatively new to the culture is a precarious place to live, always on the edge of your seat (sometimes literally, as you cram hip-to-hip into a tiny tuk-tuk rickshaw and careen through the busy streets). *Don't worry, mom, I've never done that. Nor have I ever perched warily on the back seat of a motorcycle while riding sidesaddle with nothing but a tiny handle to hold onto, feeling as though any minute I might fly off. Never.

But being jostled culturally can be a very healthy thing. It helps me think outside my little box. It helps me figure out what's really important to me and why. It helps me hold a microscope up to my heart and find out why I react the way I do. It helps get me out of my comfort zone.

I am so incredibly happy and humbled to be here. Spending time with these people has already encouraged and challenged me immensely. 

So far most of our days here have been spent resting, getting used to the extreme heat, and participating in church events, but tomorrow we begin teaching. I'm a little nervous but also excited to establish relationships with more of the kids and assist them with their English, hopefully in a way that furthers their education and makes a difference. If I can help just one of these precious children in some tiny way, then I will be blessed, and blessed, and blessed... and the work goes on.