THE INDIA POST (3)

12:30pm Jan 15, 2011

Blogger Post,

Hello readers!  A handwritten blog post is new for me.  I'll try not to forget that I'm blogging rather than journaling. Oh wait! My journal is already kinda a blog... just... for me.

Anyway, I'm writing this in the hotel in Hyderabad (high-der-bahd).  It's pretty easy to spot on a map.  The airport was very nice, and aside from a small language barrier, getting through customs was easy peasy.  There was a bit of mass confusion concerning the bags, but it's cool.  Once in the Native ministry vans [several hours after landing], we drove to the hotel.  It was a LOT COLDER THAN I EXPECTED--but it was 6am.  Sun was just rising as we were driving through the city.  It's crazy.  It looks a little like a post-apocalyptic city that was once upon a time the love child of Shreveport, LA and sketchy LA, CA.  Basically, I didn't feel like I was necessarily on the other side of the world, just in a run down but still functioning US city.  It was less crowded than I expected, less noisy, less smelly, and the driving was less terrifying, for sure.  There was even less honking than I expected!  Granted, again, it was very early.  We're about to go out again, this time to Native Ministries for lunch, so I may have a different report tonight.  After a shower, some breakfast, and a nap, we went punjabi shopping.  I always thought of sarees when I imagined Indian clothes:

but punjabis are super cool:

It's a tunic dress with long pants (either fitted as above or big and genie-like) and a scarf.  Some are crazy ornate and expensive, but I spotted a teal one on a rack that wasn't too bedazzled and lucked out BIG TIME.  The $ exchange is about 50 Indian Rupees to $1, so a punjabi (dress, pants, and scarf) for 1185R is about $24.  Their rate was a little lower, so I strutted out with that teal punjabi, and 5 chunnis (delicately ornamented scarves) for $43.  We're gonna chalk Cole's 1st Indian marketplace experience up as a win.

Outside my window I can see lower caste house roofs.  I can't stop looking.  Dozens of kids flying kites, dads shaving, matriarchs walking and meditating, chores getting done, waste *cough cough* being disposed of (don't drink the water for THAT REASON), little boys play fighting...  How odd that I finally feel like I'm in another country when I'm looking out the window of this cushy hotel...