Only in India... Bonner Blog #7… The Week of July 30

Ok in this entry I want to tell about all of the fun cultural things I learned.

First, one question we kept asking each other on the way to the “resort” was if you could choose between no strange bugs, American toilets, air conditioning or working showers, which would you choose? How blessed we are to live in a country where this is not even a thought we must debate.

Weather: HOT, so, so hot! But thankfully it was monsoon season so it was overcast most mornings and even rained a little. We were told it was never below 100 and we were always wearing lots of clothing.

Electricity: Limited, we had ceiling fans in our bedrooms but the power often went out and it could be very hard to sleep.

Bathroom: Thankfully we had running water and could take a bucket shower every morning. Also we had a REAL toilet!! Every other toilet, in the airports and in the villages was either a “squatty potty” or a bush.

The picture is of a very nice squatty potty in the Dubai airport.

Clothing: India men wore anything from long pants to a towel wrapped like a short skirt. Women covered every inch of skin from their collar bones to their ankles.  We wore Punjabis- long, baggy pants over huge, loose shirts that went to our knees. We also always had to wear scarves.

Food: Spicy! Even American chips or fast food was spicy. We ate so much rice, yummy bread called babad or something like that and nam. Sometimes we got a special treat- boiled eggs. We ate lots of noodles and some unknown meat (NEVER beef though because that is very culturally inappropriate). And Oh My Goodness, so much tea! Everyone was so sweet and was always making us boiling hot milk tea and even though a burning hot drink was the last thing we wanted in the scorching heat, we accepted it graciously because their kindness was so incredible. Towards the end we got ice cream twice, which was so nice! Who knew ice would be such a delicacy?

Fun Facts: Indians love to say “super” and the way they nod their head ‘yes’ almost looks like the way we shake our head ‘no’. Also you should never show the bottom of your shoe, it is incredibly insulting (like flipping someone off).  People eat with their fingers and the left hand is considered very dirty. Cows own the place. In fact, traffic will stop and wait for a sleeping cow in the road because they are treated with the utmost respect.

Things I wish I packed more of: hand sanitizer, toilet paper!, bug spray, vitamin supplements and plain t shirts. Also, I brought this really cool little clothes line which ended up being extremely helpful.