Family and friends,
I feel like I’m writing a mission letter. Greetings from the other side of the world!
Let me paint you a picture of Hyderabad, India. Imagine, if you will, a large city. Huge buildings that all look like apartment complexes. Flatten all the roofs, take out window panes, add bars on the windows and those metal pokey pigeon-perch-preventors. Color everything with a pastel green, purple, blue or pink, then add 50 years of wear on the façade. Add a lot of dirt, make everything dusty. Place trash everywhere. I mean everywhere. (I never thought wastebaskets would be a luxury I’d miss). Then top it off with an oppressive, humid heat and you’ve got inner-city Hyderabad!
These are the rules I’ve figured out when walking across the street: 1) keep a steady pace. Don’t get scared by the masses of oncoming traffic and run. 2) try not to die.
The traffic is even better when you’re riding on a bus! If you have motion sickness, you should get over that really quickly. There’s a loud cacophony of horns, every vehicle blaring to try and pass the one in front of it—even the buses. The driver of said buses is driving a manual vehicle; his 4-foot stick shift sits 2 feet behind him. I had to stop watching.
There is a happy ending to all of this. We got off the bus in the slum. Truly the most wonderful place I’ve ever been. The slums here are not what you might think of. Some might be I guess. Frequently the government will bulldoze slums made up of tarps and tin roofs. However this particular one proved they were an organized community and came together to appeal to the government, and became recognized as a legitimate community. Now they have permanent cement walls, and permanent dirt roads, and they are the nicest people I’ve ever met. We mostly met women and children. The women are so welcoming, friendly, kind and incredibly beautiful. (Indian people arebeautiful. A lot of the city center advertisements are western women wearing traditional Indian clothing. I do not understand because the people here are just stunningly beautiful in their own right). The kids kill me. The children here are SO CUTE. If I died today, having experienced nothing else besides playing patty-cake with the three adorable wide-eyed little Indian girls, I will die happy. Yes, there was a bit of a language barrier. We had a mild translator, but for the most part we didn’t really understand each other. Even so, we LOVED one another. Something you can’t really describe, but it was a wonderful feeling. If I experience nothing else besides this feeling of love, I will deem this trip a success.
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| are they not just darling?! |
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| seriously the cutest. right? |
Some other fun facts about my current state:
The time difference is not that noticeable. Hyderabad is almost exactly the same time as Utah, I looked at my watch I was only ½ hour ahead. Well 11 ½ hours behind actually. After 28 hours of traveling, 2 days have passed.
It’s hot here. My hands are covered with a nice moist layer of moistness. Moist.
The airline lost my bag. Luckily all my valuables were in my backpack, except my camera. But the airline gave me a toothbrush! So I’m really living the dream out here with only one outfit. For a while I wasn’t worried, but now I’m beginning to think I’d enjoy a clean shirt. And I would really really enjoy wearing something other than jeans and sneakers. Did I mention it’s hot here? Socks don’t exist on anyone else in the entire country besides me.
Also, thanks to the most wonderful phone carrier, I can text! So if you want to text me, you can! I'd seriously love to hear from you.
Love you all!
-Averill
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