When people ask me 'So, how is it??' I am almost at a loss for words. All I can seem to say is DIFFERENT. In every single way, my life here is different. From the way I make my coffee in the morning, to what I see when I walk down the street, to how I interact with others, bathe, or eat my dinner, it is all so different. I am doing my best to embrace the extreme cultural differences and politely adapt myself as gracefully as I can. I remove my shoes at the door of someone's home, eat with my hand (not so gracefully, though I'm getting better), boil my bath water on a large gas stove before splashing myself out of a bucket, and try not to gawk in disbelief as I watch people drop their trash on the street with no regard or second thought. I have seen an entire family on a single motor bike - father, then daughter, then mother holding an infant - learned the Indian equivalent to blowing a kiss, potty-trained on a pit toilet and in a eucalyptus orchard, and tested my patience with trying to understand the infamous Indian head bobble (is it yes or no??) All in all, I am welcoming this challenge of adaptation, and think I am doing pretty well considering, as my mother put it, it is basically like I have been picked up and dropped on the moon. This has quickly become my life and I have begun to settle into a somewhat comfortable routine. Yes it is different, but where would we be if life never changed?
When you are through changing, you are through. ~Bruce Barton
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