Day 1 - the adventure begins!

It's only 11 AM in India on my first day here and I have experienced so much! I've encountered many road cows, visited the slums, toured the Oasis office, encountered my first couple of toilets with no toilet paper (no worries - I was prepared!), visited a preschool, enjoyed my first chai tea (yum) and taken my first autorickshaw ride. Quite a morning! I also met my Indian family. They are Christians as well and they seem extremely nice. I have a western toilet (yay!!!), but a bucket shower, so that will be a good growth experience for me. I've decided that I'm really going to like breakfast here - even though they eat really spicy food, they made me a delicious oatmeal ("porridge"). My host "mom?" is a great cook.

I'm not experience culture shock as much as I had expected thus far. I feel like our trip to Vietnam last year really broke me in, so that seeing the cows in the road and kids pooping the streets (and things like that) doesn't really phase me. But I'm sure more is to come... Vietnam was really overwhelming for me, so I think it was good that I had 3 weeks of that before trying 3+ months of this! I can do this!

I had heard that people are iron deficient here because they drink so much tea (which blocks iron consumption). I was told that I would see people with orange hair if they are iron deficient and I've already seen a few! I've also learned some fun facts today. For instance, people don't "play" here. Weekends are for cleaning and visiting with others, but the thought of going to a movie or a restaurant is atypical, because it comes with guilt that any extra money should be saved for food or education.

I also learned that you should not ask pregnant women if they are having a boy or girl. It's illegal to find out the sex of the child here since girls are often aborted.

I can't believe how many eye-opening experiences I've already had... the adventure begins!