Weekend Adventures

I realize this is a LONG post, but this weekend I didn’t have internet access – so I’m catching up. These past couple of days have been a whirlwind of activity!

Friday night a friend of a friend (Padmini’s friend Bithi) invited me to her in-laws house to celebrate a Hindu festival and have dinner. It was a fascinating evening! Her father-in-law is an ex-Motorola CEO so had wonderful stories of running 18 different countries around the world. Her mother-in-law had created this amazing display of porcelain god statues and all of the neighbors stopped by in their beautiful saris to enjoy sweets and say prayers. It was so nice to experience their rich culture and I enjoyed seeing how the upper-class lives as well just to have a point of comparison from what I experience on a day-to-day basis. The family was incredible welcoming to me and I really enjoyed myself. (I also dressed up a bit for this and got a ton of compliments this day on the outfit that my friend Sindhura had picked out for me at an Indian shop back home!)
Saturday morning I went for coffee with an American missionary who identifies women for Oasis’ vocational training program (that feeds into the fair-trade sewing program). She also volunteers at a home for rescued temple prostitutes. Karen introduced me to the fish market (great experience, but I will NOT NOT NOT be eating sushi here) and then we went to this popular ex-pat place to splurge on chocolate croissants and lattes. A little bit of heaven in the midst of the chaotic frenzy of the city!

Saturday afternoon I went with Oasis friends to check out the big malls in Bangalore. They have live DJs that blast loud music and the places are full of energy. I felt like I was at a frat party! The malls (and ironically church) are pretty much the only place I see women wearing jeans. I bought some pretty bangles ($2 for 12), picked up some Lays potato chips (tasted like ketchup and fries - yum) and went for a movie.

We saw “Up” which is so cute if you haven’t seen it. I thought it was interesting that they warn you about a potential power outage before the movie starts (they are common here), and the movie has an intermission where they play commercials. The commercials only show extremely fair-skinned Indians, which is sad because it’s so evident how narrowly they define beauty. In fact, the actresses hardly even looked Indian to me.

After that we enjoyed some Chinese food and walked our way home through the slums and past the street cows and goats.

Sunday morning I went to church. I felt so at home! The church I went to (All People’s Church) felt very similar to our church at home. Same music, same casual atmosphere and powerful message. I’m excited to take the Allen family there on Christmas when they come to town! On the way there I rode with 5 young boys from a remote village who come to town each week for church. One kept rubbing my hand… I don’t think he often see white skin!

I met another Caucasian girl there (from Sweden) that also arrived this week to work for an NGO. She’s living in a remote village in a home for the homeless (with no hot water), so I felt like I had life easy after hearing about her situation.

Sunday night a Dallas friend (Eapen George – a Pepsico Sr. Executive) unexpectedly showed up in town and treated me to an amazing dinner at a luxury boutique hotel. The food was Kerala cuisine (a region in southern India where Eapen is from). I loved it! Incredibly fresh seafood which had been flown up that morning from Kerala. There were also talented musicians performing music that is from that region as well. The restaurant served wine (Indian wine is surprisingly pretty good) and had silverware set out! (2 wonderful things that are atypical for where I’ve been dining lately) It was truly a spectacular treat and a wonderful evening.