A Case of India - 10/20/2017

Greetings, friends and family! Alexandra again to update you on our time here in India. Today marks the end of our first whole week in Hyderabad! Woohoo!!

At our group meeting tonight, we realized we have all been dealing with some new symptoms we hadn't been feeling in Egypt. The first, of course, is that we are exhausted. Some of us emotionally, most of us physically. Our tongues are also always burning, often times we are like dragons breathing fire. We have all been seeing so much color, in the lush green garden, in the bright salwar kameez and suits, in the fruit, vegetable, and flower stands dotting the city. We are experiencing a heightened sense of adventure to see everything around us, partnered with a feeling of being overwhelmed by all there is to take in. We keep hearing loud booms of firecrackers celebrating Diwali even after the holiday has passed. We smell spices, bread, and tea. And we all crave a tea break around 11am and 2pm. We are constantly in awe, caused by the friendliness of the people we meet when they welcome us into their worship spaces or classrooms. We are more worried than usual about bug bites, fearing (perhaps irrationally) that this bite could be the one that gives us malaria. We're all a little sticky from sweat, a little awkward from stepping outside our comfort zones, and a little dazed trying to fathom that we are at the halfway point in our trip.

After sharing all of our symptoms, our resident medical expert, Amy, came to a conclusion about our diagnosis. "It sounds like you have a case of India."