Things India Has Taught Me

  As of today, I have lived in India for 16 months (minus some vacation and time in the states).  In the long run, 16 months is not very long.  However, in this short time I have learned more than I could have guessed.  Here are a few things India has taught me, or what God has used living in India to teach me.  Some are serious, some are comical.  Some might be hard to understand if you've never been to India, but they all have been important.

What India has taught me...

• Laugh.  Then, laugh some more.
• One of my expat friends who also lives in India posted this article a few weeks ago.  Basically, India is not an easy place to live.  Often the only recourse to an unexpected (or expected obstacle) is to laugh.  To laugh when the rules aren't followed.  To laugh when the rules are followed.  To laugh at the stomach ache.  To laugh at the extremely personal question.  To laugh in hopes that Psalm 126:2 will be fulfilled.
• What it's like to be a minority.
• Not to state the obvious, but I don't look like most Indians.  Aside from skin color, I am taller than most Indians.  I am obviously different.  Being different is tiring.  Being different and being treated differently is tiring even when the different treatment you receive isn't negative.  Being different is especially tiring when people try to rip you off just because you look different.  I am thankful that in the US, we have talked about prejudice.  We have struggled through it.  While we aren't perfect, we are trying.
• People are people are people.  Everywhere.
• People have the same problems and concerns no matter where they live.  Yes, some people struggle much more intensely with providing for their families.  Yes, poverty and injustice abound in our world.  However, regardless of where we are from, we all want our families to be in good health.  We all want to be loved.  We are all broken by sin.  We are all people.  We. Are. All. People.  The same.  Everywhere.
• My way isn't the only way.
• While we are all people, our ways of solving the same problem can be drastically different.  There are hundreds of years of culture and tradition that affect the way we approach making a  decision.  Most of the time, someone else's approach to solving a problem or how to cook food isn't wrong.  It's just not my way.
• Enjoy good food.
• Living in the part of India that I do, there are certain foods (BEEF!) that are, well, hard to find.   I have discovered that with food and other things the hardship is not the inability to eat beef.  The hardship is not having the option to eat something in particular.  I have learned that when I get to eat good food, I should enjoy it.  It's a gift.  God didn't have to give us the ability to taste the stuff we have to eat to survive.
• God will always be there. or here.
• He is. Regardless of culture, food, or country, God is.