Day 76 – Real World: India!

“This is the True Story… of Seven Strangers… Picked to Live in a House… Play in a Band Together and Have Their Lives Changes… To Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Real: The Real World: India!”

As funny as it may sound, our first day here really has reminded me of the MTV reality show “The Real World”. We’re living together, working together, and all come from very different backgrounds…
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Today was a really great day! One of my best ever, as a matter of fact… The day started off at about 5:30 am when I woke up and decided to get in some quite time before the rest of the crew woke up. Around 6:15 am, Ted and I decided to take a stroll through the neighborhood in search of some Chai Tea. About a block and a half away, we discovered a small breakfast counter where we got two Chai Teas for 10 Rupees (approximately $0.25 total). After that, we headed back to the pad where we all enjoyed some more quite time, got showered up, and then started our team devotional (during which, we saw a monkey in the tree outside of the window!) After that, our hosts Tom and Paul showed up and gave us the schedule for the next two weeks. All in, we have approximately ten performances scheduled so far! Some at Worship Services, some at Coffee Shops, and some at Cultural Centers.

After that, we headed to Tom’s office where Wes (Graphic Designer) and I met up with the Web Development team and found that our skills could immediately be put to work. Needless to say, I have homework this weekend : )

Next was lunch: We headed to the mall so that we could have a variety of things to choose from… Some folks aren’t as well traveled as others and are still getting adjusted to all of the different foods, so we’re doing our best to be sensitive to that. I, on the other hand, have been stuffing my face with Curry Chicken, Dosa, & Naan every chance I get!!! Soooo good!!! I have been taking it easy on the spiciness as I really don’t want to mess up my stomach right away. While at the mall, I picked up a couple of really cool traditional shirts too. Tom dared me to where one of them on the trip back as he is convinced I wouldn’t make it through the TSA Screening… I don’t disagree. : )

On the way to and from lunch, we got our first taste of the city… I’ll do my best to describe it: Imagine most any Barrio in Mexico and then add in all of the crazy Moped Drivers from Rome. After that, toss in a million Auto-Rickshaws (pictured above), kids on bicycles, pedestrians on the freeway, no regard for any traffic law, going “four-wide Nascar style” in two lanes, constant honking, U-Turns on the freeway, going the wrong way on a one way, and then throw in a whole bunch of random cows just cruising around town and having everyone yield to them. Absolutely wild! All of the Americans here employ drivers as it’s just too crazy. Oh yeah, there are also stray dogs everywhere. The funny thing is, they all seem to be the exact same breed. Not sure exactly what breed they are, but we’ve all agreed they look like dingos. As for the climate, it is a little humid (definitely less humid than either Dallas or Florida) and the temperature is around 85 degrees. Though we are technically in the “rainy season”, the rains are late this year. As a matter of fact, we haven’t had any rain as of yet. No mosquitos either.

Once back at the house, the band (“De La Paz”) got in some more rehearsal time while Wes and I worked with Paul on some ideas for website redesign for his Youth Music Ministry. Around 8pm, the girls went headed back to the airport to pick up April’s guitar (seeing how crazy it was for us to make it here, I’m astonished the guitar made it by itself) while the guys went out with Paul to see a concert (“Shai’ir & Func” – Electronica Rock) which was really interesting. It was held at a small restaurant, but was sponsored by Rolling Stone magazine. The music was all in english (Shai’ir was originally from Bombay but grew up in NYC) and many people were wearing sweatshirts of random US Colleges as sports teams. I saw one guy with a Texas Longhorns shirt and a girl with an old school Indiana Pacers hoodie…???

After the concert, we headed back to the apt. At the front gate (about midnight) , we were stopped by the guards as their had apparently just been fifteen terrorists (armed with explosives) arrested downtown and the whole city was on watch… Pretty intense. We read about it in the paper the next morning.

In the famous words of gangsta rapper Ice Cube: “Today was a good day.” : )

God is love.

Until next time,
Omar