India Mission Trip: Journey from AZ to Tenali, India

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On Thursday, September 30, the 6 of us (me, Lisa, Shawn, Hemantha, Jessica, and our trip leader, Ruth) left on the 8,000+ mile trip to India! Lisa met me at my house that morning at 5AM. I gathered my luggage and tried to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. It was lightly raining, and my mom drove us both to the airport in Phoenix. The 6 of us were meeting at the airport at 6AM, in order to catch our 7:45 AM flight. We had all packed toiletries to give to people at the elderly homes we would visit, as well as toys to hand out to kids at the children’s homes that were on our itinerary. I remember when I bought the toys at the store, and the cashier had asked if I was having a party. I explained to her that no, these toys were going to be given to children in India. Bet she doesn’t hear that every day! Jessica had collected an extra lot of toys for the kids due to a toy drive she had at work, so we rearranged our luggage a little bit to accommodate all the toys we were bringing!

Lisa and I sat next to each other on the airplanes, as we were the last 2 people to sign up for the trip, and our tickets had been purchased later than the others. Long story short, Lisa and I ended up being on a different flight, but the 6 of us met up again in Newark, NJ during a layover (I think this was my 1^st time in New Jersey haha). From NJ we flew to Delhi, India and stayed the night at a hotel in the Delhi airport. It had taken us about 25 hours to go from Phoenix, AZ to Delhi, India (well, 27 if you consider what time we arrived at the airport). Already this was the longest journey I had ever taken, as my flight to London years earlier was only about 10 hrs! We were not at our final destination yet, though.

We of course had to show airport officials our visas and answer some questions. It was interesting just looking around the airport and seeing all the differences. Naturally all of the people working at the airport were Indian! They all had on uniforms, and I remember that there were some people in uniform who were carrying large guns at their sides. When we went through security lines with our luggage, there were separate lines for men and women. I remember there being a sign that said “Ladies Only.” Haha. Instead of being searched and/or patted down out in the open, female travelers had to step into this enclosed box, stand up on a wooden platform inside of it, and a female security worker would do the check. I think it was at the Delhi airport that we all exchanged some American dollars for Indian Rupees. I exchanged $60 and got about 3,700 rupees.

The hotel rooms in Delhi were kind of unique and modern-looking. I got in touch with my mom and let her know we had arrived in India. It took some doing to figure out how to get online and make sure I was not using my data, just because I had never really dealt with that before. I had talked to my cell phone carrier before the trip to see how that all worked, as I did NOT want to be charged for using my phone halfway across the world!

Because we were now in India, we couldn’t drink the water or even use the water to brush our teeth, as is the case in Mexico. I remember as I was brushing my teeth that night, I was being careful not to use the water, but then out of habit, I ran water onto my toothbrush. Man! Lol. Bottled water for drinking and for brushing your teeth. By the time I got ready for bed, it was 3 hours before we had to wake up to go eat breakfast. It was very early in the morning and breakfast had not officially begun, but the guys who worked there were nice enough to make us all breakfast anyway. It was really good, actually. We were already dressed in our Indian garb that morning, or should I say as close to Indian garb as we could. It wasn’t so important for the guys to dress in the traditional Indian clothes, but for the girls it was. Ruth, the trip leader, had been to India a few times before, so she already had REAL Indian clothes. The rest of us girls were just trying to dress as Indian as possible. Lol. I was wearing scrub pants under my dresses (which we had been told we could do), as well as a scarf draped over my shoulders, and some Bible-looking sandals. Jessica was wearing about the same thing. Lisa had bought some traditional-looking Indian outfits in the states (like 10 of them), and these would later provide some laughs during the trip, as they were called “Nighties” in India and were apparently viewed more as lounging attire.

We then caught our flight to Vijaywada, another city in India that was about 2 hrs away by plane. We were making our way further south into India. The Vijaywada airport was very small, and we all noticed how MANY dragonflies were flying outside to greet us when we arrived there. More dragonflies than I had ever seen probably throughout my whole life actually. I don’t know about you, but whenever I see a dragonfly, they are usually flying solo. From there, we were picked up by the Harvest India entourage, as we like to affectionately call them haha.

So the 6 of us were going to India through a certain church in Arizona, but the trip was for/through an organization called Harvest India, which has tons of children’s homes, elderly homes, etc in India. The leader of this organization is named Suresh, and he has a wife and 4 children (ranging in age from 8 months to 21 yrs old) who are very involved with the organization as well. He also has lots of other people who work for the organization, including drivers, translators, etc. So anyway, his 2 oldest children and some more of the entourage picked us up from the Vijaywada airport that day, and in 2 separate cars we made our way to Tenali, where Suresh and his family live and where we would be staying throughout almost our whole trip.

We all stopped for breakfast that morning, at a restaurant on the way to our “home.” I didn’t really have much of a clue about Indian food or what to order, but our hosts helped us with the ordering process. I had only eaten Indian food 2 times before arriving in India, and both times had been recently. The 6 of us had met up at an Indian restaurant shortly before the trip, partly to practice eating the proper Indian way—using only your right hand! Oh, and you don’t use silverware, so you are literally using your right hand to eat with. The left hand is considered dirty in India, as people use this hand when in the restroom. It’s definitely something to get used to. I remembered watching Suresh’s teenage daughter, Mercy, and the way that she took a drink of water from her water bottle. So I copied her. She basically placed the bottle in her arms and then unscrewed the cap with her right hand. I have to say, it’s kind of messy using only your hand because you have all this food on it, and yet you still have to unscrew AND hold your water bottle with messy fingers. Unless of course you have a napkin and can wipe your fingers off beforehand.

I ordered Onion Dosa for my breakfast. It was basically a very similar to a tortilla with chopped raw-ish onions inside of it. They also had little spicy sauces that you could use, too. The restaurant didn’t have a bathroom…only a “washroom,” which just had a couple of sinks in it. At least I could wash all that onion dosa off my fingers afterwards! Lol. Then we drove a little more and arrived at our new home. I remember that we ended up having 3 breakfasts that morning—one at the hotel, one on the airplane, and then our last one at the restaurant. By this time, it was the morning of Saturday, October 1. India is 12 ½ hours head of Arizona time (yeah, it’s weird that there is that half hour!), so it was still Friday night in Arizona.

I rode in the front seat of the van on the way from the restaurant to our home, and it was soo entertaining to see all the vehicles, animals and people on the roads and the way that people drove. More on that later. This concludes are journey from Arizona to Tenali, India!

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