The Most Insane Vacation of My Life

So I came home early from school today in order to prepare for my journey with the school. There is something quite exciting and at the same time unnerving about accepting an invitation to go on a trip in which you have no idea what the agenda is, exactly how to prepare mentally, and not even knowing the appropriate things to pack. I knew very little about what I was undertaking, but I did learn that I would be going to a water park, some temples, and maybe a few mountains. The number of days I would be gone was also quite vague to me.

I packed the usual items, but I also packed five days worth of food to nourish me for the entire journey. I have learned to fear getting sick, while travelling here in India. After a horrific month of stomach problems due to a trip to Delhi, I was not going to take any chances. With all my bags in tow I wandered down to the high school already feeling ready for bed, as we were leaving nearly at 9pm.

Upon arriving to the school I found that this was an event for all of Bajipura. The whole village arrived to bid farewell to their family and friends. We were taking around 100 students and around 500 people were there to say goodbye. The goodbyes included coming onto the bus and creating great confusion and craziness. The small aisles of the bus were crowded with parents anxiously scoping out what would become their child’s new home for the next few days.

We started down the highway with the kids screaming in excitement and blowing the extremely loud musical bus horns until we were out of town. Soon after that we heard another scream from the kids as the bus driver began blaring familiar popular Hindi songs in the bus. As soon as the music started the requests started for me to get up and dance in the bus aisles. I feel it would be dangerous to dance in bus aisles in any country, but on Indians curvy, sometimes out of shape roads and additionally all the crazy drivers, this was nearly a death sentence or at least risking serious injury to partake in dancing.

Once I realized there was no relaxing with a dance party occurring in the bus, I also was informed that this was to be a night journey. “Oh perfect a night journey, let’s get to the sleeping,” I thought. As I started to tune out all the noise and attempted to close my eyes. My hopes were soon crushed as I realized that I didn’t really fit in the seat. My luggage sitting at my feet was already giving me some anxiety, but I also realized that my knees were also scrunched against the barrier at the front of the bus. The teachers informed me that I could go to the back, where the boys were literally screaming, to lay across two seats. The boys made room for me and welcomed me by asking me a long series of questions, “What’s your mother’s name?” “What’s your father’s name?” I felt like I only seconds ago closed my eyes go to sleep when the bus was stopped and everyone told me to get out. At three o’clock in the morning my eyes were nearly completely shut and I was stumbling up the steps to a food hotel. I was greeted with,“ Teacher is there something wrong?” “What happened teacher?” “You’re tired teacher.” After all of this I could only think “Yes, and why are you not tired and grumpy, IT IS THREE AT NIGHT!” The teachers told me to sit down and I was served a cup of tea, which I knew was not going to help me fall asleep any faster.

We arrived the next day at four thirty in the morning. Except for a handful of kids there was no sleeping that took place on our bus. At most the kids had an hour of sleep under their belts. I began thinking of the nightmarish outcomes with teenagers facing no sleep, but the kids were all chipper as we went to take bucket showers. There were only a total of two showers to be shared by all fifty of us. It was amazing to me that there was no one complaining and all the girls happily got ready in the dirty and crowded position that we were in.

The first morning we made our way to a Shiva temple. As I was waiting in line to enter the temple I bent down to touch the steps just as all the students had done, but as I stood up I clobbered my head against the tiny archway leading into the temple. This happened in the midst of the woman, behind me in line, pushing me with her entire body. There is nothing more awkward than a woman pelvis bumping you in order to push her way to God. As I banged my head I heard on the announcements, “Please maintain the peace by not talking loudly and maintaining the calm atmosphere.” As I heard this I was ready to scream the most profane word as my head was pounding from the collision. Fighting stars in my head and tears in my eyes I made my way to God Shiva.

I realize that my writing about this trip is sounding quite negative, but really it was the biggest cultural experience that I have had in India. This trip was extremely eye opening because I was completely isolated from any foreigners and I really became independent in a, “cultural stretch,” as I have named it. Not knowing the language and never knowing where I should go and when the next time I would eat and sleep was, is both trying but also made me stretch my patience and cultural sensitivity. I had to let go of all expectations and just take in each experience both with all its craziness and the negative down falls, but also taking in the extraordinary pleasure of the people I was with and the places I got to see. By the end of the trip although I had slept three days on the floor of a bus amidst stinking feet and people stepping on me and was not always in the most pleasant mood, I also was learning Gujarati in order to fend for myself and was learning incredible flexibility and patience.

I was most amazed with the students. While I sometimes felt like I was on the verge of a small break down due to lack of sleep and the difficult conditions, the kids were extremely positive the whole time. They slept in a hospital, which was rumored to have swine flu infected patients, without saying much of anything. They waited in long lines in temples to be pushed past the deities in less than seconds due to the amount of people. They waited for meals patiently and stayed positive while they were falling out of their seats and sleeping with the necks cramped in ridiculous positions. They never complained about anything being dull or boring, but took each new experience with highest level of enthusiasm. I stressed about losing the students with no emergency procedures in place and very little knowledge of when we should meet up, yet the students always came together in a reasonable amount of time and truly looked out for each other and as a result we faced no major issues.

I have always been known as a bubbly positive person, but after this I truly realized that after four days of sleepless nights that I could not even hold a candle to my Indian counterparts who were still dancing in the aisles as the bus was flying around corners and the kids were also flying through the bus. The enthusiasm to experience the newness of different places and the ability to stay positive regardless of the challenges is something I truly want to learn from this experience. I am always grateful for new experiences, but I want to try and emulate the students and teachers of Bajipura High School in the positive and zealous way they approached the most insane vacation of my life.