Leaving India Behind

The last two weeks have been a blur. I am writing this while on the plane home and can scarcely believe that my experience in India is over. Saying goodbye to everyone on the team was incredibly difficult. I still have a lot to process and I am pretty emotional about it. It doesn't help that Eric is sitting four seats in front of me and keeps sending the stewardess back with drinks.

After leaving Bawana and saying goodbye to the children and families, we took a long bus trip to Jaipur for some overnight sightseeing. The bus ride was a grueling eight hours long. My team members were not happy about it. The bus was very cramped and uncomfortable and the stress of driving in Indian traffic is something you can only fathom after experiencing it. But the funny thing is, I loved it. I didn't want the bus trip to end. I kept hoping there'd be more traffic and delays to keep us from arriving at our destination. I had the most incredible conversations on that bus and learned so many things about myself and my friends on the team. If I couldn't be in Bawana, entertaining the kids and working hard to help the families there, I just wanted to be alone with my friends.

From the friendly ribbing of each other Mark and I enjoyed, to playing the name game with Jennifer and making her smile, from the deep philosophical theories Grace and I discussed, to the occasional gut-busting joke or story from Frank and Carlos, there simply wasn't enough time on that small, bouncy, mosquito-ridden deathtrap for me to soak it all in. I was pretty surly once we arrived and throughout all of the sightseeing. It wasn't fair to the others and I tried to cheer up, but it was hard, knowing that the end of our time together was fast approaching. The elephant rides, touring of palaces and shopping in exotic marketplaces all seemed like annoyances which kept me from enjoying the precious few moments I had left with this group of strangers I had become so tightly bonded to. All the while I was hoping we'd be piling back onto that bus for another long trip together. We eventually did, and again it came and went too quickly.