On the way home

We've been home now for a week, and I feel so blessed to have had the experiences we have had this past year. I love adventure, and new challenges - but my children, especially, I hope will be forever changed by the experience. I feel fortunate to have worked for Mennonite Central Committee, much better understanding their work and their role in relief and development better than ever before.

Time, however, for one last experience. As we looked for tickets home, we looked for a stop somewhere that wouldn't cost much more than a direct flight home. It is quite unlikely that we will all be together in Asia again. A stop through Delhi turned out to be this trip. India is a large, very diverse, very crowded country. My coworkers in Phnom Penh told me that we would either love it, or hate it - and five days was just long enough if it was the latter.

Sure, there were a lot of people in Delhi, but most of them were in cars or on buses. Because of that, it didn't seem much more crowded than parts of Phnom Penh. Cambodians have seemed to us as very patient people, not terribly concerned with the frequent traffic jams that occur in the city. It didn't seem the same in India. In Delhi, drivers honked their horns as soon as a light turned green - impatient to keep moving. The city is preparing to host the Commonwealth Games this fall, and I think many improvements are being made. New Delhi had many beautiful parks and boulevards. India isn't so shocking when you've lived in Cambodia for a year. In the cities and towns outside of Delhi, however, it was very crowded. Lots of people, almost all men, moving around mostly by bike. The women, regardless of where you saw them, the street, in the fields, at parks, were beautifully dressed.

Over five days, we visited three cities, Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, and the forts, palaces and monuments that make each of those famous. It was very, very hot. Rainy season is late in coming to northern India. As we know from Cambodia, daily rains really help beat the heat. I think our favorite sites were the Amber Fort in Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri between Agra and Jaipur, and of course, the Taj Mahal. They all were beautiful. For the week, we had a van, driver, and an English guide at each place. What we didn't know came with this tour was at least one stop every day at a local handicraft shop. It was a little annoying to get the heavy sales pitch every day to purchase something we didn't necessarily like and probably couldn't afford. But on the other hand, these places were air conditioned and they usually offered you a complementary cold drink!

In Jaipur, we stayed a little ways out of the city. The streets were quieter. I enjoyed watching the camel carts moving along the road, the elephants heading to the fort each morning, and the people moving in the streets. There, we were even comfortable enough in our surroundings to walk and find the local Indian sweet shop, where we tried several kinds of homemade Indian candy.

Our trip ended with a sound and light show telling Indian history at the Red Fort in Delhi. After that we headed to the Delhi airport for an all-nighter, before boarding our plane at 4:30 in the morning for home. A long night in the airport, but I think the lack of sleep helped all of us readjust our clocks better upon returning home!

Roseann