Traveling

I’ve always said it, but today it remains true: I love to travel, but hate traveling. And that is especially true in India….it is just so exhausting! I think that a lot of the wearying of traveling here comes from not speaking the language, not knowing if you will have a clean toilet, not being familiar with your surroundings and, consequently, not being exactly sure which stop is yours.

On the last day of any journey, one is always tired and filled with contradicting feelings – sad to leave, but excited to get home. As I sat on the bus today, the fatigue and emotion hit me like a brick. I couldn’t wait to get back to Visthar, but unfortunately there were two bus rides and potentially either an autorickshaw ride or long walk in between me and home sweet home…home sweet home where I couldn’t wait to take a bucket shower and climb under my mosquito net.

That is the hard part about traveling when abroad: you aren’t really going home. I remember when I lived in Spain and we would return home from a weekend in Paris or an excursion to Andalucia…and nobody would be there to meet us at the airport or bus station. Instead of being picked up and welcomed home, we’d watch everybody else’s joyful reunions and then continue to the next mode of transportation, eventually trudging ourselves home, weighed down with the heaviness of our backpacks and the loneliness of our hearts. Our host families would be happy to see us, but it was never like reuniting with our real families would be. And I think that the anticipation of this feeling is what drained me even more today. I wish I could tell you that the stress was unnecessary, but that would not be true. We jumped from transport to transport, and trudged the last stretch of road to Visthar. Some of the girls were out with the cows, and it was fun to be greeted and hugged by them [also just a bit overwhelming to the weary travelers]. My bucket shower was lukewarm [which was very welcome when compared to the icy baths we stopped taking in Kerala], and it was so nice to crash onto my bed at 930…but as I fell asleep, I couldn’t help thinking how wonderful it will be to be welcomed home by my friends and family in December, to crawl into my own bed with flannel sheets, and to fall asleep holding Baby Abby J

P.S. happy one year anniversary Jess and Scott!!!!!