Home sweet home...

As you can see, I have changed the name of my blog from Stop Caste Now! to World Next Door. This is my attempt to better reflect my new vision. Same blog, bigger purpose... Enjoy!

----------

Wow. I'm home. That fact still seems a bit unreal. Less than a week ago I was chilling in New Delhi, sweating in the sun and eating with my hands. Now, I'm back in Indy driving my own car and catching up on The Daily Show.

Did I really just spend three months in India? Crazy...

Well, seeing friends and family has been great. I got to attend a service in the new sanctuary, and it was awesome! Apparently absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

The Fam reunited down at Lucy's school.

Anyway, I've loved catching up with people, but it's going to take a while to see everyone. So I've decided to answer a few of the common questions I've been getting. This way, in case I don't see you for a month or so, you won't still be wondering about my return home...

How was India?
It was great! Fantastic! I learned a ton.

What did you do there?
Ok. You didn't read my blog, did you? :)

What was the first thing you ate when you got back to the U.S.?
Well, I had coffee and a muffin at a Starbucks in O'Hare, but Tuesday night, Mom made brisket and mashed potatoes. Un-be-lievable...

So, was the trip totally life changing? Are you a new man now?
Actually? No. It didn't really "change" my life. At least, not the way Kenya did. My year in Nairobi radically reoriented my life's direction. I got good and truly wrecked there. India, however, was much more of a continuation of where I was already heading. Sure, I grew and learned and matured, but the trip really just propelled me along a path that I had already started walking.

My last few moments with the Truthseekers guys...

Are you still recovering from jet lag?
Actually, I'm doing surprisingly well. A couple of tired days and I was back on my feet. Just as chipper and perky as I usually am in the mornings (in other words, not very). Hah.

What did you learn?
Woah. Ok. That's a pretty big one. I mean, mentally, the answer is easy. I learned a lot about the history of India, the ongoing struggles of its people and the causes of systemic injustice. I learned what south Asian slums look like and saw first hand the dangers of overpopulation.

As far as what I learned emotionally, however, I still have some processing to do. I know I learned about my capacity for selfishness and had my life's calling confirmed, but there are still a few unresolved issues in my heart.

As much as I loved the people of India, I was honestly quite discouraged a couple of times. There are so many problems there with so few people doing anything about them. I wanted to walk away from this trip abounding in hope and excitement, but the apparent indifference of the rest of the world has left me scratching my head.

Let me get back to you on that one...

Now that I'm home, I can play around with my fast computer again!
And with the magic of Photoshop, the Taj Mahal seems just a bit cooler...

Finally, the most important question of all...

Can I buy you coffee or lunch and hear all about your trip?
Yes. You definitely can. I wouldn't mind that one bit...

Settling in...

Wow. Now that was an intense first week! Well, intense in the sense that I was totally immersed in a foreign culture, eating only spicy food and relying on my internal dialogue for company... Other than that, it was pretty easy. :)

Not going to lie. I definitely woke up a few times (jet lagged at 3:00am) thinking to myself, "What have I done???" But now that I'm getting settled, three months doesn't seem quite so bad. In fact, I'm super excited about the things going on here!

I've been able to get to know the Truthseekers staff, see a bit of what their ministry is all about, and do a lot of reading and research into India and the caste system. Oh, and I've eaten an absurd amount of mind-numbingly amazing mangoes (seriously, you can eat them with a spoon).

Also, I'm getting the hang of eating all my food with my right hand (like everyone else here). A little tricky to begin with, but I'm pretty much a pro now. The most important lesson I've learned so far: when someone hands me something to eat with a big smile saying "try this, try this!", I'm about to eat something so hot it melts brain cells.

Since I last wrote, I've been able to travel around the city with the guys from the office. Pranjal and Deshpande took me to see the Red Fort and Jama Mosque, both rather stunning in their architecture and history. You can see more pictures of our trip here.

On the social justice side of things, I've been experiencing a lot. On our trip into Old Delhi, I was able to witness the crushing poverty of the inner city here, and saw many things I will not soon forget.

One of those sights was a baby, no older than two, waddling around on the side of a crowded street, totally alone. I looked and looked, and saw nobody watching out for him. Even worse, many people passed by that never gave the baby a second glance. To my horror, I have seen the same phenomenon several times since then.

I met a group of persecuted eunuchs in a slum on the east side (more on that tomorrow), visited a school for Shudra (lower caste) children who would otherwise get no education, and I've seen beggars, cripples, lepers... pretty much everything one would need to see to realize that the world is not as it should be.

So, all in all, I'm having a really significant time.

If, for some odd reason, you want to keep up with my day-to-day activities, you can follow me on Twitter. It's basically just a one or two sentence summary of what I'm up to at any given moment.

Oh, one last thing... I took this video while riding in a rickshaw. Thought you might need proof of just how crazy the driving is here...