Serve-Trevor

On a Thursday, towards the end of March, we received a surprise Facebook message from Jeff and Zach that they were going to come down and visit us for the weekend.  The Gilbert boys have been spending the year at a hospital in Nuzvid, about 11 hours away from us.  That Friday morning we looked out our window to see two Gilbert boys walking into our campus.  Just like Brooke’s mom and my mom, Vara and Prem treated us to yet another feast at there house.   For those of you who read this blog, you may be seeing a common trend.  Vara and Prem have blown us away with their hospitality and kindness towards us, and our guests.

The weekend found us feeling a little more American.  We watched movies, played games, and even made brownies.  The principle’s family also had us over for a meal.  Brooke, Sid, and I eat pretty much anything here in India with the exception of meat.  Zach and Jeff on the other hand are true risk takers and had some chicken during the meal.  It’s kind of like playing Russian Roulette when you eat meat over here and unfortunately Jeff and Zach got shot this time.  The 10 hour bus ride between where we live and their place can be not so fun in general, but with upset stomachs, from what I hear from them, hell about describes it.

The fact that Sid, Brooke, and I along with Zach and Jeff Gilbert all ended up in India at the same time, yet alone in the same state of Andhra Pradesh is pretty crazy.  Brooke, Zach, and I were all high school classmates and Jeff and Sid also went to UCA.  It has been a huge relief even just knowing that there are really 5 of us in this together, and when we get together and share stories and frustrations with the culture over here it is interesting to see how similar some of our situations really are.

In case we hadn’t gotten enough Zach and Jeff time, April 4, a Wednesday night found Sid, Brooke, and I on the ten-hour night bus headed to Nuzvid.  This entire year, Ramana has been telling us about his “native place” in great detail and wanting us to visit.  The date finally worked out and since his native place is decently close to Jeff and Zach we decided to go check out their life at the hospital.  We arrived at the Nuzvid hospital where someone showed us down a hallway where Jeff and Zach’s room is.  The air conditioning greeted us as walked into their room, we’re slightly jealous but we can just say we’re more hardcore J.  Zach made us breakfast and then lack of sleep/no sleep that you get on Indian buses caught up with Sid and I and we passed out on Zach and Jeff’s beds.  While we slept Brooke got her nursing on and watched some suturing.

The next day Sid, Brooke, and I rented some rockin hero cycles for an hour (3 rupees each, 6 cents, pretty much broke our wallets.)  Jeff and Zach had bought bikes earlier in the year.  On our fixed gear bikes the five of us biked through Nuzvid and off-roaded through the mango fields, which took some serious talent.  We said goodbye to Jeff and Zach and began our journey to the famous native place.

The bus ride took about three and a half hours, the first half of which was spent standing.  In a side note as I type this you would think I just did the work out off the century since sweat is dripping down my face and body, nope just sitting here typing.  Anyway, Ramana met us at the bus station and the next segment of our trip consisted of a motorcycle ride.  We piled on two bikes with all our luggage and began a motorcycle trip out into the country.  It was dark so we couldn’t really see the landscape but we could tell we definitely were not in the dry fields we were used too.  When we arrived in Ramana’s village, Kaleru, a huge banner greeted us along with many of his family members.

Ramana (Middle) and
His 2 Brothers

We spent the weekend in his village.  Experiences included sleeping on the floor, folding every blanket we could find to try and create some sort of mattress, pumping water into a bucket to bathe three times day since it is more humid and sticky there, drinking coconut water, and providing the entertainment for the entire village.  One afternoon we walked around the village to just look around and by the time we came back to home base and sat down a group of villagers, children, and old ladies, had gathered and just stared at us.

Ramana’s brothers, friends, and extended family who live in that village treated us like royalty.  Pumping water for ourselves was not an option, no mater how hard we tried, suddenly another sets of hands were always on the pump helping us.  We were made meal after meal, always provided with a chair if even seen standing for a moment.  Satish and Buny, two of the boys even massaged our calves and shoulders. Sreenuvas, one of Ramana’s friends would wait while we ate entire meals, just so he could drive us the 5-minute walk back to where we were staying.

Many awkward moments occurred, as we were always the center of attention, for instance eating a meal while five other people just serve you and watch you eat.  But after almost 7 months, awkward has become normal and we just look back and laugh.

The countryside of Kaleru was absolutely beautiful.  Green rice fields spanned until the horizon dotted with coconut trees and divided by canals and rivers.  Ramana’s descriptions of “water free,” “native place, very nice,” and “coconuts free,” had turned out to be completely true.  Well actually the coconuts are just free at night when they sneak into the trees to pick them. Haha

We traveled back to Vijayawada to catch our favorite 10 hour bus.  Jeff and Zach made a one hour journey and meet us there for one last meal together.  We took Ramana out to eat and he and Zach shared some chicken biryani.  It’s crazy to think that they next time we see them will be in America.

Our trip to Kaleru was definitely an experience.  We lived in a true Indian village for a weekend, there are no tourist sites out there, it was just everyday life.  Ramana was like a father proud of his three kids.  The villagers and his family, though they had never met us, spoiled us to no end.  Their happiness was visible through their service.   Kaleru taught me a lot about service.  And someday I hope to be able to serve as these people served me.

-T