Some Good 'Ole Indian Hospitality

Indians are amazingly hospitable... it is one of my favorite aspects of their culture. Our house helper, Annie, invited us to come to her house for dinner and was so excited when we agreed. We were thrilled to be invited and couldn't wait to meet her family.

Let me give a little background... Annie would be considered middle class by Indian standards. Although she works as a house helper, she speaks fairly good English (very hard to find) so that means she usually works for foreigners and gets paid a little more than most domestic helpers. By American standards, her family would be considered incredibly poor. I knew to expect a very simple, small home but still I was shocked by how very little they had. Their entire home was one room that was smaller than our bedroom in Norman. There was a small divider that separated the "kitchen" from the area where they slept. The only furniture was two small cots that they slept on (I'm assuming someone slept on the floor) and a cabinet where their belongings were kept. There was a faucet in the kitchen that I thought they did dishes at but it was actually their shower when they have running water (which is only a few days a week.) Also, their bathroom was an outhouse that was shared by everyone in the building (probably ~20 other people).

Despite what very little they had, they were such gracious hosts. They sent their 11 year old daughter, Diana, in a rickshaw to pick us up so we would be able to get to their house (I have no idea how we would have found it otherwise!!) Below is everyone piling into the rickshaw on our way to their house.

This is Lawrence, Annie, Diana (11 yrs.), David (15 yrs.) and Sutton. Usually Annie wears Indian clothes but today, they were all dressed in Western clothing. Her children were wonderful with Anna Claire & Bennett... playing games, coloring, etc.

Lawrence plays the guitar & was very proud to be able to play & sing for us. We all sat in this tiny room on the floor & cots and they sang songs for us. They insisted I try to teach them the song "Blessed be the Name" but I honestly couldn't sing a note if my life depended on it. That does not matter here and they all (while Brent egged it on!) kept insisting that I sing it... one of the more humiliating moments of my life!! I couldn't make eye contact with Brent because I knew I would bust out laughing at my horrendous attempt at singing that song!! So funny!

This is Annie in her "kitchen." You can see the faucet in the left corner which is where they take showers. Annie is a very good cook. Now I understand why they buy food every day instead of grocery shopping for the week... they don't have a refrigerator and there is no place to store any food except what you're going to cook for that day.

After they played guitar for us, they served us dinner. They don't eat until 10:30 p.m. so they just served us and then watched us all eat. I was very humbled because they took extra care to have Coca-Cola & bottled water for us to drink because Annie knows we can't drink the water and they had special juice & cookies for the kids even though that was a very expensive "extra" that they would never buy otherwise.

After dinner, Diana & David played a few games that we had brought & colored pictures with the kids. Diana only had one doll (that was kept in a box to protect it) and she got it out for Anna Claire to play with. They served us chai tea to end the meal. They drink chai every day here and they are delighted if you have it with them. Brent and I love it so we are always game! They usually have it in the morning, afternoon, & after dinner.

We almost made it the whole evening without a bathroom visit until right as we were leaving and Anna Claire HAD to go. I was dreading using it because I knew it would be disgusting (it is an Indian toilet, which means just a ceramic hole in the ground) and it was outside but she used it and didn't make a big fuss about it so I was really thankful!

They ended the evening by walking us all the way through their neighborhood down to the main road, spending 15 minutes trying to find us a rickshaw back to our apartment and then calling to make sure we made it home okay. Talk about serving your guests... incredible!

They had so, so little but were incredibly generous and giving to us. It was a very humbling learning experience for us and I am so thankful that God is allowing us to be a part of experiencing life over here!