India: 21st Thankful Thursday: Lessons Learned

Today I leave India to go back home! The past six weeks have been crazy and wonderful, but I'm so grateful and happy that I can leave here on a high/good note.

Some things I'm grateful to have learned:

--I can do hard things.

--I can disassemble my western constructs and try to see the way the gears in the people's heads here work.

--My body is an amazing feat of creation. It mostly adjusted to the heat and humidity, to the point where I think I'll be more uncomfortable in my home's climate.

--It is possible to chew and swallow raw garlic, more particularly seven cloves right after each other. It is also possible that an Indian garlic clove that is a third the size of an American garlic clove can be three times as potent as the latter.

--I can be flexible and adjust plans as needed.

--I can laugh at myself. More particularly because of myself.

--I can live and work with people I've never met before in a foreign environment.

--I can return anger with objectivity. Thank goodness I learned this from Dad before I came here.

--I don't panic easily. Even when a mouse is sniffing my backpack. Even when I open my suitcase and see a mouse bury further down in it. Even when I later open the suitcase outside and tentatively dump everything out expecting to find a dead mouse (I never did find it. Just a bunch of mouse feces.)

--People can choose to be happy wherever they are, in whatever circumstances they are in.

--Beauty can be found anywhere.

--I may not be the one to see the results of what I've done here. But I'm grateful Subhash has said my work has made a difference. I'm grateful to know I've helped lay the groundwork for what he is going to continue building.

THIS WEEK: What lessons have you learned from a particular experience you have had?