Saturday, May 24, 2008

When it rains...it pours

So, yesterday we spent all day at the market in Varanasi and when we got home we were tired so we rested awhile before going to dinner. Around 7:30 we all head to Bread of Life bakery about 10-15 minutes away from our hotel. Dinner was good, but like every other time we eat as a group...it was long. We finally start heading back around 9:30 and it starts to drizzle a little bit. That's ok, no one minds that. Five seconds later, out of NO WHERE, a torrential downpour begins. That is bad, but it only gets worse as the lights illuminating the street also go out...wonderful. The only thing left to do now is get back as fast as possible trying to step in the least amount of cow poop as you can in the dark when the dirt in the streets and the cow poop are all starting to blend into one big pile of mud. We end up splitting into groups of two to three trying to stay together as much as possible and help each other avoid the cows or occasional bike that may come your way. I end up with Mike and Sadaf to begin with and we are doing fine...trying to make ourselves laugh by finding the positives of the situation. For instance: someone (apparently me) will have something to blog about, at least we can drink this water since we can't keep it out of our faces, and...well, I think that's about all we came up with. Anyways, I am walking along fine besides the occasional slip in the mud until my shoe gets stuck around my toe...how this happens I have no clue, but Sadaf and Mike wait for me to fix it. Now my only worry is the now 20 pound dress that is weighing me down because it is soaked completely through. Somewhere along the way, Mike goes up ahead to keep up with Brittany, our fearless leader in this downpour, and Rachel joins Sadaf and I. The three of us are almost home...seriously maybe 30 feet, and I see a HUGE puddle so I quickly veer to the right to avoid it and I am successful. Well every part of me is successful except my left side. Out of no where, I fall knee deep into a hole filled with water and who knows what else. I get myself up only to turn and find Sadaf waist deep in the same "puddle" of water. Somehow Rachel helps her out and the first thing I hear from Sadaf is, "I thought I was never coming out!" We laugh the rest of the way home ringing out our clothes as we walk. Finally home we all shower and hang our clothes out to dry and settle in for sleep. Today, Sadaf and I try to find the hole we fell into. It is no where to be found...we are guessing it must have been mud turned to quicksand because all we see is a small ditch about 6 inches deep where we are absolutely positive we fell...interesting. Oh well. It's just another adventure in this wonderfully chaotic place we call India.

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