Home Sweet Home

I'm finally in Mizoram and I love it here!

However, in order to get here, I had quite the adventure. On Sunday, I arrived at the airport in Dhaka in the afternoon. My flight to Aizawl had to go through Kolkata, since Aizawl isn’t an international airport. The silly thing about it all is that I had to completely backtrack and fly over Dhaka again. It also meant that I would be spending the night in the Kolkata airport.

The trouble started in the Dhaka airport. My e-ticket said that my checked-in bag could be 23 kgs in one place and 20 kgs in another. I took a risk by filling my bag to 22.8 kgs. Sure enough they wanted me to pay for the extra weight. I showed them the ticket and explained that I didn’t think I should have to pay. I finally gave in, but just as I started unlocking my bag to take stuff out, they said it was okay. One problem averted. The next happened when I was going through security. I had two 10 packs of AA batteries, which apparently can’t be in carry-on luggage here. They took them out and wanted to throw them away. A nice man told me that they would check-in my backpack with the batteries in it. They did. Another problem averted.

When I got to the Kolkata airport at about 4:30 pm, I went through immigration and customs, which went well. I had heard that there were private rooms available in the airport and that there was a ladies dorm available too. I went to the airport manager and inquired about the private rooms. They were all booked, unfortunately. So I ended up getting a spot in the dorm for $15. After eating dinner (which made me sick for two days), I went to the dorm. I walked into a room painted hospital light green with two small fans running and cardboard strewn across the floor. I almost cried. I took all my luggage downstairs and resolved to stay in the chairs in the shopping area. I didn’t want to sleep, because I had all of my luggage with me, but I ended up dozing for about an hour in a very purposefully placed position over my bags. This was the longest night of my life, but I did meet some interesting people, which passed the time. One man from Bhutan is working on staff at UC Berkeley and traveling with his sister for pleasure. A young Indian lady (a little older than me) is moving home from working two years in Singapore. She’s going to start management school in two weeks. The Kolkata airport never really emptied, so that helped me stay awake. In the morning at about 7 am, I headed from the international airport to the domestic airport to check in for my 10:10 flight to Aizawl. I had adjusted my luggage a little bit and had no problem with the weight or items this time.

The flight was only an hour and a half. I didn’t feel well, so I wasn’t really able to sleep on the plane. The young man next to me taught me how to say “Hi, how are you?” in Mizo and we chatted a little. When we were landing, I looked out of the plane and saw beautiful, lush rolling mountains (or hills) and waterfalls. Brenna (the girl who had this placement last year) told me that when she got of the plane, Mizoram reminded her of Jurassic Park. I really agree. I’ve never seen anything like this. Waterfalls, bridges over steep ravines, pouring rain and thunderstorms every day, tropical green trees and plants, more creepy crawlies in one place than I’ve ever seen haha. It’s great here (maybe excluding that last comment about bugs). But seriously, I love it.

“Dad” (the principal’s husband whose name escapes me, but who I will call “Dad”) and Rev. Zolawma met me at the airport. They said that I was blessed to arrive on time. Because of the frequent thunderstorms, flights right now are commonly delayed. I can’t image having to stay in the Kolkata airport another night. Praise God that my flight came right in between two storms! Another hour and I wouldn’t have made it. On the way to the seminary, we had to stop at a government office so that they could register me as a foreigner in Mizoram.

Once at the seminary, I took a shower, camping style with a bucket of warm water. Then I ate a little. My stomach was killing me all day because of what I had eaten at the airport, so I had absolutely no appetite. But the principal Hnuni, or Mom, was very helpful and made me soup and bread and a few other things that would help soothe my stomach. I took some medicine and went to sleep.

I forgot to mention Jenny. Jenny is Mizo, but from another city about 5 hours away. She is here to teach Hindi at the school. I can already tell that we are going to get along, which is good because she lives in the room next to mine. We have a little house to ourselves, with two rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen area, and a living room area. She preached for the first time last night, but I wasn’t feeling well so I didn’t go. She told me that she was nervous, but I explained that I will be in her place in a couple of weeks, because I’ve never preached either! Even though we have separate rooms, I asked her if I could stay in her room with her last night (there are two beds), because I was so sick. She said of course, and I’m so grateful for this quick friendship and this companion that I will have while I’m here. Having been told that this placement can be isolating, and having heard from Jenny that she has been lonely, I think we will both be blessed by having each other to live with. Praise God!

I’m feeling much better this morning, although my stomach is still slightly upset. The students don’t come in until tomorrow, so for now I’m just resting and settling in. I apologize for not having any pictures. I wanted to take some while we were driving yesterday, but I felt nauseous (the grapevine-like curves around the mountains don’t help) haha. I don’t have as easy access to the internet (it’s in a computer lab on campus that’s open during the day), so my blog posts might be a little more split apart. Also, the internet connection here is extremely slow, so I can't promise any more pictures until I return home... :/ I’ll be buying a phone hopefully this week. So I will be able to call my parents, sister, and Marcus soon. I love and miss you all! Pray that I feel completely better soon and that I continue to adjust to Mizoram well.