How are you?

We are now at the stage where we have six days left in India.  As one of these will be taken up with travelling to the airport that leaves us only five precious days left with our family here in Coonoor.

Mass catering down to a tee

In the last couple of days we've been asked many times “How do you feel about going back?” and many times we've found ourselves struggling to describe where we’re at. 

As much as it feels like we've been here just a few weeks, when we look back at everything that’s happened it’s difficult to believe it’s only been three months!  There’s been laughing, crying (often with laughter), learning, praying, playing, hairdressing, wrestling, travelling, vomming, preaching and much more.  But through all of these ups, downs and roundabouts, one thing has been constant.  Through it all we have been confident that no matter where we are, who we’re with or what we’re doing there will always be a lot of food.  (You thought I’d say God there didn't you?...although yes, that’s also true)

We are really looking forward to coming home to England, our families and our friends (but mostly cheese, our bed and timely happenings).  We have no idea what the next chapter of our life holds but we’re quite excited to get cracking and get stuck in to whatever’s in store.  We 100% want to go home.  The tricky thing is we 100% want to stay here too.  Confusing? Yeah.

Fun and hugs with our wonderful
Indian family 

Despite being British and therefore having to be reserved and unwilling to admit to any kind of emotion, we love these people and this project very dearly.  We have had an exemplary display of hospitality and feel very much part of the family.  Having to leave behind this amazing family (merrily made up of numerous random, crazy people and a great horde of loveable kids) is incredibly difficult and we will miss our life here very much.  However, a very good point was made the other day.  If you're leaving happiness behind, you will always miss it even if you go into more of it.  When we arrived in India we missed home and now we’re leaving India I have no doubt we will miss it. Daniel once said to me “Well, if it’s easy to leave (anywhere) we haven’t done our job properly” and I couldn't agree more.  Thankfully, our final week here is jam-packed with jobs and activities to get done before we go.  Finishing spreadsheets, taking last minute photos, running errands and generally tying up loose ends in between being invited for dinner, last-minute shopping trips and packing all our stuff (plus the mountains of things we've bought out here).

Looking more bored than I actually am at church

We've also been asked by a friend “What are you going to take back with you to England?”  I’m guessing the answer he was looking for probably wasn't “some nice clothes, yummy recipes and browner skin”.  I hadn't really thought about it before and so didn't really know what to say but upon reflection I reckon there are two main things we’ll take back with us.  The first is ‘Smith family church’.  We've been attending Bethesda church which has been great and we've made some great friends there but ultimately, the whole service is in Tamil. Unsurprisingly a few weeks in we were craving a bit of English and suffice to say, three months later we are well acquainted with Hillsong and Soul Survivor’s (current Christian music) latest albums and, by relying on each other for Bible teaching/study, the Smith church of two was born.  It has been frustrating at times and we've missed having a usual, understandable church but it’s brought us closer together and ultimately closer to God so we shouldn't really complain!

The pros at work

The second thing I think we’ll take back is a willingness to give things a go.  In England we had an open-doored home and loved it when people would drop by or come over for dinner.  I think we were very comfortable with hospitality and settled into the ‘role’ quite easily so when we came to India and were completely stripped of the ability to do this we felt rather lost.  No longer were we cooking for our friends, inviting people over and running our own home.  Suddenly we were on the receiving end and, although it was wonderful it was also a little bizarre trying to find out where we fitted in with that. We've also been asked to take on tasks we would very much try and avoid in England.  We’re definitely not admin type people and yet this has been our main job out here, we have little/no experience in preaching and lo, we have preached, I am not a dancer (unless you include mad skills at crazy wedding dancing with Daniel) but I have even tambourine danced at church (I can hear you all chortling at that image from here) and we wouldn't have put ourselves on the list of top people kids have fun with but we've done kids work at church and have hung out with the children here most days. So yes, definitely been put out of our comfort zone and challenged but from it we've discovered it’s ok to step up and volunteer for things you might see as ‘other peoples areas’.

Daniel with some of the Erumad lads

So basically, we have no idea how to feel.  Our heads have mostly gone back to England already but we’re here and want to make the most of what’s left.  The thought of going back to continue our adventure excites us but the thought of leaving fills us with sadness.  We've had the most amazing times and the most frustrating times.  So we feel rather odd and the simple question “How do you feel about going back?” is almost impossible to answer.