A patient India

There is a marked patience with this culture unlike I have seen anywhere in America. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we traveled to six congregations on the islands at the mouth of the Krishna River. We were late leaving our home in Guntur Saturday morning because of fog, and arrived 2 hours late to our first visit. Each visit after the first became successfully later. By the end of the evening, we visited our last congregation at 9:30pm, but they were expecting us around dinner time. However, with each visit, the churches were full of people. Nobody went home because we were late, nor did they show a bit of displeasure upon our late arrival. Instead, when we pulled up to the church in our SUV (a necessary vehicle to go over the roads here unlike in the U.S.) the entire church and pastor greeted us warmly and were glad that we arrived safely. If it had been America and we were three hours late, we would have shown up most likely to an empty church and a pastor standing, hands on hips, wondering where in the world we were. If a person is 20 minutes late in Columbus, people get anxious and start heading home to do something else.

I've also noticed the patience of drivers here. There is little road rage by anyone. That said, however, I would NEVER want to drive here. There are literally no traffic laws, at least in this area, and no lanes on the roads. It is a free for all between the massive trucks, SUVs, cars, scooters, bikes, pedestrians, motorcyles, and the occasional herd of water buffalo. It is chaos on the streets. In Guntur I have only seen two stop lights in the entire city, and one was working. Despite the chaos on the streets, I have not seen one car accident, nor have I seen a pedestrian hit by a car. I've even walked on the street and cars have zoomed past me, but I have never flinched. There is an inherent patience and trust in the people. People move into traffic patiently, trusting that they won't get hit. I've seen a bicyclist calmly weave his way through the traffic unnerved by the cars around him. However, I would never want such a driving system in America. I like the order we have on the roads. But it is interesting, after having been here nearly two weeks, I find myself almost used to the chaos on the road. At first I was unnerved by it, and now it has become quite ordinary. It will be interesting to drive in Columbus again to experience the difference. Will I display the same patient driving skills that I see here?