Pune

After Kolkata, we jumped on a plane to Pune. It was a bittersweet plane ride because we knew it would be our last as a group. In a few short days, we would disperse literally all over the world:  Thailand, France, Atlanta, and Nepal. It was hard to believe that our 2 ½ week journey together was almost at an end.

When we got to Pune, we were greeted by one of our group member’s friends and church family. She lived in Pune for 5 years as a teenager and considers Pune to be like home. They gave each of us a wreath of flowers to wear, provided a nice bus for us, and gave us lunch to eat on the way to Arangabad. It was a touching moment.

Five hours after climbing on the bus, we arrived in Arangabad. We saw some beautiful caves. Now, when our professors told us we would see caves on this trip, I pictured holes in the sides of mountains. Those were not the caves we saw. These caves were magnificent temples that people carved into the sides of the mountains hundreds and hundreds of years ago. There were three temples:  a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple, and a Jain temple. It was amazing to me that a) so many different temples were so close to each other and that b) people carved these temples out of the solid rock of the mountain. The next day, we drove back to Pune.

When we got back to Pune, we did some shopping. Our local group member showed us her favorite places to shop and some of her favorite parts of Pune. Then, we went to her parents’ house to debrief and spend our last night together as a group. We held a small worship service and shared a meal together. Some of us stayed at the house and the rest of the group stayed at the YMCA down the road. In the morning, we would say our goodbyes.

It was a strange feeling in the morning. I was excited about going to Nepal to start my contextual ministry placement, but I was sad to be leaving this wonderful group of people. As the rest of the group came to pick up the group members not going to Nepal, a strange mixture of sadness and joy hung in the air. We all knew that it wasn’t goodbye forever; most of us have classes together in the fall. It’s just… many of us had gotten to know each other on a much deeper level. People who had just been friendly faces in the hall at school are now good friends. People who had merely been acquaintances are now close companions. I could go on and on about how close-knit our group became, but no words can ever do justice to an experience like this. We all knew that experiences like this one (the trip, the group dynamics, and the leadership) only come once in a lifetime, and we were fortunate enough to share it together. I think that as we joined hands to pray together, the reality of this idea dawned on us. One of our group members blessed those of us going on to different countries with a beautiful prayer, and then we said some very tear-filled goodbyes. After several long hugs and loving words, the group departed. As the three of us going on to Nepal stood on the side of the road and waved goodbye to our friends in the bus, the realness of the rest of this summer hit me. I am about to go to Nepal for two months.