Good Eats, Thumbs UP

a Saturday Story

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a little about my food experiences overseas. It was getting too long, so I decided to break it up. Here is part two…

The first time I went to India, back in January of 98, the group I was with stayed at an international hotel in Hyderabad. Each day we would go out with one other team member to do ministry in various locations.

The hotel was nice. I can’t say I remember much about the food we ate there. The breakfast was Westernized if I recall correctly, and I think I do because I would recall more about it if it was anything unusual.

Richard Stephens, our team leader, had been to India several times and was a little more reckless in what and where he ate than the rest of us. He got wrecked for his recklessness one night. His roommate came to the room I was sharing with Tom Randolf and told me that Richard was violently ill and that I may have to take over his responsibilities as the leader of the group. I had no idea what his responsibilities were and wasn’t too excited about the idea. Thankfully, by morning he had expelled whatever was causing the issue and was able to continue.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that India has a hospitality culture. I learned that on this trip. Each day, we went out to visit homes and share the gospel. And in every home, they offered us something to eat or drink. I had already been warned not to drink the water. It was rude to not accept something, so I finally settled on bottles of Thumbs Up. Thumbs Up is like Coke only not as good. Coke is more widely available now in India, but then the choice was singularly Thumbs Up.

In home after home, I was handed a 12-ounce glass bottle of Thumbs Up. Our hosts preferred it not to be a “to go” situation because they turned the bottles in for a small redemption fee. So, I learned how to quickly gulp down Thumbs Up.

This eventually led to my next lesson in Indian culture.

When you drink innumerable bottles of Thumbs Up, it has to exit at some point. After one of our home visits, the national pastor, Ruth (a woman from California I was teamed up with), the pastor’s wife, another Indian man from the church we were working with, and I were walking through a business district along a busy sidewalk. Needing to find a place to relieve myself, I asked the pastor if there was a public restroom close by.

He asked me what I needed to do (our Western standards of modesty and privacy don’t apply either). I explained my plight and he said in broken English, “You need to pee just go there.”

I looked around, not understanding where there was, and asked, “Where?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just go.”

I’ve lived out in the country. I’ve been out in the middle of nowhere hiking and fishing. I understand that the great outdoors can be used to one’s great relief. But this was in the middle of a city of millions of people, half of which seemed to be on the same street as our team that day.

I hesitated. He insisted.

I walked around the side of a building and with great trepidation but out of necessity, I followed the biblical model of 1 Samuel 25:22 (1611 KJV which was not a vulgarity in 1611). No one seemed to notice or care. When in India…

That was 25 years ago. Things change. A while back, while in Bangalore, I noticed a large concrete wall near a park. About every 20 feet, signage was painted that warned, “Do Not Urinate Here!”

I don’t see it happening much in the cities anymore. It still happens out in the countryside where it will always belong.  In the city these days it’s Coke and restrooms. I suppose that’s how it should be, but I’m glad I got to experience the good old days of Thumbs Up and walls.