Intro To Traditional India

Last night it rained so hard here that the lights were flickering and
the TV signal was down for awhile, which unfortunately interrupted our
Kung Fu Panda viewing. The rain subsided before we went to sleep
though, and since today is Sunday, I think that the traffic held off a
little bit later before waking me up at 8.

The day has been pretty relaxed, and we have mostly just been around
the house and doing things here and there. This morning I met the
family's servant, an older, petite woman named Gita, who will do all
my laundry for the month that I am here for only 150 rupees, or about
$5. I guess it was probably my foreign ignorance, but I'll admit that
I was somewhat surprised to see my host mother interacting with the
family servant as if she were an old friend, as they went about
preparing food, cleaning the house, and doing some wash together. I
think it just goes to show that we have culturally different
understandings of the word "servant". While my host mother has in the
past done volunteer work for the YWCA, I think that she primarily
stays at home now.

Over a lunch of some other yummy fried thing and spicy potato
something or other (I'm going to have to start writing down the names
of the things that I eat right after they tell me because what I just
described could be any of the meals that I've had in the past few
days), my host mother gave me quite a bit of cultural insight into
some of the more traditional side of their family. She was married to
my host father when she was 19 years old, through an arranged
marriage. Even today, when I thought that arranged marriages were
fading from existance, she told me that in two years, she and her
husband will begin looking to arrange for a wife for their oldest son,
Doodle. The idea of a couple dating or trying to "find love" is
strictly forbidden and very bad, according to Premila. A friend of
Doodle's was found to be dating a girl a few years ago and the girl's
family found and beat the boy and threw him off a rocky cliff. He was
hospitalized for over a month, before returning home. Clearly, this is
ver serious business here. My host parents will, of course, only marry
Doodle to a woman in the same caste as their family. The couple will
meet on their wedding day, and then are expected to have a family. The
Indian government has a two-child policy, which mus be strictly
followed by families. My host mother told me that on occasion, she has
seen baby girls lying abandoned in the gutters in the streets by
families of lower classes who could never afford to pay the dowry
required to marry their daughters. Apparently though, the Indian
government will now offer some small subsidies to families who have
girls in order to try and combat this problem.

After that eye-opening talk, Denmark Mike, who is on his last day
here, my host-mother Premila, and I walked just down the road to a
little stand where there was a man with a stand set up that he was
using to press sugar cane and make juice. We each had a glass of fresh
squeezed sugar cane juice with lime in it and it was really good and
sweet.

Around dinner time, the other volunteers who were gone for the weekend
arrived back home. Emmanuel, who is from Germany, is staying in my
room, while Jesse from Canada and Sebastian from France are actually
staying next door with the grandmother. Soon after they all arrived,
Mike's taxi arrived to take him to the airport. When talking to Jesse,
I realized that I think I've developed a little bit of an accent so
that I can be better understood by the family and other Indian people.
It was interesting to be able to speak normally like I do at home and
be understood and responded to in the same accent. I frequently have
to ask Doodle or Premila to repeat things because I just can't
understand what they're saying sometimes, and they can start talking
very fast.

Tomorrow is my first day at the hospital. I am glad that I will
finally have something to do because I've been feeling a little
restless here today. I made a good 150 page dent in my book this
afternoon when it was too hot to go outside - thank goodness the power
was only out for half an hour today, otherwise without the ceiling
fans, it would have been sweltering.

Off to family movie time in a house that seems to have gotten smaller
in the past few hours with the arrival of the other volunteers. Even
though a few volunteers are staying next door, this still seems to be
a big hangout spot with the TV here. Also, with the world cup starting next week, I think the guys are pushing to try and get ESPN. We'll see how that goes. All for now...