Community visit

Two weeks ago we visited the girls in our afternoon class at their homes. We visited them to encourage them to continue to come to class. The last week we had only had about five girls in class compared to up to 12 girls some weeks earlier. We did not really know what were expected from us when we went to community visit; was it not a bit unpolite to invite our selves to someones house to tell them to send their children to our class? Well, our plan was to show ourselves to the families so that we could smile and say that we were happy that their doughters came to class. Maybe the goal for us actually was a more selfish one about seeing some Indian homes. We have a feeling of living in a Western buble in our big, white house and we do not have many oppourtunities to visit Indian familes.

We have got to know the girls quite well after spending the afternoons together with them for so many weeks, but still we felt that we knew very little about their life outside of school. Especially one girl keeps on commenting about how easy everything is for us because we are white and rich and she is perfectly right, but that is also why we are here; to experience how privileged we are in many ways so that we maybe also will realise that we are.

All the girls comes from the same community and seems to be related in one or another way. All together we visited five houses. Both they and us were a bit unsecure about what to say and do, but after some cups of chai everyone became more talkative. They showed us their albums with family pictures and we tried to understand the family relations. It was impossible because an uncle is not only an uncle and an aunt is not only an aunt and your neighbor can be a mommi and your cousin can be a sister and a friend can be a brother. I have given up to learn all the different relations an Indian can have even though Rahul, our project executive, have tried many times to explain.

This is a part of the language and cultural barrier between us. There are so many things that I do not understand here. Or, I rather say that I do not understand anything at all. That is how it feels. Now as we are leaving Palampur and our projects in four days I wander if I have experienced what I came here for. I chose to travel with IDEX because I knew that I would live in a camp with other volunteers and that everything would be arranged for us. The reason why I chose this was that I wanted to stay in surroundings that was not to challenging (as for example to live as the only volunteer in a host family) so I could choose my personal projects and what to spend my energy on. I think now that it was a right decision because I have had the possibility to focus on my English teaching at the school and I think I have done a reasonable good job. On the other hand have I spent alot of time in my room with my two Norwegian room mates sitting on internet on our computers while eating Norwegian (and Swiss) chocolate. Have I spent too much time in our Western bubble? Does it disappoint me that I have not managed to understand more about India after so long time here? I do not think that it is possible to avoid the Western bubble unless you decide to "Go Native". And maybe the cultural barrier actually had feelt more oppressive if I had lived in a host family because the differences had come closer and not been held an arms lenght away as now.

It is not any easy answer to the question about how to experience and learn most about a culture and the answer does often seem to be furthes away when you are in the midle of it. Even though I do not understand Indian Culture (if there is any such thing) I have had some glimpses into it and I also would never want to miss out of getting to know Sirvi Pirvi and Ida Pida Pøne in our Norwegian Cave and all our Western touristing around.

After reading through this it sounds as if I am on my way back home to Norway wich I am not. I am just moving on to next stop in Goa. But I am ending the part of my time in India where I expected to be most involved in Indian society. In Goa I am planning to work with sea turtles and read books, but as I have experienced here it is not possible to imagine in advance how things are going to turn out.

In the post before this one I have posted alot of pictures from the last three monts that have not found its way to the blog yet. I have not regretted one moment that I bought and brought a SLR camera to India. There are so many motifs everywhere which makes it is a pleasure to carry that big, clumsy thing around with me. (I think its name is Bernt, but I have not decided for sure yet.) I hope you will enjoy the pictures and THANK YOU FOR READING AND COMMENT ON MY BLOG! I really like this part of the Western Bubble;-)