It seems like forever since my fingers have stroked the keyboard to write in the cyber pages of my blog! My life has been rather routine the past few weeks, what with waking up everyday for office and either making those videos for the children or helping with the paperwork and writing letters to different presidents, and then eating, sleeping, and trying not to catch any more little crawly critters from the children. Unfortunately I haven't been able to visit the children too much because of a stomach problem (I think I ate some bad food in Kolkata) and I've been a little frightened to catch more lice than I already have. What a great gift from the children- the itchy dance!
But you know the videos I've been making? I've completed two: one about different winter holidays to increase religious awareness and another about different cultures, foods, dress, music, etc. around the world to expose them to the vast riches of human life across the globe. I titled it One World and it starts out by showing all 7 continents with pictures of various cultural activities and ends with one slide title "One world..." followed by pictures of our amazing planet Earth. It's a really neat video that I have yet to copy to DVD to show the children, so when I do, I'll definitely let you darling dears know what they think. And I wish I could show you all the video, but the intermittent power and internet outages won't permit me to upload my videos on the world wide web, but believe me, I've tried and tried again!
This past week has been even more exciting than anything that's been going on for the past few weeks. We've been preparing for our new VSSU family member, who I picked up with Jagadish-da (VSSU's driver) from the airport last Saturday. Her name is Erin (I know coincidence, right? Everyone has been a bit confused as to whether my sister Erin is coming!) and she is from New Jersey, originally Korea. We slept literally almost our entire Sunday holiday the next day, her exhausted from the airplane trip and me with that pesky restaurant devil inside my stomach! Tuesday, Mr. Mondal took us to Sunderban, the largest mangrove forest in the world, for the opening ceremony of another branch of VSK renewable energy center, partnered with VSSU. It's really ground-breaking (literally, because there is no electricity in this area) and quite exciting that people are working to sustainably develop these parts. While it may seem like an unfortunate thing that the area is so poor that there is absolutely no electricity (except for the generator at the hospital), the opportunity to develop the community in a way like this is super-duper awesome and hopeful!
The following day, so many guests poured into VSSU to celebrate Swami Vivekananda's birthday, also celebrated as National Youth Day. Of course, since we're in India, you can expect the celebrations to be grand and delicious. The day began around 7:30 AM and lasted until 10:30 PM, really an all-day sort of affair. The only suggestion I would have for such a lovely day would be to shorten it; it was a little exhausting! All sorts of activities and competitions for the children in the area packed the program: running (of which I followed on the back of a motor-bike with one hand gripping on for dear life and the other with a video camera), drawing, gymnastics performances, singing, dancing, dramas, you name it. I participated in two events: the marble-spoon race (definitely not my best sport... I dropped the marble) and musical ball, which is like musical chairs but the women that played just passed a ball around and were "out" when the music stopped. I'm pretty talented at this game of luck; I won second prize!! Actually, I think I really was first, but I didn't argue. Even Mr. Mondal's son said the next day that I was first. No biggie though, I have a new stainless steel thermos as a souvenir from the day!
My favorite part of the day was seeing the children perform their dances and songs (and the tasty food, thank goodness my stomach was cured). They're so talented and I hope they know it! There were even some contemporary Indian dances, a-hip and a-hopped out by the children from the government school next-door to the Home for Children. One song they danced to reminded me of a time ten or eleven years ago when I first fell in love with Indian culture. Their dance number was from the movie Lagaan, which was first shown to me by my Auntie (thanks for showing us such a wonderful 3 hour movie to us Aunt Gina). I was intrigued about this new part of the world that I'd never seen before, and was curious to read a book called Shiva's Fire. It was while I was reading this book in the car traveling to a vacation in Colorado and listening to the sounds of the tabla, violins, and sweet voices that I fell in love. Next time I'll post some pictures of all these events, but in the meantime go and watch Lagaan and tell me what you think! Until next time (and there aren't too many more left before I come home), take care and smell lots of flowers and eat lots of sunshine!
Alright, time for business. I've already been in India for exactly 3 months and 1 day, not that I'm counting or anything. I first arrived on September 28th around 10pm in the Dum Dum airport in Kolkata and my, oh my, has it been an experience thus far. Never living outside the States for more than three weeks, I haven't gotten to really experience another way of life or broaden my horizons, so to speak. You can really only know how life in another country is if you stay for more than a holiday and become a live-in resident.
And with the modern effects of globalization, it seems like the Atlantic Ocean that is dauntingly standing between me and my home country, isn't really that gigantuan at all. Yes, it is big in proportion, but all I have to do is hop on a flight and wait about 24 hours, and here I am, in incredible India. Technology, I would like to thank you for allowing me to keep in touch with all my friends and loved ones back home, but you've also allowed western culture to seep into traditional Indian ways of life. I suppose it's better to learn from one another, but the West only seems to be giving in this one-sided relationship. Enough... I'll get off my pedestal now. This was my honors thesis topic so I could talk about this for hours and I don't want to bore you daisies!
I can look at this experience now after 3 months and differentiate between standard of life and quality of life. These phrases are most definitely not interchangeable. Simply because one might have a high standard of life and live in the lap of luxury does not equal quality of life, aka happiness. We might have TV's and air-conditioned salons, but are we really happy? Do we take time to enjoy life and all the beauty and love that surrounds us everyday? Some people here only have 2 or 3 pairs of clothes and 1 pair of shoes, but they are happy living without the material cares of our modern society. Turn your TV's off for a day and really listen to one another, that's my take.
As much as I love Indian culture and people, I feel a bit stifled living in the village, partly due to the fact that i need help to do everything since I don't speak the regional language, plus the fact that India is a developing country. I don't have the independance I so dearly cherish. Look out America, here I come, just two more months!
As a side-note: Life in West Bengal is like taking a step back in time. I love the old-school style of how the men dress for winter. Imagine sweater vests, slacks, button-up shirts and scarves- just like living in the Dick Van Dyke Show, minus the whole India part! And if you don't know who Dick Van Dyke is, you should, he's a wholesomely funny guy!
