Different is Good

One of the things I love about traveling is the opportunity to gain a new perspective; to see and appreciate how other people live, eat, and interact. Believe it or not I came to India having only ever eaten Indian food once before. I like almost any type of food though, so I wasn’t worried. It tends to be a little more spicy than your average American meal, but not in a bad way. I think I’m toughening up my taste buds. Ben will be proud. Also, instead of having a main course of meat, you get a couple “main courses” (or two big side dishes, however you want to think of it) consisting of some type of vegetable(s) with spices and sauce. There is also always rice and some type of bread. Most of the time, the bread is just chapati (I probably butchered the spelling), which looks and tastes exactly like a tortilla to me. In fact, my whole first week I thought they were tortillas until everyone laughed at me when I asked them to pass the tortillas. Same food, different name, if you ask me.

When I registered for a volunteer program, I hadn’t even considered that, in addition to the new insight I would gain from India, I would also be surrounded by a number of different volunteers from all over the world, on different walks of life, with different views. At first it was a bit grating on my nerves, having to adjust to the vast differences in personalities and ways of thinking, but now I love it. Five girls have already left now, but originally there were four Australians, two girls from the Netherlands, three other Americans (one in college in NJ, one just out of college from Boston, and a 65 year old lady from California who has traveled all over the world), and a German/British girl that has lived in multiple countries and recently graduated from a boarding school in America. You can image how different we all are.

It’s always interesting to me seeing how people who are in the same situation, apparently experiencing the same thing, react in different ways. I thank the many Mexico mission trips and half-year long driving trip through Central America for my laid back attitude as far as accommodations and schedules and things are concerned. Normally, in the morning I go to teach school, and then in the afternoons I am off to relax or explore. However yesterday, when we got back from school, we were told that two of the girls that work in the afternoons for the women’s empowerment program were sick, so Keely and I needed to fill in. We had just enough time to scarf down our food and get a brief summary of what to do. Despite the last minuteness of it all and total lack of plan, I thought my class went quite well. The program is titled “Women’s Empowerment”, but it’s really just English class for girls in a rural area of town. I got the more advanced class, so we practiced speaking, reading, and going over different ways to say the time (half past 2, quarter to 5, etc). I ended the day with the game, “Categories”, which was a huge hit.

Actually, I'm trying to come up with some other games for the younger kids I'm teaching. It can be games to help with English, Math, or just recreation time. Right now, school seems a bit dry, all work no play type thing. And if I'm thinking that, I KNOW the children are. I think maybe the culture here is a bit more serious than where I come from. Anyway, if you're reading this and can think of some way to make it a little more fun for the kids, please let me know!