The Indian way

In America independence is an admired quality. From our youth, we are taught to think for ourselves, branch out, spread our wings and eventually fly. This quality helps motivate us to explore parts of the world, such as India, to open our minds to new ways of thinking. In India, the mentality is often different. Children, especially women, are often submissive, don't question authority and do what they are told. When you put people together from different cultures, working side by side, there is bound to eventually be some kind of culture clash.

My example is working with an Indian woman doing wound care in the morning. She meets us at the train station each day and when the train comes, she tells each of us which car to get on. If you sit at a seat that she doesn't assign you she will tell you to move. She is direct, stating, 'sit here now.' When we work with people on the streets, she will grab you in the middle of a dressing change and tell you to work with someone else. Finally, when she is hot and hungry, she corrals all of us and escorts us quickly to the train to go home. First of all, I don't enjoy being told what to do very often...as my family knows. And second, it is frustrating to be pulled away from volunteer work when you want to do more. The more I thought about it, I realized how often we are spoken to in that way. People shout and push you to do things in a certain way. You are expected to do things simply because you are told, whether it is logical or not. It annoys me to no end but I realized that this 'organized chaos' is how things work here. When I first arrived nothing made sense to me and I found myself continually thinking, why don't they do that in a simple and easy way? I now know that this is part of overcoming ethnocentrism, judging an action based on my own cultural beliefs. I still don't like being told what to do but I am tolerating it better every day:)

We went to the station in the morning. Lots of kids, wounds and drugs to deal with at an early hour. It amazes me how much heroin is smoked here. Kids run to us shouting 'auntie' through fields of broken glass and animal feces, dodging circles of people shooting up drugs, to give us a hug and get some breakfast. We had a busy morning and before I knew it afternoon had arrived. Tonight Ann, Rebecca and I will get on a train for the beach. I can't wait! More to come from the salty water of Eastern India. Katie