Meri hindi kaahaa hai? (Where is my Hindi?)

Where is all the Hindi that I've been trying to learn going? I'm trying to learn a little bit each day, but it's difficult when the sentence structure and sounds are so different from English. I've basically given up on the script, although we're supposed to be studying it, it just doesn't seem like a good use of my time.

This week has been very relaxed, which I love. After travelling through the desert, it's nice to just read at home and spend time with my host family. Last night, Emily and I made pasta for our family. Apparently my host bhai and bahan (brother and sister) don't like Indian food. They like pasta, pizza, french fries and cake. They have no idea what a fantastic cook their mother is. I want to send them to Carleton to eat in the dining hall for a week. They'd probably be ready for daal (lentils) and chapati.

Yesterday, I went to lunch and a craft fair with some people from the program. I ended up buying two shirts and a photo frame from two Assamese women. They were from an NGO that uses traditional handicrafts to bring income into the area where they live. They were Christian, which surprised me, but they were equally surprised when I told them that I wasn't. I tried speaking to them in broken Hindi and between that and their broken English, we had a great two-minute conversation. The highlight was when they said, "Welcome to Assam."

I've been trying to spend more time with Indians because I feel like most of my social life has revolved around the other American students here. My family is very supportive of my efforts to learn Hindi. So far, the grandmother has been the most helpful. My siblings talk too fast, but she is very understanding and uses simple sentences. I think that we are very entertaining to her. She always giggles when we come into the room.

I got into a really interesting talk about Hinduism with my Mamaji. My family is pretty religious, everyone prays for about an hour or more each day. Mamaji explained how she cannot function if she does not pray each day. For me it is the same with exercising, I wonder if that means that I am my own religion. I hope not. Mamaji suggested that I pray and told me that she would give me an English copy of the Gita. I don't think that I'm going to become Hindu while in India, but after growing up Unitarian Universalist, it is interesting to be in a family where there are set religious codes.

I think that just being in Jaipur is allowing me to absorb India. When I first came here, I could not even register all the street kids begging for money or the dead dogs swelling up on the side of the road. After awhile, I became frustrated with the world for allowing people like me to have the luxury to visit a country where children are employed by the mafia to beg for money. Now, I'm just trying not to put my understanding of the world onto another person's reality. I'm becoming more comfortable with not knowing how these kids feel or how it is to live in a slum, because they is no way that I can know. I want to believe that there is some common humanity in everyone, and I still think there is. But it isn't horrible to just not understand what everyone's life is like.

Philosophy aside, being here is making me more conscious of the world. I don't think that I've changed, but I think that the way that I view things has. I hope that my understanding of development in India will become greater when I enter my internship.

I've finally started to taking classes in my Environment Track. I love my Professor, he is very knowlegdable and encouraging. I think at this point I'm probably going to be with an NGO that works with livestock in Rajasthan. Pastoralism is still very important here, and I would like to observe doctors who work on disease prevention in livestock populations. This means that I'd be living in a small town in the desert. I haven't really decided how I feel about that. I would love to stay in Jaipur, but this city is only one small segment of India. I'll post when I find out where I'm going!

-Erica