My Fourth of July

7/4/2007

Happy Birthday, America!

Although today is not a holiday here, we will still celebrate, sans alcohol. (No alcohol is allowed during our work week. Plus, the drinking age is 25. This means I can legally drink with only one of the other volunteers, since I am the second-oldest!)

During our orientation two weeks ago we were told that perhaps we will decide to cook for the 4th of July and invite the staff to celebrate. When we got to Palampur it was on the schedule: "volunteers cook for staff." And so it shall be! Of course, we're happy to do so, since they work very hard. I just think it's funny how we told we would be cooking. :) My contribution is the top of the famous chocolate crunchies. No oven means no cake bottom, but we can all agree that the top is the best part anyway!

Yesterday and the day before, Professor Aswini Ray, from the Center for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, spoke to us about India's history, the political climate, the Kashmir conflict, and the caste system. What he explained to us was incredibly interesting and encouraged me to learn more. Being a volunteer has and will allow me to experience India in a way most tourists never do. However, it wouldn't be as valuable of a learning experience without the information we received from Professor Ray, and from the CCS staff being able to answer our questions. We notice things that are culturally different while volunteering, but don't understand why. Learning about the political climate, India's history, and modern culture, really helps me to understand the culture, or at least begin to. I'm sure it would take many decades to really know a country with as rich of a history as India's, and even then there would still be much to learn.

I feel like a student again! Everyday I go to school. I listen to lectures and take notes. And in the evenings, I do homework! Usually the homework is creating the lesson plan and preparing materials for the next day's class. But today a 15 year old girl named Surbhi, who lives next to the school and who I had met once before, gave me homework. It was the cutest thing! She opened her notebook to two surveys she had created for both Jaime and me to fill out. The questions were even tailored to each of us based on the discussion we had at our last encounter. It asked for the names of all of our family members, our dreams in life, our favorite hero and heroine, and "why do you like your boyfriend?" At the end it says: "please write a few words for me." This is my homework, due Friday, when she will return to the aanganwadi (day care/preschool)!

I gave her my notebook and asked her to do the same sort of survey about herself. Her words to us were: "You both are so cute and good girls. God bless both you. I love you both girls. And a very very good luck for your future."