177 days in...
on Honk if you Like Curry (India), 06/May/2010 15:30, 34 days ago
I can hardly believe that I’m coming up to the 6 month mark of my one year VSO placement. Time has gone by quickly as every day is saturated full of new things, both fascinating and frustrating. Reaching this milestone has made me reflected on my learnings so far...Rights6 months ago back in London, if you had asked me what my rights were it would have taken me some time to answer. In the bubble that was my life then, I would probably have said; to vote, to get equal pay as my male colleagues, a pay rise every year to reward my hard work, afford a few holidays a year, clothes and good times with friends. How my opinion has changed.Everyone has different reasons for doing VSO but at the core of it is the challenge of having a new experience and directly learning about the developing world. Every day you learn something new about so many things, including yourself. Not only have I had a change in career, there’s also been a change in continent, country, culture and customs. I think everyone must feel like a slight fraud in their first few weeks in placement. As much as we have ‘advisor’ in our job titles, how can we advise if we don’t even know the context our advice is to be given? Learning about the country you are in takes time. It’s been incredibly easy to embrace some parts of the culture such as food (God bless the fact curry is our national dish). Adapting to traditional clothes has been easy too. Wearing asalwaar kameezto work is the coolest option and I like the fact my wardrobe no longer is varying shades of black and grey but an explosion of colours. But how on earth can you start to understand a country like India, with 1.2 billion people, 31 states, 1618 languages, 6400 castes and 6 religions, in a short period of time?Well I think the answer is fairly simple. Just by living here and being open minded. My walk to work is my favourite time of the day as I get to see what’s going on around. This morning I started thinking about my rights. Walking down the road probably is the biggest frustration of my day. Being stared at, called out at and nearly run over is all part of the challenge. Do I have the right to be able to cross the road safely and not be stared at? Yes and no you could argue. If the government was spending the money to repair the road on ensuring the 40% of the population (4.8m) who live below the poverty line weren’t living on less than $1 (65p) a day and could afford 2 meals, then I would say I don’t have the right to demand tarmac and traffic lights…And with the staring, it’s the first time in my life I’ve been a minority. Being female increases the Stare Factor, should I get annoyed about the fact I can’t wear shorts when I go jogging or a vest top to the market when it’s 45°c outside? Not really, when women have a struggle for survival that starts in thewomb, with female infantacide still common. In a patriachal society being treated as a second class citizen in relation to their male family members, receiving food and education last only if there is enough is still common for many. India is a democracy and in no way should be viewed as an oppressive state, being here enables you to learn and experience both the positive and the negatives and see everything in context.So what do I think my rights are now? I feel very lucky that I have had access to and have an education, that I had enough to eat when I grew up, clean water, free medical care, that I am not discrimanted based on my gender, I can live independently and that I have enough money to be happy.RelationshipsThe moment you get on the plane to your placement you experience a strange release / panic. Everything is new around you, including your identity. There’s no point of reference for you, no friends or family to fit into. If I decided I wanted to be called Tallulah for the next 12 months, only eat red food and take up basket weaving no one would have questioned me. You are at ground zero with your relationships and need to start from scratch on top of dealing with a new group of people/country/flat/job/lifestyle.VSO training prepares you very well for dealing with the relationships around you. It’s so important to create and develop them. We lucked out with our group when we all arrived for our in country training. The eighteen of us all got on well and had minimal sense of humour failures despite living on top of each other and sharing rooms for a month. Our gang in Delhi are a greateclectic bunch and one of the many benefits of doing an urban placement means you already have an extensive social life to plug into.Being away from home firstly makes you reflect how lucky you are to have such great family and friends. You miss the simplest things from meeting up with a friend for a glass of wine or calling someone up for a post work chat. Your new family really is at work. Relationships here are perhaps the most important and you need to develop them as fast as possible. That can be the most challenging as working life is so different. Everything is a lot more reactive, the pace so much slower, with priority and responsibility viewed in a different way to home. For a TOMTD (Task Orientated Multi Tasking Demon) like me– it’s been a big change! My favourite part of my work day is lunch, where we religiously all sit down and eat together. Apart from getting to try everyone’s delicious home cooked food the topic of conversation varies so much every day. Religion, politics, cricket, books, films, solar energy and Princess Diana are just some of the topics we’ve done in the last few days. It’s a great time to learn more about everyone and life in India.So what do the next 6 months hold? Denial firstly that I’m half way through, then enjoying every second as I have done so far, eating a lot more curry, seeing more of India and continuing to learn more...Highlights– there’s too many to list, so this week’s pictures are a selection of my favourites from the last 6 months - enjoy!