The swine flu "epidemic" has escalated to an air of unreality in the state of Maharastra where we are studying. The government has created a kind of "state of emergency" closing schools, universities, shopping malls, movie theaters, etc. and cancelling festivals and celebrations. (Internet cafe's were closed until recently as well). About a dozen people have died in Pune (pop. roughly 3.8 million) including several school children. To put this in perspective perhaps, 13 people per day die in traffic accidents in India, about one a day I believe in Maharastra.
But it feels like everyone is on the verge of panic. We have cancelled our trip to a very rural/isolated village for fear theat the uneducated villagers will really panic. The experience has extremely highlighted the sense of being "other" which of course already exists because we are a group of white, single women traveling unaccompanied by a male. People eye us suspiciously and cover the mouths and faces. No crowds of children run up to talk to us as they did in 2007 -- just suspicion and fear. Swine flu comes from our country. Imported by "foreigners" to India.
This is the closest we get as white women in a white culture to experiencing the twin impact of "otherness" (female + race/ethnicity). Even as women in our culture still struggle for rights and privileges, most of our "other" experience is muted. It's when we are in a place where our race stands out and our gendered place is (usually) circumscribed that we might have a glimmer of the experience of some groups and individuals in our own culture.
To walk down the stret and be eyed with suspicion; to have children chant 'swine flu" behind your back. These at once call me out and put me in my place.
The constant change of plans and increasing loss of control of our experience, even though externally created, causes a level of claustrophobia and even paranoia: What next? Will we as foreigners be quarantined ourselves just by virtue of our otherness? Will the last 1/3 of our trip be within the confines of our hotel?
It may be that the rest of the trip will not end in confinement but it will be irrevocably shaped by, as usual, things beyond anyone's control. What an antithesis to us as women coming from a place where personal power and control is highly valued.
Not quite quarantined. Not really free.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Bucket Showers Take Two
The shock of the water -
bared skin soaped to clean
receives the baptism of cold.
Shivering, the body in alert state
relaxes slowly.
Wet beads on warm flesh,
melt back into the humid air.
bared skin soaped to clean
receives the baptism of cold.
Shivering, the body in alert state
relaxes slowly.
Wet beads on warm flesh,
melt back into the humid air.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Culture Exhaust
Travel tiredness? What to call the effect of being bombarded with sights, sounds and experiences. I've experienced it whenever I travel even in relatively benign places like England. The very different-ness of the experience overwhelms the senses. The body must process these new experiences in any way it can.
One of our students remarked that she felt she was not getting restful sleep but that she was having REM or dreaming sleep nearly all the time. She had heard that the reason babies sleep so much is that they use dreamtime to process all their very new and very inexplicable experiences. So perhaps it is with us as travelers. We feel the exhaustion as well as exhilaration of travel and must spend time processing our experience whether in waking reflection or in dreamland.
For myself, the sheer volume of difference in India puts my being on hyper-alert. The traffic one must negotiate while crossing the street; the volume of the horns, speech, animals; the speeding colors of vehicles and fashion combinations one does not ordinarily find in the drab NW. The concentration it takes to understand ordinary English spoken w/ an Indian accent. Each individual piece is absorbable in parts but taken together the effect overwhelms the synapsis.
I'm inclined to believe this is not so much culture "shock" as culture exhaustion. Certainly there are elements that are shocking to our sensibilities -- its difficult for me to make meaning of the pantheon of Indian gods, for instance. Even the basics of household life contain very dramatic differences. But what more strongly overwhelms us is the sheer "volume" of the processing of things that are not ordinary to our senses. They are not "shocking" in the traditional sense of the word but they do tire us as we attempt to incorporate ourselves in this new environment.
One of our students remarked that she felt she was not getting restful sleep but that she was having REM or dreaming sleep nearly all the time. She had heard that the reason babies sleep so much is that they use dreamtime to process all their very new and very inexplicable experiences. So perhaps it is with us as travelers. We feel the exhaustion as well as exhilaration of travel and must spend time processing our experience whether in waking reflection or in dreamland.
For myself, the sheer volume of difference in India puts my being on hyper-alert. The traffic one must negotiate while crossing the street; the volume of the horns, speech, animals; the speeding colors of vehicles and fashion combinations one does not ordinarily find in the drab NW. The concentration it takes to understand ordinary English spoken w/ an Indian accent. Each individual piece is absorbable in parts but taken together the effect overwhelms the synapsis.
I'm inclined to believe this is not so much culture "shock" as culture exhaustion. Certainly there are elements that are shocking to our sensibilities -- its difficult for me to make meaning of the pantheon of Indian gods, for instance. Even the basics of household life contain very dramatic differences. But what more strongly overwhelms us is the sheer "volume" of the processing of things that are not ordinary to our senses. They are not "shocking" in the traditional sense of the word but they do tire us as we attempt to incorporate ourselves in this new environment.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Return to Pune
The group has returned to Pune and have begun the program in earnest. We have visited DST (Development Services Training I believe) and Annapurna. Both groups working in slum areas on women's development, empowerment and micro-finance but with different foci. DST establishes self-help groups where typically the women use their own acquired savings to fund loans or to guarantee loans while Annapurna is based on micro-finance, providing small loans to groups of 5 women who guarantee the loans to some degree. These loans were initally funded through grants from other sources (possibly aid organizations) although now the group is nearly self-sufficient in their loan programs. I realize these sound rather similar but I believe the differences are critical. Annapurna begins with the financial side (loans) and builds its other services around it especially its micro health and life insurance programs. DST seems to emphasize the self-help nature rather than the financial side of the equation. However Annapurna believes you cannot have the MFI (micro-finance) alone, that that is NOT the goal sof these programs. The goal must be women's empowerment and development.
Curiously enough, as a returning visitor, there is much that is familiar down to landmarks on the way to various areas. For example, a large temple like structure is across the street from a major slum where both Annapurna and DST operate. Spying this temple yesterday, I recollected it as a landmark from 2007.
Cultivating internal quiet is a challenge here. As I have a basic introverted streak finding the time to be separate from the group and have quiet has been a challenge. I re-realize how much I cherish both the green of Oregon and the relative peace of Portland. Opportunities for personal reflection, time for personal reflection are somewhat constrained, partly a side effect of a group trip partly a consequence of having a program and schedule. A friend living in Mumbai suggests that the reason yoga and meditation and long puja (prayer) periods are practiced by some is that these cultivate an internal quiet or peace that is not available externally. You must cultivate it in yourself otherwise you'd go kind of crazy.
We will be spending yet another day at Annapurna, doing some field visits to successful entrepreneuers who've received loans to develop or expand their businesses. Then we'll be heading back to Chaitanya which is in a rural area. This will be a return as well and I'm anxious to see how the organization has grown and changed since 2007.
Curiously enough, as a returning visitor, there is much that is familiar down to landmarks on the way to various areas. For example, a large temple like structure is across the street from a major slum where both Annapurna and DST operate. Spying this temple yesterday, I recollected it as a landmark from 2007.
Cultivating internal quiet is a challenge here. As I have a basic introverted streak finding the time to be separate from the group and have quiet has been a challenge. I re-realize how much I cherish both the green of Oregon and the relative peace of Portland. Opportunities for personal reflection, time for personal reflection are somewhat constrained, partly a side effect of a group trip partly a consequence of having a program and schedule. A friend living in Mumbai suggests that the reason yoga and meditation and long puja (prayer) periods are practiced by some is that these cultivate an internal quiet or peace that is not available externally. You must cultivate it in yourself otherwise you'd go kind of crazy.
We will be spending yet another day at Annapurna, doing some field visits to successful entrepreneuers who've received loans to develop or expand their businesses. Then we'll be heading back to Chaitanya which is in a rural area. This will be a return as well and I'm anxious to see how the organization has grown and changed since 2007.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Return to India
In a small room (the "office center") of my hotel, remembering how to blog. No pictures yet and no students who I believe will be setting up their own blogs, including blogging for Mercy Corps (more on this later I suspect).
It's hot, but apparently not as hot as Portland, OR where I departed I think 48 hours ago. Not sure, I think this is Wed. and I left on Monday and there was a 20 hour trip in between and a 12 hour time change. Travel being a funny limbo (remember limbo, the place not hell but not quite heaven where children's souls suspended forever if their were unbaptized babies, pure but not quite pure enough).
Suzanne Feeney, colleague and mentor, is leading another student group on the Women's Development and Microfinance field class and I'm along again as stallwart support. Suzanne is in Pune reconnoitering our final accomodations, etc. and I'm in Mumbai to get over jet lag. Students arrive late Thursday and the program officially begins on Friday. We'll mostly be in Pune and Khed district as last time but leaving off the trip to Udder Praddesh and Dharmshala. A good thing I think although those were wonderful portions of the trip and I will miss seeing Dr. Didi the head of the center in Sidbarhi.
More acclimating awaits. But the smells, and sounds, and feel of the air retain their familiarity.
It's hot, but apparently not as hot as Portland, OR where I departed I think 48 hours ago. Not sure, I think this is Wed. and I left on Monday and there was a 20 hour trip in between and a 12 hour time change. Travel being a funny limbo (remember limbo, the place not hell but not quite heaven where children's souls suspended forever if their were unbaptized babies, pure but not quite pure enough).
Suzanne Feeney, colleague and mentor, is leading another student group on the Women's Development and Microfinance field class and I'm along again as stallwart support. Suzanne is in Pune reconnoitering our final accomodations, etc. and I'm in Mumbai to get over jet lag. Students arrive late Thursday and the program officially begins on Friday. We'll mostly be in Pune and Khed district as last time but leaving off the trip to Udder Praddesh and Dharmshala. A good thing I think although those were wonderful portions of the trip and I will miss seeing Dr. Didi the head of the center in Sidbarhi.
More acclimating awaits. But the smells, and sounds, and feel of the air retain their familiarity.
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