Sticking it out...

…Things here have been quite hectic. Last week I went through a bit of a scare, and I almost came home. One of the people that takes care of the kids hits them a lot. One day last week she was hitting them with a plastic golf club…I couldn’t take it anymore and had to leave the room. I have told her repeatedly that I hate her hitting the kids, but she just takes me for some American who doesn’t understand the way things work in India. I was trying to decide whether to leave or stick it out, and opted for the latter. I did talk to someone in charge about her, and he said he had had other complaints and would start watching her more closely. But nothing has happened in the last week or so, and I don’t expect that it will. Somethings are so ingrained in society here and it’s hard to get people to change their ways, especially when I’m only here for a few weeks. I decided to stay mainly for the kids. Not only do they not have parents or families who will look after them, but they’re abused by their caregiver. The girls (I spend time at the girl orphanage) are so sweet and so attached to me though. The Agape kids were used to volunteers being around and having them come and go, but these girls don’t have anyone like that. They cling to me and are always so sad when I leave them.
I’ve been thinking a lot about punishments and the way they work. With me, my parents tended to take away priveledges like TV or going out, but with these kids there are no priveledges to take away really. I did think of something though. Today when Neema Masi (the one who hits them) was testing them on their homework…the girls in the 2nd Standard didn’t know theirs. Ordinarily she’d get the ruler out and hit them till they cried. But because I’ve been constantly after her about hitting the kids, she asked me what she should do instead. I took away the kids play time and told them they had to study instead of go outside with the rest of the kids. This just happened though so I’m not sure if it is going to work or if Neema Masi was even being serious. But I like to think of it as a small victory, even though I know it’s short-lived because I’m leaving Monday.
They have been teaching me to read and write in Gujarati and I’ve been helping them with English and Math homework. It’s funny when I’m doing math in Gujarati because I start to count in Gujarati and try and do operations in Gujarati too. They also do a lot of things differently here. And the kids multiply strange – they don’t memorize the tables like we do in North America, because they don’t know the answer right away. But they count really quickly in their heads and figure out answers for really large numbers. It’s so cool! Learning Gujarati is hard but fun. It’s made me see why Indian accents are the way they are. For example, “w” is pronounced “v” when someone has an Indian accent because there isn’t really a “w” in the Gujarati language. Conversely, for me learning Gujarati, I have only one way of pronouncing “th” while there’s three ways in Gujarati. It’s also strange writing in a different language. I find myself learning to write by comparing it to English. “Pa” for example, is like a “4” written with bad handwriting. It becomes difficult though, because as we write we take certain liberties that makes our penmanship distinct from others. I might loop the main stroke in my “h” while others don’t. But when you’re learning a new language, especially from someone rather than a book, you don’t know which attributes of the letter you are trying to duplicate are actually of that letter and which are of the person’s handwriting. So I find myself copying Anita’s handwriting because I’m never sure. I wonder how long it takes until you know what changes you can make to a letter without changing it so much that it looks like something else or is unidentifiable.
On Saturday I went to school with them for a function. I went to a few of their classes afterwards which was fun, but was shocked to find out that they hit the kids at school as well. I came back with them, and spent the afternoon doing some homework and then playing “ball-bat” (as they call it). A few of the older girls are so sweet to me though! They’re always asking me to eat with them and sleep over at their dorms and stuff. Anita does funny impressions of how English and Gujarati people argue. So then one day after school she brought me some Gujarati novel that had “You bloodly black Indian!” written in English in the text. So she starts asking me what it means and if that’s how you fight in English. I tried to explain to her that it was bad language and what it meant exactly but it all got lost in translation, because then she said, “Oh, I get it…I should say ‘You bloodly black Pakistani!’”. To which I obviously said, no, you can’t say that either. But I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Anyways, the next time we were playing ball-bat she started doing more impressions of how Indian people argue and started yelling “You bloodly black Indian!” whenever someone messed up while we were playing. I kept telling her not to but I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s just funny because she really has no clue what she is saying. Anyways, now I’ve taught her that English people argue by saying “Your mother” which is so funny when she says it with an Indian accent.
I’ve been going to the kids Pratna in the evening as well and staying till they go to bed. I end up working most of the day because while they are at school, I’m with the little kids at the nursery. And I try and be home whenever they are home because Neema Masi doesn’t hit them as much when I am around. Anyways, the pratna is really fun.
After nursery, the bus goes around to all the villages and drop the little kids off. Afterwards, yesterday we had to stop off at the big kids’ school so I ended up surprising them and staying for the afternoon. One of the classes was so good. It was in Gujarati but I understood most of it. He is one of the teachers that never hits the kids so I’m a big fan of his. He was telling the kids a story of how a Hindu man, Muslim man, English man, etc. were arguing about what water should be called. The Hindu man called it something different from the Muslim man, the Muslim man called it something different from the English man…each of them due to a different language. The teacher was using this as an example to tell the kids that it was silly for them to fight, regardless of what they each called it, it remained water. Similarly, we all call God by different names, but in the end, he remains God. Calling it something different doesn’t change that so we should stop fighting over petty religious arguments. Pretty deep stuff for such little kids.
After that I went to Anita and Sonal’s class. Their teacher was late so I was just messing about with the kids and they really wanted me to teach them. So I started doing some math and English on the board. In the end, the teacher told me to carry on and I ended up teaching the whole class! It was fun but pretty difficult because of the language barrier. But I think I did okay! It felt so good to be up in front of a class again though…
I cannot get over how sweet the kids are though. I know I’ve said it so many times, but they’re just adorable. I have really grown quite attached to them, much to my surprise…
I was thinking today about how India is full of so many sad ironies. The country that gave the world the greatest teacher/example of non-violence (Gandhiji) still hits their children at school. The country that has taught the world about Yoga and the Path to Spiritual Wellness continues to subjugate its own people on the basis of caste and sex. The scriptures that preach to the world about the essence of right and wrong have no effect on the exceedingly corrupt government and police forces, nor on the issues of conflict with Pakistan. The place where some of the worlds largest religions are supposed to live in peace, has become the home of riots, stabbings, and rape by religious fundamentalists. The country where Self-Realization took its roots finds its citizens taking on American accents with names like “Angelina” or “Richard” to work for call centers of companies based in North America due to the globalization movement.

Reading Pleasures – I’m almost finished a book called “The Shackled Continent” which is about Africa and why it is the way it is. It has been rather enlightening, but the author is a complete capitalist so we tend to disagree on a lot of things. Despite this, I must admit that I have been quite ignorant to the way a lot of market economies operate in a global environment. So it was quite the educational read…

Shoutouts:

Dhanraj Uncle, Amita Auntie, Natu Uncle, Indu Auntie, Bhavik, Trevor, and Cathy – who have all called in the last while and offered me endless support (and requests to go home!)
Surender – whose birthday is coming up!