Should Have Been Posted Friday, June 5

Somehow by some sort of crazy good luck I have ended up in India for the summer. With Notre Dame funding I have enrolled with the Foundation for Sustainable Development for a summer internship. FSD is an organization that coordinates volunteers to come to different countries around the world and volunteer in local grassroots NGOs.

I arrived a week ago on 30 May along with 6 other summer interns. We spent this past week adjusting to the time difference (12.5 hours ahead of PST), getting oriented in Jodhpur, discovering new Indian foods, learning a little Hindi, and trying to prepare ourselves to join the Indian workforce.

Jodhpur is still a very traditional city. Walking the streets, almost all of the women still dress in saris or salwar kameez suits. Rajasthani women enjoy wearing bright colors with loud patterns in creative combinations. My favorite right now is acid green with violent magenta. In most other settings it would probably hurt your eyes, but the desert backdrop needs those refreshing bursts of color!

Because Jodhpur is still so traditional, FSD has advised that we dress in Indian salwar kameez suits, or long pants with a loose tunic with a matching scarf. We have done a little shopping but I still feel like I look awfully mismatched. It wasn't so bad when all the interns traveled together and we all looked a little off, but now that I am about to start working, I'm getting self conscious again. Hopefully people will be too distracted by my hair to notice my clothes? Apparently only school girls wear bangs. Oh well.

Last night we all transitioned to our host families. I think it was supposed to happen around 6:30, but I ended up being the last one dropped off and I didn't arrive until around 9. My family is so nice! I feel terrible that I cannot remember their names 100%. I think it is Sushil (the dad), Anita (the mom), Shreena (daugher), Srhinuj (son), and Dedeji (grandma). They are Jain and strict vegetarians. I missed dinner with everyone, but Anitaji and I ate together last night and we had mungdal (lentil soup), chapati, onion, fresh vegetables, and amrus, which is mashed mango mixed with dood (milk) and sugar. I am trying hard to learn Hindi, but it is hard when the native speakers laugh at you. My skin will harden yet.

I woke up early for my "bed tea", which was brought to my room by Deva the servant. He looks about eleven, is from the village (which village? I don't know), and speaks only Rajasthani and Hindi. So we will probably not communicate much beyond facial expression for a few weeks. That is good practice for me too. I am trying to get mentally prepared for my first day at my NGO, Meera Sansthan, which I think means "My Organization". I'm not really sure what the NGO does (no website) or what I will be doing there. I probably won't know for a couple more weeks. I'm ready to show up and start observing and enjoy the numerous chai breaks FSD has told me to expect. They phrased it like, "you'll probably have to stop and enjoy the chai". I was like, bummer--frequent hot drink breaks are only one of my favorite things!

I'm definitely still in the honeymoon phase of culture shock (It goes Predeparture, Honeymoon, Adjustment, Being Happy, and then Reentry. Actually the fourth one is something else but I can't remember. Mainly the third one is where you get angsty). I love the food, the beautiful colors, the pace of life, the emphasis on family, the wandering cows, and all the mustaches. I am nervous that the pace of life might start to drive me crazy, though, and that the language barrier will start to get extremely frustrating. I just need to remember that Mai Hindi sikh rahi hu (I am learning Hindi), and they are also learning English.

If you want to get in touch with me, I will have internet at work, so emails/facebook/skype/@tweets, whatever, will all reach me. I do not have internet at home, though, so I might be a little slow responding, but I still would love to hear from you! I'm trying to figure out how to register my new Indian cell phone with Indian twitter so that I can be really plugged in again. Everyone has a cell phone here--I'm surprised twitter isn't bigger. We'll see how it goes.

That's it for now! Mujhe work jana chahiye! (I should go to work)