The Dalit Village

September 4, 2008

We walked into the village today.  The majority of the walk is on unpaved, muddy roads and on these roads a walker must compete with cars, trucks, scooters and more.  One car drove so close to me that it almost grazed my arm.  Needless to say, that was not the most fun part of the walk into the village.  Along the way you must look out for animal droppings because they are all over the place.  The one thing that I noticed the most about the walk into town was the smell in the air.  At Visthar it does not smell bad but once we got out on to the road it was pretty heinous at times.  Once we got into town there was a departmental store where we were able to buy small items.  I bought some shampoo, laundry soap, a bar of soap and a cold drink called Thumbs Up.  It was awesome to finally have a cold drink after a hot walk.  I glad to see that I was not the only one who was really hot.  Everyone was sweating.  Nausa, a staff member at Visthar, brought us further into the village.  He wanted to show us the nearest church, where his wife worked and the Dalit village. 

 

As we walked through the village I couldn’t help notice all of the people looking at our group.  I felt like we were on display or something.  I feel like this every time that we go anywhere.  I have never really been to a place where I was the minority in terms of the color of my skin.  It makes me feel very uncomfortable.  I guess that I thought that it would be like this when I signed up for this trip but I did not really think about it at length.  I suppose that I will need to get used to the stares because they are not going to stop any time soon.  Walking through the Dalit village I did not know what to think.  People were busy going about their daily lives and looking up at us as we passed.  I began to think about what life is like for these people.  It is difficult for me to communicate with them because even if they speak English what could we possibly talk about?  How could we relate to each other?  My bedroom at home is larger than most homes in this village.  I sleep on a queen size bed and I do not have to share it with the rest of my family.  I think that a part of this journey will be to figure out how I can communicate with people who are different from me.  This is not what I originally signed up to do, but over the few days that we have been in India I find that communication and relating to the people here are more important than my original goals.  We are all human beings and if we cannot understand each other the point is lost.