What an Awful Day!

September 20, 2008

Today sucked.  It was really hot outside and our group decided that we were going to go shopping in the city.  We went to a place called Chennai silks.  I hated it there.  There were more employees than shoppers.  We were mobbed by all of them.  I felt like all eyes were on me.  Everyone wanted me to buy all sorts of things.  About 10 people were literally following me around.  I tried to get away but they wouldn’t leave me alone.  I hated it so much.  I just wanted to look but no one would just let me look.  I had to get away.  I ended walking out of the store and hanging out in the front waiting for the rest of the group to get done.  I got some stares but I didn’t care.  I just had to get out of there.  I hate not being anonymous when I go places here.  I just want to go unnoticed.  I guess that I will have to wait until I am back in Minnesota where everyone looks just like me.  I know that sounds sort of sad but I just want to fit in here.  It really isn’t possible. I am so different from the millions of people living in this country.   

The rest of the afternoon we spent time getting ready to go to another awkward home stay.   Each of us was supposed to go to a home on our own, but I was terrified to be alone in a village.  I was not the only one who felt this way.  I didn’t want to make a fuss but I had to do something.  Auzzie and I talked to Professor Steinwand and asked if it would be possible for us to make the journey together.  I was so excited when we were told that we could go together.  We packed up our stuff and walked to the bus stop.  We traveled for about 5 miles and got off the bus.  We walked down a long road.  It was about 3 miles to get to the home that we were going to be staying at.  It was such a long walk because it was about 100 degrees outside and we were carrying our bags.  Finally, we had reached our destination.  We were welcomed into the home by our host mother, Manjula.  It was a really nice house (by Indian standards).  We had a western toilet!  I never thought that I would be so excited to see a toilet.  I was so happy to be staying in a nice home with a friend.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  I was still nervous about the whole thing but I felt better knowing more about where we were staying.  Manjula was so nice.  She spoke English and she was so proud of it.  She had sent her two children to schools that taught English medium and both of them were doing economically well.  She was so proud of all of their accomplishments and all they had done.  I think that she had to sacrifice a lot to send her children to school because she kept talking about how poor her family was and how hard they had to work to get by.  She lived in a joint family and the entire family worked together on their land.  We found out that she had two mother in laws because her father-in-law had two wives.  Until today I had never met anyone with a family like this.  It was getting late so we had dinner and went to bed.  We slept on mats on the floor and fire ants attacked us.  It was pretty painful.