Lessons

Although living in India would be a lifelong of learning for a foreigner, it seems that it comes in waves for me. After the first year of culture shock is under the belt you feel pretty comfortable, know your way around, know where to find a light bulb, know how to somewhat fake an Indian (mixed with Southern U.S.) accent to try to speak to someone on the phone (I haven't had much success with that one) but still surrounding you everyday is a culture, full of traditions and history, that is layers and layers deep...like peeling a never ending onion. The past few weeks have felt like I'm new here all over again. Here are some of the the lessons...

I'm LEARNING about communication and a few ways that "business" works here as a volunteer coordinator to revamp our apartment complex's playground. I'm realizing how little I come out of my "cave" (our flat) because I have not nearly learned the "art" of communicating here even after 2.5 years. In the past week of speaking with management and committee officers I have stayed confused, I've had to ask the same questions atleast 3 times to find out the answer I'm looking for and I'm finding you don't just cut to the bottom line, there are alot of "mazes" and "back alleys" you must go down until you arrive on the same page as the person you are trying to communicate with. These are clear cultural differences that I had no idea existed until now. Good things to learn, but at the same time frustrating. Like Brian told me about his work environment, he has the reputation in the office for being blunt and speaking straightforward...I call it being American:D

I'm LEARNING about water. Simple right? Don't drink the water...that's what I've known in India up until now. Ofcourse I've seen my neighbors in the village behind us carrying the water jugs on their heads back to their homes from the community well (they don't have indoor plumbing, millions here don't). I've seen men and children bathing in the pond behind our complex. My favorite non-profit is Living Water, a Christian organization that sends teams around the world to drill wells for clean water in communities while spreading the gospel as they do it. But not until our apartment complex ran into the challenge of their 6th bore well drying up, and having to pay for 20 water trucks a day to supply water, and seeing the emails exchanged between neighbors on our yahoo group about water conservation, did I realize how wasteful I am, how ignorant I am about resources and how blessed I am. Like my American friend Lisa (who also lives in Bangalore) said about her recent trip back to the States, "I was awed to bathe in drinking water". Americans use gallons and gallons of clean, treated DRINKING WATER every day to bathe, wash their clothes, run over there fruit before eating it, water the lawn, let the whole family each have their own separate 15 minute showers, all without blinking, without thought. It's amazing to me--we have so many resources that we never even think about being thankful for. I didn't know what a "bucket bath" was til I moved here. Most people in my complex take bucket baths (filling up a bucket, turning off the water and using only that water to lather up and rinse off) and these are people who work for companies like IBM, GE, HP, Intel..they are not poor. They just know what it means to conserve. I have so much to learn people!!

I have more that I am LEARNING but this is growing long so I'll finish with this. I learned something I already knew. I pay way more than my Indian neighbors for our house help:) It's called "white tax" which means paying double for everything as a foreigner. I knew I was paying double b/c my neighbor and I share the same housekeeper and I asked her how much she paid her. But I found out that actually I'm paying 8 times more than my friend, also a neighbor. She has a "live-in" housekeeper which means 24 hours of available service. I pay the same amount for 2.5 hours:D But as an American I know that what I pay our housekeeper for a month (6 days a week) is what I would pay a maid for 2 hours of work for one day in the U.S.!! It's all relative right? And to me it's worth every rupee I pay to have the amazing help I do!