Namaste! I have now been here for three weeks and I'm happy to say I've learned boatloads already. I'm trying to finish some leftover things from school right now, for the sake of brevity I'm making a list of what I have learned so far in India.
~Human beings are remarkably resilient creatures. My host family's baby is the most coddled child imaginable when it comes to remaining healthy (apparently when Rachael and I put her on the carpet to let her practice crawling, it was the first time she had been on the floor in her seven months of life, oops), but we have also seen infants born in slums who seem to be doing just fine. While obviously they are at a great risk of health problems and will likely have a much more difficult life than a middle-class child, they somehow manage to survive and thrive in very unfortunate circumstances.
~Bodies never run out of sweat.
~I need alone time. After long days in the heat of Delhi or traipsing around hospitals in Aligarh, sometimes I feel guilty for wanting to sit on my bed and do nothing for a little while. I've learned, though, that this time is more important to me than I realized.
~People generally think that the United States is "religiously deteriorated and morally corrupt" (actual direct quote from an AMU student).
~Abortion is not seen as the huge ethical dilemma here as it is in the states. The only moral issue that comes up is sex-selective abortions, which are a big problem here and are causing wider and wider gaps in the number of women and men.
~Old cows in India can't be slaughtered because the majority religion (Hinduism) considers cows sacred, so elderly bovines are smuggled across the Pakistani border at night to be slaughtered.
~Gender roles are pronounced and not as egalitarian as in the U.S. According to one of our teachers, a gynecologist friend of hers said that when women come in to confirm whether or not they're pregnant and the doctor asks when their last period was, the husband will answer for the woman 99% of the time. Definitely not the case in the U.S. Also, women who live in dorms in India (or at least at Aligarh Muslim University) have a curfew but men don't. At AMU, curfew is 6:30 p.m.
~Never put a band-aid on your armpit.
~As my dad likes to say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I have found bartering and dealing with people much more successful when I'm not frustrated and I can maintain my sense of humor. Trying to get a rickshaw has become easier now that I'm less angry about an extra Rs 10 or 20 (25 or 50 cents) and am able to haggle in a more friendly manner with the drivers.
~I think I really want to be some kind of medical professional. There's no way I want to or can finish all the premed prerequisites at Dartmouth, but I'm thinking more and more seriously about a post-bac program or something along those lines. I think I need to go see Lee Witters when I get back to campus.
~Hindi! I've learned lots and lots of Hindi. I can write all of this myself: नमस्ते.मेरा नाम एमिली है. मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ.मैं अमेरिका से हूँ.मैं अच्छा हूँ.आप कैसे हैं? It says, "Hello. My name is Emily. I am learning Hindi. I am from America. I am good. How are you?" The transliteration of that would be something like, "Namaste. Mera naam Emily hai. Me America se hui. Me accha hui. Ap kaise hai?" The gender is wrong for "accha" but I'm too lazy to fix that in Google translator (it should be "acchi" for a girl).
~Notions of privacy are different here than at home. People ask questions they wouldn't in the states and adult children (like my host parents) often live with their parents or talk to them at least once or twice a day.
~Apparently (and this is thankfully not first-hand knowledge), it is possible for areas of your body that chafe (i.e. inner thighs) to callous over so the chafing no longer hurts. I have not experienced anything this bad, but I will admit I end up with weird heat rashes on my inner elbows when I sweat a lot (aka every day) and the band-aid-in-the-armpit incident occurred after I got similar spots there. Sorry for the TMI-nature of this, but honestly I'm desensitized to things like this because we're all constantly battling weird digestive and skin and sweat-related health things (don't worry though, it's all minor stuff!).
That's all for now, but I may add to this list later! I've definitely learned other things but I have to pack to head back to Delhi and I'm going to play some cards in a few minutes!
~Human beings are remarkably resilient creatures. My host family's baby is the most coddled child imaginable when it comes to remaining healthy (apparently when Rachael and I put her on the carpet to let her practice crawling, it was the first time she had been on the floor in her seven months of life, oops), but we have also seen infants born in slums who seem to be doing just fine. While obviously they are at a great risk of health problems and will likely have a much more difficult life than a middle-class child, they somehow manage to survive and thrive in very unfortunate circumstances.
~Bodies never run out of sweat.
~I need alone time. After long days in the heat of Delhi or traipsing around hospitals in Aligarh, sometimes I feel guilty for wanting to sit on my bed and do nothing for a little while. I've learned, though, that this time is more important to me than I realized.
~People generally think that the United States is "religiously deteriorated and morally corrupt" (actual direct quote from an AMU student).
~Abortion is not seen as the huge ethical dilemma here as it is in the states. The only moral issue that comes up is sex-selective abortions, which are a big problem here and are causing wider and wider gaps in the number of women and men.
~Old cows in India can't be slaughtered because the majority religion (Hinduism) considers cows sacred, so elderly bovines are smuggled across the Pakistani border at night to be slaughtered.
~Gender roles are pronounced and not as egalitarian as in the U.S. According to one of our teachers, a gynecologist friend of hers said that when women come in to confirm whether or not they're pregnant and the doctor asks when their last period was, the husband will answer for the woman 99% of the time. Definitely not the case in the U.S. Also, women who live in dorms in India (or at least at Aligarh Muslim University) have a curfew but men don't. At AMU, curfew is 6:30 p.m.
~Never put a band-aid on your armpit.
~As my dad likes to say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I have found bartering and dealing with people much more successful when I'm not frustrated and I can maintain my sense of humor. Trying to get a rickshaw has become easier now that I'm less angry about an extra Rs 10 or 20 (25 or 50 cents) and am able to haggle in a more friendly manner with the drivers.
~I think I really want to be some kind of medical professional. There's no way I want to or can finish all the premed prerequisites at Dartmouth, but I'm thinking more and more seriously about a post-bac program or something along those lines. I think I need to go see Lee Witters when I get back to campus.
~Hindi! I've learned lots and lots of Hindi. I can write all of this myself: नमस्ते.मेरा नाम एमिली है. मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ.मैं अमेरिका से हूँ.मैं अच्छा हूँ.आप कैसे हैं? It says, "Hello. My name is Emily. I am learning Hindi. I am from America. I am good. How are you?" The transliteration of that would be something like, "Namaste. Mera naam Emily hai. Me America se hui. Me accha hui. Ap kaise hai?" The gender is wrong for "accha" but I'm too lazy to fix that in Google translator (it should be "acchi" for a girl).
~Notions of privacy are different here than at home. People ask questions they wouldn't in the states and adult children (like my host parents) often live with their parents or talk to them at least once or twice a day.
~Apparently (and this is thankfully not first-hand knowledge), it is possible for areas of your body that chafe (i.e. inner thighs) to callous over so the chafing no longer hurts. I have not experienced anything this bad, but I will admit I end up with weird heat rashes on my inner elbows when I sweat a lot (aka every day) and the band-aid-in-the-armpit incident occurred after I got similar spots there. Sorry for the TMI-nature of this, but honestly I'm desensitized to things like this because we're all constantly battling weird digestive and skin and sweat-related health things (don't worry though, it's all minor stuff!).
That's all for now, but I may add to this list later! I've definitely learned other things but I have to pack to head back to Delhi and I'm going to play some cards in a few minutes!
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