You're a foreigner. Period.

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I have now been separated from my friends and family for one month. I am entering my 4^th week of being in India, and I have exactly 30 days until I go home. In the time I have been here and for the remainder of my stay one fact will be the most true. I am a foreigner. There are no ways about it. I am white. I have brown straw hair. My eyes are a mix of green and silver. My beard grows down to my neck. My skin is somewhere between pale and pale. I have reflective sunglasses. I walk around with a backpack. I dress in western clothing. I stand out.



Living in America, especially on a college campus, I am used to walking down the street amongst a wide variety of physical types. People are tall and short. Dark skinned and light skinned. Asian to middle eastern. Foreign accents to southern accents. The only way to stand out on campus is to be an IU basketball player. And I think that is a feature of American life we take for granted for life. There are definitely neighborhoods, streets, and cities that have a larger proportion of one race or ethnicity. But for the most part you cannot be surprised at seeing any kind of person found across the planet outside your door in America. Here in the streets of Udaipur I see Indian and only Indian people. Maybe if I head to Old City I will catch a glimpse of another group of foreigners. But if I am just going to work throughout the week I will hardly ever see a non-Indian outside of the international workers at JJVS.

The term “melting pot” was taught to us from a very young age. America is multicultural and filled with people from all over the world. While there are many countries like this, I now understand it is not the norm. Throughout my years in the public school system all of my classes and fellow students were representative of a wide range of cultures and backgrounds. This trend continued in high school, college, and even in my GESI program in Chicago where a picture of any 4 of us was diverse enough for a math textbook.

I am still working on my thoughts of what it must be like to grow up in a culture of one ethnicity and one race. When I walk the streets of Udaipur and get long stares it is much more manageable to handle now. Outside of the major cities in India it just isn’t common to see a person not of the Indian race. Does this create a better sense of community? Do people here feel more trusting of one another due to their common skin tone? While I have been thinking of these questions I began to think about how Indian society developed amidst the condition of a single race.

Then I realized that wasn’t truly the case. Before a few decades ago, India wasn’t really a single race system. They had their own divisions of people inside their systems of caste. While America’s history (brief as it is compared to this part of the world) is filled with division of race, India is filled with its own discrimination based on profession, birth, and skin tone. Even today I see commercials all the time filled with Indians of only very light skin tone. Skin bleaching cream is pretty common because apparently people want to have lighter skin. Back in the old days I guess darker skin was an indication that you had to work outside a lot, which was considered a lower form of profession.

In most parts of India this caste system is done away with. But just like racism in America and all parts of the world, it still lingers here and there. I have heard plenty of stories of marriages and couples that are part of different caste levels out in villages causing much stir. It was only a few weeks ago that a girl was killed by her parents for marrying a man in a lower caste. This was in a village here in the state of Rajasthan.

So my point I am trying to make is that I was incorrect in coming to India thinking it was so different from America’s “melting pot” of a people. There is not a single Indian race. Just like at home people here are divided and persecuted all the same, it just comes in a more complicated manner than just skin color. I am not saying whether this is good or bad. All parts of the world from the most booming metropolis to the smallest of villages will contain its own system of discrimination. It’s been human nature to create a dynamic of “us” vs “them”. We see it in a broad sense in North vs South Korea, Russia vs Ukraine, Israel vs Palestine, Sunni vs Shiite, etc. There will always be divisions.

I feel like I’m rambling! What I am trying to say is that I am starting to no longer see what is different between my home and India. I am starting to see what is the same. I see my roommates among my host brother and the young guys at JJVS. I see similar traits of my mother and father in my host father and host mother. I see the young couples walking around Fatesagah the same way Betsy and I walk around Lake Monroe. I see my own mentors John and Nick in the JJVS directors. I see little kids heading to school with backpacks as big as they are just like I did. While there are profound things different between here and there, I find that people are the same wherever you go.

As I round the halfway point I am entering a more aggressive state of my project here in India. I will update more on what I am working on later. But for now just know I am doing my best here. In the meantime I have been doing some exploring. This past Sunday I was awake very early on my one day off during the week. So instead of stirring in bed I decided to go for a hike. I headed about a mile down my road to head to the big lake in Udaipur (the city of lakes) called Fatesagah. Near the lake is a very large hill with a temple at the top. Feeling full of energy I decided to head up to the temple. I moved pretty fast since I felt out of shape due to not having run in a few days. It wasn’t long before the heat of India got to me and I was drenched in sweat about halfway up. I am in pretty good cardio shape, but speed hiking up a hill for twenty minutes will take it out of a lot of people.

Once at the top I came to the temple and removed my shoes. I didn’t go near the actual temple statues because I know those are reserved for people who actually pray at the temple. But there was a nice platform there with mostly young people, particularly young couples. Being a white guy covered in sweat I gathered many stares up there. One young man came up to me to say hi, which is something I’m used to here as most people just want to ask where I’m from and if I like India. This particular young man made the usual small talk then asked, “So where is your girlfriend?” I didn’t know where he was going with this and responded “Well back in America.”

“Oh,” He said, “Do you have an Indian girlfriend?” We both laughed at the joke and I said “Not that I know of!”

“Well then why are you at the top of the hill?” He pondered.

“I just like hiking. This is an amazing view.”

“Ah yeah yeah.” he said, “But today is Sunday. Holiday. Today all of the couples hike up here together. So you should bring a girl with you next time!” We had a good laugh and I got some pictures before heading down the hill. Like I said, people in India aren’t that different from back home.

Also I have been getting quite a few messages from people who were worried about when I was very ill. All is fine now and after 2.5 days of pretty bad agony I was in the clear. But one thing I am noticing is not really going away is the calorie count. Based on a little myfitnesspal and other website research, and counting the number of chippatis, and bowls of lentil I eat, I am only getting 800-1200 calories a day. At home I was doing about 2200 calories a day, with about 200g of protein. But here I maybe get 20g of protein. It’s all mostly carbs from breads and vegetables. So it’s not unhealthy per se. But it is very little and the lack of protein is really hurting the fact that I am still trying to run and do body exercises every day. In the past three weeks I went from 167-170 pounds to about 153-156 pounds. That’s a little too fast for me!



Tomorrow I am heading out the village all day. Looking to the future I am taking a trip to Agra and Jaipur on the 25^th and 26^th. Then I hope to finish my big project sometime around August 9^th. Get on the plane to home August 16^th. Then a few post-trip days of meetings for GESI in Chicago. Then back to B-town. Then the start of my senior year. In between all that I hope to absorb as much of India as I can J

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