Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom. -The Tao Te Ching Every year, Rotary International Clubs around the world hold conferences to welcome back their young countrymen who have just experienced a year abroad living and studying in various foreign countries. Six years ago, during one such conference held in the US, there was a private meeting held with the students who had just returned from the Asian countries of India, Thailand and Indonesia. In this meeting the students found themselves face to face with a social worker and psychiatrist there to talk to them ab [View Full Entry]

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South Africa: land of wildebeest and lions, a territory blanketed by mountains, dry grasslands and incredible coastlines, a place retaining 11 official languages and whose history has been forever marked by Aparteid, has opened its arms to one more American looking for some peace of mind and a new way to look at life. For those of you who may be confused in regard to why I made the jump from India to South Africa, here’s your briefing. My mother (born in America to parents from Massachusetts and Mississippi) spent her childhood through University in South Africa. There she grew up [View Full Entry]

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Believe it or not, this flighting America has successfully made her way out of Asia and into Africa. And as I sat in the Abu Dhabi airport on June the 1st waiting for 14 hours to make my way to Joburg, already I found it difficult to contemplate the place I had just come from. The land of camels and saris was already fading with the Dolce and Gabana everything, and US$4 Burger King French fries. Bored with guessing games—like what designer clothes are hiding under the burka—I began to organize my thoughts more clearly of the land of Bharat Mataji. [View Full Entry]

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This week marked the end of classes and the completion of reports and presentations. We celebrated our new found freedom by drinking sweet lassis (a sweet yogurt drink) and spending time out in the streets of the Pink City with local Jaipurians. Instead of writing, I've posted a video that was taken by friend and former MSIDer Renee at her NGO internship site this past fall. I get a kick out of it every time i watch it, so maybe you will too. The public education system is a concerning issue in Rajasthan (and in most parts of India) especially when [View Full Entry]

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The Third World Experience: Knowing what it means to not have to wait in line. “We from the West,” who leave our lives of traffic lit corners and thirty page employee handbooks to explore what President Harry Truman first denoted as “the developing world,” often get confused by the strange disorder we find ourselves in when we step into this strange new world. As we enter into these places of chaos (as defined by our living standards at home) it becomes difficult to grasp what we as individuals can actually control. Rather than to worry ourselves too much over the [View Full Entry]

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Holi (referred to as Phagwa in Bhojpuri), also called the Festival of Colours, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad, the UK,and Nepal. In West Bengal of India and Bangladesh, it is known as Dolyatra (Doljatra) or Boshonto Utsav ("spring festival"). The main day, Holi, also known as Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other. Bonfires are lit the day before, also known as Holika Dahan (death of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous [View Full Entry]

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Though I didn’t exactly leave the region of Southern Rajasthan, I did take the advice of certain parties by getting out of the NGO for a day for some much needed site seeing. On this gumne (trip) Lindsay and I went with two of our Indian friends to Kumbalghar Fort…an ancient fort built by the Rajput king Maharan Kumbha in 1443 and completed in 1458 A.D. It claims to be the “most impregnable fort in the world” with the second largest wall in the world (after the Great Wall of China). The motorcycle ride out there took about an hour and [View Full Entry]

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In the U.S., we normally consider it rude to ask someone how much they paid for something. I think this might have something to do with the fact that in a country based on equality, questions that allow us to evaluate one another in such a superficial and economic manner (even if that is not the intention), are not normally welcomed. This hesitancy to question certain things extends far beyond asking about pricing, and has led me to wonder how the social etiquette I have grown up with has affected they way I relate to others. In general, when it comes [View Full Entry]

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It’s been just over five months now, in which I have observed that my own ideology has shifted to near communism. OK that's a huge exaggeration, the point is my mind has been rifted and shaken. Sometimes I find it difficult to gage my current scope on worldly issues being completely consumed by the issues of Southern Rural Rajasthan. Sometimes I like to contemplate where my mind would be if I were back in the states. Maybe I would be tracking how prices have changed or worrying about the people I knew whose jobs had been lost. But then again maybe [View Full Entry]

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Now that I've been here almost four and a half months and failed to keep a good account of the last two of them, I think I'd prefer to start documenting random stories and thoughts instead of trying to create a comprehensive overview of what goes on here. so here goes: An example of how the way in which universal habits are performed in different cultures is fundamental in shaping the memories we gain from them, as well as the perspective we continue to carry in their regard: Since I began living with my host family in September, I have observed [View Full Entry]

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