Field Visit #1

It's been a while since I last posted anything. My excuses:
#1) we went on our first field visit for 10 days
#2) when we got back, due to road work our internet was cut off
#3) our first paper was due and the paper is 1/4 of the the entire grade...so kind of a big deal

It has been a full month since we arrived. I can barley believe it. It feels like we have done SO much in so little time. Life is settling down though. Everything is not quite so foreign and new. We are all getting accustomed to how things are done and what to expect when we go out as well as getting more comfortable going out on our own etc.

I have had some requests to share more about the educational aspect of my experience thus far since after all,
I am here as a student...
Class:

Our first class is over. Identity Liberation, Resistance was the first of four topics/classes that we will take while here. Everyday we have an AM lecture and a PM lecture (if we do not have a PM lecture, we can play games with the girls that live here along with us, work in the paper unit and make paper kind of..) Guest lecturers from nearby colleges are usually our teachers. The things I especially like about the way class is structured:
- variety
- every lecture is taught by someone who is somewhat of an expert in the field they are talking about.
-if the accent of the teacher is very thick and difficult to understand, it's ok, they won't be back the next day
-there is a midmorning and mid-afternoon tea, coffee, and treat break. Yum : )
-bells do not exist. the teacher will lecture until they have nothing left to say and the class has no more questions to ask

Some of the topics speakers lectured about included:
-Caste system
-Hinduism
-Dalits (untouchables)
-Women
-Sexual minorities
-Tribal communities (similar to the situation of Native Americans in the U.S.)

After each lecture session we go on a field visit pertaining to our topic that we have been studying. My group (we split up into 3 small groups, each going to a different area) went south to the state of Tamil Nadu to study the identity of fishermen and Dalits. We first visited a school specifically for Dalit children. Firecrackers went off as soon as our bus pulled into the schoolyard as a welcome. As we stepped off of the bus we were showered with traditional welcoming ceremonies, and each one of us had a garland of roses hung around our necks.

We had a tour and met the teachers and then headed to drop off our belongings to the hotel we stayed at. We had just enough time to wash off our faces from the powder that was caked on from all of the welcoming ceremonies before we were rushed off to the house of one of the teachers for dinner.

First things first, we were warmly welcomed again, (more powder) and then we all sat down for a delicious meal always served on a banana leaf. (talk about environmentally friendly! Paper plates and cups are unheard of.) Over the next few days we were welcomed into many families homes for meals. The most unsettling thing about all of this is, not once did we eat in a home that was even close to the size of the home that I grew up in. Most were three room houses and some were one room houses. Up to 8-13 family members may live in each single room house.

It is really overwhelming to accept the overbearing generosity of families that will possibly never ever own a computer, car, washing machine or let alone a digital camera that hung around my neck the entire night. We participated in inauguration ceremonies for the school as the guests of honor, visited some villages, and even had an ox-cart ride to a temple where we were paraded through in order to offer coconuts, incense, and fruit to the gods.

Days were power packed with events and we went places where we had no idea what was going on but were always warmly welcomed and well fed.

Next we headed to the coast to commune with the fishermen community.

We stayed in a fishing village. Our guide, myself and another girl stayed in a home on an island in a small fishermen village. This was the highlight of the trip for me.

This is our hostess Nimi-- she is 21. Thats my age. Kind of weird for her to be cooking for us and all. The picture below is her and her families house.
This village was heavily affected by the Tsunami. Both evenings we were in this village were spent by the beach talking with fishermen who told us their first hand accounts of the Tsunami. These conversations were so meaningful, I ended up writing my paper based heavily on their stories.


We took a boat to get to the island where some of the group stayed in homes for the night.


Seashore and the boats the fishermen use.


Tsunami destruction
Destroyed housed being rebuilt.

...If you look closely, you will see that the man in the middle is wearing a Minneapolis t-shirt. We are in the middle of a small village in India. Crazy. Talk about globalization!