As the token white person in a rural village of Rajasthan, India, I am always treated a bit different. Reasons vary from just the fact that I am white skinned to simply I don’t speak Hindi or the local language. Treatment varies from being given the privileged seat in a crowded car to always being asked to speak or make appearances in formal public engagements to locals crazily yelling things at me that I just can’t understand. I try to make people comfortable, but sometimes I really prefer being treated like everyone else. Yesterday brought a fun example. On my way back from close by Jhumpa village, the jeep taking us back was far too full. I was forced into the passenger seat, while others, some older than I were hanging out the back or side of the car. After making the first stop, I forced an older gentleman into my seat and took his place standing on the side of the car. Everyone stared at me strangely, fearing my safety, but it truly did make me feel happy if only for a moment, and also a bit alive.
The school week began on Wednesday, making it a rather manageable week in terms of teaching. Monday and Tuesday were vacation days due to the volleyball tournament being hosted on school campus. The boy’s team of the school gained a second place spot after initially losing out in their second round. The coach of the team that we had lost slipped out that his best three players weren’t even there and that it was miraculous that they had won so easily. One of the officials thought it was a strange comment and on the review of the roster it turned out that the team had three players who were not even students of the school. The disqualification put BRJD back into the tournament, and eventually allowed to participate in the final match. As this was the State level tournament, the first and second place teams are being sent on to compete in a National Level volleyball tournament in December, best of luck to them!
This upcoming week will be my second to last week at school teaching. The week after come Diwali, India’s biggest holiday with much fan fare. Because the school will be off for a week I will have the opportunity to go to the homes of teacher’s in other states and travel a little bit. I am very excited to be on the move once again. Once I return to the village after that week I will finish up my last week of school, and head off to Jaipur to finish off work at the head office of the Charitable Trust. Then November 27th, I take the plane from Delhi back to Amsterdam, where grandma will be waiting. Much excitement to come in the coming month!
