The science fair team is here. It is amazing to view what happens when they come from a different perspective (last year i was a part of the science fair team). It is really disheartening to see the pedestal we are placed on.
India is the most racist place in the world. Period.
It is the belief that your skin is dark because of a tainted soul. The paler, the purer and more holy you must be. So white people are worshiped; to touch you is some sort or weird blessing that brings good luck.
For example, everyday I have been eating in the mess, with the hostile students and teachers. Everyday we have white rice, curd, and two vegetable curries. About once a week they serve chicken, and maybe twice a week, eggs. So kids here get protein roughly 3 times a week.
Enter science fair team. They feed us a banquet at every meal (with 3-4 different dishes containing meat at most lunches and dinners). You stay in a palace, while the rest of the staff here fits their whole family into one cubical sized room, and the rest of the village lives in grass huts. You sleep on -compared to real Indian beds- fluffy, soft mattresses.
And people bitch about it. Not about how it's not right; the Indians shouldn't treat us differently, but about how bad the food is. About how terrible the beds are. Or there are those living on cloud 9. Everything is perfect here. The Indian diet is a cure-all. The culture here is oh so wonderful and beautiful...etc.
When will our eyes be opened to the reality of the harshness of this culture? Because the reality is brutal. Reality is Martha. A woman's three sons literally threw her out on the street because she became sick. She could no longer make herself useful so they no longer had a need for her. The only child left in her care is her daughter, Martha. So they live a tiny grass hut (maybe 5 feet high and 5 feet wide) on the bank of the river. This is where Martha grows up, with many horrors of abuse and pain.
-Martha is a staff member here who usually is the main PR person with Americans, as she speaks great English-
Reality is the girl in the hospital who, as a baby, was thrown into a tree by her drunk father. Her back is broken and -if I remember correctly- has some pretty good brain damage.
Reality is an average of 700 calories a day.
Reality is a rat race.
Reality is survival mode here. If you aren't cruel and cutthroat, your throat will be cut.
How bad is the food now? How rough is your bed really?
How beautifully simplistic and loving is the culture?
Don't get me wrong, this is not to judge the sincerity of heart. Because I know these people, and I know how big their hearts are. I guess this year has just been a little more eye-opening for me, so it's frustrating (to say the least) to be screaming for equality, and then watch them treat us like gods.
But I guess you can't change history in a day eh?
