Wedding Whoops

Today, I was showing some of the girls pictures.

They wanted to see pictures of "my village",

and I was struggling.

I don't really have many pics out and about in Eden Prairie,

and they had already seen pics from Brattleboro.

So I asked if they wanted to see pictures from an American wedding,

which they got very excited about.

I think they were disappointed.

Although my best friend's wedding was beautiful,

it lacked the colors and craziness of which most Indian weddings boast.

We also show a little bit more skin.

They got a little more into it when I started reaching pictures from the dance

(mostly because it was one of the first times that I had pictures of the bride and groom together)

but when they saw the first dance, they asked, "Aren't there rules for dancing, auntie?"

and I was like, No, no rules.

I kept flipping through,

and came to one of my dad and I dancing

which made them very confused.

"You don't feel any shame, Auntie?"

At which point I realized that it probably is not normal for males and females to dance together in this culture. So I asked if men and women dance together at Indian weddings, and got a resounding, "Nooooo Auntie." The bride and groom don't even dance together. In fact, the groom sits and the women dance.

Ooops. Not only have I just exposed them to the scantiness of Western fashion, but also to the scandalous dance practices of Western weddings...and they have seen evidence of me partaking in both. A part of me feels guilty, like I should protect them from it. But at the same time, they are 18 and want to know where I come from. And there is nothing inherently wrong with our fasion (most of the time) or with our wedding dances (as long as they're classy).

I just wonder what they think of me - of us - now...

Dance Dance Revolution

Every time I go over to visit the girls, somebody is dancing.

They have memorized the dances from lots of films

and they turn on the music

and dance away.

And they are GOOD.

The best girl, Raji, denies that she has any talent at all,

and would rather that I teach HER a dance.

Ha.

After much cajoling,

and the promise that if I teach her, she will teach me,

I agreed.

So now, I am undecided:

Do I teach her the macarena,

the electric slide,

or the cupid shuffle?

They're all just such complex dances,

full of art,

that require so much skill, capture the attention of the onlooker,

and represent our culture so well...

I don't know how I will ever decide :)

But I do know one thing, and that is that after this,

it is likely that the girls will most likely leave Indian dancing forever

and be continuously enraptured by the

essence of "American" dancing.

Ha.

I get the feeling that by the sixth round of "slide to the left"

there won't be any requests for the YMCA.

The Disconnect

Why do we, as humans, live so disconnected from so many things that are vital to our lives?

For example. Let’s start with food, since that is what I am thinking about most of the time. We once lived in a time when we grew our own. That’s long-gone. Then, we went to a general store and told the worker what we wanted, and they handed it to us…but at least we knew that the supplier of eggs to our general store was our chicken-farming neighbor. Now, we go to the grocery store and pluck a can of beans off of the shelf. Where were they grown? No idea. Who grew them? No clue. Old El Paso may be distributing them, but what does that even mean? Are there other ingredients in this can besides beans? Yes, but rarely do we look at the label. And in fact (I learned this when I started living gluten-free), there are ingredients in this can that they don’t even list on the label. Yet…we put it into our bodies.

Our bodies. Aren’t they supposed to be a temple? Yet how often to we really listen to them, really give them what they need? Really care for them? No, I think we tend to use them. We make our bodies work hard, depend on them to do what we ask of them, fill them with food that we know little about and that more often than not isn’t really that good for them, and we ask them to function on very little sleep.

And what about the earth? We are called to care for the earth yet, like our bodies, oftentimes end up using it with no concern of our impact and without recognizing and appreciating everything that it gives to us…you know, like oxygen. In Asia and the Middle East, they used to eat sitting on the ground, reclining, etc, in fact, I still eat like that here in India sometimes. Maybe that’s why picnics are so fun – because you eat them not only outside (where everything tastes better), and on the ground, which is where most of our food originally comes from anyways.

Lastly…each other. We each live individual lives, in a hurry to get things done. We send text messages, emails, pray that we will get someone’s voicemail so that we don’t have to spend the time talking to them. I am even guilty of skyping with somebody who is sitting just down the hallway from me, or calling my mom who is upstairs when I am in the basement…what stops me from going to them and talking face to face? We are busy, we claim…yet we crave community. What stops us from connecting to the things in our life that we all want to prioritize but for which we “don’t have time”?

Food (Part 1 of Many...)

Here in India, we grow our own food. And by we, I mean the organization. I have only done agriculture work once, but it was at 6am and I felt like I was more of a hindrance than a helper. However, the point is that I am eating absolutely delicious, fresh, organic food. They even kill their own chickens sometimes (ew. I haven’t volunteered for that job yet, but I appreciate the freshness).

This land of fresh food is the perfect ground for me to continue to learn about food, which is something that I have been more interested in since going gluten-free and reading the labels of foods, realizing how many nasty and unnecessary things are in our food. My interest in food increased when I articulated my passion for social justice, and desired to live as just a life as possible…and started to realize that most of the food that we eat comes at the cost or even life of those who are growing it. And that our food could be doing really harmful things to us as consumers, as well.

I am not really going to get into it much in this post, but here are some things that I encourage you to look into and that you can expect to hear about from me in the next couple months:

• - Eating organically. It’s better for you, better for the farmer, better for the earth.
• - Genetically Modified foods = nasty. Horrible for the livelihoods of farmers, for the natural development of crops, and for human and animal health. PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE PUTTING THESE INTO YOUR BODY.
• - Eating locally. It builds community, lets you know where your food came from and how it was grown, lets you eat foods that are in season, and cuts down on the use of fossil fuels and therefore decreases pollution.
• - Growing gardens. Oh man, I am so excited to do this. I want a garden SO BADLY. Those of you in the Twin Cities and interested in gardening should check out the organization Backyard Harvest (www.pricoldclimate.org/about_backyard_harvest) – I have already decided which of the gardeners I want to help me with my backyard harvest…and then we are going to get married J

So there’s just a few of my thoughts towards food…if you’re looking for a good book, check out Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel. If you’re looking for a good documentary, check out Food, Inc. and I’m serious. I used to be one of the people who avoided movies like that because I’d rather not know all the dirty details about the food that I’m eating…yes, I was the ultimate example of “ignorance is bliss.” But then food did its permanent damage to my intestinal tract, and I’ve decided that it’s better to be informed…

Water - WATER! - You can Brush your Teeth with it

(Kudos to the Rado Aahs classic about water…which is only mostly true. In the U.S. you can brush your teeth with water. In India, you just have to make sure that you don’t swallow after you rinse J)

We’ve all seen the commercial that shows a plastic bottle of water, vibrating slightly, for an “I’m beginning to get bored” amount of time. Around the time when we start to wonder who would pay the money for such a dull advertisement, the voice tells us, “30 seconds on a treadmill. Forever in a landfill.”

Huh. Clever, I’ve always thought. And indeed, it’s also catchy – many, many times, that mantra has chanted through my head and encouraged me to carry my empty plastic water bottle until I find a recycling bin or the bring my metal water bottle with me to functions such as graduation parties and open houses, making a choice to refill and reuse it instead of creating more waste. (Plus, refilling and reusing disposable plastic water bottles can give you diseases…)

But…why do we spend money on bottles of water in the first place? Why not fill up a pitcher and get out a few glasses? Why not fill up our own water bottle before leaving the house instead of grabbing a plastic bottle from the fridge? Are we really that lazy? Maybe it’s because our water isn’t clean. Ahem. HELLOOO people. We live in the United States. We have filtered water systems. And if our water really isn’t clean (indeed, my stomach has been the victim of impure water sources in this “developed country” that we live in)…we have the luxury of purchasing water-filtering tools ourselves. In fact, did you know that some bottled waters are actually filled using tap water, not the mountain spring water that we assume? Yup, that’s fact, not legend. But still we spend $2.25 on a plastic bottle of…tap water?

So much of the world doesn’t have clean water… I am living there right now. So much of the world suffers because of the waste that comes from our consumption of bottled water…I am living there right now. And eventually…we might suffer from that waste too.

(What got me thinking about water again today was watching a short film called “The Story of Bottled Water”. I think you can find it online…I encourage you to watch it and to do your own research on the truth about water around the world!)

Deconstructing Concrete Sequentialism

Yup, this blog title is quite the mouthful.

But I just wanted to share that today, I was fed way too much food.

And as I was eating,

it dawned on me that India is playing a very instrumental role in deconstructing my concrete sequential eating habits (Dad I know you're laughing right now).

Normally I'm the girl who eats one food at a time,

taking careful care to ensure that not one food is touching another.

I even turn my plate so that the food I am eating is directly in front of me.

Not anymore!

Now I slop it all on - a little rice, a little curry, a little chicken, a little i-have-no-idea-what-this-is-but-it-is-really-brightly-colored-and-chunky-so-it-must-be-good-for-me.

Then I use my fingers to mix it all together

and shovel it right into my mouth.

A part of me wonders if this new strategy will come back to the States with me.

But then I think about intermixing my sweet potato with bites of avocado,

and I'm not gonna lie, it still makes me a little bit anxious :)

Postcards

I have decided that I am a very awkward postcard writer. I bought some yesterday, figuring that I’ve been here a month and should probably send out some Indian love. But honestly…as I've been writing, it's been kind of a struggle. What are you supposed to write on a postcard? They give you so little space to really write about your trip; at the same time there really is a lot of space…but they can’t honestly expect me to write an in-depth intimate note that’s out there for the world to read. Postcards are an odd concept indeed.

I have therefore resorted to commenting on the picture on the postcard: “Doesn’t this fruit look delicious?” “Wow, it’s a totally different world over here!” “Do you think we could fit this many people on a motorcycle?” Yup, awkward. But at least you know I was thinking of you…and if you don’t get a postcard, don’t worry – I am thinking of you too and had been planning on sending out several rounds of postcards, but as of today have lost all motivation to come up with creatively awkward postcard comments J