I love that CCS gives us activities to do while we are here to help us interact with the Indian people and to truely experience and learn the Indian culture. This afternoon, 2 other volunteers and I had the task of going to the market to buy bread, butter, cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We then had to come back to our flat, make 10 sandwiches and pass them out to the Indian poeple we saw on the streets. While passing out these sandwiches we had to converse with the Indians tell them why we were here and try to get to know them a little bit as well.
We were very excited for this task and thought that this was such a fun activity. So we went out and bought all the ingredients to make a sandwhich, with the help of some Indians who were very nice in telling us where we could buy slice cheese and butter.
We then went back to our flat, made the sandwches and were on our way to pass out the food. The first guy that we gave a sandwhich to was a very old and elderly gentlemen who accepted the sandwich gratefully. We then began greeting everyone saying Namaste ji (Hello Sir), and trying to find people that would accept our sandwiches that we made. In the end, we were able to pass out all 10 sandwiches, mostly to old elderly men, but also to one younger man who saw us pass out sandwhiches and came over to us and asked if he could have one. That was too cute. We never did get a chance to talk to the Inidans or get them to talk to us b/c everyone who accepted the sanchwich couldn't speak English.
It was a cool expereince all together and it was really cool to see the Indians accept the sandwich from strangers and be grateful. It felt really nice. There is no way we could have done something like this in the US. People would look at us crazy (which some Indians did) but Americans would never accept a sandwhich from a stranger and if they did, they would throw it away when we weren't looking. The Indian culture really respects, and trusts people that they are not trying to do them harm. They were all really grateful and appreciative of our sandwich. It was a really cool, fun and cultural expereince.
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Chantelle,
ReplyDeleteI am assuming that this was a kind of beginning, immersion type experience CSS wanted you to do. Very interesting! You are sure to come away with many interesting, enlightening and rich experiences over the next few weeks. Keep documenting then so you don't forget.
What great memoirs you are creating!
Be safe!
Love,
MOM
Hi Chantelle!
ReplyDeleteI just started reading your blog now. It sounds like you are having a great experience there in India so far! Raktim and I will be going in October and I'm getting excited by reading your adventures =) How long will you be there for? Can't wait to hear more stories..I'll be checking back.
Love
Star
Hehe...I volunteered with a group called Do-Rak (Do Random Acts of Kindness) which may have been inspired by the Pay It Forward story. Not sure. Anyway, yes, it is definitely a funny experience randomly handing out food in public...especially when you are not associated with any known company. But once people realize what you are doing, there are still some takers.
ReplyDeleteGlad that you had such a good experience with it though in India. :)