India Week 6

I am home back in the U.S. and can't believe my journey is over! The past 6 weeks were amazing and have been an incredible learning experience. Delhi has shown me so much contrast can exist in one place, such a collision of the old and new, rich and poor. Working at a small nonprofit organization really showed the impact one person can really make and I'm so glad I got the chance to make a difference! In this last week I got to meet some engineers from Umich who are also volunteering in Delhi for 2 weeks and it was really fun to hang out with people my age again, as my roommate and I were the only volunteers in Delhi for the past couple of weeks. We saw India Gate at night and Connaught Place, which is sort of an open mall. There were certainly many pros and cons from my trip but I have definitely learned a lot. I am so glad I got to experience a country and culture so different from home, with perfectly-manicured green grass lawns and white picket fences. In Delhi they worried about monkeys terrorizing their houses and floods that came during the monsoon season due to a below subpar drainage system. People literally lived on the sides of the streets and in the garbage piles that would pile up and yet there were still huge shopping malls, where everything was just as expensive as it is in America! People crowded into homes right next to protected monuments that were thousands of years old and guarded. I find this contrast so strange as these monuments are protected so that they might be visited by tourists and yet they are right next to where people live in deplorable conditions. How does the government have money to hire guards and build fences to protect all these monuments (there are literally thousands in Delhi) and yet cannot help the people out? In Delhi I also discovered the true meaning of sexism. Everywhere there is security women are separated from men. Which is helpful in the way that the women's lines are always shorter. But on the metro there is a separate car for women and one time we were with some guys from work so we got on one of the regular cars and all the guys just stared at us the entire time. It was really uncomfortable and a lot of times people don't understand personal space/ privacy and they'll just stare, mostly because you're foreign. I managed to get used to it staying there for so long but it was still very discerning. It was hard to be trustful of any strangers for that reason, although we did meet some incredibly friendly and nice people, I was always cautious and aware of my surroundings. I never felt like I could let my guard down and in many shops, there are always men working, never women. I wonder what the women do, if they are not allowed to get jobs and work at shops. Rape has been a long-standing issue in India with no solution. I really think that there needs to be more education for women's rights and freedom, as society is so patriarchal. It really made me appreciate the freedoms we have in America, where there are still inequalities between men and women but it is not unusual to see a woman by herself, independent and in a career. It is not frowned upon to be an independent woman like it is in India, as our host mom herself told us it was hard for her to make friends sometimes because people did not want to be associated with an independent woman with a career. I am blessed to have had this experience as it has humbled me and made me more appreciative of all the opportunities I have. Although there were times when I struggled, I always knew that I had a home to go home to, where I would have all the amenities that I lacked abroad and that is so much more than most people can say. I really hope that my NGO continues to thrive and succeed and that the progress I have made in my time there has a lasting impact. This trip really showed me that I can adapt and be independent and although there were challenges, it definitely boosted my confidence that I can make it on my own in different cultures. I will treasure this experience and the memories and hope that one day I can really make a lasting large scale difference. Thank you India, for the adventure of a lifetime.