A True Indian

I’m laying here in my room at DDC reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, laughing to myself as I identify with many of her feelings and experiences while living abroad in India. I’m also trying to hydrate myself and consequently getting up to use the toilet just about every 10 or 15 minutes. The last couple weeks were difficult to stay completely healthy and hydrated – partly due to the heavy pollution in Calcutta and the fact that most places didn’t have a water filter. I’d much rather be slightly dehydrated than severely sick.

I just realized I’ve never really described our room here…ah…so it’s actually quite spacious, but unfortunately not too homey with the cement floor and steel iron bedposts. Our “mattress” is more like a comforter on a board. We have a small table against the wall that is currently covered with the small library Andrea and I brought, Nalgenes, empty plastic water bottles, a small alarm clock, and actually a bunch of junk and way too many bugs. Right above the table is the lonely light bulb hanging on a wall covered in way more ants and odd looking bugs than I can possibly count. We haven’t had any cockroaches in awhile so that has been nice. The lizards seem to have stopped visiting as well. Now it is just lots of tiny bugs that unfortunately are able to crawl their way through the little holes in the mosquito nets. The worst part about those ones is that when you turn off the lights and try not to think about them, you rub your arm (or anywhere for that matter) and squash one. Next to the table are two chairs (currently covered with dirty laundry from the past two weeks – basically my entire wardrobe here). It was really nice to wear some of the Western clothes I picked up at Value Village before coming here while we were in Calcutta. Wearing the churidar (Indian dress) we wear here in Raiganj would attract some funny looks from Indians as well as foreigners in the big city. It’s funny because here it’s the opposite. Going into the villages in western clothes is not something you want to do. Trust me on this one.

And our bathroom…ha…um well it also has a cement floor and walls with a small sink emptying to the floor, believe it or not a Western style toilet that doesn’t really flush without a bucket of water and manual labor…of course two small pails for water used in place of toilet paper…ants on the floor and pigeons that perch themselves above us, constantly making odd gurgle noises and often using the top of our toilet as theirs as well…yeah…only a couple times they’ve made it into our room and flown around…it’s actually quite a challenge to get pigeons out of your room if you were wondering. We take quick cold showers every day, although when we get a chance to take a shower mid-day, we do because then it might be warm on a hot day (the water tank is outside on the roof). Let me just quickly remind you that you’re looking at someone who used to complain about using an outhouse while camping and often spends close to an hour in the bathroom getting ready for the day at home…yeah…you can only imagine! Let’s just say I’ve toughened up a bit in this regard.

Yesterday after washing my hands after lunch and using my Indian shawl to dry them, Father says, “Erin has become a true Indian.” Now, you have to realize that from Father that is one of the best compliments he could give me! A strong sense of accomplishment was hidden behind the smile on my face and small little chuckle I made. All the discomforts, all the awkwardness, all the frustrations accompanying this full immersion in Indian culture…have I really adjusted?!! SWEET.

Today there was a strike so everything in town is closed (including the office at SWI). So, today we have “a day of rest”. I kind of feel like it is a Snow Day when you can’t really go anywhere and everything kind of just gets put on hold for the day. Except here it’s hot outside and the sun is shining bright and instead of going to play in the snow, we venture our way out to the paddy fields (rice plants). We’ve been reading, relaxing, drinking coffee, and spending some good quality time together. If Father and Scott hadn’t stopped by earlier I’m pretty sure I’d still be in my ‘house robe’ as they call the thin cotton wrap-around bathrobe that women wear at all hours of the day around the house. Andrea and I purchased one a couple weeks ago for a couple dollars so we could hang out with the other girls here at DDC not in our Western jammies. Mine is bright turquoise and black and it looks quite Asian. Actually it kind of reminds me of a Japanese kimono.

So Andrea and I just went on the terrace to watch the sunset. What a beautiful evening. There was music blaring from beyond the trees – couldn’t even tell where it was coming from, but it was nice background music. We had a nice chat up there. Man, what a blessing Andrea has been for me here. I honestly can’t imagine this experience without my wonderful little roommate, companion and friend.