Slumdog Millionaire

The first week to my five months in India have been extremely exciting, rewarding, interesting, along with many learning moments. One thing I have learned within just one week is that time runs on a different scale here. We found that out one day after waiting six hours to accomplish a minimal task with the Dean here at Madras Christian College. But within those six hours the seven of us American students took turns going to buy fruit for everyone, which is extremely easy to do here, along with water. Today, we just spent several hours traveling across the city to go to Immigration to register only to find out they had closed for lunch and for the day. Anu, our program supervisor gave us a lifeline tip for adjusting to this part of the culture. She told us that in the States we may think of tasks as in, “I need to do this today by this time.” In India we need to think more along the lines of, “I need to get this and this accomplished sometime this week.” Eventually it will get done, but it will help some people keep their sanity.

This week has been wonderful overall though. I am studying in the Social Work department here at MCC, choosing three classes, taking two mandatory classes (one for credit and one not) and doing a six credit internship or field placement. Tuesday and Thursday of this week (and next week) we spent time at two non-profits that social work students intern at. One was called the India Welfare Organization and the other was Don Bosco, which I loved. Don Bosco was in a worse part of town I would say, especially than from ICWO. When we walked in, there were already two boys maybe around ages twelve and ten or so. One was crying, the other was trying to support him. Don Bosco is an organization that works with street children, homeless (or pavement dwellers as they are sometimes called), run away children and children in the slums. They also have a couple programs for women and those mothers. It was such a wonderful organization. Allan and Gnanamani showed us around throughout the day and were sooo helpful. All Indian people have been the most amazing that I have met so far. I am not sure if it is that initial phase of us being foreign and exciting for them, part of their hospitable culture, or more of just a sincere friendship-oriented mind.

Our final stop of the day with Don Bosco was to the slums… when someone asked Allan (the student leading us) what happens to the children that don’t want to follow them or go with them to the shelter, he responded, “Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire? That is what happens.” It was powerful to hear that, and then to see the slums. I don’t have many words to describe what we saw. I have never seen that many flies or such a densely populated area in my life. There were 4000 people living in the size of a very small neighborhood block. It was almost hard to feel extremely depressed while being there because the children and even the adults were extremely excited to see us, again, just as celebrities. There were stray dogs laying down, hardly breathing with their ribs showing. Children were running around naked or with underwear on. Mothers were sitting on the ground cooking whatever was possible. All homes in which a family lives were connected to one another. They were the size of my bathroom back home (including the tub), quite literally. The aisles in between homes were about one meter long, barely able to fit two people. At one point we walked pass the communal bathroom, a large piece of land in which everyone can go and sit and do their business. Nonetheless, everyone seemed happy and social. Many people were interacting with one another. As we walked people would come out of their houses to see us, smile, or even shake our hand. Children kept running up to us and asked us our name, probably the only thing they could say in English. It is so difficult for me to think that this is their excitement for the day. Their daily lives are probably so similar and what I might think as boring, yet they seem to be the happiest people.

This was somewhat opposite to the weekend we just spent at a resort in a place called Mamallapuram, which is a very touristy town outside of Chennai. They arranged a whole evening and dinner for us seven American students at a resort, The Radison. It was the most gorgeous places I have ever been. We were on the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean with a pool overlooking the beach if we chose not to swim in the ocean. We then had a fancy buffet dinner with both veg (vegetarian) and non-veg (non-vegetarian) options, rice, of course naan, some fruit and vegetable dishes, soup, and some ice cream for dessert. We even had our own special firework show. As much as I have been loving India, it was nice to see a more calm side of India away from the business and many people.
I get to start classes tomorrow which I am so excited about, and then will visit two more NGO’s this week. Next week we are off on an excursion! After that I will get to start my internship at whichever NGO I decide.