After preparing for a couple days before all the students arrived, the South Asian students presented on their cultures for the international students. You can read more here, and see a few student interviews here, beginning with Olga!
Monica
Mohammad
Rohini
Kultwisiso
Shilpi
In doing Research on this vegetable market, we learned the process of agricultural marketing. When farmers don’t end up at markets like these, they use the help of middlemen to transport their goods from farm to store. The middlemen has been known for exploiting both farmer and customer in this way. So in 1999, the market was created to help support these farmers and customers so that the farmer makes more and the customer pays less than retail price. Going into the market was a beautiful sight and surprisingly mostly women filled the stands.I wish I could’ve stayed until it was over. They were so sweet and kind,calling us over to their stands and commanding pictures to be taken.Two older women blessed me.And even though we have learned that the women here are under a lot of social constrain and it isn’t necessarily considered good to be born a girl, it made me extremely thankful that I am a girl, and a girl that got to connect with other women that are so strong and beautiful. I left with a feeling of empowerment; as if I left as a part of them.
Bangalore was what I was and wasn’t expecting. I had been told that it was a nice city and that it was probably one of the largest tech centers in the world, and while there were parts that matched my image of large office buildings and beautiful white houses with lush trees, there were also many times where there were piles of trash along the streets and stray dogs eating the intestines of some unknown animal. Overall I really just saw Bangalore as its own city with its own dynamics and culture. Honestly, it hasn’t really settled in to me that I’m in a different country, just a different city.
What has been the most difficult thing for me has been the shopping. I don’t really like shopping at home, and when I’m given a goal and have achieved it I prefer to just been done. When this didn’t happen while we were on commercial street my mind was insisting on shutting down, even though I knew that I needed to continue to be present. On the other side of things, it was surprisingly easy for me to deal with the stares from the Indian nationals, as well as with being dropped off and left in an unfamiliar place with only two other students and no adult supervision. However, we were also fortunate enough to have been in one of the safer neighborhoods in the city.I inderstood it was purely accidental and while we were standing underneath the balcony of someones home we would look up to find first one, then five people looking down at us and smiling, because thet were excited to see foreigners visiting their hometown. I’m sure it will continue to shock me how much joy that we bring to people just by being here.
This picture is from when I was in the sky coming to India it was a long trip but I’m glad I was on that plane.
See before I came here I never left my house never went to public places, I was always home reading or watching anime(Japanese cartoons) anyway I didn’t like meeting new people and I didn’t like talking. I still kinda don’t but I wanted to make a difference in my life and I saw this trip as the best opportunity. I thought I could get through this without talking about my problems or showing my fears but I was wrong. The past few days my eyes have been open even wider to alot of things. Like the past two days some of my fears have shown and I was embarrassed and still kinda am. I didn’t want to talk about it and I still kind of don’t. The other day I had a talk with one of the staff members (Eli) and he said somethings that really had me thinking. Could I really get through this whole trip without letting any of my fears slip, without talking about my problems? He had a point even though I dont like talking about my problems I know I have to try. Also, while I have been here I have learned to appreciate what I have at home more. Being here has helped me to think about how I want to spend my future helping people as much as I can. I want to try to help get rid of poverty and also help with health care. Being in a different environment has in some weird form made me feel wiser in a way. I say this because like I said before my eyes have been opened even wider and I am aware of stuff that doesn’t really happen where I’m from. I would like to travel more and see other unexpected things that I am not use to seeing.