A typical day?

Up at 5:30am and off to the gym with my mother-in-law. With no breakfast. And it's summer. And the gym of course has no A/C (nowhere does). Fun times. I do believe I'll trade running for swimming while I'm here. 

Oddly enough, in a country where people literally trip over themselves because they're so busy staring at me, no one in the gym gave me a second look. In the U.S., the gym is the place where you're most likely to be stared at, and here it seems to be the opposite. Go figure. 

After the gym, it was back home (at the terribly late hour of...7:20) to cook breakfast and lunch for my father-in-law to take with him to work. Although we cook all this food so early, no one sits down to eat until well after 10am. I've been up for 5 hours. I should be on my second meal of the day, not the first. And yet they complain if I look too skinny. Well how about not starving me then?

I quick Hindi lesson with my father-in-law: मैं हिंदी सीख रही हूँ ...that's I'm learning Hindi, bitches (ok without the bitches part), and today is सोमवार, somvar, Monday.

Then it's time to clean, because the maid is not here today (darn her! just when I was getting used to it too). Cleaning takes literally five seconds. I thought the maid was just cutting corners when I'd see her literally just smack the furniture with a rag. Apparently that is dusting. I understand now why there's a shelf in the bathroom that looks like it hasn't been dusted since the house was built. It probably hasn't. And wouldn't you know that's where someone stuck my toothpaste on the first day. It is now being squeezed in the most ridiculous way because I'm afraid to touch the side that lies on the shelf. But moving on. Brooms in India are fun. Someone somewhere along the way said "how can I take a broom and make it appealing to lazy people?" and thus the object I've always known as a broom was born. Now take that broom, remove the pole, and squat to swing the bristles sideways across the floor. Voila, you have sweeping in India. No wonder yoga is such a big deal, you have to be flexible just to clean your house!

Once the cleaning is done it's time for...nothing!? Papa goes off to work and Mama goes to take a nap. There is nothing more to do until time to prepare dinner, which generally happens at around 8pm. Hey, here's an idea! Why don't we do something wild and sleep in until 8, do all the cooking and cleaning and then go to the gym. I betcha we wouldn't need naps! Of course once the maid comes back there will be no cleaning to do. And the tiny old man that does odd jobs around the house also runs to the market for whatever food we need, so there doesn't seem to be any errands to run either. Friggin A! 

In order to fill the time and stave off the mental rot such boredom brings, I contacted a bunch of NGOs about volunteering. Most of those who bothered to respond (i.e. are organized) have a formal volunteering process that takes place months before you actually want to begin work. I had only a matter of days between deciding to come to India and actually getting on the plane. I'm pretty sure if I just turned up at a soup kitchen in DC and offered to help out, no one would say "nah we're good." They would take all the help they could get. So why does it seem to be so hard to find someone to accept free labor here? 

I had one organization that I was supposed to call once I was settled in Pune. My father-in-law wanted to know about them so I had all the information laying out on the table. I go in to clean the dishes and before I know it, he comes into the kitchen saying he has called them and arranged everything. 

Umm say what? 

Oh yes. He took it upon himself to talk to people about me volunteering with their organization. I could understand if no one at the organization spoke English (although somewhere like that I'm guessing would not take on someone who only speaks English anyway...) or if he knew the people personally, but he did not know these people and I had already emailed back and forth with them. I had already spoken to them directly and now all of the sudden I need a mediator? 

In the U.S. I would be written off immediately if someone else, especially a parent, contacted a job prospect on my behalf. Clearly (hopefully) things don't work that way here. I guess we will see on Thursday when I (and Papa) go to meet with them. It's those differences that are the biggest adjustment. Yeah the food is different, I have to carry water with me everywhere I go, I can't communicate with most people, it's hot and dirty, yeah whatever. No biggie. But here I'm treated like I can't or shouldn't do anything for myself and growing up I was treated like no one else would ever do anything for me. My tongue may fall off from biting back all my feminine pride.