Baroda

So I've been in Baroda for a week now, and it's awesome. I walked out of the airport and there were about twenty college students to welcome me. It was a very nice welcome. Then, I was sent off to my homestay for a couple days. I stayed with Anurag who is a third year commerce student at the huge university in Baroda.

After a couple of days with him, I moved into the trainee house with three other people. There is Faryal, who is English, but her family's from Pakistan, but she lived in Panama for six months and then Beijing for two and a half years. She's my roommate and the funny thing is is that she knows MCK who was on the track team with me back at Brown. Small world isn't it? There is also Richard who is from Holland. He is SO Dutch and has a mosquito net that attracts and traps bugs rather than keeping them out. And then there's Takeo who is from Japan and is really trying to work on his English. Yesterday, he got a flat tire and then got lost for three hours in the old city. Oh Takeo...

I've seriously met so many people in the last week, it's been crazy. But everyone I've met is so nice and cool. I really think I'm going to like it here. There is another trainee house with Kareen (Hollan), Yutaka (Japan), Veera (Germany), and Tatyana (Greece). I'm known as "The American." This is seriously the first time that I've been the only American and I like it. It's not that hard to be the only American. Everyone communicates in English and I'm the only one who can really decipher all the different accents. (I'm also the only one who only knows one language. Everyone else knows at least two.) And EVERYONE loves the tv show "Friends." haha! I come all the way to India and hang out with people from all different countries and they love talking about "Friends."

I'm working at an NGO called Bhasha right now. They work with the nomadic tribes in Gujurat called the Adivasi. These tribes never really accepted British rule and, as a result, were labled as "criminal tribes." Ever since then they have been persecuted and descriminated against even though the British have moved out and the Indian government have "denotified" them. Such is the power of 200 years of colonialism. I have yet to have a project. So far I've just been reading about the Adivasi and trying to learn about their history and culture. Hopefully, a project will pop into my head soon.