Homestay No More

Tonight, I gave my host family my end-of-stay gift, which they did not like. It’s not that they disliked the gift, they disliked the giving. In a period of about two minutes, my mumma went through the following outrages:
-What?

-What have you done?!

-You have spoiled your money!

- You must take it with you – you are our daughter, it is not right for a daughter to give us things.

- You are our guest here!

- You already gave us things when you arrived!

- You are so naughty! (but this time she used the extreme version “badmaash” instead of “notcot” which she normally calls me, but is nicer)

Anyways, because I bought them a wooden camel statue with an Indian version of Romeo and Juliet on the back, which is way too big to ever fit in my already packed suitcase, I pushed my way through the protests and found a home for the camel in the living room. Rather, I found a place in the corner to put it, and my mumma and didi suggested that I put it in the middle of the room so, yeah, they like it.

But didi did warn me that if my parents bring presents when they come to visit, then she is going to slap me twice. Forewarned is forearmed, Didi!

Speaking of packing, this morning I woke up for a nice Sunday morning breakfast with the family, and then Mumma packed all of my things for me. I tried to help, but she mostly just had me point to where things were going (America, back to school, or with me for the next month) and then folded things more neatly than I possibly capable of. So maybe it was better to let her take this one.

My last day in my homestay has been really bittersweet – I am excited to see a new part of India, but I am going to really miss my family here. This morning, my softspoken buppa and I had a forty-five minute long talk where he told me about tigers. Where they live, how they hunt, how many places his son-in-law has gone to see them, what they are called in Hindi, and so. He acted out what a tiger hunting a bison looks like, which was pretty interesting.

Feels like Home: Tina Fey was in the Jaipur paper today

The little things about my family, as usual, are exactly what I will miss about them. For example, last night, I think I heard my mumma curse for the first time when she saw that she had forgotten about a bowl of curd in the freezer (“Oh. shit!”). My didi also does a really good impression of what Indian traffic sounds like (“They all honk so much! Beep bonp bloop berp!”). I think the difference is that she incorporates Hindi’s nasalization of certain noises, which really brings her mimic to the next level.

I will have to reunite with them when I get back, because Mumma won’t let me leave my suitcase at school – she will keep it here for me. “And then, when you get back, you will ring us up first. And then you can come and take rest, and then we will drop you with the other students at the guest house.” Didi told her that there is a certain time that we have to check in, and Mumma said “Oh! Just like jail!” Buppa also has told me every night for the past week that he will be very lonely after I go, and that I keep them very busy and entertained. So, yes, I will miss them a lot.

But, I am also glad to be on the move! My program is divided into 4 academic classes, 3 of which take place simultaneously. Those just finished on Saturday, so my hours of enduring Hindi classes taught by 4 teachers at once is over, as is the corralling of 20 American students into one house 5-6 days a week. I’ve learned a lot while here so far – which is why I could tell how surprised Didi was when I gave the camel, but also that she wasn’t telling Mumma why when she called her to the room to see – but now I start a totally different type of learning. The remaining class is our Independent Study Project, a hallmark of my program’s method in all of its sites. They prep you for two months, then send you out on your own.

Tomorrow morning, I leave at 6 am on a train to go study disaster relief and risk reduction in Sikkim, a small state in the north east of India. I am going to be cool once again – Indians flock to the mountains in the summer so that they can get out of the heat. I will be on my own! Daunting but exciting.