"It's our culture" (Journal Entry)

(picture of flies in our chai!!!)

“And the Lord replied: ‘I will personally go with you…I will give you rest – everything will be fine for you…you are my friend’” ~ Exodus 33:14, 17b

In spite of the flies and other things that add humor to the day, the festivals and the worship that these people take part in is something that causes one to think and pray more. There was one festival when we were here two weeks ago in which they worship Ganesh- one of their gods, and repeat 108 different names for him over and over again. The family we live with spent most of the day doing this and fasting too. On the one hand, I think ‘How can these traditions ever be broken through?’ and on the other I think, “Wow, when God does break through this, I want to be here!!!”

Today’s language session went pretty well. I did the sequence pictures with Deepa- and didn’t write anything down during the entire session- it was pretty strange, for me at least! I came back and went through the recordings with Joyti. I was also able to put the recordings onto the Vocabulary Manager program that Pam set up for me. I realized that Deepa left out the 4th picture’s description (out of the 6 I did today), so I’ll have to get that one tomorrow.

Today, I also went with Diksha and Latta and their mothers to the lower caste section of the village because Diksha and Latta were getting their nose and ears pierced! It was so nice to see some of the girls that I had met in the field again. I tried not to be too nice to them for fear of what Diksha and Latta’s mothers might say, but they didn’t seem to be too rigid toward the lower caste people. There were about 20 or so that came out to watch the piercings. They all wanted me to get my nose and ears pierced too, but I didn’t give in.

The festival today resulted in Bicky, Joyti and Manoj (The other brother) all having grass in their hair for a short time. I accidentally walked in on Joyti receiving some blessing from her mother just before lunch. They were both kneeling down, Chachi was chanting something softly while placing the blades of grass on Joyti’s head, most of them sliding off. Bicky too had some around his ears and on stuck in his hair that is not cut. Something Brahmin Hindu boys/men have- a little ‘ponytail’ of hair- not much, but coming from the back of their head, about half way up from their neck). Anyway, they all had these blades of grass in their hair for a little while and slowly they fell out and that was it. I think after receiving the blessing, the kids had to go to the mandir (temple) in their home and do something, but I’m not sure. I asked Joyti what it was for, and she said it was some blessing…When I tried to ask more she said she didn’t know and finally said, “it’s our culture.”

“It’s our culture” – There is so much about this culture still to learn! We’ve hardly understood any of it- mainly just observed things we have no idea about and don’t even know how to ask about. How in the world can we craft stories that will dig deep into their “culture” so that the stories not only change their culture, but become a part of their culture?

Chacha is upstairs right now, he just blew the ‘puja’ horn (made from a shell, actually)…again, so much to figure out!

I pray now for Joyti- as she accepts these things as her culture, may she realize that culture and religion are two different things. They are often intertwined and here they seem to be nearly one thing, but they are not. God, help me to know how to pray for her. While I feel I’ve had the most interaction with her, somehow tonight I don’t know what to pray or how to pray for her.