Beach Time and Sacrifices for Work

Last weekend we went to Goa, which is a state in the southwest of India. We stayed in a small beach town and had a mini vacation near the ocean for 4 days. It is very, very, very, very different from Jaipur. First of all, there is the ocean and all the green and lush landscape. Jaipur’s a big city with trash and tons of buildings, the town in Goa was like a tropical island. There wasn’t as much noise and honking, the streets weren’t as crowded, and it was more humid. I know I’ve been talking about India like just Jaipur and Delhi, dirty, poor, and crazy. But India is so much more than just the big cities. There’s lots of beaches and green, and it’s not hectic everywhere. Imagine if you were from India and you came to the US and saw a bunch of mansions and then left. You would think, “Oh, people in the US are just rich and spoiled, they know nothing about suffering.” If we had just seen Jaipur and Delhi we might have thought, “Oh, India is just a dirty,  chaotic country,” when really it’s so much more. I loved Goa because we spent so much time outside playing sports and playing in the ocean. I even did the pacer (running test we did in P.E. last year) I think it was a good mini vacation, to get away from the city and spend some time outside. Another interesting thing about Goa is that it’s influenced by Christianity and there are cathedrals and churches. The Portuguese dominated that part of India for a while so Christianity was ingrained there by them. I thought it was really interesting because everywhere else you go it’s either Hindu, Muslim or Sikh, or other minor religions, but if you think of the religions in India, Christianity doesn’t really come to mind. 

There are two cooks working at the Idex house in Jaipur where the volunteers stay and where we’re eating most of the time, Kedar and Archana. They live in little rooms next to the kitchen and they never really leave the house. I wondered for a while when they got to see their family, or if they ever really got to see them. I found out that both the cooks have families that live very far away and they only get to see them every 4 months. Archana has two kids who live about 6 hours away. She was living with her husband's family, but when he passed away she moved back in with her mom. The younger one, who’s 8, lives with Archana’s mom, but the older one, who’s 12, stayed with the husband’s family. She’s been working at the guest house for 6 years so when she left, her kids were 2 and 6. I can’t imagine not seeing my mom for 4 months straight because she has to go to work. Kedar is older and her kids are already married and have kids of their own. So it’s normal that they go somewhere else and don’t see their parents much, but because of work she can’t see her husband. A lot of families in India are like this, even some of the Young Dreamers’ families.

Our big hygiene campaign with the Young Dreamers is just one week away. I’m excited to see how it turns out.