everything i (did or didn't) need to know- i learned at rural camp.

How to sum up the 10 days I spent at rural camp… I once asked Struthi from my group if she was enjoying her time at camp, her honest response came after a long pause. “Well, about 50/50.” 50/50 seems about right. In some ways, rather generous. However, regardless of my personal ‘enjoying camp’ percentage, it cannot be denied that I learned an extraordinary amount in 10 days. Valuable knowledge regarding myself, my group, and mostly the Indian culture as a whole. By far, the most valuable experience of the entire camp was the blaring spotlight shed on the stark cultural difference between American and India. I would not have learned this lessons regardless of how long I stayed in India, unless I lived with these students in such a close and intense manner. I wanted to document these epiphanies before the experience overshadows the education gained, so here is my list of lessons learned.

I learned:

• That I can survive an embarrassing long time sans a shower (3+days) and with only 3 shirts and 2 pants for 10 days, and despite sweaty/muddy/rainy/long days of work- somehow be alright with myself and my (highly offensive) order, knowing that at least it represented hard work. In addition, I also learned that the term ‘shower’ can simply entail a bucket of water over a squatty potty, and yet that somehow this primitive version of a shower has the ability to possess the exact blissful feeling as a luxurious 5 star hotel.
• That if I ever had to resort to living on the street, that a newspaper spread across a hard floor helps to (slightly) soften the joint pain and uncomfortableness of sleeping on a very hard floor. I also learned how to fight for and somehow manage to claim a couple of hours of sleep using a backpack as a pillow and a sheet as a mattress on an unsanitary hospital floor, amongst about 70-80 other women, so tightly packed into one room that if one girl on the far end were to shift her position throughout the night, the domino effect of shifting would be felt on the extreme other end.
• That I hate whistles of all kind. That if I never heard another whistle again (especially not at 5am) the quality of my life would immediately improve 100 fold.
• That it is rather difficult to go from the experience of running camps and being in leadership positions, to a mere ‘camper’. Especially when your age trumps the average other campers by about 8-9 years, and your age is the same or older than the majority of the leaders.
• That openness to new experiences and new people is something that I consistently need to strive for. I realized how easy it can be to stick back and take the easy out for not engaging with others, for whatever reasons, including language barriers, but that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in relationships always has a positive effect. Removing personal barriers and walls and becoming open and vulnerable in relationships is always the right choice.
• That sitting through on average 3-4 hours of programmes completely in Malayalam with little to no sleep, no translations, and 4-5 hours of hard tiring work can be incredibly boring and painful, but yet can vastly increase your knowledge of the language without realizing it. In addition, being surrounded by Malayalam conversations all day can also have the same effect.
  
• That I can reach my breaking point (intensely needing to use the toilet in the middle of the night, tiptoeing over sleeping bodies to the lone door on the far end of the room, only to find the gate locked to prevent students from 'sneaking out' and no one willing to wake up and assist my urgent bladder condition), and somehow still manage to survive with the help of some wonderful friends…and many many long, deep breaths and deeper long laughter. And that preserving and succeeding after hitting the breaking point is a immeasurably satisfying personal victory.
  
• That I can uninhibitedly dance to techno and trance music in a room full of frantic sweaty teenagers and have quite simple, a blast.
• That I can interact with two snakes, countless spiders, (rumored) leeches, and other critters and continue to work. After watching one snake wrap around my leg and feeling another squirm between my toes after stepping on it, I can say that I officially redeemed myself after that embarrassing ‘spider’ incident that I previously spoke about.
• That standing in a knee-deep mud in a canal wildly swinging a spade (Indian version of a shovel) at a steep incredibly overgrown bank is one of the most therapeutic stress relieving exercises ever, especially when extremely frustrated with the Rural Camp experience and overwhelmed by cultural differences. Emerging from the canal 2 hours later, covered head to toes in mud and animals- I was a whole new person.
• That nuns are some of the hardest workers I have ever seen. And some of the funnest people I've ever interacted with.
  
• That I can hit delirium and laugh for hours with my group in the middle of the night about situations that would normally push someone to tears or violence. That within our group, we have seen each other at the extreme highs and extreme lows, and yet still love and support each other. At this point we seem to have undergone a vast transformation during camp and now understand what our members are feeling and needing at certain moments, including when to walk away, when to give a hug, and when to make a sarcastic joke. I can honestly say that rural camp without them would have been completely impossible. I am truly blessed by this little family, and I’m constantly being challenged to grow and improve myself by the interactions I have with them, and the great integrity and character they all possess.
• That inefficiency is quite possible my new biggest pet peeve, and quite possible what the camp should have been named instead of Karma 2008. This represents a huge cultural difference, the American culture is geared towards doing a job in the most efficient and time conscious manner possible. The Indian culture does not share this view. We often spent countless hours a day waiting around for direction, decisions, or even worse, would spend hours slaving over 'busy' work, finding temporary fixes to problems instead of long term solutions. At the end of the day, we learned how to shrug, be proud of the effort we put forth, and accept it as the culture.
  
• That I am more of a feminist than I realized, especially in this culture. It is often difficult, and even more so at camp, to live in this culture where such strong patriarchal beliefs exist and consistently affect daily life. To rebel against the male/female work stereotype, I dove headfirst into the most physically challenging and draining tasks reserved 'only for the boys' and refused to yield my shovel despite the constant questioning if I was tired and suggestions that I take a break. I made myself to learn how to bite my tongue when daily I was told by men that the manner in which I was working was "wrong" and forced a rigid smile when they took the tool away from me and demonstrated the "correct" way (which was surprisingly similar to the original manner in which I was working). Therefore I spent a lot of time encouraging my female counterparts to do the same, regardless of getting a little bit of mud on their salwars. It didn't really work, but hey, every bit of empowerment helps.
  
• That Indian culture and American culture are completely different when it comes to physical touch between same sex friends, and as a result I've learned to hold hands with my young friends and tolerate constant face and hair touches. My personal space is basically nonexistent at this point thanks to camp.
  
• That Indian women are brutal about cutting line. This is an especially big deal when there are 2 toilets for 80 women. As a result, we quickly learned to be equally cutthroat about fighting for our 'reserved' spots in line.
  
• That the American culture is very focused on the individual and not the group and the Indian culture is opposite in that it is entirely focused on the group as a whole. For example, the most common theory for American practice is Psychosocial theory (self issues, self ego...) while India is all about Anthropology/Sociology theories (group function, group roles...). Getting used to this opposite view of thinking and viewing individual people verses collective society has been perhaps one of the most difficult adjustments, and it was never more clear to me than spending 10 days fully emerged in the culture. However, this has been a positive education and adjustment. I think at the end of this experience, I will return stronger in my practice because of this, as each view possess strengths (and weaknesses) for viewing people, clients, communities and the issues that encompass all of these.
• That at the end of 10 very long days, nothing is better than my own personal bed, my own personal time schedule, my own personal bathroom, and my own personal home family- all just waiting to pamper and restore our bodies and minds to sanity and restoration.