Smile Everyone!

Someday I will figure out that part of the Indian culture that says you must frown at all times. I say all times although that really isn't true. About 95% of them, upon getting a smile and greeting from you, will return the smile and warmth and when they do, a little bit of the worlds cruelty slips away. I've been to this country four times and spent forty days here and yet sometimes I feel that I will never really know it's people. Oh, and they'll smile and be all communicative until you pull your camera out. Then it's back to the frown again. Like my driver seen here. He got a new cap that day but he kept admiring my hat so we tried each others on. Laughter and smiles until I asked for a picture. I don't get it and probably never will.

New idea for a TV show: Cultural Survivor Man. You get dropped off in the middle of a foreign country with $10.00 and no interpretor. I would volunteer to be the first contestant and I would choose Assam. It's mild enough you could sleep under that stars and if you just had the tea and biscuits everyone so graciously offers you, I think you could survive for a week and keep most of your $10.00. The people are incredibly hospitable here. It is the custom of the Assamese to present honored guests with a scarf and I now have four of them. I've been here three days and I have had tea in five homes now, each time with biscuits and one time with these wonderful homemade fried treats that were light as a feather and sweet as honey. Anyone who has the tiniest spec of English is eager to share it with you and you can have a bit of a conversation without really understanding each other. At one home today, as we were loading up in our vehicle, our hosts said "We feel like God has come here today." I could let that go to my head but instead it humbles me more.

I do worry about the countries future a bit. Yesterday I met a young couple having ice cream. They were second year medical students and they couldn't wait to graduate so they could move to the States. They were cheerful, bright, and had better English than I do. They asked why we came here and I told them that I love the people. "This shithole?!? I can't wait to get out of here. Nothing works, it stinks, and the government is a joke. I will go to the USA and never come back." I hope that this isn't the norm for India's brightest and best. I didn't argue with them much, but I did tell them not to overlook the importance of people. I think that is the most significant thing a person can do, invest in people. It's something I'll try and get better and better at doing myself.

Yes, she smiled. Only because she didn't know I was taking her picture.

Every time I look into the street or visit a humble village home with its walls of bamboo and mud, I'm reminded of just how hard life is for a vast majority of Indians. Countless times I've been introduced to someone who I assume is in their 80's only to be told that they are in their 50's. I met a bent-up woman today that walked with a cane and could barely see. She was missing several teeth and her skin had the texture of a dryed and cracking river bed. She was 58 and as I look at her picture, I smile at the rememberance of her warmth and the enthusiasm she showed as she welcomed us into her home.

 

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