Local Village Computer Launch

Although being the only foreigner in Mhaswad has its fair share of pitfalls, it has been a predominantly positive experience with an overwhelming amount of privileges. Yesterday night I was invited to a small local village to launch a computer that Mann Deshi donated to its library. When I arrived, I was greeted with many curious stares and invited into their one room library. I was very surprised with the turnout for the inauguration—about 150-200 people, young and old, men and women, predominantly hardworking farmers, everyone extremely excited and celebratory. It was wonderful and inspiring for me to see so many people passionate about and organizing around reading, learning, and education.

As one of the guests of honor I had the privilege of blessing the computer (I’m finally starting to get the hang of blessing things) and was then presented with a coconut and flower necklace. Everyone here seems to love to have meetings and listen to speeches so Chetna graced everyone with some eloquent words. Even in a foreign language it’s easy to tell that she’s a fantastic speaker.

After Chetna finished speaking, and much to my dismay, they invited me to offer some thoughts. As I walked to the microphone, unbelievably nervous, someone in the audience started yelling, “Yes, you can!” which I found incredibly amusing. I hate public speaking and I’m terrible at it, especially when I’m unprepared. Somehow I stumbled my way through a poorly organized and fairly incoherent speech, finding comfort in the fact that most people were listening to Chetna’s articulate translation rather than my unintelligible ramblings.

After the ceremony we were invited into the village leader’s house where we were served dinner. It’s still a little strange for me to attend dinner outside of Chetna’s home. For less formal occasions, men sit and eat while women serve them and eat afterwards. I’m usually treated as something in between, served after the men and with less attention, but still eating kind of before the women. For more formal occasions like last night, all of the guests sit to eat while the women cook for and serve them.

I find it very odd (and hard to admit) that, despite the other eating adjustments I’ve made—different foods, missing some foods from home, vastly different meal times, eating with my hands—it’s the actual way that mealtime is organized and “hierarchized”(?) around groups of people that still makes me uncomfortable. As an aside, it’s really interesting for me to really think about what makes me uncomfortable, and why those things are hard for me to adjust to.

Regardless, dinner was absolutely delicious, and the company (older village women who are also Mann Deshi clients) was wonderful- friendly, lively, and full of stories and questions! Experiences such as last night’s are some of my favorite moments in Mhaswad. I really love participating in celebrations, learning about what makes people tick, understanding which issues seem to be important, and getting to know the locals. I feel very lucky to be invited not only to watch, but also to participate in such events :-)