My sister-in-law, Ella, forwarded an e-mail she recently received from her daughter, Jennie, in India [see picture, right]. I am sure neither will mind if I share it with you. Jennie has been in India for a number of weeks working with a group of medical professionals like herself. She loves to travel and has visited several countries, but I suspect this experience will leave a permanent impression. The following was sent to a short list of family and friends.

Subject: Some thoughts from India
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:36:59

Hi all-
Someone asked a few days ago if I am ready to go home. I’ve been thinking about this question for a few days. I am now in Goa, a resort area on the water. It is lovely. As I write this, I am sitting on pillows, eating Butter Naan at a knee high table (I know there must be a name for this style dining but I don’t know it). The soundtrack is a constant mix of soft breeze, the gentle rolling waves of the ocean and the somewhat insistent crowing of birds. I have horseflies landing over me but I have given up swatting at them. I think that last statement pretty much sums up where I’m at right now as far as travel in India.

There are so many things that I see every day here that are just such clear departures from my (our) normal American way of life and standard of living. The constraints of over population are inescapable. There is a constant hustle amongst the people and it is not uncommon to be outright cut in lines. There is trash and its ensuing stench over all the streets. There is also smog from burning of the trash in the streets. There is public urination and in some parts I have even seen defecation. And because they don’t have a tissue, people blow their nose onto the ground.

Paradoxical to all this, I fall in love suddenly at moments throughout the day. In the Indian faces I see self-assurance and a quiet tenacity to survive. They seem to possess more ingenuity at making something out of nothing. Creativeness to craft candle holders from a one liter water bottle, cut in half, filled with sand and then the top half flipped upside down into the bottom to shield from the wind. Houses made of bamboo and thatched palm leaves held together with twine instead of nails.

Most people here don’t seem bothered by the general level of hygiene and way of life. A couple of days ago I was traveling on a 26 hr train ride from Delhi to Goa. I was the only American aboard (as far as I could tell). I got to know the surrounding passengers fairly well- the ride was a blast actually. At one point we were seated, talking, and I swatted at a bug crawling on the seat behind my shoulder. The other passengers seemed both alarmed and amused by my doing this. I asked them what the bug was and they replied “the baby of a cockroach”. I was worried they were offended at my non-Buddhist annihilation of this bug. They said “No”, just that “these are very common here”. The differences are clear. We have many things that are “common” in the U.S.- ants, rats, spiders, moles, horseflies, but we still kill them.

I think there is an middle ground between what I have seen around me here in India and our more sterile, excessive lives in the U.S. I am reading the book “Mountains beyond Mountains.” It’s about a doctor who has spent his career in Haiti improving living conditions and in effect improving death rates from preventable diseases- public health issues. He talks about how people justify the disparities in wealth and living conditions with the disclaimer “they are poor but they are happy.” To a certain degree, yes, this may be true. As the Haitian proverb says, “the rocks in the water don’t know how the rocks in the sun feel.” But when the inequalities in the distribution of wealth create such poverty that basic human rights of clean water, adequate nutrition, and living conditions free of sewage are lacking or ignored, there is no justification.
There is a lot of poverty everywhere. It exists in the U.S., but to be poor in India is dismal. My response is - yes, I will be happy to return to the U.S. and I am happy for my life there. But I can’t erase from my heart and mind the effects of poverty I have seen here. We can’t use “returning home” as a resolution for the problems that will continue to exist here. I have a new view on the need to improve living conditions for the poor all over the world. Additionally, I have gained new insight for the need to live more simply in the U.S.

See you all soon,
Love!
Jennie