I went on a hike this morning, and all that was once vivid green has turned brown. Some of the landscape has been burned by human hands, the rest shriveled by the lack of water in the winter season.
Our days left in Umarkhed are short numbered, and everything we do is covered with a blanket of sadness. Our friend Gaju, who works at the canteen at the college, has stopped coming with us to the guest house at night to play. One of my students told me that he is trying to forget us, because he cannot bare the thought of us leaving. He doesn't want to be left behind, so he is leaving us first.
I keep getting teary eyed every time someone starts talking about how much they will miss us. I don't think that they realize how much we will also miss them, and how much this experience has meant to us all. I got all choked up the other day at a gathering I was asked to speak at... and I had some of my boy students also in tears... I don't think the tears will really stop until we're gone.
I was at a beauty parlor with my friend and fellow teacher Kalyani the other day... and we were talking about suntans, and sunburns (which she had never heard of). They were talking about how beautiful fair skin is. I mentioned that I was shocked that people in India use products that bleach their skin to make it more fair, and started to tell them that women in the US go to tanning salons to make their skin darker. I even admitted to spending time on the roof of our house, lying in the sun. They were blown away! They had no idea that pale, pasty skin isn't considered to be beautiful everywhere, and think we're crazy for wanting to be darker.
Yesterday, surrounded by (at least) 20 girls and women, one taking bangles off of one hand and moving them to the other, another applying mendi to one hand... one touching my hair, one trying on my sunglasses.... somewhere in the middle of this chaotic scene, i realized i was completely comfortable. At first, events like this made me uneasy, but I have adjusted, and no longer require the personal space I did when I first arrived.
It's amazing how much can be said with broken English, and even more broken Hindi... but sometimes mistakes make me smile. Yesterday, while being mendied... one of the girls said “You are almost welcome!” ... I'm pretty sure she meant always??
In class the other day, I was teaching my students the difference between direct and indirect speech, so I was saying sentences and making them quote me on them. One of my sentences was “It will be very cold in Ohio when I return.” One of my students wrote down as his answer: Beth said that it will be very cold in a higher when she returns.
I understand more Marathi than some people would give me credit for... Kelly and I routinely run on a quiet road next to the college, and we're used to men slowing way down on their motorcycles to stare at us.. we're amazed we haven't caused an accident yet. The other day, two bikes were riding side by side, and one turned to the other one and said “They are crazy!” in Marathi. I started laughing out loud, and told Kelly what he had said. The man turned around, as if he understood that I understood what was said... and the two men rode off silently.
I'm gearing up for a month of traveling, starting on the 4th... 10 days in Kerala, 4 days in Goa, 10 days in Mumbai, 2 days for Agra, and then, an unspecified amount of time in the US. This trip will leave my completely exhausted, I am sure. I am both dreading returning home, and looking forward to it. I imagine that the US will seem very cold and lonely place after spending 6 months in India, never alone, never bored, and (almost) never cold.