Vamos a la playa

I wanted to response to the "bikiniissue" brought up on college meeting. Not that this in itself is an issue of huge concern to me, it doesnt really make a difference. What I want to discuss is the underlying assumtions brought up by it. First of all, the point Jana made about this being our home. I have to agree with her, considering the fact that we spend two years of our lives here most of us call this home. I know that people have strong oppinions about this, and I don`t wish to step on anyones toes but doesn`t the notion of "home" contain some amount of freedom which you cannot excersice elsewhere? Regarding the RKHS, the guards and everyone else working on campus, I think we have to keep in mind that this is their job. We are not asking to bring our own culture down to the villages and walk around in bikinies in their houses. Quite the opposite, when going down to THEIR homes, we adapt to their culture by dressing culturally sensitive and learn to live with their custums which at least in my country is seen as offensive like burping, spitting, beating of kids in schools etc. I think that in a job, you`re bound to adapt to certain situations where you don`t feel completly comfortable, situations that you don`t experince at home because home is your sphere of freedom to continue your custums and habits. And MUWCI is our home. Though, I do see issue with this argument and I think that the way of looking at is is much influenced by how we define MUWCI. Because fact is that we have chosen to live in India which is in a larger context, the home of people working on campus. But if we talk about MUWCI as "the bubble" so many people refer to then it`s maybe more justified as our home. Can we take the freedom to refer to MUWCI as an independant bubble or a mini-world separate from our environment here in India?

Miss Universe

This is more likely the 27th time I`m sitting down, determined to write my first entrance on this blog. After looking at a blank screen now for 20 minutes, I started thinking about why its so damn hard to write these 300 words( other than the fact that its a beautiful day and I would love to go to the pool). Im realizing that I actually have a lot of stuff I would like to write, but everytime I start typing, I reach the conclusion that it is too much of a clichè, too idealistic or too romantizising. They`re all things I would have written about a year ago when coming to MUWCI for the first time, but after spending a year here the notion of idealism is just another clichè along with peace on earth and complaining about the caf food. I used to have so many romantic ideas of the world before coming here, but slowly my illusions of what is possible to achieve grew more distant and I realize I`ve become one of those people who rolles their eyes during college meetings when someone wants to discuss cultural sensitivity or enviromental issues. Not that I don`t care, Im just lacking my previously naive view that I could change the world( yet another MUWCI-clichè).
Its quite sad to see the illusions you had about yourself and the world disperse in the heat of the Indian countryside. We come here to be educated and enlightened and to "make a difference", but what can you do if you don`t actually believe in the change you`re suppose to make? Sometimes I wish I could go back to my more naive state of mind when I actually believed in all the clichèes about the envionment, world peace and so on and when I could write about it without feeling Im quoting an extract from the speech of a Miss Universe contestant...