I just finnished Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and I couldn't help the reference in the Title (its one of his earlier books). I apologize, but bear with me, its pertinent.
The title is a great disriptor of part of my experience here. I am a stranger here, and I never feel it more than on weekends. Kodaikanal is a popular toursit attraction for India's mostly for the cooler weather, but partially because of the international community created by KIS. This means that, because I am white, I am an oddity. This feeling is compunded on weekends when the tourists show up.
Last weekend was a shock simply becasue I had never experienced it before. First I went on a walk down by the lake to see how windy It was (some friends and I were thinking about going canoeing. That ended up happening yesterday, which I will get to in a minute). As I was walking a group of young men approached me and asked for my picture. Having never experienced this before, I was flattered and agreed to take a couple pictures with them. Its quite amazing how quickly that feeling wears off. Later that day we were walking back to the school from a local hike, and (I'm n ot joking here) an entire bus leadned out of their windows and were whistling at us and asking us what country we were from. Its difficult to say whether this was because all three of us were white, or because I was the only male there. Regadless, we all kept our heads down and kept walking.
Fastforward to this week. The three of us finally got out canoeing. As we are launching the canoe, five men come over to help us put the boat into the water. As we launched the boat another 10-15 came over to watch us, waving and snapping pictures as we went. This treatment continued through our canoe, prompting me to make a very interesting connection: Its not all that different to minnesota boating culture. In MN, if you pass a boat or someone sitting on a dock, its polite and friendly to wave and say hi to them. In action, things here are quite the same, although I can't help but feel that the intention is quite different.
The point of all this is that it has been a severe wake up call for me to not only be in the minority, but to have it pointed out all the time. From tourists takeing pictures of me (both discreetly and quite obviously), to merchants charinging me more for their goods (skin tax and my friend Dan called it), to spectators calling me "westman" while I play ultimate frisbee, It has been an eye opening expereience to say the least.
I don't Imagine it will stop any time soon, rather I will just have to get used to it. A number of my friends have begun charging for there picture. That way its a win-win, either you get left alone, or you get some dinner money. I haven't had that opportunity yet, but I surely plan on taking advantage when the opportunity comes.
Theres my speil for this week. I have my pictures posted from the last two weeks. I think they will go up in weekly installments as well. A quick note, I accidentally loaded them in reverse order, meaning you should start with the last picture (number 49 right now I think) and go backwords.
Cheers,
Kevin
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