'I' Statements

I don't know where I'll be next year... but when the deadline for extending my stay in India with AJWS for another year came around, I realized that I had no desire rule out the option... and that in fact, gaining some more stable footing in the land of the Intentionally Displaced may be just what I want for next year. Below is my application essay; its a little hyperbolic and megalomaniacal, as these things tend to be, but I thought it might provide a useful summary of my time here so far...

As a World Partners Fellow, I was given the chance to build a life for myself in a city quite literally on the other side of the globe from the place where I grew up. The twin cities of Secunderabad (where I live) and Hyderabad (where I work) have become my home, no question marks or qualifications needed. I have been lucky to travel frequently since my arrival in India, and with each trip away from my placement, I have become more eager to return to it.

At my NGO, I was placed in a small team, with three co-workers and a detailed work plan, all of which has allowed me to work productively in a positive environment. The intensive work ethic that drove me through four years of laboratory research during college (on top of classes, dance, and student activism) was quickly re-kindled in the fast-paced atmosphere at my NGO. Over time, I have built individual relationships with everyone in my office, including the tea attendant, who speaks less English than I do Telugu. There have been frustrations, of course, but through an endless series of small adjustments, I have worked through most of them. I had to be clear, at first, that I was not to be called ‘dear,’ for example, as my male colleagues would never address one another with such an epithet – but after a few months one of them commented that they treat me ‘as any other guy,’ and that I, in return, treat them like ‘any other woman.’

On the monthly WPF reporting form for January, we were asked what we have learned from our experience in India so far. This was my reply: I’ve learned that I can be mean and open-minded. I’ve learned that my laboratory experiences are more transferable than I ever would have imagined (report writing, journal club, office politics, project planning, etc.). I’ve learned that I am my own best housewife and workaholic husband, all rolled in to one. I’ve learned that I should always be dancing.

I would like to stay in India because I’m not ready to halt the learning process that I have begun here; I have adjusted to hierarchy and gender norms, to spice and humidity, to Indian English and hyper-documentation, and as these lessons have incorporated themselves into my daily activities, life here has become easier. A second year spent working in India would allow me to parlay these lessons into more concrete ‘learnings’ as I begin to build a career in social justice and public health work. I would like to continue my lessons in Bharatanatyam (south Indian classical dance), my studies of Indian NGO culture and the overlaps and tensions between social service and social justice, and I believe that AJWS VC would allow me to do just that.