{"id":1879,"date":"2017-08-02T16:36:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T16:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisa2017.ii.lsa.umich.edu\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2017-08-02T16:36:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T16:36:23","slug":"candid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/2017\/08\/02\/candid\/","title":{"rendered":"Candid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture me this: an office, full of intelligent women clicking away at computers, analyzing data, authoring reports, planning community education, training a\u00a0fleet of maternal and child health warriors to sail into communities and make a tangible difference. Women in three different clinics in Mumbai slums spearhead nutritional counseling, pregnancy clubs, cooking courses, breastfeeding instruction, and mother-child bonding classes for local women. For my internship, I\u2019m working with the Foundation for Mother and Child Health and the scene is just this. FMCH women are empowered, wise, strong, dedicated, and passionate. They are tabulating statistical analyses in the office and changing lives in clinic. FMCH is incredibly holistic and their dedication shines through everything they do; in an oral health camp last Friday, my coworker and I brushed our teeth 39 times each<\/em>, because explaining<\/em> proper tooth-brushing technique is not enough\u2014you have to show<\/em> people.<\/p>\n

\"The
The FMCH Oral Health Camp group– my coworkers are amazing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"My
My teeth have never been cleaner than they were this day!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day-to-day, I analyze community data and write assessment reports that FMCH will distribute internally and externally to their donors. One of the most rewarding things I\u2019ve been able to do is observe the three local community clinics and their partner-organization about an hour and a half northeast of the city. Talking with community organizers all over Mumbai has really impressed on me how culturally diverse the city\u00a0is and how creative FMCH has been in adapting to meet unique local needs.<\/p>\n

I was talking with a coworker earlier this week and she began to tell me about an atypical family. The conversation really shook me. In the vast majority of cases, mothers bring their children to clinic. If mothers are unavailable, the mothers-in-law bring the children. The fathers very, very<\/em> rarely attend. But, this case was different. My coworker explained that the father had afternoons off work and he would bring the children in during that time. Interested, I asked why. I mentally primed myself for an example of flipped traditional gender roles, expecting her to say that the mother was working a job outside the home, had uncontrollable hours, or was caught up with busy afternoons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mother was different<\/em>,\u201d my coworker began, \u201cShe was not as interested as other mothers about the health of the children, so the father was actively involved in the health of the children. Actually, the problem was, they had multiple children, 4 to 5 \u2026 so she was also depressed of the fact that she had all girls. So she wanted a boy child and she had all girls. So then she was not very happy giving proper care to all these girls.<\/em>\u201d She went on to describe verbal abuse from family and neighbors, shaming the mother for having only daughters.<\/p>\n

It felt like lead had been poured down my throat\u2014 fiery, boiling, and dense enough to burn everything in its path to a thick, tar-like sap. The sludge hardened into an uncomfortable and twisted rock in the pit of my stomach. I didn\u2019t know how to respond. I still don\u2019t know how to respond. I sit in an office full of empowered and successful Indian women every day; how can both of these extremes exist in the same space? I could not \u2013 and still struggle to \u2013 reconcile the contrast. Granted, this is a unique case. It is not the norm. But, she acknowledged it so casually, moved on so quickly. It is rare, but it isn\u2019t the only case, and it was mentioned almost in passing. \u00a0I\u2019ve struggled to make sense of this disparity and explain to myself why this conversation continues to be so piercingly difficult for me to digest.<\/p>\n

\"Street
Street art near one of the clinics: “They are our sisters. Respect them.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then it hit me. In in a parallel universe, I am <\/em>one of those little girls. I\u2019m the third of five daughters. In picturing this family\u00a0\u2013 these real little girls, these real parents, these real, living, breathing people\u00a0\u2013 I can\u2019t help but see my parents, my sisters, myself. I hear my dad chanting \u201cgirl power\u201d into our ears before we could speak English and I hear my mom chanting \u201cgirl power\u201d across the finish line of her 9th<\/sup> full marathon. I think of my childhood and how the five-year-old version of myself never gave gender a second thought. I think of my sisters today, expected<\/em> to achieve, independent of gender. And my heart aches. Because the root difference between my experience as one of five daughters and that of these little girls is an attitude, a mantra, a value. \u201cGirl power.\u201d My heart aches because these little girls are barely being given a chance at nutrition.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a concept in anthropology called ethnocentrism. It\u2019s the assessment of another culture based on the standards and moral framework of one\u2019s own culture. In its most basic form, it is thinking your culture is superior to another\u2019s culture. As an anthropology major, I so value the validity and importance of different beliefs and practices and have a genuine appreciation for differing frameworks that construct others\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

But, what is culture and what is injustice? How does culture relate to morality? Is it ethnocentric of me to feel that this blatant gender discrimination is not cultural \u2013 that it\u2019s inhumane, completely and utterly wrong? Where is the line between respecting another belief system and recognizing something as immoral? What happens when that line is crossed or blurred? Is there an obligation to take a step back, and if so, who has the power and the duty to initiate that step? What is my place in this hierarchy, as a single and fiercely independent woman by herself on the opposite side of the world from her home, completely immersed in another culture?<\/p>\n

At times, it feels like I\u2019m inhabiting a different space, delicately layered with surgical precision atop this other world which I can\u2019t fully comprehend. I share physical space with my coworkers. We share\u00a0delicious chapatti and genuine belly laughs. Together, we work towards the common and meaningful goal of bettering nutrition and health for Mumbai\u2019s women and children. I am genuinely and deeply touched\u00a0by the strong and empowered women I’ve met at FMCH, but simultaneously shaken by quotes and moments like these.<\/p>\n

These stark contrasts and confusing contradictions leave me wondering \u2013 what is my place here? People are shocked that I\u2019m unmarried, that I don\u2019t live with my parents, that I\u2019m here by myself, even that I cook and pack my own lunch. People are shocked when I say I went to the movies by myself, did yoga alone, explored Mumbai or\u00a0travelled by myself. What does it mean for me to be here, integrated and adjusted, but simultaneously, a complete anomaly?<\/p>\n

India, it seems, “is” and “is not” simultaneously. It is itself and it is its opposite. It\u2019s mysterious, it\u2019s elusive, it\u2019s just as much an experience or a feeling as a place. India escapes words and words escape me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture me this: an office, full of intelligent women clicking away at computers, analyzing data, authoring reports, planning community education, training a\u00a0fleet of maternal and child health warriors to sail into communities and make a tangible difference. Women in three different clinics in Mumbai slums spearhead nutritional counseling, pregnancy clubs, cooking courses, breastfeeding instruction, and mother-child bonding classes for local women. For my internship, I\u2019m working with the Foundation for Mother and Child Health and the scene is just this….<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-61"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/sisablogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}