A Story for Kendra

I couldn't decide whether or not to post this story...but in doing so, I trust everyone can appreciate this "cultural experience." It happened a few days back... And no, photos will not be posted :) This is a picture of Joyce and Ruma...the story's two culprits.

Of all the people in my life, I think Kendra would most appreciate what happened to me earlier today. This afternoon, I had about an hour to kill before meeting up with Clint and Geom to go to Vikash Nagar, a small town only 2km away. I’d just been given the task of designing 4 brochures for Herbertpur Christian Hospital, so I thought I’d go take a few pictures of the campus. The previous night, Clint and I had taken a walk up the road that leads to HCH. It’s narrow and lined with shop and every day Indians, so I wanted to get some photos. I began snapping away and as I zoomed in on this group of girls, I noticed that they were staring at me. No bother, I was getting some good photos! As I continued down the road, I ran into these girls. Two of them knew English fairly well and before I knew it I was sitting down with them, being served chai and some spicy, salty snack. I was so proud of myself sitting down with random strangers. It seemed that the girls, Joyce (21) and Ruma (18), had gotten to know a lot of the HCH visitors. They are really adorable.

Well, before long, they were asking me if I’d ever worn a sari. I didn’t know what to say because I thought I was wearing one! Come to find out, I was not wearing a sari, rather a suit. They kept insisting that I try a sari on. Not really knowing what a sari was, I kept telling them that I was too conservative to wear one. I’ve seen a lot of Indians wearing this dress thing that exposed their back and stomach. Yeah, not planning on wearing that anytime soon. Well, a sari covers everything, so my conservative excuse didn’t hold any weight.

The longer the conversation ensued, the more danger I knew I was in. I either had to go try on one of their saris, or never again leave the HCH compound because their shop is right outside of the gate and every time I left HCH, I would be harassed about trying on a sari. So I agreed. I knew that I had 30 minutes or so before I needed to meet Clint and Geom, so I agreed to go to Joyce’s house to try on a sari and take pictures. After all, how long can putting this dress thing on take?

So we went back to Joyce’s house for the big “trying on of the sari.” I told Joyce and Ruma that we had to do this in 15 minutes and they acted like it was possible. We go back to Joyce’s bedroom and I find myself in a room with two total strangers trying their clothes on. Weird. Totally out of the norm for me. Then, it took at least 15 minutes just to get the thing on. You have to put on a top and a skirt and then wrap this giant piece of fabric around you in a contorted manner. It’s too complicated for one person to dress themselves, so someone else, Joyce in my case, was delicately draping me in this fabric.

Finally, we got it on. Then, apparently, my shoes weren’t good enough to wear with the sari, so Joyce gave me a pair of her way-too-small red beaded shoes. I crammed my feet in…good to go. Or not. Next came the bangles. Then came the sticker that goes in between my eyes. Then came the necklace. Then they redid my hair so they could hang this piece of jewelry from my hair down my forehead. When it came time for them to put makeup on me, I struggled so hard to keep from laughing. For some reason, all I could think of was “What would Kendra do?” Then I would laugh some more. This was getting outrageous. And the makeup was BRIGHT red lipstick and blush. This was followed by bright eye shadow and dark eyeliner. Finally, I was ready for this picture. Out of control.

We go outside and of course I’m ok with taking the picture right there. Oh no. We had to go up on the roof for our photo shoot. And a photo shoot it was. I felt like I was taking senior pictures all over again. They put me in this pose and in that pose, all the while making sure my sari stayed draped correctly and the dangling jewelry on my forehead didn’t move. Seriously, out of control. If the girls weren’t so sweet, I never would have been talked into this.

By the time everything was said and done, I changed and was 15 minutes late in meeting Clint and Geom. I didn’t want to hurt the girls feelings, so I didn’t wipe off the makeup at Joyce’s house. As soon as I stepped out of the house, two of the girls I’ve met at HCH, Stephanie and Lois were there. Stephanie, in her Canadian accent, is like what happened to you?! It was too much. (Needless to say, I spent my whole walk back to HCH feverishly trying to wipe off the makeup). And to think…this is only day 3 at HCH!