Cultural Immersion: Done
"Cultural Immersion: Living in the community 24/7, challenging one’s cultural and individual assumptions and identity. In other words, a sojourner’s engagement with and interaction in a host culture, with the goal of extensive involvement with host culture members " - Beyond Borders
In 2012 I came to India, Bangalore for work but I have not experienced the culture like I have in CSC, for many different reasons, but I will highlight two. First, you are not alone, you have your CSC Team members to backup for you and second there is an infrastructure all set, well planned and ready to help locally - In my case, Pyxera Global through Veronika. Being part of CSC and do not immerse yourself in the culture of the country you're going is the same as not participating of CSC at all.
From my understanding, Cultural Immersion can only be considered done if the following aspects of the community are done:
1) Food
2) Daily Work
3) Traffic
4) Tourist points
5) Language
6) Clothes
7) Music
8) Local / traditional market
As I have been reporting in my last posts, Food, Daily Work, Traffic and Tourists points were accomplished throughout the past few weeks. Clothes, I have been wearing Kurtas, an Indian type long shirt for several days during the week. Music is one of my passions, and we were able to fully experience it through our visit to King of Dreams this past Thursday, where we watched a musical theater presentation with many dance and music.
So, the last one that was missing was Local/traditional market, which was accomplished yesterday during our visit to Old Delhi. For these past few weeks, we have visited rural and urban places through our NGO, we have also visited amazing and fancy places, but yet we have not faced the old and traditional culture like we did Yesterday. We first went to the Red Fort, then we walked to the local spice market, which was about 1.5km away from the Fort. There were so many people on the streets, many different smells, different colors, different sounds and finally I realized my cultural immersion was done because that India I used to watch on TV was there.
Getting back to all my daily reflections I realized how rich this experience really is and that the bond that really ties all CSC members together is not only the our goal to act as pro-bono consultants, but also our focus to grub the local culture in all its extent. I still can't believe 3 weeks are gone and that next Sunday I will be at home, but thinking about it actually makes me understand the reason for all the intense emotions I have been feeling lately: My Cultural Immersion in India is finally done.
