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Bideshi! Bideshi!


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I've been on placement for two and a half weeks now and I'm sure I'll eventually get used to being stared at as if I'm some sort of freak of nature with my pale, white skin and light, brown hair but at the moment I’m still finding it pretty awkward. There’s a young girl in our host home who wouldn’t come near me at first and used to hide when she saw me. She’s now got used to me and will run up smiling when she sees me although she’s still fascinated by my skin colour.
When out and about, you know you’ve been spotted when you hear cries of Bideshi! Bideshi! (Foreigner! Foreigner!) normally accompanied by several running children. They run alongside the rickshaw van shouting ‘hi hello how are you fine thank you’ all in one breath. Admittedly, this can be quite sweet so it’s easier to just smile, say hello and wave back, although I still feel slightly foolish.
Most of the adults however, just stare and continue staring no matter your reaction to this determined eye contact. It’s taking a while to get used to this reaction from people and feeling like you’re constantly on show. In the village where we live it is becoming more normal for people to see us on the van going to and from Chardakatia or the Renaissance office. If we’re walking we tend to be stared at though since we don’t always wear sari or salwar kameez.
Outside our village we must be some of the first foreigners people have ever seen which was I half expected but it’s still difficult to comprehend. It’s quite amusing when they realise that you don’t have to have white skin to be British either.
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