Beem Sticks?

The other day I walked by Jarao playing in the garden and I noticed that she had two tiny sticks stuck in her earlobes. I know these kids like to do silly things but this was crazy! It looked like something a rural African tribal woman would do. This is something like our conversation went. I asked, “Why did you put sticks in your ears?” She said, “Esther put them in.” “Why would Esther do such a thing!?” and Jarao replied, “Aunty said.” I was so caught up in the apprehension of the whole thing and it didn’t make sense to me that a grown adult would tell her to put sticks in her earlobes so I proceeded to pull them out, as gently as I could of course. I felt horrible because she was crying because of the pain, but I was thinking ‘that’s why we don’t DO crazy things like this.’ But…as it turns out…I was thought of as the crazy one. The oldest girl Jeeva said the same thing of me, “Why would she do such a crazy thing?” Apparently, it is a fairly common practice for girls to put these sticks in their ears if they have an infection and they don’t want their earring holes to close. These sticks are supposed to have some type of medicinal value and they won’t leave splinters as I thought they would. Now, I don’t know if this is true or not but I still think it’s a little wild. I guess I still have lots to learn about cross cultural living in India. I’m sorry Jarao!