It was so great to see Devon this past week. He spent 8 days here. I jam packed our schedule so we could do and see as much as possible in a short time. We spent two days in Delhi site seeing (Sanjay flew up so the two of them could meet), two days in Agra seeing the Taj Mahal, one day at the school and two days in Rishiakesh seeing the Ganges and smelling fresher air than in Delhi and then the last night we stayed at the Embassy. We had a great time.
The one day at the school was pretty busy. We did a 'service' project of cleaning up the rest of the trash/garbage from behind on of the school buildings. I'm not sure if I posted before about the garbage problem or my solution so sorry if I'm repeating myself. So the school has been open for three years now and the solution for garbage was to throw it over the wall just so they don't have to look at it. They even tore down a small section of the wall to make it easier for the sweepers to dump garbage. Well with so much effort and complaining and with me getting angry, people slowly started to clean up some. They even went so far to hire daily labors to pick up the garbage. After 5 hours, I could tell they had cleaned some up but not enough that I was happy. So with Melanies help, she organized two garden rakes. Devon and I ventured out behind the building and along with us came the hostel kids. They cleaned up enthusiastically. They were engaging Devon in conversations, asking questions and doing it all in English. Cleaning up the garbage was my goal for the evening however hearing them talk to a complete stranger in English was a higher level of achievement. Them talking in English and talking with confidence is purely because of my interactions with them.
After a dinner of Onion Parathas, we went down to hang out with the kids. It turned into an impromptu Punjabi dance party. We did not bring our cameras but those images will forever be in my mind.
Devon pointed out some concerns, rather observations about the school.. What he saw in one day is what I've been living with. Upon my departure from the school in 3 days, I've created a list of some of the more important/valued suggestions, including Devon's observations that I'll be discussing with Melanie and Manish.
Anycase, here are the raw pictures from Devons trip. Enjoy!
https://picasaweb.google.com/campingchick3/DevonsIndiaVisit32012?authkey=Gv1sRgCM--zIGtj5e71gE&feat=email
The one day at the school was pretty busy. We did a 'service' project of cleaning up the rest of the trash/garbage from behind on of the school buildings. I'm not sure if I posted before about the garbage problem or my solution so sorry if I'm repeating myself. So the school has been open for three years now and the solution for garbage was to throw it over the wall just so they don't have to look at it. They even tore down a small section of the wall to make it easier for the sweepers to dump garbage. Well with so much effort and complaining and with me getting angry, people slowly started to clean up some. They even went so far to hire daily labors to pick up the garbage. After 5 hours, I could tell they had cleaned some up but not enough that I was happy. So with Melanies help, she organized two garden rakes. Devon and I ventured out behind the building and along with us came the hostel kids. They cleaned up enthusiastically. They were engaging Devon in conversations, asking questions and doing it all in English. Cleaning up the garbage was my goal for the evening however hearing them talk to a complete stranger in English was a higher level of achievement. Them talking in English and talking with confidence is purely because of my interactions with them.
After a dinner of Onion Parathas, we went down to hang out with the kids. It turned into an impromptu Punjabi dance party. We did not bring our cameras but those images will forever be in my mind.
Devon pointed out some concerns, rather observations about the school.. What he saw in one day is what I've been living with. Upon my departure from the school in 3 days, I've created a list of some of the more important/valued suggestions, including Devon's observations that I'll be discussing with Melanie and Manish.
Anycase, here are the raw pictures from Devons trip. Enjoy!
https://picasaweb.google.com/campingchick3/DevonsIndiaVisit32012?authkey=Gv1sRgCM--zIGtj5e71gE&feat=email
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