Day 29 – Monday, March 31
It's truly hard to believe that this is
the beginning of my second month here; not surprised, mind you.
Talking with Becky last night has me seriously considering extending
my time here from September 15 until the end of October. There are
two festivals during that time of year that are supposed to be even
better than Holi. And apparently, all the processions run directly
on the street right down from Becky's balcony. My current employment
visa expires October 20. The festival of Diwali is the last week of
October. That being said, I would have to travel out of the country
prior to that – most likely Nepal. I can get a Nepali limited
tourist visa at the Kathmandu airport for a week and see the sites
there. Then I can return to India after October 20, get a obtain a
limited tourist visa for a week or fourteen days at then Delhi or
Mumbai airport upon arrival. That leaves changing my return flight
to Houston on Turkish air to the end of October 31; a fee will apply
to do that. We shall see how this idea works out.
Today is Monday. Routine in place, I
meet Nora and Rahul at the dolphins and we head out. It's already
warm, the sun beating down as it does every day. I wear a long
sleeve collarless shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I will start
wearing my kurtas soon, should have them tomorrow; at least those
will be more lightweight. I keep my hair short and wear a ball cap
all the time. My new backpack holds all my things pretty good and it
fits a lot better on my back. And finally, I have a pack that isn't
fraying apart and the zipper works good too. I was starting to
wonder if one day either the zipper or stitching was going to give
way sending my laptop and other gear out on the road. The new one
also has outside pockets on either side for my water bottles. For
700 rupees, I'm happy.
We get there and the kids are all over
us. They are always so happy to see us. I can only imagine what it
will be like on June 10 after they get back from their two month
break. We aren't scheduled to have any work time with the kids now
because they are studying for their exams which start on Wednesday.
Nora and I are going to buy ice cream for everyone tomorrow, teachers
and staff included – 900 rupees for 100 ice creams; not bad
compared to US standards.
Nora and I take a while to do a
preliminary review of what we would like to accomplish starting with
the next session in June. I have many potential plans on what I
would like to do with these kids, but I have to keep remembering that
we are not like one of the community centers with additional
teachers. We are down to bare bones with limited resources. No one
knows enough English to get by, let alone Nora or I knowing any
Gujarati. You can't get the Standard 6 or 7 kids to the level they
should be at without really having started them at an earlier level.
We get two standards of kids for only one day per week for only a
couple of hours at a time. So it basically comes down to, what do we
want to accomplish. So Nora, having been here for several months,
has it pretty much all figured out; we can just make our time with
them as fun as possible, while continuing to throw in English words
all the time. It's frustrating, and you are always thinking of what
else you might be able to do. But that's not going to make the
situation any better.
The guys here are doing well on both
throwing and catching the football. I even got them to get in
position with a center, quarterback and a pass receiver. Very crude,
but they are getting the idea. It's so hot now, but monsoon season
will be here in no time and the thought of a muddy field sounds
better and better.
So, it's ice cream tomorrow and that's
pretty much it for now. We take the 3:30, number 70 bus back today.
The rocking motion of the bus makes its best effort to lull you into
a nap, the warm breeze flowing through the open windows. As much as
I have started disliking the colder weather in northeast Texas
during the winter, the thought of it now already makes me weary of
going back. Just looking at some of the hotels for my upcoming trip
that offer non-air conditioned rooms and I am planning on that as
long as there is a ceiling fan. The air conditioning in the hotel in
Mumbai really turned me against the use of air conditioning at all;
no way to control the direction of the air flow, and it is aimed
right at the bed. I think I'll pass.
Stop for our daily ice cream, then I'm
off to Manav Sadhna for wifi while Nora heads home. Wifi is good,
mostly, at Manav Sadhna. It is the only place I can upload photos at
a decent speed. Dropped Paul an email and some photos so he can let
the family know what I'm up to. I seriously wish he would just sign
on to Facebook because that is where I make regular updates. I try
to make updates to Facebook a few times a week, and an email to Paul
around once a week.
On my way out of Manav Sadhna, Shirish
sees me and we start talking. I mention that we are wrapping up
Naroda tomorrow until June 10. He mentions his people are writing
reports and wants to know if I will be able to take their documents
and write them better. Obviously, I say no problem. As long as I
get the idea of what they are trying to say, I can rewrite almost
anything better. He will let me know when they are ready. I also
get the first hint that the Himalayan trip will most likely start
around the beginning of May. That would be the best timing for me; I
just hope they stick to that. Once again, we shall see.
No matter how things go during the
course of a day, when I sit down and make my notes, I always realize
that life is good.
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