Jan 13 & Jan 14

Jan 13 (Wed) 6:30 PM
Today I showed the students my pictures from home. They were fairly excited and were sad I didn’t have very many pictures to share. They thought my house was beautiful and my family all looked the same. The boys were especially excited to see who this David guy was who is my boyfriend. I took half of the class at a time into the library because it is so small and there are so many of them (about 40 per classroom). In the library there is a dining room sized table and benches so they could sit and look at the pictures in the middle. The other half worked on answering questions like “what do you like to learn about” and “what are your hobbies.” Many of them wanted me to teach them math and science because those are their weakest subjects. The majority of them also said they want to be social workers or health care providers for he poor and orphans. I think coming from that background themselves helps to encourage them along that path. They are all so sweet and I want to take them home with me and put them thru school in the States. The education is fairly good here but I feel w/o financial support nearly all of these students don’t have a chance for college. Samata itself is a very good school. The passing rate for students is significantly higher than the national average and it only costs them 100 Rs ($1.50) per month to attend. The founder has received many international awards and I feel lucky to have met him. He was in “Ode” magazine recenty.

Jan 14 (Thurs) 9:00 PM
There is no class tomorrow so today I started a project to have them build a tower from straws and tape. Just brainstorming today and the construction will start Sunday. There is a Hindu festival on Friday which I have only been told it means they eat a lot of food. Andrew and I went to a fair trade market today and I found a lot of cool things. I only bought a purse and some welcome scarves that I have gotten here at the house and at the school. They are the most meaningful thing to represent my trip so far.

Life is going well. The food is still fantastic although Andrew and I had wood fired pizza today for dinner. The lack of spice was welcomed by my system. Another new year treat was made while I was at school today. Basically rice flour mush deep fried. Doesn’t have much flavor to it.