Day 1 - Tue., February 24, 2015
Tuesday, 9:00 am - We get the word from Hunar Ghar that the kids are assembled and about to leave for Udaipur. It is a three-hour journey through what was historically rather lawless tribal land. Now with a new highway, and a bustling tourist and retreat business growing in nearby Mount Abu, the trip is not so rough. Wonder what it will look like from their point of view?
The travelers are seven Class 6 students at Hunar Ghar School. Curiously they all have the same last name - or so we were told when creating the group photo, and other documentation required for concession entry to a number of institutions (like the City Palace Museum) that we will be visiting this week. Same parents? Unlikely. Same village? Maybe. Bakhel is in fact five villages that have co-existed rather fragilely in the past. Now that kids from each of the five villages are attending the school, co-operation is more evident, such as 27 women working together in a small savings club.
Oops...we forgot to get a soccer ball last night. Gotta rush out and find another friendly Udaipur merchant. We sure are getting to know this city like never before...and finding so many open hearts along the way.
The travelers are seven Class 6 students at Hunar Ghar School. Curiously they all have the same last name - or so we were told when creating the group photo, and other documentation required for concession entry to a number of institutions (like the City Palace Museum) that we will be visiting this week. Same parents? Unlikely. Same village? Maybe. Bakhel is in fact five villages that have co-existed rather fragilely in the past. Now that kids from each of the five villages are attending the school, co-operation is more evident, such as 27 women working together in a small savings club.
Oops...we forgot to get a soccer ball last night. Gotta rush out and find another friendly Udaipur merchant. We sure are getting to know this city like never before...and finding so many open hearts along the way.
Tuesday, 7:00 pm - Exhausted, humbled and over-photographed. And grateful to all who made Day 1 such a success. We assembled in Rajiv Gandhi Park on the banks of Fateh Sagar Lake, and recognized familiar faces from our music workshop last year…a little more mature, and among the boys particularly, a little more shanti. The students out Frisbee’d us, for sure, and the soccer ball possession time seemed to be about equal. Udaipur Times reporter Devika showed up on sked at 4:00 pm to take the pulse of the afternoon.
Ice cream on the way home: perhaps the most foreign moment we witnessed today. The students seemed stunned. By the variety? The opulence? Using a plastic spoon to extract something cold from a plastic cup? That's why I like the mango stick. You just lick.
How are we doing? Early days, I guess. Tomorrow the work starts…the stories…the questions…the tiny seed planting. How are we doing?
Ice cream on the way home: perhaps the most foreign moment we witnessed today. The students seemed stunned. By the variety? The opulence? Using a plastic spoon to extract something cold from a plastic cup? That's why I like the mango stick. You just lick.
How are we doing? Early days, I guess. Tomorrow the work starts…the stories…the questions…the tiny seed planting. How are we doing?