We are here!

Tommy tallied it up. It took us 25 hours of travel to get here to the City of Child School. We arrived at around 2AM or 3AM and some folks (not naming names) decided to stay up the extra few hours to see the sunrise. They have since admitted that this was not a great choice as they were exhausted all day and we are all avoiding naps to kick the jet lag. It has been a lazy, humid, and rainy day that seemed to last forever. We went for a walk around the compound and local road first thing this AM and then had breakfast. The roads near the school are red dirt and rock and pocked with water-filled holes and deep grooves from motorcycles. There is a water filtration system here but we take the added step of purifying the water as well. No one has had any issues regarding pathogens from water or food. Speaking of which, our hosts presented us with loaves of white bread and peanut butter and jelly for lunch. Since then, Mrs. Keller-Coffey let them know that we are happy to eat the food that the boys here eat. It has been delicious. They make the roti fresh today and that has been paired with white rice and dahl soup and some stewed vegetables in curry. Our students have jumped in with cleaning dishes and offered to help prepare the meals as well. After the City of Child kids came home from school, the Millbrook students joined them in the chapel to help with homework, color, and play. The young boys here energetic, respectful and totally open. They want to know us and for us to know them. It was a treat to see Sara and Liesje take a try at playing the tabla with some instructions from a very musically talented Indian boy. It is 8:30PM and Daniel is cocooned in his mosquito net 1/2 asleep and most others are well on their way. Morning calisthenics for the school is at 6AM, so the early bedtime is for the best.

As an aside, I had the opportunity to ride into town today in a rickshaw to buy a USB adapter that is now enabling me to write this post. It was a treat. We drove a few kilometers (go metric system!) to an open-air market/bazar that totally captures India in 2015 in my opinion. Picture this: Smells of fried dough and curried potatoes mingle with with diesel exhaust from giant ornately decorated trucks. The sound of beeping mopeds is jumbled with bleating goats and the hum of Indian men negotiating the best price for a kilogram of mangoes.I am standing in a semi-enclosed stall investigating a USB gadget that produces a wireless signal off of the 3G cellular network that is also in close proximity to a man pouring cups of water over a freshly skinned goat hanging from a metal hook.

What a place.

Making roti on the floor.

Sartosh driving the rickshaw