Wed, July 1st - City of Knowledge and Chicken Biryani

It's 11PM here and the girls have bathed and gone to bed and the boys are chatting with our tour guide Akash on the swing set in the playground. The last two days have had sunny and hot weather during the day and cool temperatures at night - great for sleeping. A few of us had varying degrees of GI distress (including me) and today it seemed that we have all, thankfully, found our stride again.We began the day playing with the boys (as always) and eating breakfast before heading off to City of Knowledge (around 30 minutes from here). The Millbrook students essentially babysit 1st - 4th graders while Kathy, Nancy and I did a teacher workshop on "student-centered learning" with the teachers of those grades. It went great and is something I won't soon forget. The Millbrook kids came out of the classrooms, on the other hand, looking like they had just done a few rounds in the boxing ring. We'll be back tomorrow for Round 2!

More than one of our students have said that they don't want to go home. My sense is that it is not as much a question of them not enjoying being there with you (phew!) but more that they have are filled with a sense of calm and purpose by being here. Many of them are calling CoC (City of Child) "home" and don't look forward to returning here whenever we leave. They actually LIKE the accommodations. In the end, though, it is about the CoC boys. Yesterday, Liesje decided to stay back with me and a bunch of other students to dig trenches at City of Child while the rest of the group went to the Deep Griha headquarters and shop for sari's. I found out later that she opted to do this grueling sweaty work over the other option not because she preferred it but because she thought it would give her a chance to spend more time with the boys that afternoon when they came home from school. Her gamble paid off in 2 ways: First, the boys returned before our group did so she got a lot of quiet time with the boys. Second, the rest of the group bought her a sari anyway (which she loved). That is one of many examples of how deeply engaged the Millbrook kids are with the CoC (City of Child) boys. Today, the bell rang at 6PM to signal the boys to go to the chapel for their study hall. The sun was low in the sky and a cool breeze was blowing.  The CoC boys were involved in an intensely fun game of soccer with Daniel and Henry (wearing flip flops). The bell kept ringing but no one was going to study hall! At one point, one of the short, tough ladies from the kitchen came out and gave them a tongue-lashing and off they went. But they could have stayed playing soccer for hours. Daniel, in particular, was in Heaven.

Akash, our tour guide, arranged to have about 5 kilos of fresh chicken purchased and brought to campus - for about $30 American. We have been eating an almost exclusively vegetarian diet here and meat, of any kind, is a luxury. The women made an amazingly delicious stew of tomatoes, onions, chicken and spices to which they later added rice to soak up the broth. As always, they make 2 meals, one spicy for the Indians and one mellower for everyone else. The dining hall was abuzz with chatter about how delicious this meal was. Santosh had a lot of help getting his charcoal grill fired up by Brandon before the meal to grill some of the spare chicken chunks. Santosh was basting the chicken parts in Indian ghi (butter) as they cooked - crisping them up. Everyone else was full from too much biryani but the Millbrook boys, me and the men on campus sat around the charcoal grill eating the delicious meat and throwing the bones for the dogs to fight over. As the full moon rose over their shoulder they remarked to each other, "this is the best chicken I have every had" and "I am never going to forget this dinner".