It’s nearly midnight here and New Year's music is thumping from the lobby party below, but we’ve all gone to bed after nearly 15 hour day. We started out after breakfast to the orphanage run by SOS Villages Jaipur . As we end the year, I wanted students to have the opportunity to “give back” to India a little of what she is giving to us. If a picture is worth a thousand words then perhaps the photos I’m uploading will tell the story of the group of sweet, funny, and highly energetic children that we met today. We played for about four hours, sharing songs (e.g., Itsy Bitsy Spider ) and games (e.g. tag) and running around a lot! (Thank your local elementary school teacher / this stuff is exhausting!) As we got back on the bus to leave one of the students said, “I’d be happy to skip all the other stuff and just stay here today and another said he could stay there for a year. This could easily outrank the Taj as the highlight of our trip.
Following the orphanage we had lunch and left for Jantar Mantar, an amazing observatory built in 1728. Here we wandered through a garden of ancient mechanisms once used for telling time, latitude, altitude, and much more. Amazingly, they still work today. Again, I'll let the pictures talk, but...keep in mind the pictures thus far have been mine (except for Newark) and I'm working quickly with a teensy Cannon...not like some of the semipros we've got among the students! Look for their AMAZING photos soon once we find time to upload them!
Then, after the observatory, it was off to a Bollywood film. I was pretty nervous about this one, really. I mean, I knew some of the students would like it, but…what about the geographers traveling with us? And, what if the film wasn’t subtitled? A romantic love story in Hindi? The film , held a the Raj Mandir theater, was called Rab Ne Baba Di Jodii. The film is about a newly married couple...he’s a nerd who works for Punjab Power (lighting up your life) and she’s a beauty who, not wanting to be married to him, is distantt...at first! When she enters a dance contest, he goes undercover (after getting made over as Raj, a macho guy with tight shirts and gelled hair) and ends up as her partner. Jodi dances with him, not knowing that he is really her husband. Each night after practice, he changes back into his dowdy clothes and returns home, Jodi none the wiser. Until, of course, the ruse is up…ending with victory on the dance floor and love between the partners. Even in Hindi we laughed A LOT…and enjoyed the audience participation!
I just have to add one more thing for all the parents there...last night we held class for nearly 2 hours outside because students wanted even more sociology. I am absolutely having a wonderful time with your kids and feel fortunate to be sharing this experience with them. We are learning a lot and I can't wait for you to hear all about it in person.
Tomorrow it's off to Agra and the Taj Mahal. We may not have the internet tomorrow but stay tuned...