Monday, February 4, 2008

Monday, February 4, 2008
This morning Susan, Molly and I attended the Delhi Public School, which surprisingly (according to the name) is a private school. There are quite a few of these Delhi Public Schools throughout India that are very prestigious and evidently the competition to have your children attend is quite stiff. Attendance is also quite costly, so only children of well to do families attend.

I arrived later than Susan and Molly (evidently I was on Indian Standard Time), and the entire school was assembled to greet us. All the children were standing in straight lines, neatly dressed in their school uniforms. At the school we visited several classrooms and saw some of the salad competition that the 3 – 5th standard students had over the weekend. The judging was based on the artistic and creative arrangement of the food. It was quite interesting to see their works. In the classrooms some students asked about American schools—there are quite a few differences in terms of the facilities, the time, the level of commitment to their studies, and the extra curricular activities. We have learned that in India although school is over around 2:00 in the afternoon it is very common for students to receive several hours of tutoring from teachers in the afternoon and evening, in addition to regular study time.

While we were at the school, Dani and Tom visited a Coca-Cola bottling plant, which Dani said looked very much like a company in the states. They also visited a hospital which did NOT look like any hospital that we have in the states. As their host explained the emphasis in the hospitals in India is not on sanitation but on their condition. It is hard to imagine being so crowded in a large room with the other patients.

Next some of our hosts took us to do a little shopping. Unfortunately one of the store owners had just passed away so the market that my host took me to was closed to honor the store owner. We did visit a few other stores, but it is a little difficult to shop. Our hosts also packed a lunch for us to take on the train. The train was about half hour late, but thankfully was not full at all. This time we were not in a sleeper car—five seats across, three on one side and two on the other side of the aisle. On the train we were able to rest, and Dani and Molly were quite entertained by a new “friend” they made—a little mouse who they lured out with some bread.

Upon our arrival we met our hosts and then they took our luggage to their homes while our coordinator took us to one of his hotels to freshen up and have some tea. He also owns several stores and he took us to one where we were able to do a little shopping. Then we went to another one of his hotels where we had soup, and a friend of his sent over some books from his store. We were thrilled to be able to buy several well known books in Hindi to bring back as souvenirs.

Next we went to a join Rotary gathering, it was not an official meeting but we still gave our presentation and were given gifts and went through all the other formalities before enjoying dinner. After dinner we went back to our hosts, where I am sure we all went to bed.