Thursday, February 7

Thursday, February 7, 2008:
This morning we packed up at our hosts, and then Susan and I went to visit a college. It was nice to get to see a college after visiting a number of K – 12 schools. We were greeted by various school officials and a local media person who wanted to interview me about some of the differences in education between India and the United States.

We were also given a tour of their library, one of the largest libraries in Chhatsgar. We met with some students in an open courtyard on the campus, and then met with some of the faculty members. They were quite interested in our education system. While we were visiting the power went off—this seems to be common practice.

Next we went to our coordinator’s house where Dani was busy preparing our “American lunch”—macaroni and cheese, mash potatoes, and fried chicken. It smelled very good and some of us even had seconds. After lunch we loaded up the two vehicles for our trip to the next city—Bilaspur. The roads here are nothing like we have in the states, and we are not used to them or the way people drive here. We were not shocked, but we still jolted by a recent accident involving a motorcycle and truck. The motorcycle was crushed under the truck, and there was a large pool of blood—it is not surprising that a newspaper article dubbed the highways here in India “death traps”.

We arrived in Bilaspur around 7:00 p.m. and were picked up by our new hosts along a busy main city road—it was a little difficult and chaotic trying to unload, load and meet our new hosts while being passed and honked at by a number of vehicles during rush hour.

At our hosts we quickly changed and then went to the Rotary meeting, Dani was quite late, although in India that is often the norm, and she arrived in grand style—decked out in a beautiful turquoise saree complete with elaborate jewelry and make-up. There was not a computer projector available so we just used my laptop for our presentation. The meeting room had open windows to the street, so we had car honks as background music, and many extra guest—mosquitoes that we kept swatting.

After the meeting we went to out coordinator’s home for dinner. There we were entertained by several guests singing songs, and then were asked to sing also. We decided to sing the one song we have practiced—America the Beautiful. As seems to be the custom, we first had drinks and appetizers and then around 10:30 p.m. had dinner. We thought the appetizers were the meal so we had already filled up. The travel days are also quite draining so we were fading quickly.