New Dehli

July 8, 2008, New Delhi, India, (picture at school, 100057). I have not blogged for a few days. It has been a very intense five days. Traveling in a third world country is not for the faint of hart. The trip has been really eye opening compared to suburbia back home. The five star Taj Majhol motel in which we are staying is about two miles from the Presidential Palace. We are in an area of many governmental compounds (gated communities) with many countries having buildings on the same street. Our hotel room looks down onto a gated community but the people live in shacks. I get up each morning and watch about a dozen people use the same small bowl like sink for washing. That is the contrast of India from extreme wealth to extreme poverty. The United States Educational Fondation of India that runs the Fulbright-Hayes program is a couple of miles away. We get transported buy an air conditioned bus every where we go as a group. We are on a very strict schedule that we have to keep to. We get up early and work late. The first few days were listening to professor’s lecture on the educational system of India. We got to visit the national science curriculum group which would be equal to our Department of Education in D.C. I am not to sure that the officials in Washington DC would give me the time that the India government did. Fulbright hooked each of us up with a teacher and we got the opportunity to go out and visit schools. I visited a school about a 45 minute cab drive away. Being in a large European car means you are a dignitary or rich person. My driver was able to drive on campus and waited for me all day. The students arrived via cars, buses, walking, motorcycle and rickshaws. I was treated like a dignitary. Each day school begins with an assembly in the court yard. Lots of drumming and chants start the day off. They teach the students how to meditate and to achieve their goals. It is a very serious and quiet assembly. Each class is lined up by grade (about 40-50 per class). Since the school is so large the K-8 grades use the court yard. It is amazing to see little first graders stand in straight lines with out touching each other or moving, for 20 minutes. I actually gave a speech. I was very nervous as I didn’t want to be the Homer Simpson of the group and start an international incident. The temperature was 90 with 95% humidity. The classrooms were something else to see 40 -50 students in an area about half the size of the US standard. A chalk board at the front of the room with wooden desks that seats two students is all that is in a classroom. I went from classroom to classroom spreading good American cheer. Giving out good old SUMNER pencils and taking photos. I hope I left a good impression. I am behind on my blog and I am in Calcutta I am off to tour the city.