Observations

1. I am constantly impressed by the resilience of the human spirit here. Why is it that while I complain about every small nuisance — how hard school is, or how many unanswered emails are currently sitting in my inbox— there are children here who have lost practically everything yet still face each day with a smile on their faces and a positive outlook on life?

2. One sure sign of cultural assimilation – not converting prices originally shown in Rupees into Dollars, but instead complaining about how overpriced a 100 rupee chocolate bar is. (Note: It will definitely be difficult returning to the U.S and then paying 300 rupees, I mean uh, five dollars for a Starbucks latte.)

3. We talk about the kids, a lot. If I had a rupee for the number of Sri Lakshmi, Santosh Kumar, or Pavan references made by the group in a day, I’d buy myself some banana chips. As difficult as it’s going to be for the kids to adjust to school life without us, it’s going to be equally (if not more) difficult for us to adjust to life without playing the ABC game or belting out “The Wheels on the Bus” at the top of our lungs.

4. One year from now, what will I remember of this trip? I don’t quite know. I’ve realized my strongest memories come in flashes with smells and tastes attached. Details concerning our daily routines, the crowded roads which have become oh so familiar, and the names of all 68 of my students will inevitably fade with time. Yet, there are certain conversations, observations, and experiences that I certainly know will last. It makes me wonder what the kids will remember about us.

5. Here’s a “wordle” of our blog as of today. Wordle is a really neat tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.