short notes for today

July 17, 2008-(Thursday)- Palumpur, India

Like every day since I arrived in Palumpur, I awakened to the sound of singing birds. As this is my last day, I tried to savor it. I drank Chai for the last time. I ate mangos, and scrambled Indian-spiced eggs.

The last day with the kids at Gyan Deep was great. We rigged up a make-shift video and the kids loved it. They were able to see for the first time, parts of the world that they only had labels for. Shri took pictures of each student and told me that he is going to put together a web page for the school. How cool is that? If this doesn’t motivate the teachers and principal, I don’t know what will! I will continue to see what I can do as far as getting a grant for them. When I started saying good-bye, the kids were coming over to get pictures and hugs. It was difficult. I gave them all copies of my address and told them to write to me. As I was walking down the hill, one boy stopped me and gave me a letter he’d wrote to me. In the letter he said that he wants to be a doctor. Could I send him some books? He would also like pictures of the ocean as he has never seen it and heard me talk about it. In my heart I promised myself that I would definitely get some books sent to him. Who knows, maybe I will return to India for his graduation from Medical school ! At the house I grabbed some lunch and brought my luggage downstairs. I said good bye to my new friends and the staff. There was a long, hot, drive to the Dharmasala airport, a 2 hour plane ride, and we were back in Delhi where my adventure had begun.