Can we take a selfie?

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that this morning- I'd be able to buy pencils for my classroom! Today was really a special day. Rajesh took us all to the village he was born in and still has family at. This is NOT something you would be able to experience in any way shape or form in another situation - not a regular tour stop. We had the honor of being the first foreigners to come into the village. They had no idea!!

Driving to the village I got to really see the poverty - people sleeping on mats on the side of the road or in the round-a-bout areas (which actually are pretty nicely landscaped). Stray dogs and cattle roaming the streets eating from the huge piles of trash that is basically everywhere. I get angry at the litter in Denver and the States, but this is a whole other level. At 5:30 am the city was alive with people - kids playing cricket in large fields, people walking, animals everywhere (cows and dogs mostly) just basically a lot of hustle and bustle and traffic. I'd say it's because people want to avoid the heat of the day, but it's like this all day and night. We went so early because it got so hot and humid even at 8-9 am but much better than if it had been the afternoon. Anyhoo - as we get more into the country there is obviously lots of agriculture activities going on and less trash. It's quite beautiful.

We arrive to Pachayara and are welcomed like kings and queens by Rajesh's cousins. They made a point to show us everyday activities like making roti which is like a wheat naan bread...I jumped in there and attempted to fail at getting the dough and slap it back and forth in my hands to make a large circle. Mine was embarrassingly small but I tried. The dough goes on a small oven that gets its heat from dung patties. We walk to the center of town to go to the local community temple with an area for Lord Shiva worshiping. This is when it got real - the whole village comes to watch us and the older women are singing for us a welcome song. We receive (another...) Puja Thalia welcome ceremony and then they start dancing for us. Again I and some others jump in and dance. A local woman gave me her scarf to use so I could mimic the moves they were doing - I consider it an honor - there was so much laughter and smiling! This is where the title of the blog comes in - I cannot tell you how many selfies I (we) were asked to take with women, children and men. It wasn't even on their phones - most were on our phones. They just wanted to take pictures of them with us even if they would never see them again. It was continuous and at times we had to just leave so we could hit our next spot in the town. It was so sweet though. We got an ox-cart ride back to Rajesh's uncle's house...kids were running behind us and the village people were waving goodbye.....Rajesh's cousin was saying the village people didn't really even know what was going on but were excited to see foreigners. Evidently the women and girls rarely, if at all, leave the village so we must have been a sight!

We received some lassi - yogurt drink and some delicious snacks. While I'm trying to avoid certain potentially "dangerous" foods, I tried a bit as to be gracious. We headed back to New Delhi to learn more about the education system in India in our usual conference room.

I could go on about the education system which is similar to ours but will not since this post is already pretty long. I will leave you with a quote from Gandhi (however it is also attributed to Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey from Africa - so I'm not sure who actually said it or maybe Gandhi was inspired by his quote?)....

" If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl/woman, you educate an entire family."...love it!