Students visited the educational sites through Aasraa Trust. Upon visiting the slums on the Bindal Bridge, they experienced the inequality that sparked Gandhi’s teachings and fight for peace.
Following our now-routine breakfast with the Welham girls, 我们出发去参观纳夫丹尼亚, 当地的生物多样性农场, before traveling to The Doon School for the first time to explore their campus and meet the Headmaster for dinner.
在过去两天里, the GEO adventurers have been on a journey through Uttarakhand, 德拉敦北部. Mussoorie is a hill station built by the British as an escape from the summer heat.
Celebrating Holi with the girls at Welham was everything we wished for and more: there was music, 跳舞, 笑声, 快乐, 康加舞, 最重要的是, color!! (which we thankfully managed to wash out of our hair at the day’s end).
We spent most of the day traveling by bus from Delhi to Dehradun (meaning “home in the valley”). We drove past sprawling sugarcane fields, 高大的粘土炉烟囱, and plenty of cows roaming the roads.
After a night's rest recuperating from a long day of travel across multiple time zones, 我们遇到了我们的导游, Shantum-ji, who encouraged us to adopt the concept of a "walking meditation" during our time in 印度, where we think less about the destination and more about taking in everything along our journey. After orienting ourselves, we set off to explore the complex streets of Old Delhi.
After breakfast, we headed to an organic farm by the name of Navdanya. Navdanya is an NGO that works with farmers all over 印度 to switch from chemically modified seeds to organic seeds. The people there greeted us warmly, and after a short talk on the history , took us around the farm. Here, we meet Pablo, one of the many interns on the farm. He told us a lot about the mechanics of polycultural farming (Polycultural farms have multiple crops growing in the same area). Later, we had a wonderful lunch, full of all organic food. Anuj was amazed at the spices used in the dal.
A few highlights from our time in Dehradun so far:
周二, 我们开车去了瑞诗凯什, a beautiful town along the banks of the Ganga (Ganges) River – known a global hub for yoga. Here the students are entering the Ashram we visited, where we had the opportunity to meet with a Hindu guru.
在道场吃完午饭后, we headed to Rajaji National Forest and took a three hour safari – we saw lots of wildlife including elephants, 鹿, 孔雀, 猴子, 还有很多鸟类.
After a hike through an area of Dehradun known as Rajpur, we had a cooking class – we learned to make a delicious chickpea dish and rolled dough to make puris (fried bread).
We arrived safely in Dehradun on the train on Saturday afternoon, and have spent the last two days getting acclimated to the city we will be exploring for the next week. We received a warm welcome at Welham Girls School on Saturday, where our nine girls are being hosted. 当天晚些时候, 男孩们去了杜恩学校, 达文和我们见面的地方, the exchange student who came to Groton last year.
3月8日星期四th) we woke up bright and early to go to the Taj Mahal. The line was very long, but there was lots of entertainment such as 猴子. To make things better, we also got authentic chai (Zoe is a fan). Although we missed the majority of the sunrise, we were still struck by the beauty of the Taj Mahal. The light reflects on the Taj Mahal thus it changes color throughout the day, so it was really special to be able to notice the progression throughout the day.
我们降落在“世界2号”nd Best Airport” (Delhi) two days ago and have much to report. 当我们来到, we found ourselves in a hotel with three museums, 红土, 纺织品, 以及“日常用品”中的人工制品. Perhaps more importantly, the hotel was home to quite a few 猴子! Chris had to fend off a particularly bold one from munching his breakfast… After an orientation with our guide, Shantum we set off to the house where Gandhi spent his last days. We followed concrete markers for the path he walked in his last moments and explored the museum. 然后我们和Dr. Karan Singh, a politician/poet/scholar/naturalist/diplomat. 因为他身兼数职, he gave us a lecture on 印度n politics and history, fielded our questions about population control, 还朗诵了一首罗伯特·弗罗斯特的诗.
We are gearing up to leave for Logan Airport this evening for our flight to Delhi (via Dubai). Mr. Lamont hosted a Bollywood movie night last night for students who are on campus and we are heading to an 印度n lunch shortly.