Well, yesterday was just not all that exciting, so here’s the one sentence summary: we woke up, went to work, had a meeting with Professor Moledina, left work, had a group dinner with all of GSE, and then went to bed.

Now for today.  Much more fun.  Amanda, Yoshi, Maria and I had to wake up early because we went out to the villages today to see Hippocampus Kindergarten Centers in action.  We left our apartments at about 7:30am and then had to pick up Venkatesh, the Regional manager for Mandya District, which is where we went today.  We were on the road by about 8am, and after we drove for about an hour, we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall place for breakfast.  Venkatesh told us that they had excellent masala dosas, so that’s what we all ordered.  He didn’t lie, it was a good way to start the day; we all walked into the restaurant slightly comatose, and walked out nice and awake and excited for the day.

We reached the first village, Hodahalli (which has 1500 households), at about 10:30am.  The building that the school is in is owned by a woman in the village and HLC pays about 800 rupees (about $15) a month for the use of the building.  We took our shoes off and walked inside to see about 20 4-year olds sitting in a big circle.  This room hosted the pre-kindergarten class, which means that these kids entered a school-type environment for the first time last week.  A few of them are still adjusting to being away from their parents for a good chunk of the day, and so were in tears or clinging to their backpacks for much of the time we were there.  Anyway, we walked in and sat down on the floor, joining the circle with the 4-year olds.  They were singing songs, practicing counting, and reciting their abc’s.  Maria and I were supposed to be recording our day by taking pictures and talking to the teachers, so we did just that. 

We met several teachers, and with the help of Venkatesh’s translations, we were able to ask them about how they liked working for Hippocampus, what their favorite part of their job is, and about their families.  Throughout the conversations, the children were eating snacks and playing, which was a blast to watch.  At one point, we all learned the “making melodies” song, which the kids sang for the next hour- the four-line song will be forever imprinted in my brain. 

As we gathered up our belongings to leave, one of the teachers, Usha, invited us to walk to her home.  The village is small, so it wasn’t more than a five-minute walk, and along the way, we also met Usha’s mother, who was an integral part in bringing Hippocampus to the village and getting the kindergarten center set up.  Usha’s home was a modest, beautiful blue cement building, and as soon as we walked in, she pulled up four plastic chairs for us and we sat down.  Several other women from the school came with us as well, and we all sat and had coffee.  We met Usha’s sister and her baby, who hung in the center of the room in a scarf that was tied to a beam in the ceiling.  We sat for a while, and Usha also brought us the most delicious bananas I’d ever had, but then we had to leave to make our way to the second village we were supposed to see.  We took a huge series of photos with everyone in Usha’s home, said our goodbyes, and then we got in the car and left. 

Mullahalli is only 9km away from Hodahalli, so we arrived fairly quickly.  This kindergarten center is brand new: it opened this year and classes only started last week, so there are still only a few children enrolled.  The class was much quieter, they were playing with legos when we came.  We sat down on the floor with the kids, and we played with the ones that weren’t scared of us.  We asked the teacher a few basic questions, but her English was a little more limited than the teachers from Hodahalli, so we spent most of our time playing with the kids and seeing how tall of a lego tower we could build.  We stayed for close to an hour, and then we said our goodbyes and once again got back in the car.

When we were driving, Venkatesh said he had gotten a call from Usha, saying that her son, who is 6, was very upset that he didn’t get to meet us.  We ended up driving back to Hodahalli to meet her son and have another brief visit.  We drove to the school, but once again ended up walking to Usha’s house, because apparently Usha’s sister liked us so much that she made us sweets.  We sat again and talked and enjoyed the payesa (I think that’s how its spelled…) which is basically like sweet macaroni with raisins.  It might sound weird, but it was actually pretty yummy.  It was about 4pm, and we had to drive back to Bangalore still, so we had to say goodbye to Usha, her family, and the other teachers once again, and hit the road.  I wish we had more time to spend in the village, everyone was so kind and welcoming, I am sure that with more time we could have learned a lot more about them and immensely enjoyed getting to know them. 

We had a nice drive back to Bangalore and actually made it back to the apartments before we normally would after a day at the HLC offices.  I, however, had to immediately run back out.  Last weekend when I went shopping I ordered two salwar suits for my lovely mama, and I had to go pick them up today.  I took an auto down to Commercial Street and walked to the shop only to find out that the salesman had told me today but told the tailor tomorrow, so the suits weren’t ready.  Shoot.  So now I get to go back later to pick them up- oh well!!  I took an auto back to the apartments, and after a long and exciting day, it’s now time for bed!