Extended travel, no matter how much you may be enjoying yourself, is hard on the psyche. The inability to escape to your private relaxation areas, find your go-to comfort foods when feeling ill, and just enjoy the comforts of your own home can be taxing on one'a emotions.
Such emotions came to the surface this Friday in Bhubaneswar. Since arriving in India, I have been struck by the large number of stray dogs roaming around all of the cities. As a dog lover, it has been very difficult for me to see the dogs and not give them food, or pets, or a good belly rub as one asked of me on Friday morning. It makes my heart break to see them seem so convinced that they are not worthy of love or attention, and it makes me want to hug my dog so tightly when I arrive home next Saturday. If I could, I would be arriving home with hundreds of brothers and sisters for Bell.
To top that off, we visited a government school in the nearby city of Cuttack on Friday afternoon as part of a community service project. We had visited an orphanage school in Bangalore, but no amount of preparation could prepare me for the experience I had a few days ago. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my school in India-SAI International- is remarkable not just by Indian standards, but also by American standards. I know that I am incredibly lucky to have been placed at this school, and to teach at a very similar school in the US. I also know that my placement in India is not the norm-most of my colleagues were placed in tragically underfunded government schools. I didn't have a full sense of just how much such surroundings would strike me until visiting a government school.
The school was a two story cement structure with limited electricity. The students sat at small benches and tables that were meant for small children. It was clear that they weren't just lacking advanced technology, but more importantly they lacked essential resources that we have in the US. It was this lack of resources, combined with the sheer joy of the students at welcoming us to their school, that overwhelmed me. The students gave us roses, wanted us to sing with them and shake their hands and give out hugs. We were mugged by the students as if we were the Beatles. It's difficult to describe the experience entirely-but to watch this display, coupled with the great hospitality of the school, tugged on my emotions more than any other travel experience, and is on par with an earlier experience in Bangalore where a young girl asked me to adopt her sister.
My colleagues in other parts of India have witnessed such outpourings of love and poorly funded schools all week. One day in such a school left me emotionally exhausted-I cannot imagine how they feel as they leave their cities to head to Delhi, and later, head back to the States where our schools, no matter how poorly funded or struggling, are so fortunate.