Greetings All!

Today we set off on the first day of our adventure. We first met with the Panchayat (village community) leader who explained the philosophies of a self sustaining village, the history of what he has achieved, and how the government works. He concluded by voicing his hope that this project would bring a “permanent smile to the poor”, as quoted by Gandhim and that we would be successful in our venture. Afterwards we visited the middle school that had recieved our funds and in four days time had , established false ceiling for the three fans, painted the building, and overall had brought a homely atmosphere to the once desolate building. From there, we visted the elementary school where they had tiled and painted the building from the additional funds. We then had the opportunity to visit the studenst who had packed into one building due to construction. Everyone was really happy to see us, and especially loved having their photo digitally taken. One girl was particularly fond of Promeeta, and everyone was thrilled to paint Katie brown when they would see her tomorrow. We were impressed with their English prowess (demonstrated by reading Swami Vivekananda’s speech on religion) and moreover we were thrilled to be recieved so warmly by the village children. They had high aspirations for their futures and mentioned hopes of being police officers and doctors. We quickly shoved in lunch so that way we could discuss with the teachers of the village their hopes for the project and meet a middle ground as for the coming events of the week. Amrita also presented the gently used posters she had collected which they were excited about. The teachers liked the concept of creating a house system to promote school spirit and were enthusiastic about painting the building. Afterwards the team split with Promeeta and Katie discussing the artistic details with the village artist while the rest of the team met with mothers of the community who were interested in bringing change to the school. Katie and Promeeta decided to ask the children tomorrow what they hope to see on their school walls and from there they would scetch these animals so the village artist could paint it in. From there Katie and Promeeta would paint a mural on the outside of the building and the bottom border of the school would be lined by handprints of all the students in the school. The bottom line of the discussion with the mothers of the village was that they were very specific about what changes they wanted to see in their children’s education and were keen to improve the already rising standards of education. One mother mentioned that her daughter was bragging to her brother, who goes to a local convent school, that her school was much better then his and that her school was gettting a library built and having murals painted. Overall the day ended with high hopes of tomorrow and we were thrilled with their first impression of the village.