Arrival in India

This morning Ambryn and I arrived in Bangalore. As I stepped off of the airplane and smelled a familiar and distinctly "Indian airport" smell my "we're here" excitement hit. Our trip through customs went very smoothly, as did all of our travel, for that matter. Our packs were even some of the first onto the conveyer belt! The Bangalore airport was refreshingly simple after time in various tunnels, trams, buses, concourses, and gates in Chicago and London. With our backpacks on our backs we stepped outside into a slightly cool, waking-up Bangalore. I think I said outoud, "I remember why I love India." There were men in flip-flops trying to find taxi customers, flowers blooming on trees and bushes everywhere (red, pink, orange, yellow, purple), and a rising sun making everything look a little hazy. I was thankful to see familiar sights as we made our way to Visthar, including a beautiful lake where we saw adolescent boys dropping large Ganesha statues into the water during the Ganesha festivals when we arrived in 2001.

Visthar is as welcoming as ever. There are several new buildings and several new staff, but the spirit feels the same. We've mostly spent the day introducing and re-introducing ourselves to people. There are a handful of familiar faces...Indrani, Sarojamma, Nazer. We'll see more folks we know on Monday. We've been able to meet many of the new staff and have been received very warmly. Ambryn and I have been marveling at how polite everyone is. I think it is more pronounced for Ambryn, coming from Chicago, than for me, coming from Holden. Just now a man knocked on the door and said, "Please, take this torch (flashlight)." We have found that when we apologize or thank someone, the response is always, "Thank you, thank you, thank you" with the characteristic head bobble.

We ate three meals here today, (I was waiting for a bell, so felt relieved when someone actually came to get us to eat.), walked around the campus and neighborhood, settled into our rooms, and were formally introduced to the girls. They initiated us by teaching us a handshaking game. More have spoken to us individually: about yoga, about their cow, giving us cake from their baking class, or other little comments after, "Auntie, please come..."

There are a group of students about our age from countries all over Asia here right now enrolled in the "School of Peace." We met their professor/facilitator, Max, in Hong Kong six and a half years ago. We've been able to speak with them on and off today. Their curriculum seems somewaht similar to our "Social Justice, Peace and Development" program. They just left for a week of field trips. Half of them went to RASTA in Kerala, where I spent two weeks with Becca, Lonnie, and Andrew in 2001. I was going to send a note along with them, but needed to nap this afternoon, sleeping all the way until dinner at 7:00. I'll try to get a good night's sleep tonight.