Power of inspired students

First a huge congrats to the students that are finishing up their last exams and graduating from PDHS - you are an incredible group of students that will be missed in the clubs, sports, classrooms and hallways of our school.  This blog is for you, because it was largely graduating students that led the charge to make this possible.  

This year at my school students under the leadership of the We Action Team and Student Council decided to adopt a village through the Free the Children program.  They raised over $2000 through a coffee house, tye-dye making, and a penny drive, and their actions inspired us to go to the village they were helping ( we also happened to be in the neighborhood).  Thus the day of awesomess began...

Yesterday we visited Bagad, our adopted village.  There have been very few solid opportunities on this journey to get off the tourist tract and catch real sight of people just living their life completely void of any evidence of tourism...today was one of those days.  We hired a car and left off for the general direction we thought the village to be, knowing it was 85 km away and in one particular district of Rajhastan. The driver, through translation from our hotel owner understood this was not just a typical day of sightseeing, and made a last minute tsn turning point decision to call his brother in law to come with us and translate.  We stopped at least 5 times for direction and clarification as we drove further into beautiful Indian country side - away from the crowds and the honking into seas of sheep, goat, cows, oz and buffalo.  The sarees got even more beautiful and colourful, even the ones worn by women working in the fields...imagine your grandmother putting on her nicest party dress and then sending her to plant crops and turn the soil with nothing more than an axe...this was a very common scene.  Throughout this day I was reminded how lucky i am to be norn a woman in Canada and not elsewhere in the world.  We arrived in Bagad - a rural agricultural village of 300 homes after about 2.5 hrs ( including one chai break :)) and were greated by friendly smiles and namastes (hello) largely thanks to Pintu our translator. We went to the school that is still under construction and spoke with the head builder about the building, me to we groups that had visited and about living in Bagad.  His story was typical rural village....not enough jobs so many men go as far as Mumbai for work leaving women to take care of livestock, crops, and the home. There are 4 wells but they are very old and sometimes dry up and are not always clean so women and children go to the deep well 2 km away for good water.  There are no vehicles so they walk.  There is an elementary school but it is not big enough for all eligible students to enrol, so some miss out..but this will change when the new school house is finished (it will have 8 classrooms, one for each class). If students want to go to high school they have to move to Udaipur (2 hrs away) and live on their own (imagine some of our gr 9 s on their own!).  The school will have sanitary toilets and has a drinking water tower that filters the water so it will be clean.  This is great because the man said many people in the village often get sick from the water in the wells.  It also has a small building for the headmaster and a small temple.  We spoke to some students - one gr. 5 boy named Suresh who wants to be a police officer in Udaipur when he grows up.  We asked how he would get money to go to college and he said hard work.  I asked work where and he said he would help in the fields.  He brought us to his house where his mom offered us chai. In the house there are 3 enclosed rooms and kind of a porch area that she cooks on over wood fire, the ox live, and there is sitting area.  In the house lives Suresh, his mom and dad (who is paralyzed so can't work), his brother and baby sister, his grandparents, and his aunt and uncle.  He loves playing soccer and also really liked using our camera!  Another student we spoke to is attending University and wants to be a science teacher. He has lived in Udaipur since he was 15 on his own, but like others was back in his village for summer vacation.  Other students got excited when i asked about Me to We canadians visiting in March because i guess they played volleyball and soccer with them and had a great Time.  The contractor also liked when they were there because they helped make great progress on the school which they have been building since 2010 - there were still at least 3 workers being paid 300 rupees each day to work on it.  Free the children has also built a 2 room community hall but no one knew what it was for and as of yet they didn't really appear used....typical development flaw - great building, no additional funding for programming to make use.  We only asked a couple people as it was on the way out of the village, so maybe there was more going on then they knew?  We stopped at a fort built into the side of a rocky hill in the 1700's that has the "great wall of India" second largest after wall In china.  Lastly after spending an awesome day chatting with Pintu he took us to his home where he lives with his parents and extended family. There are 15 rooms of the house and we met at least 2 aunts, 5 cousins and I wasn't super clear exactly who all lived there....lots of families! We had Chai and made fun of Pintu for being so lazy and relying on his mom to do everything ( he is 27).  He is sad he hasn't found a wife but is finding it difficult because he is inthe upper Brahmin caste which is a very educated caste and he has to marry a Brahmin but he doesn't like school and didn't go to university, so girls don't choose him ( or their parents don't choose him). 

It was an incredible day and I can't wait to share the photos ( matt was super camera man)

I get such pride to see students taking on challenges so much bigger than their day to day, those who feel a desire to understand and help places and people that are so far away but still in their global community. I know and share with them the flaws in charity and development but I think the fundamendantal action of working hard purely independent of self gain is incredible and cheers to them for doing this!! 

Oh and Pintu is very jealous of the new school and thinks we should raise money to build one in his village...haha.