Notes from Joan ... Continued

Yesterday, Sunday, was very low-key. The school was closed as it was the weekend so we mostly stayed around the hotel, talked to each other over meals, and did our laundry. We all found various ways to hang the laundry to dry in our hotel rooms, particularly in the shower area. Last night Mindy and I took a little autorickshaw to the mall about a half mile from the hotel. It looked surprisingly like an American mall although the clothing options were slightly different or the same. We had dinner there and took the auto rickshaw back to our hotel. These are small three wheeled vehicles that many many people use to get around in the city.

    Today we headed back out to the school. We met with the Interact Club which includes the seventh through 12th graders girls.  Interact is a young peoples' organization sponsored by Rotary and they do many service projects. They have many great ideas for helping in their community and it will be through Interact that we may coordinate a joint project in the future.  Afterwards we took a tour of parts of the Piyali area and saw some of the other projects have been done since the school was opened. 

    When we got back to school, we worked in some of the classrooms and continue to coach them on the methods that we had introduced at the workshop last Thursday. The students continue to be delightful and we have made connections with many of the teachers. It truly is an oasis in a sea of poverty. After school we watched the dance program and then headed back to town.

    Today we also got a firsthand look at monsoon rains. Pretty spectacular.

    As always we are so appreciative of your continued prayers. 

~~Joan