From Brahma to Buddha, Spring 2007

Namaste, everyone! Yes, we've all made it safely to Varanasi and are settling into a more normal routine. The first week has flown by - the busy streets of Delhi that were roaring with wedding festivities, a long train ride to Allahabad, four days floating down the Ganges, "The Baba Hunts", temples, Matt's historic changing-of-the-overalls, water buffalos, Amit's cooking, and so much more. While traveling down the Ganges, the students broke up into pairs and worked on recording their experience using audio recordings, photography, and creative writing tools. Now that we have settled into a place with internet and, at the very least, reliable electricity, the group is working to put their perspectives together into a digital story that shows/tels their trip down the Ganges. I won't spoil anything, but here are some photos for the time being of the past week in Delhi and on the boat. (For more photos, click on the Flickr icon with the rotating images on the right side of the blog.)

Last night was the student's first night with their homestay families. All of the families are within less than a five minute walk from each other, located in, roughly, the same neighborhood. After Hindi lessons this morning we all gathered to swap stories. The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon will be spent introducing everyone to their ISP teachers... and let me tell you, there are some awesome projects that the students are focusing on. I'll let them write about them, but here are some of the topics: stone carving, audio stories/interviews with the milk-stand-man, working at an orphanage, sitar, and a bunch of others.

Everything is moving along smoothly as we find our steps in Varanasi.

Remy