Woodstock ActivityWeek in Delhi - A

Being a journal of JT's thoughts on activity week...part 1 of 4:

First, the introductions:
Woodstock Activity Week is one week in the middle of the fall semester, when regular school studies cease, and the older students go off-campus for the week for various educational and recreational activities. Grades 5-8 depart for four nights away, in grade-specific groupings; Grades 9-12 go away for 6 nights, Sunday-Saturday. Grade 9 lives in a village, taking hikes and doing a work project with the villagers. Most of the activities are related to mountain hiking. I joined an 11th-grade trip to visit historical sites in Delhi, 23-29 October 2005.
Miss Shonila Chander and I escorted ten Grade-11 students in two cars to Delhi… about 8 hours in the car, getting there. Fortunately, October is merely “hot” in the plains, so the ride was bearable, though the road was incredibly variable in every way, in width and quality and crowding. Our drivers made liberal use of the horn and seem to regard every vehicle in front of us as a potential obstacle to be passed – and yet, they are extremely cautious about potholes or speedbumps.
Rules of this road seem to dictate that a horn-honk indicates intention to pass.

Monday morning we drove to the President’s House (Rashtrapati Bhavan), originally built as the imposing residence of the British colonial governor-general. Some recent Woodstock students are related to the President’s financial secretary, so she arranged for a private tour of the building, its 3 small museums, ballroom, dining room, throne room (where medals are awarded now). But first, on the drive there, all traffic was stopped because the President had just completed a ceremony with the visiting Prime Minister of Mauritius – we were wondering about those 4-stripe flags on each streetlight, paired with the India tricolor. [and, the next day, I note in the newspaper that India’s Navy has agreed to help Mauritius map and sound its coastline and ports, all modified by last year’s tsunami…a magnanimous gesture that also helps solidify India’s dominating military presence in the Indian Ocean.] The President’s House, and all the majestic buildings around it, are truly worthy of a great power. Security was obvious, with army guards omnipresent, and occasionally the nicely-dressed presidential guard as well. Our names had previously been vetted, so we merely had to pass through a cursory metal-detector screening. Then, because of our official connection, we had an official photograph taken of the group:
We are staying at the YWCA International Guest House – there are evidently 4 different “Y” places to stay, with slightly different names – on Sansad Marg (Parliament Street), next to the central Y-offices and an apparently-related “Free Church”, next to the Jantar Mantar and near the main center of Connaught Place.

The rooms are quite spartan but quite clean and spacious. The shower is a bit sparse, but – if I remember to turn on the power – there’s plenty of hot water. And we’ve not seen any of the reported power outages apparently suffered by Delhi-ites recently, a problem that threatened to oust the Chief Minister (governor of the capital district) Sheila Dixit.
The bed and pillow are hard, but sufficient, as we’re all tired from the day’s touring and walking.

The kids are remarkably sweet and helpful and respectful and childlike and eager to burst away and occasionally eager to learn. They easily divide into national groupings:

The boys: Rubi and Varun are the local kids, born and raised in North India, at Woodstock for many years – they’re the outgoing funloving funseeking ones who also are on academic probation. Their friend Naweed is the school’s only Bangladeshi – his knee injury keeps him from too much rambunctiousness. Kinley and Kezang are from Bhutan (though Kezang knows Hindi well). Suparoek is from Thailand, goes by his nickname “Boom”, and is generally shy as he does not know Hindi at all, and his English is not as fluent as any of the others.

The girls: All are perfectly fluent American-english speakers and writers: Katie and Bhargavi are American citizens. Katie is on the junior-year-abroad program, from New York, with lots of other international experience, but generally quiet –yet the fact that she is big and blond draws attention here. Bhargavi, though she was born in Hyderabad, acts and talks like a high school girl from the DC suburbs where her family now lives. Mhabeni and Priya have the elegance of local finishing schools, which, combined with their knowledgeable and inquiring minds, will take them far.

The kids want to visit every fast-food chain possible. Last night we walked to the well-known (and inexpensive) Saravana Bhavan restaurant, famous for its Southern cuisine—the kids eagerly went to the nearby Pizza Hut instead, leaving us escorts to enjoy the national cuisine. Tuesday night they were so happy when we found out that the planned Kashmiri cuisine would be too expensive (their whole day’s Rs300), so we took them to Subway instead!

They all have writing journals to keep – I wrote each student’s name on the cover… and we will check them on Wednesday night, after the day of parliament and supreme court visits...