Sanskriti School and Groceries

With several school visits planned this week, I decided to take it easy a bit on  Sunday. I ordered food delivered from the Moti Mahal Deluxe , some Indian food and some Chinese food and requested no capsicum in any of the dishes. Three times. Still there were some chunks of bell peppers in the Tandoori Ghobi but otherwise contaminant free! I ordered enough food for three nights dinner probably, sampling several different dishes was probably not the best idea for my stomach but I’m ok. My Sephardic family would be proud to known I’m eating pulao and curry even braving the mango pickle.

Today I had a meeting with Sangeeta Gulati at the Sanskriti School.  It’s a beautiful campus as you can see.

Sangeeta is a high school math teacher, certified Google Innovator and Fulbright Teacher alum. The big differences for the international Fulbright teachers is that they travel as a cohort from several countries, their university courses are planned out for them, they easily make lifelong friends. While I’ve got so much freedom to pursue my project, I’m more on my own, having to find my own way literally and figuratively.

It was yet another good meeting and another reality check. My project is not likely to flourish instantly anywhere, the seeds will need time to germinate and sprout. However I am confident that I can learn from and contribute to teachers and students here in other ways.  Sangeeta really empathized with how frustrating it can be to show up somewhere ready to roll and then being held back because people don’t immediately know what to make of you. But she did the legwork up and down the channels to get me back into Sanskriti tomorrow and into middle school science teachers classrooms!  I’ll have to get up early tomorrow. I have yet to be in science class yet, so I’m very excited.

On Wednesday I plan to meet with Prof Smitri Sharma of Lady Shri Ram College for Women at the University of Delhi, who has agreed to take me into a government-school for the day and share her work in teacher training programs.  On Thursday I’m headed back to the Heritage School in Gurgaon, this time to meet with middle school science teachers. On Friday I will be making my way out to Delhi Public School in Greater Faridabad. I’m happy to be getting a mix of school types in and realizing that is good progress. I’m learning so much in a short amount of time pretty much everyday.  I’m giving myself another week and a half in Delhi before moving on to Bangalore. Considering that I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m doing pretty well I think. Fortunately no one is reading this so it doesn’t really matter, right?  You can prove me wrong by leaving a comment!

After today’s meeting I persuaded Rhea to guide me around again for a few hours. “What do you want to see in Delhi,” she asked. What I asked was to to see and shop in the closest thing to a grocery store and survey some the finest ATMs for functionality, then learn how to recharge my prepaid mobile phone since I can’t do it online… basic survival stuff. She was a good sport and helped me schlep bags of groceries back up to my guest house. The ATMs were trial and error but got money out eventually. Tried again to use my Mastercard and it was declined, maybe because it lacks a chip, but the Charles Schwab Visa debit card has been great- highly recommended for travellers, working for me for Uber too.

Here are some pictures of the stuff I bought just because it’s so different than what I’m used to. Even the mangos and oranges look and taste different.

When we got back to Vandanas, Rhea took me around the local hangout area and we found another good ATM and the place to buy fresh dairy products and bread in the morning. All day I encountered how helpful Indians are, it’s normal and expected to ask for help and directions, I’m just going to have to get used to it.