On Friday, we left Delhi on a comfortable 2.5 hr flight to Bangalore where we were met by a driver holding a sign saying "Nancy and Kathy Shanti Bhavan." That really thrilled us, I think because we've been talking about and preparing for and planning for and learning about this school for over six months. And here we are at last.
Or I should say ALMOST there!
We climbed into the jeep and took the ride of our lives for two hours through the countryside, dodging other cars and trucks and motorcycles and busses, passing on the right or the left, honking, hitting potholes, bumping up and down, listening to Indian music on the radio. We looked for seat belts to no avail and a few times we bowed to each other with hands in a prayer position. Mostly we giggled, held on, gasped at the closer calls, and marveled at what we were seeing when we dared to open our eyes. We both decided that we would never again complain about any traffic and safety laws in the US.
We sped past fields of red dirt, fields full of marigolds (or a similar orange flower) and roses and some type of beans (sure looked like soybeans), a gigantic statue of Hunaman the monkey god, villages with tiny colorful stucco homes with cows grazing outside, herds of sheep, a roadstand with about a dozen men selling vegetables, round straw mats drying on racks in the sun, beautiful large-trunked trees (need to look all of these up - perhaps baobab?),women walking along the red dirt roads in colorful sarees, men in kurtas, busses and motorcycles decorated with floral garlands. We were on a somewhat paved road for awhile and then crossed over 11 or 12 lanes of a major highway onto a dirt road that turned into a semi-paved road with gigantic potholes.
We eagerly anticipated arriving at Shanti Bhavan long before we actually pulled through the gates. We kept saying to each other, "Oh, I bet its right around this bend." Coming through those gates and seeing this place that we'd heard so much about was really a moving moment and I actually had tears in my eyes. We were greeted by Aniish and he drove us to the building where our room is.
So now that we ARE truly here I wonder about the reality of what's in store . . .
[Photos later - it's probably obvious why I wasn't snapping from the car! Ha!]
