Maitri India Blog

You know what the best thing about India is so far? The kids. They are so much fun. Whenever I am walking and a bus goes by that is filled with kids, there is a chorus of, "hi!" Enthusiastically waving hands are thrust out of nearly every window, followed by smiling faces. The waving and the smiling only gets more enthusiastic when I wave and smile back. Most nights when Brooke and I step out of the office and into the alley we are greeted by even more smiles from the neighborhood children. Even the toddlers look up and shout out, "hi!" They often stop what they are doing and ask us, "how are you?" That is probably the extent of their English, but they are thrilled to use it. Then of course there are the kids who live in the same apartment complex as I. Whenever I pull out my slack line they immediately form a line. I help them across one by one until the sun goes down. At which point, the kids who can speak some English ask when I am coming back.

I also have to mention the kids Brooke and I have been tutoring for the past few weeks. Everyday around 3:30 p.m. we head into the Maitri office basement where about 20 kids wait. Some days its just as and them down there. We can't really communicate with words with most of them, but that is alright. They are eager for math problems and to sing songs. The ones who can speak English we are able to help more in depth. I spend a lot of my time working with a young boy named Krishna. He is a very intelligent young man with a great sense of humor. He is absolutely fascinated by cameras too. When we pulled one out he immediately began begging to take pictures. They turned out pretty well I think.

So this weekend I did a short solo trek to Humayun Tomb. Honestly I did not really know anything about it before I went other than it was supposed to be cool. I had never heard of it until I saw it mentioned in a travel book I have. One phrase describes it pretty well. Jaw dropping. Seriously. I was completely stunned. One of the most impressive structures I have ever seen. It is made out of white marble and red sandstone. There are delicate stone lattice work everywhere. The craftsmanship is absolutely stunning. It is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun.