GYLI

After breakfast at MUWCI, we loaded vehicles to travel to our homestays in 3 different villages. On the way we all met at the Saddna Village, which is an NGO started to help the mentally challenged adults that live in several surrounding villages. The organization also runs a women’s self-help group for micro-lending, community medicine, and general women’s empowerment. The directors had gathered 20 or so of the adults they work with to greet us. We also met two volunteers from Germany and one from upstate New York. These young people have spent almost 1 gap year between high school and college living and working in Saddna Village. In speaking with one, Jerichmo, he said he learned much more about himself than he planned. He said he came wanting to learn about India: culture, food, and ... read more

Our firsts full day on the MUWCI (Mahindra United World College of India) campus was a great one! Today is a day when we saw the importance of careful planning. We opened the day with Nandita Deostahle of MUWCI giving is an overview of the entire UWC system, and some of the history of MUWCI itself. The UWC system is now up to 13 campuses worldwide with a new campus about to open in the Netherlands. It was founded after World War two to try to prevent future such conflicts. Most campuses just offer 11th and 12th grades, but a few were K-12 schools when they became UWC schools. MUWCI was founded in 1997 and it enrolls 200 students each year in 11th and 12th grades, usually from 60-70 countries and nationalities. It has a 175 ... read more

A good first day of year 3 programming, though we had to wait for three hours for everyone to show up for the party. We had intended to start at 9:30 am, which suddenly became 11:30 as several groups ran into travel snags. The gyli staff has now resolved to add sdoku and crossword puzzles to our program booklets should this happen again in the future. I finally opened the program with a presentation about the brief history and visions of GYLI. Then it was time of games. Emily led name toss, lane did the great wind blows, Imroz did her now-famous “alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic,” and Amit led walking partner tag in a very small space. Once we get people talking a laughing, then we are moving. After lunch Matt facilitated a “Leadership Styles inventory” ... read more

Hello everyone. Day 4 here in Lagos, and it was a big task before us—to present to 60 principals and teachers employed in the public schools in Lagos Sate, this region in the far southwest corner of Nigeria, which contains the city of Lagos. On our way there we saw a bunch of people looking in at one of the many high barred gates that line the roads here. We asked the driver what was going on, as we passed by. He said that someone had tried to rob the store during the night, and that they had tied him up, so that what all the people were looking at. This got us thinking about many questions: why would tying him up solve the problem? Would the thief be turned over to the police? How did ... read more

Woke up today for the APEN conference, and like many things in Africa, it was a exercise in waiting. We were picked up at 7:30 for a conference that was about 15 minutes away, and supposed to start at 9:00 am but actually started about 9:30. I also met my co-presenter, John Lobban from ISASA—Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa. He is a wonderful long-time schools person—he has seen lots from many angles, both inside of schools and for his association. Some differences between this conference and the usual: 1. As everyone was coming in—rather than play muzak—they played LOUD inspirational Christen music (“This is the day, this the day that the Lord has made, Let us be glad, Let us be glad and rejoice in it) 2. Program began with the Nigerian national anthem. ... read more