Saturday Mike got a good night's sleep, after he realized that when he woke up at 1 a.m., it wasn't 5 a.m., which he thought! Again, our friends from JU met us and spent their afternoon showing us some of the sites. Mike's first experience with REAL Kolkata traffic. At one point, he wasn't sure if he was falling asleep because he was tired or because of carbon monoxide poisoning! First we went to the New Market, which is fairly old, open, bazaar type market. Our first experience with numerous beggars and potential 'tour guides' of the market. Did buy a couple of things, were shown even more. As soon as you express interest in any one thing, the merchants pull out quantities of samples, unwrap them, lay them on the counters, and then begin asking ... read more

Thursday This morning, we escaped! Not really--but it's the first time I walked somewhere. Miguel had been to the marketplace we'd visited earlier (with crafts from different states) on his own before and all three of us walked down this morning/early afternoon. It's definitely warmer today--a good thick 75 we thought--so the walk was hot. Bought a bottled drink on the way back, even! The first picture is of the "house boy" who every day sweeps the entire place with the broom, then scrubs it down with a mop. Does our rooms too, when he can get in them (if we remember to leave our key). As we were leaving to go to the Office of Adult Ed, the pictured protest march paraded by--they'd been down outside of the main administration building for a good little ... read more

Tuesday Today was the International Workshop on Community Development through Continuing Education, at which two of us were speakers. It was a full day and we received information from representatives of the: Centre for Adult, Continuing Education and Extension of University of Kalyani, about their literacy programs; National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research about the governments soon-to-be released vocational education scheme that sounds very positive--includes interaction between the technical training and the world of work, with a move towards competency-based programs and a plan to include those students with little or no past formal education; Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, about disability training programs, both for clients and professionals, family, general citizens; Globsyn Technologies, a private eduction firm that JU Adult and Continui... read more

Wow, this was a very long day! As one of our group commented as we ate dinner, we traveled longer today than we did to get from Dulles to London! None of it anywhere near so comfortably but much more interestingly. I almost entitled this "And VDOT thinks they have something to worry about" but didn't know how many folks would get that inference. We started off as near to 7 a.m. as we could, traveling SSE into the State of West Bengal. We needed two vehicles today as most of our exchange partners were with us, as well as a number of students and the Dean of Students (who coordinated the NSS effort that is described next for some time). There is a program called the National Service Scheme (NSS--another vocabulary discrepancy--scheme here means 'program', ... read more

Well, Friday I got to hear from Mike and from out daughters on the phone! There was an ice storm at home, sidewalks and roads covered, so schools were closed. They were able to call--finally got the number right (seems I'd left a '6' off when i typed it in!). Good to hear their voices. Earlier in the day, I wandered around campus in a direction opposite to what I'd been already--found the Adult and Continuing Education Building and the University Bookstore. Late afternoon, we had an appointment with the American Consul General. A very nice visit, pleasant chat for 40 minutes or so about education and partnerships to improve educational situations in India. Tea and chocolate chip cookies! We were allowed to take pictures outside afterwards. The Consul General is a community college alumnus, having ... read more