So we are here!

But before I give you details about our new environment let me give you a quick recap of our travels.


Alex and I traveled together from LA to London to Banglore to Hubli with Nina, one of the USC students on the water filter team (and my new roommate). We spent a good 22 hours on planes. But before we even get to the rides I will start in LAX. So Alex shows up with way way way too much luggage. The nice woman at the front desk warned him that if he wanted to check an extra bag it would cost him $165! So thanks to Alex’s good nature (and the woman’s day shift ending in 13 minutes) she gave us time to redistribute his luggage into one less bag. We spilled his stuff into both of our other bags (they are so tight they are about to rip at the seams!). Meanwhile (because she likes us) she calls up a male coworker of hers and has him go see the woman in charge of seating arrangements (because that woman has a crush on the coworker). He sweet-talks her into putting our seats together. This worked out so well because not only did we find out that we can sit together but we were assigned bulkhead seating (she must really have a crush on the male coworker!).

Otherwise the trip was pretty seamless, Alex only almost forgot his passport on the plane once when departing and a bottle of glue was the only thing confiscated (from the random arts and crafts supplies and equipment). I also had to reassure passengers and airline employees that no, the tripod is only a tripod and not a bazooka.


On our way to Hubli our final destination from Banglore we met up with Krishnan who has chopped off all of his hair (8 inches!!). We were then picked up by Deshpande and taken to our separate dorm buildings. The guys dorms are not available yet so they have been put in a luxurious guest house. The pictures I have posted show the difference between the female and male living arrangement exteriors—words are unnecessary.



The three of us just met with Mr Suresh, the head of Agastya in Hubli and have become even more enthusiastic about our project. The science center we met at is full of experiments and projects for students from primary school levels to high school (although as college students, we too found ourselves putting on the shoes made of nails and playing with the multiple display projects). The science center holds two classes a day. Each class has 50 students from a local government school. Simultaneously both mobile science vans bring their science teachers to schools in rural areas during the day, 6 days a week. Today we went on one of these mobile van adventures to a primary school and watched the students become enamored by the Agastya teacher and his experiments (we were so well dressed and quiet that the students assumed we were Indian! And therefore not disruptive to the class). Yes, of course I have already purchased a shalwar (traditional female shirt/dress), it is on a very rare occasion I have trouble shopping.

The timing of our project could not be more perfect. Agastya has just initiated an art curriculum and hired an art teacher who will work with us to establish our puppet drama club. He will continue working with the club after we leave. They are even getting a whole new van dedicated to art instruction which will be the perfect vehicle for disseminating our curriculum when we finish.


So we shall see, everyone seems very supportive of our project and we are all very excited to be here and have adapted quite well…I can’t believe its only been a week!

More to come soon,
Jennifer