Plans for next 2 months

Well... for the next couple of months, here is what I am planning to do: Tomorrow, the entire SIDH family is headed for a 3-day "retreat" at an ashram in the middle of the forest... near Haridwar. There will be fun and games (we have dandias.. an I'm going to teach everyone raas/garba!), but there will also be some serious introspection, and planning going on. After tha, I will continue to teach in the various grades at SIDH, especially focusing on the 10th class. There are many volunteers that are arriving to SIDH over the next couple months (4 boys from a technical college in Gandhinagar, 2 girls from Delhi, and another American girl just came in yesterday). It's going to be one of my responsibilities to kind of take these volunteers under my wings. A lot of times it just takes a few weeks getting used to the place and understanding the philosophy behind SIDH, that by the time all this understood, it's time for the volunteers to go home.

So, one of the main projects that I and the volunteers will probably be working on is this concept of "Education tourism" (or Eco-tourism, service tourism, responsible toursim... the name hasn't been decided yet). There are tourists in this area because the hill station of Mussoorie is here. Usually, the relation of tourists and locals is not a very enriching one. Villagers look to profit off tourists.... tourists leave these places of natural beauty looking like a mess. Neither understands each other. The idea of "Education tourism" is for mutual learning and understanding to take place, while being fun for the tourist (trekking, getting to know local communities, visiting different villages, etc.), and profitable for the villagers (get paid to house and feed tourists). They have a similar program that Sampat and I were consumers of in Ladakh -- village homestay. And, we learned that there are some dangers to the concept... but... overall... it's going to be starting from scratch... and I think will be pretty interesting.

Also, there is a ggroup of youth coming from Mumbai in May for a one-week camp/workshop... so, I am helping out with the planning of that. This concept of youth camps for city kids (Dehradun, Delhi, Mumbai) is also something SIDH is thinking about doing on a regular base... so, at some point, I may get involved with that. I'm all about camps, and planning events, and all that good stuff!! haha...

Also, there has been a retired American teacher here, Jay Davidson, and I may organize a workshop with him for the teachers on "multiple intelligences".

ALSO, I have started writing an article on "The Use of Fear in Schools", but, for now... that may be on the back-burner.. for later when I have time.

From April 9-16th, there is a Jeevan Vidya shibhir here, so I will be attending that... and there is another Jeevan Vidya shibhir in June which is English, and is going to be taught by Ganesh-ji... who's supposed to be a real bad-ass.... so, for the better part of those weeks, I'll be in the shivir.