Cochin

Cochin has seemed to be a very short visit. We arrived late on Sunday after a delayed flight and we leave early tomorrow morning for Mumbai so we have really only had 2 days here. The city seems to have more of a suburban feel to it than other places we have been to in India but it is still a very busy city.

We had an incredible welcome at one of the schools yesterday. Although many schools have had amazing receptions for us, the one in Cochin had all their students involved. There was a group of drummers that met us as we got off the bus and then they backed up and we followed them through a corridor lined with about 100 girls in white saris with pans of flowers. We were dotted on the forehead again (sorry, I still don’t know what the official terminology is for that ceremony) and were lead through another set of girls with flowers (in colorful saris) to a stage to face the hundreds of students lined up for their morning assembly. (Side note, if you are considering applying for the program next year, realize that when they ask you for a bio it will be sent to all the schools and it is not just for the other people in the program. We each put info in our bio that other Americans would understand but not necessarily those from other countries. The school person that introduced us to the assembly misunderstood what my Ed.D. was and thought I was still working on my bachelors. I didn’t correct him…I figured that it would mean that I wouldn’t get asked too many questions. As it was, my face still ended up in the newspaper the next day. Horrible picture…so no, I am not telling you which paper.)

Pet peeve –(warning…bathroom-related discussion ahead) Except for the hotel in Dehli, all the places we have stayed so far in India have had tiny toilet paper rolls. They only have about a third of the amount of paper on them as they would in the US. I don’t like having to get my “travel toilet paper” (thanks, REI) out in my own hotel room (although I guess that they don’t always have people that use toilet paper judging from the strange cup we have found in each hotel’s bathroom along with an extra drain on the floor.) On the plus side, I have still successfully been able to find western toilets. There have been a few close calls, however, that have had me worried. I am very thankful that some strangers in the last couple of days have recognized my look of panic when they have led me to the Indian toilet and realized that I might need to use the western toilets that were hidden away in different parts of the establishment. (“Happy faces” to those people!)