Traveling with Rhona: More Days in Dehradun, India

Peaceful protests are all over India in support of Anna's fasting against government corruption.

My days are flying by in Dehradun. We stay busy everyday! India made national news in August. Anna, a spiritual leader, started a fast against government corruption. He fasted for 12 days. Every city in India, including Dehradun had peaceful protests and marches. The people love him so much and they were glued to their TV each day to watch the progress of Anna versus Congress. It’s over now. Anna is back in his village and things are quiet. Let’s see if Congress will stop their corruption.

Anila's neighbor got a new wheelchair. A new TV is next.

Anila’s neighbor has been paralyzed and bedridden. One of the Rotarians bought her a wheel chair. Here we are giving it to her. She was so happy! Anila will buy her a TV so that she will be connected to the world and will have a source of entertainment to keep from getting depressed. She is a very nice lady.

Getting finger printed for the Peace Corp.

I got my first red dot on my forehead at this temple, then we ate lunch here.

I went to town last week to get fingerprinted for the Peace Corp. What an adventure that was! Anju, a lawyer, helped me find someone to do it. We were sent from place to place. Nobody seemed to have authority to finger print me. At last, though, after many hours, we found a man who would do it professionally. I saw the court house, the prosecutor’s office, and all of the lawyer offices. It is mighty more humble than the court houses and lawyer offices of the US! After fingerprinting, we had lunch at a temple. The whole day was a very cultural experience!

Rotary Membership Development Seminar. DG and Ashok.

We had a very big Rotary District Membership Development Seminar hosted by the Rotary Club of Dehradun Central. The club put a lot of work into it, and it was very successful. It was a full day of fellowship, food and fun. I met and had dinner with the DG the previous night. This is a VERY active Rotary Club!

Other than the above things, I just go to the school in the mornings. One morning we distributed clothes. One day we had a drawing for tennis balls and a football and packages of gum. After a couple of days teaching letters and numbers to such a wide age group, I decided to change my plan. I wanted to show the kids the world outside of India. So we watched video and pictures of hippopotamus, rhinoceros, zebra, and giraffe of Kenya. I can show them Uganda, China, Ethiopia, Chile, Argentina, Peru….