Down to the coast and on to Kerala

If you want to check Ana's blog for a different perspective go to: www.anainasia.blogspot.com. I highly recommend it.

Tuesday morning we visited a private school on the outskirts of Madikeri that has about 1000 students from pre-school to high school age. It also has a program for disabled children. We walked in and were shown to the principle's officehwere we introduced ourselves as American teachers. The assistant principal, a woman, took us to visit a social studies class for 14 year olds. Ana and I explained who we were and that we were interested in education. When Ana explained how she came from El Salvador to the United States, we drew a map to show them where El Salvador is. They knew who Martin Luther King was, and I told them that as a boy I had heard Martin Luther King speak at a demonstration against th war in Vietnam. They were very shy and, although we encouraged questions, only one asked a question: what do we think about Obama? I said we had worked to help Obama get elected, but that the people need to push him to do things to help the common people and not spend so much on military and war. When I asked them what they had learned last week no one responded so the teacher said they were now concentrating on the exams ahead (not on last week). It was a bit troubling but not surprising that the students seemed inhibited. My impression is that education in this school is very teacher centered and that respect for authority is central.

We also visited a pre-school class (maybe 4 year olds); they were singing (in English) and Ana also taught the kids some songs. The kids were shy but some of them got into it.

In the afternoon we took a three hour bus ride to the coastal city of Mangalore. The ride was very beautiful, going through some remote forests and mountains (the Ghats)and the road extremely curvy and narrow. In India the bigger vehicle seems to have the right of way and often vehicles pass another even when the road has room for only one vehicle at a time, on a curve and even with an oncoming vehicle approaching. Then, the lesser vehicle slows down and pulls off to the side of the road if necessary. Crossing the street is very difficult in Indian cities; you have to be very careful since vehicles tend to dart out from different directions.

After spending the night in a hotel in sweaty Mangalore, early the next morning we took the three hour train ride down the coast to Kannur, a city in northern Kerela state. The ride costs about 40 cents (U.S.) to go about 85 miles down the coast through very pretty lush countryside with thousands of palm trees, rice paddies, and mostly humble houses (also quite a few more prosperous ones). Kerala apparently means "land of a million coconut trees" in Malayalum, the Kerala language. The train is crowded, only second class cars, but we like it better that the buses because it is open air, a smoother ride and you get more of a chance to meet people. And there is a place to put our baggage too.

Kerala has been ruled by one of India's communist parties for a long time. The hammar and sickle symbol with CPIM (Communist Party of India Marxist) is very evident here on billboards, bus stops and flags. (We also see lots of mosques and the green Muslim flag with the crescent star). Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and the lowest infant mortality and population increase statistics. Kerala has a population of about 37 million of which 60% are said to be Hindu with 20% Muslim and 20% Christian.