Visit to Moharpara

On Sunday we drove north on the only road, winding through assorted roadside villages along the way. Conditions don't allow for speed, about 25mph maximum as we navigated the jeep among bicycles, cars, cows and other creatures and machines. This is considered the highway, and it is also the only way. Bamboo and teak forests surrounded us as we passed occasional brick manufacturing facilities. Brick and rubber are the major industries around here, and both are intensely low tech operations. We passed a few security check points on the road as well -- it turns out that no one is allowed on certain stretches of the road after 6pm due to occasional militant attacks. We were welcomed at the mission school in the tribal village with a great ceremony by the kids. They performed traditional and modern-jazzed traditional dances for us. Then they asked one of the honored visitors to make a greeting speech. John and Sandy (my traveling colleagues) chickened out so I had to do it. I made tree quick points: First I explained the meaning and importance of "yes we can." (Obama is already a hero around here). Secondly I spoke briefly on the importance of education, and lastly I told them to be nice to each other. It went over very well.

The absolute best moment of the day for me was during our visit to the girls mission hostel, the sisters had the tribal children gather about -- they were quite shy and looked kind of sad -- one by one they started coming over the shake my hand and cautiously say hello, and as I realized that this would take a while and would not really be adequate for how I was feeling, I just broke out and offered a huge group hug. That was great, they absolutely loved it, and so did I. The smiles after that were huge, enthusiastic and joyful, and they did not want us to leave.