The Last Bus Ride to School

A little girl with red glasses rode the bus with us every morning in Bangalore, she was eager and excited to great us with her smile and shy wave of a hand. Earlier in the week we had the pleasure of observing an elementary science hands on class that this girl was part of where she would cause all kinds of mischief. Not bad mischief, but the kind where she turn around and say hi to the new American teachers who entered your room while the teacher up front was giving instructions. The kind of mischief where she would explore the materials given to her before doing the experiment and maybe not follow the directions exactly as they were intended. The kind of mischief where she would turn and giggle with her seat partner and then look back to see if we were watching and then snap back to the front to show she was a model student. She was amazing. 

On the school bus either sitting behind or in front of her with her two other friends we would have conversations about what they were learning. They were shy so it was hard to hear them sometimes, but they would show us maps of the world and the workbooks they were working in (all were in English). Karly, my teacher pair, would often have gifts for the kids on the bus and distributing them became part of our usual bus morning routine that I think the girls looked forward to as much as we did riding the bus.

My last day seeing them on the bus I wrote on the back of three NYC postcards, (the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and the Statue of Liberty) encouraging them to study hard as they have so much to contribute to the world. They asked where the pictures were from and I explained it was New York City and maybe someday they could visit when they are older. Showing them on the back the descriptions of each of their postcards, the girls opened up their English workbooks to try and decode the wording of the descriptions trying to understand what it was I had given them. I imagine an adult whether their parents or a teacher might have to read it to them and explain the historical significance of each place. Leaving the bus waving to students and saying it was our final bus ride that Friday morning quickly brought tears to my eyes, but we still had a solid half day to spend at the school.

There are 3 places in the world where I have cried upon leaving - Hanoi Vietnam, SiemReap Cambodia, and Bangalore, India. Although all three of these places are quite different and I love for different reasons, there is one thing that unites them: the kindness of the people. To me that is the most important thing and something our world could learn how to do better. I have traveled to places where that was not true of the people I spent time with, perhaps they were skeptical of Americans (and rightly so) or perhaps I fell short of a cultural expectation that I was unaware existed or was aware existed but could not deliver that expectation (example: speaking the native language of an area). This happens sometimes with traveling, but starting with a place of openness and kindness is what has allowed for the best cultural exchange experiences I have had. I am happy to have found that to be true of teachers and students I worked with in Banaglore.