Friendly Bodhgaya

After a "room service" meal of clear veg soup, aloo, roti, rice, and cold coffee I'm off to explore Bodhgaya on foot. I make friends quickly, everyone want to know where you are from, will you help me learn english, help me get the money for school, etc. The touts and hawkers are thick and just as aggressive as Delhi, but, and this takes some getting used to, some of the people are genuinely friendly and honest as possible, due to the heavy Buddhist influence.

Most of the schools in the area are run by foreign help groups or through the monastery's, so all the kids are getting some education up to level 10 or 11, then choices slim to vocational school to learn to type, weave cloth, or cook, and the dream of many is somehow to get to university for studies, but money is a huge obstacle their families are living month to month just enough for food and rent. 3 young boys from the orphan school hung around with me for a while and at the end asked me to buy them a book... i'm thinking this is a scam of some sort but go to the bookstore and a Merriam-Webster English-Hindi dictionary is the prize possession they want, 950 rupees. I buy it, just like I would for a Fern Creek mentee, then ask the trio "you're not going to take it back for money are you?" Oh no... no sir, this is what we need to learn english, this is very important to us, and you can tell they are sincere. The three will share it and take it to school tomorrow. My other unofficial guide Ganesh is after someone to fund his 5,000 rupee entrance to university, then 5,000 a month, his family can only afford 2,000.

We have a cup of chai in a roadside place with maybe a 12 yr old girl and her little sister and brother. The chai is cooked over a clay bench with a hole in it, the fire is underneath sticks. Dirt floor, one plastic chair, which I am offered... the chai is excellent, then we chat as the monsoon rain starts and mom comes in, there's also a schoolteacher from Gaya, googly eyed Ganesh says he is drunk... it rains heavy for about an hour and we talk much.

Walking down the road back I stop for a bottle of water and another group Ishu, Sanjeev, and Ashish are met at the Sujata General Store, an open air counter about 8 feet wide the same depth. I talk with them a good while and they see my photos of home and just shake their heads "mindblowing" is the word they use, over and over. I buy 20 packs of chocolate creme biscuits to give the beggar kids I see (you never had anything snatched from your hand so aggressively). They want to guide me around tomorrow and I say OK I will meet up in the morning, what time? They get up at 3:00 (it's the buddhist training), mediation 3:30, jogging/pe til 5:00, then the work day starts. I say we'll see how it goes and retire. Sleep is difficult thinking about all the kids and how needy they are and there should be more that can be done for them, I call Marian to talk but she's overdue for a nap so I wanted to be on my own in Bihar here I am!