 Hasimara,
Oct. 5: Chad Alborn of Drew University was busy plucking
tea-leaves at the Satali tea estate as he said, `this is a
great cultural experience for us. This is an opportunity to
know the people, to understand them and learn from them`.
For a band of eleven American college-goers,
it is no mean feat plucking tea leaves, learning to speak
the local language, and staying with the workers in their
labour lines. But, it is part of their learning process back
at Harvard or Drew University.
The group arrived here after spending a few days at a village
in Darjeeling – they have chosen to stay with seven
labourer-families to get an insight into their lives in the
tea garden. It will leave on December 7 and head for Nepal,
Tibet and Thailand. The team is accompanied by four instructors
namely, Suren Thami, Sweta Gurung, Courtney Zenner and Emily
Braucher.
The thirteen-week programme is organised
by a portal named, Where There Be Dragons – it consists
of visiting places that are offbeat and living with people
of different cultures, traditions, religions and languages.
The portal offers students, school groups, adults and professional
educators a learning experience with tours and home-stays
anywhere in the world. Incredible!
The day’s programme also included a crash course in
spoken Nepali and then an observation tour on rural life.
Hannah, a student of social sciences at Harvard, said that
she was here to learn the traditions and cultures of India
– and they always went outside their country to learn
about other traditions and cultures in their holidays.
All the students admitted that it was difficult
to get a generalised picture of India as it was so rich in
diversity. No surprises here. They also found that the people
in the country were deeply seeped in religion and spirituality.
Isn’t that the reason they come here?
A woman worker said that she was glad they
had decided to stay with them despite coming from one of the
most developed country in the world. While another worker
thought that such programmes help them to interact with all
without any feelings of discrimination and is very refreshing. |
Home
| About Us | Contact
Us | Site Map | Feedback
