The Valley of SIDH

We arrived by train in Dehradun (I had no idea this was our destination) in the early morning and bused throughout the mountains. After awhile, we had driven far enough into the middle of nowhere that the bus could no longer continue. So commenced a twenty minute walk with all of our luggage, ending at the Society for Integrated Development of the Himalayas. After a vital nap I was able to learn more about where we were and what we were doing, as well as appreciate the phenomenal view. SIDH is an NGO that provides mountain villages with an alternative to the common government schools, where the quality of education is getting worse and worse. SIDH subscribes to what they describe as the classical view of education, believing that it should not only help an individual acquire knowledge about self, society, and environment, but also help him or her learn to lead a happy life.

As part of our experience with SIDH, all of the EMU students divided into three groups and spent a day/night in villages that work with SIDH. I was in the group that went the Kaandi Khaal, a village of 40-50 members. Our time was spent having interpreter aided discussions with teachers, youth, and older villagers. We spent the night sleeping in the small SIDH schoolhouse and were awoken at 7:00am by the sounds of little children playing outside. When we walked outside, the children arranged themselves into a formation and began chanting their daily prayers. It was quite a sight. We spent the morning talking to the students and playing games. The children also performed a few songs and dances for us, complete with plate spinning.

For our last full day in the valley, the group got to go white-water rafting. The water was low since it wasn't the rainy season, but the river was still navigable. Our raft briefly lost a member to the rapids, but their (living) body was recovered. Unfortunately, I am without rafting pictures of our group, since a raging river didn't sounds compatible with my camera, but I did do some internet searching and found an equally excellent picture.

That's all for this week. There's less to tell in my blog entries as the trip is winding down and India has pretty much been pwned. Stay tuned next week for ritzy Woodstock School in Mussoori.