Excluding the return of Gunner, Austin’s favorite rat, the fellows have had an amazing week! Here’s a recap of the past few days.
On Monday, the nine of us planned a trip to our first Mauritian beach, Grand Baie. It rained intermittently throughout the day, but we had fun going into the ocean and hanging out with Manusha and Sonam, two ELI Africa volunteers. Going to Grand Baie made me realize that it’s ridiculous that I still can’t swim. Hopefully that will change soon!
On Tuesday, Gina, Mckay, B.J., Austin and I joined Mrs. Karimand, Mrs. Sufi, and about 40 boys from Ramsoondur Prayag SSS for a class field trip in Rivere du Rempart. We picked up trash along the heath trail, which was absolutely beautiful, and went into a cave. While that was great, the highlight of the day was definitely listening to the boys perform a few songs from us. My favorite was the main song from Dil Chaahtaa Hai (The Heart Desires), but they also sang a hilarious Hindi song about Americans swing dancing.
Thursday and Friday were great days for us! On Thursday morning, we went to Simadree Virahsawmy SSS and College Ideal during their activity hours. The students we met were very outgoing and friendly and many have called since to say that they plan to come to the center this weekend. When we arrived at the center, over twenty new kids had arrived! We also had new students at the center on Friday. I was beginning to worry that kids would not start coming to center until after the school year ended in late July, so it was great to see so many new faces in the center this week. Our aquarium and new furniture has arrived, so it really feels like things are finally start to come together.