We made it to India!

We made it to India! It was a long flight, but no complaints from anyone here. Tejank, Josh, and I boarded a flight to Newark at 4:00 Thursday (it was delayed about an hour) and then from there went straight to the Delhi airport. We arrived at about 8:00 PM, local time (which is about 9.5 hours ahead of Pittsburgh) and were picked up by our in-country mentor, Nitin Goel, to eat dinner and then stay the night at his and his family’s home in Gurgaon. The drive itself was, to say the least, exciting, but our stay at Nitin’s house was very calm and pleasant. There, we met his wife, daughter, and parents, all of whom were very kind to us and made us feel welcome here. After some jetlagged sleep, we awoke to breakfast with Nitin and then a 2.5 hour drive from the Delhi suburbs to Symbiosis Public School in Rampur. By now, we’ve pretty much grown accustomed to the generally hectic style of driving here, but I think we were all glad to reach our destination and get out of the car to see the school.

The principal made us very welcome, and we also met Farrukh Parvez, the director of Global Eco Power, who has so kindly worked with us throughout this project. Farrukh and GEP had already almost finished the installation of the solar panels, and in fact they had been running several fans and lights on solar power.

However, they had left us several panels to help install ourselves, which we did in the evening.

Until then, we had the school children to keep us company, who did not skimp on hospitality. They gave us beautiful thank you cards, flowers, and candy.

The teachers, too, made us feel very welcome.

Now, we’ve settled in at Sam’s sister, Sarah’s home, where we’ve again been treated with the utmost hospitality. After a bit of a slow day, it’s nice to sit and solidify our plans for the rest of the week, and then off to bed for us. We’re looking forward to finishing up the battery installation and then spending some more time getting to know the community tomorrow.