After bidding Ian and Tish farewell yesterday as they travel back to Canada, Debbie and I set out for Guwahati, Assam in the northeast of the country. India has a number of states that are actually northeast of Bangladesh and are joined to the rest of the country by a relatively narrow piece of land that is bordered by Bangladesh to the south and Bhutan to the north.
Our travel was uneventful and despite changing planes and airlines in Kolkata (Calcutta) our luggage arrived safe and sound, as we did in Guwahati. In Guwahati we were welcomed by officials from the state teachers’ federation bearing gifts including traditional decorative hats and scarves. From there an hour long drive through traffic got us to our hotel. You can tell the city of Guwahati isn’t the size of Delhi or Bhubaneshwar as the traffic isn’t nearly as congested. Our hosts confirmed this by telling us that Guwahati has a population of a mere 2.5 million.
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| A welcome from old friends! |
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| Traditional hat and scarf |
Our hotel sits on the edge of the Brahmaputra River that has its’ headwaters in China, flows through Assam and Bangladesh finally exiting into the Bay of Bengal through a wide flat delta zone. China is planning to create a dam on the Brahmaputra for power purposes which has Assam quite concerned as the river serves as both a significant water source as well as a transportation thoroughfare.
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| View from the rooms |
A wedding is to occur tomorrow in the open area behind the hotel and there have been dozens of workers setting up yesterday and today. It is interesting watching some major construction occur without the benefit of power tools. Hand saws, awls, chisels, hammers and nails are the order of the day. We have also seen porters lugging hundreds of chairs, couches, carpets, propane tanks for the food vendors, cooking equipment and food. What a difference a skill saw and a half ton truck would make to their labor!
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| Progress so far - stay tuned!! |
Today we went to the location of the training to assess the setup and do some planning. After that we were treated to a tour of the local sights, a cultural museum and of course lunch. We rounded out the day by finding an outlet of Ian’s favorite coffee shop. Guwahati is a clean, beautiful city stretched along the banks of the river and nestled in between the lush high hills. The city is a university community and there are lots of young people about. There appears to be greater prosperity in general as evidenced by many newer cars and large, new retail buildings. There also seems to be a greater number of parks in the city and it is nice to enjoy some greenery and quiet space. This is appreciated as the next two weeks of sessions will be spent here.
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