The Kodai school

But first, a word about driving

For those familiar with driving in rural parts of the Czech Republic or similar places, you have not seen anything yet. As far as I can tell, there are three rules of driving, none of which has anything to do with staying on one side of the road or the other. The first, and a principle of physics as well, is that two objects cannot occupy the same spot at the same time. The second is that the bigger vehicle wins and the third is that once someone is behind you, even if you've just pulled a nose ahead of them, they are not your concern and they have to watch out for you. The amazing thing is that buses, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws (auto and regular), bicycles, pedestrians, cows, monkeys and dogs all share the streets and rarely are the injured doing so. It's not efficient, but then neither is carrying 50 pounds of wood six miles on your head for $1.50, but if you have to do it, you do.

But on to the Kodaikanal International School, where I am now officially a guest instructor. After going through some very poor towns, cities and villages, and ascending about 6,000 feet to the school, you will not be prepared for the campus. While the typical buildings are shabby and usually made of whatever material is available, the campus itself looks somewhat medieval. Most of the buildings are made of stone, with narrow walkways and at many places limited lighting.

The second thing that sticks out is the relative wealth. While Kodai (the town) is quite poor by first-world standards, the school is as nice or nicer than American schools. The school has for computer labs, a music building with about a half-dozen piano rooms, and several other rooms with different instruments. They have clay tennis courts, basketball courts, a couple of racquetball courts (cement with netted ceilings), a cricket field that girls were playing softball on yesterday, and many other first-world amenities.

The third thing, and once again I'll expand on this later when I'm more knowledgeable on the subject, is that at least a third of the students here are white, mostly from Europe and Australia. Some were born in India, others are here because their family is here either teaching or doing missionary work. They dress like kids in the US -- T-shirts and jeans are very normal, traditional Indian garb is rare among the students, though more common for Indian faculty members. I just walked past a kid with a Phillies T-Shirt on.