Day 2 & 3

Every morning since I have been here at TISS, I awake at approximately 6:15am to a doorbell. Outside my door, there is a man that pours me some of India's most delicious Chai. Its a blessing to wake up, and be able to see life in abundance: in the mountains, in the sky, in the trees. Yesterday, we had our first cite visit in which we visited a municipal school in Colombo. This school has approximately 60+ teachers who all serve a bit over 2000 students on a rotating morning-afternoon schedule. The students were respectful, genuine, kind and full of energy. The school leader who we learned travels 2.5 hours a day one way to get to school, was full of life and clearly operated from his heart first. Some of the words he said that I will never forget: All children, despite their background, should have a great education. When you drop your children into my school, they become my children. While our objective out here is to build a leadership development program that seeks to "build capacity" (or whatever this westernized term is), it is clear that school leaders like the one we met yesterday are in abundance with the foundations for a strong educational system: heart and passion. The food continues to be incredible. Tried their prawns for the first time and it was absolutely delicious. I got to meet some more of the research team and I am blown away by their intellect, zeal, and compassion for complete strangers like me.  I am learning and seeing first hand how detrimental institutionalized systems are and how slow (and sometimes completely antithetical) they can be toward progress. There is power in working on the ground. Public institutions can act as the medium that equalizes access and opportunity. How efficacious those leading these public institutions are and those using them remains the question.