Hallo!

Today, I was a rockstar. Well, at least to a thousand Indian kids who we interrupted school for to tour their campus. Dr. Raj, the founder of the program I'm studying at, is also the chairman of this 1st grade through Senior College (the Indian equivalent of K-12) public school. When he became chairman twenty or so years ago, he went door to door with other administrators asking parents to send their children to the school instead of keeping them at home, with little success. They managed to convince enough parents to send their sons, but to these parents, to send their daughters to school was laughable. Today though, the school is teaming with bright, well-behaved kids, with just as many girls as there are boys. The government (usually an obstacle, but in this case helpful) pays the girls' tuition and subsidizes it for some of the boys. From what I've learned, it was quite a big step for the Indian government to write legislation that not only acknowledged, but sought to reverse gender discrimination. Anyway, it's a bit pretentious to say I was a rockstar, I'll admit. But we definitely had a warm welcome. And I, being the giant white bearded ogre in the group, seemed to get my fair share and more of stares, cheers, high-fives, outbursts of "Hallo!" and yes, autograph requests.

We attended an English class where the teacher was as animated as any I've ever seen. He read the students a story in Maharati-flavored English and extolled the main character's good deed with "This! This is the greatness of Mani! This is truly the greatness." We all smiled at his charisma. We secretly polled his students in the back of the class to find out if they liked their teacher, at which they all grinned and bobbled their heads side to side (this means yes in India... most of the time) They all agreed, "Yes, yes, he is very good teacher!" They were all very kind and well-behaved when we got to speak with them, and their teacher seemed to be doing a wonderful job.

When our guide motioned us to leave class (it was time for the kids to start learning again and stop being distracted by photo-happy foreigners), we went out to the playground where hundreds of children waited, cheering and waving their arms. The school's PE teacher motioned us over to the sand volleyball court to come and watch some of the students play. When they were short a few players, they asked if any of us wanted to play. Naturally, my hand shot into the air and in few seconds I found myself serving a volleyball over the net to some happy students on the other side. Let me tell you, this was way more exhilarating than any high school match I ever played in.

Eventually, we made our way back to CRHP and had a lecture on the global impact of CRHP. Since reading up on them several months ago, I've been in awe at what they've been able to do here, but I had no idea how many global leaders and dignitaries have reacted the same way. Ambassadors, Prime Ministers, and Ministry of Health directors from all of over the world (seriously, all over. Japan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, a bunch of countries in Africa and South America, Canada, and none other than the good old US of A) have visited here to do just what I'm doing--learn how to improve community health sustainably from one of the greatest visionaries global health has ever seen. Apparently there are dozens of governments and NGOs that have implemented CRHP's model, some even more successful than the CRHP here.

Being here has really helped me shape my plans for the future. I'm learning that building communities (and their overall health) long-term in India really isn't that fundamentally different from building communities long-term in the US. By working hard to address a community's needs, while treating people with respect and kindness, and always seeking to improve, the community's health will get better. And as we move into a new era of health care in the US, replete with all kinds of regulations and bureaucracy, we'll need motivated people who know what it takes to improve health and are willing to do it. I think that's what I want to be when I grow up.

Well, thanks for reading. Much love, bryce