MISSING FRIDAY OLD MAN’S COFFEE HOUR
A Letter to my Friday morning McDonald’s old men’s coffee group.
Dear McDonalds Coffee Drinkers,
Last Friday I missed coming to McDonald’s coffee because I was in the air between Helsinki and Delhi. I thought we would be over Afghanistan, but we took a longer route, not flying over either Ukraine or Afghanistan. This week I am in northern Gujurat state in western India. It is a very dry area with ancient jagged crumbling mountains with huge rocks balanced precariously on the sides as the mountains slowly erode away. The people here are indigenous tribal people who were here before the Aryans arrived with a religion that combines animistic animal gods and newer Hindu gods. The people are quite poor. I, Susie and Todd are staying at a Gandhian ashram which is both a boarding school for tribal children and a center for agricultural and economic outreach programs for the area run by my friend Hasmukh Patel who hosted many Warren Wilson student groups over the last forty years. Our second day here was India’s Republic Day, January 26, the day when India became an independent republic. Independence Day is in August.
I am sending you a video of an impromptu speech I gave at the Republic Day ceremony where children sang the national anthem. I was honored to be treated as a VIP and to unfurl the Indian flag and then, without warning, to give a speech. (The video won‘t connect.)
This is the India that I feel quite comfortable in, but I was thinking as the day went on how different this life is from daily life in Swannanoa and how difficult it is to share this side of my life with people like you. So this video and some photographs are my attempt to give you a taste of what life here is like. It still seems very odd to me that one day I can be in Swannanoa, then after a long flight spend an evening in Paris, then be immediately in Delhi and then after two days in the dentist’s chair I am now in the dry mountains of Gujurat. Jet lag makes this even more surreal. But here I am and this is why I am going to miss our Friday coffee at McDonalds.
Yours, Bill
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 