a field trip

There are a variety of reasons why learning a new language makes you feel like a kindergartner. Understanding the world around you is a little harder, counting above 10 feels like a big accomplishment every time, as does the correct identification of colors or animals. You find yourself "singing along." While we were playing an educational spelling game in class the other day one of my classmates asked what reading level this game was designed for and my teacher laughed and pointed to the "Age 6+" label on the box. All this may be a lesson in humility, perhaps, but on the other hand we also get the fun perks of kindergarten, like fun educational field trips.

Today all of us little grown-up school children loaded onto a bus following our teachers' calls of "Aaiye! Aaiye!" (please come!) to go see three traditional craft factories. The first was a block printing shop where we watched as the printer, a man who proudly told us he was 64 years old and looked like he really knew what he was doing, carefully covered a huge piece of fabric one stamp at a time with prints. These block printed fabrics are everywhere in India so it's always impressive to think that each piece is printed by hand about six inches at a time.

Just around the corner from the printer was a potter's where they make traditional Rajasthani pottery. We watched another talented craftsman effortlessly creating one pot after another on his wheel. The wheel was propelled not by electricity, but by the man occasionally giving it a few big pumps with a huge stick. Like the block printer, he really looked like he knew what he was doing. Of course, after the printer and the potter we were led to a show-room where all of these things were available to buy. Just as we were preparing to leave, the skies opened for powerful monsoon rains. We all enjoyed watching some local kids splash around outside while we wimpily huddled inside. No one was brave enough to join them, so perhaps we haven't fully embraced the kindergartner thing.

When the bus finally returned, we ran through the rain to board then we rode, dripping wet and freezing under the A/C, to the next stop, a paper factory. This was a very interesting place. We saw every part of the process from men splashing around in huge vats of pulp, to little old ladies peeling sheets of the dried paper apart, to craftsmen decorating the paper with printing, embossing, or embroidery, to finally, a line of workers assembling the decorative papers into gift bags and boxes. At the end of the assembly line there was another step in the process--a group of workers peeling stickers and applying price tags to the recently-made boxes. Upon closer inspection it became evident that the price tags bore a familiar logo: Ross. Here we were standing on the other end of American outsourcing. Who knew? The stationery and gift boxes available in your local Ross are made by hand right here in Jaipur. It was especially amusing to see that, not only do the price tags get applied before even leaving the factory, but some of the price tags are already "marked down" to the sale price.
Fun, crafty, educational field trip behind me, I now prepare for the rest of the weekend which will (theoretically) be spent studying. First, true to kindergarten nostalgia, a nap.