The Itsy Bitsy Indian Spider

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="4961,4962,4967,4968,4969,4966,4965,4963,4970,4971,4973,4974,4982,4975,4981,4976,4977,4978"]

I love field trips; I don't care how old you are, they are amazing. Of course they're even more amazing when you get a hostess pack in your brown bag lunch, but regardless, it's better than sitting in a classroom all day! On Friday we loaded up on our bus and made our way to an NGO school called Parikrma, which is a foundation educating kids from India's poorest slums and orphanages.

We arrived for our tour just in time to witness firsthand how the school instill life-lessons into the children such as taking care of the environment, saying no to drugs, eating healthy, not bullying etc., via plays--we even had a cameo from Batman and an improptu Gangam Style dance. Each day various classes present a play they've made up to the rest of the school in the courtyard. From there, they once again break-up into classes to learn until lunch break.

After the plays we followed a group of kids in what we'd call 1st or second grade, max. Their teacher showed us their maths skills, their memorization and they even sung the itsy bitsy spider for us (yes I joined in.) Their smiles and genuine happiness melted my heart, I didn't want to leave! But who am I to keep a child from learning?